JP4810667B2 - Joystick controller - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a joystick controller that detects a movement of a shaft as an operating body and controls a target device in accordance with the movement.

  The joystick controller is used in various fields because it can control the target device in accordance with the displacement of the shaft that is the operating body. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the operation of the joystick controller according to the prior art, FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the joystick controller according to the prior art, and FIG. 9 is an output characteristic of the potentiometer of the joystick controller according to the prior art. FIG.

  A joystick controller 37 according to the prior art shown in FIG. 7 detects the displacement of the casing 40, the operating body 50 supported by the casing 40 so as to be capable of tilting and turning, and generates a voltage corresponding thereto. And a detector 60 for outputting.

  The operating body 50 holds the operating body 50 upright without applying operating force to the operating body 50, and removes the operating force in a state where the operating body 50 is displaced by applying operating force to the operating body 50. A spring return mechanism 58 for returning to the original position is provided. The joystick controller 37 can control a target device (not shown) according to the displacement of the operation body 50.

In such a joystick controller 37 according to the prior art, the operating force required for the operating body 50 in accordance with the displacement of the operating body 50 is proportional to the spring constant of the spring 56 for spring return. It increases linearly accordingly. As shown in FIG. 9, the detection unit 60 outputs an output voltage that increases linearly within a predetermined range in accordance with the displacement of the operating body 50.

  On the other hand, with respect to the target device controlled by the joystick controller, when the operation of the target device reaches a certain level, the operation target of the joystick controller is further displaced to cause a danger to the controlled target device. There is a case. For this reason, it is necessary to alert the operator that if the operating body is investigated beyond a certain limit, the target device may fall into a dangerous state.

  In order to alert the operator, a joystick controller having a kick-down mechanism in which the operating force of the operating body increases and the operating body becomes heavy when the displacement of the operating body exceeds a certain value is suitable.

  A joystick controller having a kickdown mechanism according to the prior art will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the operation of a joystick controller including a kickdown mechanism according to the prior art, and FIG. 11 is a perspective view illustrating the operation of the joystick controller including the kickdown mechanism according to the prior art.

  A joystick controller 38 having a kick-down mechanism according to the prior art shown in FIG. 10 is similar to the joystick controller 37 shown in FIG. 50 and a detector 60 that detects the displacement of the operating body 50 and outputs a voltage corresponding to the displacement.

  In the joystick controller 38, the operating body 50 includes a shaft 51 and a knob 52 for operating the shaft 51, and the shaft 51 rotates around a rotation center 47 and is displaced. In addition, the operating body 50 holds the operating body 50 upright without applying an operating force to the operating body 50, and removes the operating force while the operating body 50 is displaced by applying the operating force to the operating body 50. A spring return mechanism 58 for returning 50 to the original upright state is provided.

  The joystick controller 38 shown in FIG. 10 further includes a plurality of leaf springs 59 for performing a kick-down operation. For example, four leaf springs are used as the plurality of leaf springs 59. When the operation body 50 hits the stopper 45 at the edge of the opening of the housing 40 at the operation ends in four directions when the operation body 50 is operated, if the operation body 50 is further tilted and displaced, the leaf spring 59 The operating feeling of the operating body 50 becomes heavy due to the spring force. As a result, the joystick controller 38 performs a kick-down operation.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-254567

  In the conventional joystick controller, in order to arrange the leaf spring for performing the kick-down operation on the shaft of the operating body, a certain length of space is required on the shaft. For this reason, it is necessary to dispose the spring return mechanism portion below the rotation center (operation fulcrum) of the shaft, and the shaft becomes longer as a whole. Therefore, the joystick controller is increased in size.

  Further, in the conventional joystick controller, it is necessary to align the characteristics of a plurality of leaf springs in order to realize the kick-down operation accurately and stably. In order to change the characteristics of the kick-down operation, it is necessary to replace the plurality of leaf springs and to align the characteristics of the plurality of leaf springs. For this reason, it took time and effort to obtain the spring force required for the kickdown operation.

  Furthermore, in the conventional joystick controller, the displacement direction of the leaf spring is perpendicular to the edge of the stopper. For this reason, in order to abut the leaf spring in parallel with the edge of the stopper, it is necessary to make the opening of the housing square, and as a result, the degree of freedom in the operation direction of the operating body is restricted.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a small joystick controller that does not require time and labor to obtain a desired kick-down characteristic and does not restrict the degree of freedom in the operation direction of the operating body.

In order to achieve the above object, the joystick controller of the present invention includes a housing having a sliding plate and a housing case, and a displacement that is tilted and rotated around the center of rotation when an operating force is applied from the outside. possible, the shafts bets to be supported on the housing by the rotation center portion, the upper the lower spring of the rotation center of the shaft is held by the protrusion provided on the shaft and receives the lower movable side spring, When the external movable force is applied to the shaft, the lower movable spring receiver slides the sliding plate to compress the lower spring by the sliding plate, and no external force is applied to the shaft. first spring litter holding vertically the shaft to the sliding plate by the lower spring A mechanism portion, said first spring return mechanism part upper the upper spring of the shaft is held by the fixed side spring receiving and the receiving upper movable side spring, the lower movable side spring when an external force is applied to the shaft The upper sliding member is pushed by the upper edge of the housing case by the upper sliding portion of the housing case being pushed up by the upper sliding portion of the upper casing, and the shaft is compressed by the upper edge of the housing case. a second spring return mechanism that performs an operation to increase the operating force applied from the outside to said shaft for displacing the previous SL provided et al is below the first spring return mechanism, the displacement of the shaft And a detecting unit for detecting.

  According to the present invention, since the kick-down operation is performed by the force of the spring spring of the spring return mechanism portion provided on the shaft of the operating body, time and labor are not required to obtain the desired kick-down characteristics, and the shaft of the operating body is not required. It is possible to realize a small joystick controller in which the degree of freedom in the operation direction is not restricted.

It is sectional drawing which shows operation | movement of the joystick controller which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows operation | movement of the joystick controller which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the housing | casing of the joystick controller which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the detail of the operation body of the joystick controller which concerns on embodiment of this invention, and its assembly. It is a perspective view which shows the detection part of the joystick controller which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the output characteristic of the potentiometer of the joystick controller which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows operation | movement of the joystick controller which concerns on a prior art. It is a perspective view which shows the joystick controller which concerns on a prior art. It is a figure which shows the output characteristic of the potentiometer of the joystick controller which concerns on a prior art. It is sectional drawing which shows operation | movement of a joystick controller provided with the kickdown mechanism which concerns on a prior art. It is a perspective view which shows operation | movement of a joystick controller provided with the kickdown mechanism which concerns on a prior art.

  A joystick controller according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C are sectional views for explaining the operation of the joystick controller according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view corresponding to FIGS. 1A to 1C. It is.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a joystick controller 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a housing 10 and an operation body 20 that is supported by the housing 10 so as to be tilted and rotatable. Although not shown in FIG. 1, it has a detection unit 30 (see FIG. 5) that detects the displacement of the operating body 20 and outputs an electrical signal corresponding to the displacement.

  The housing 10 includes a fixing flange 11, a sliding plate 12 installed on the fixing flange 11, and a housing case 14. The fixing flange 11 has an opening on the flange surface. The sliding plate 12 has an opening at a position corresponding to the opening of the fixing flange 11. The housing case 14 is formed in a dome shape and has an opening at a position corresponding to the opening of the fixing flange 11 at the top of the dome. The operation body 20 is installed in these openings.

  The casing case 14 includes a stopper 15 at the edge of the opening, and the stopper 15 stops the operating body 20 at the end of the operation of the operating body 20. The stopper 15 may be provided integrally with the housing case 14 or may be provided in the housing case 14 separately from the housing case 14.

  The operating body 20 includes a shaft 21 and a knob 22 attached to the shaft 21 so that the operator can easily operate the shaft 21, and the shaft 21 is rotated about the rotation center 17 and displaced. The operation body 20 includes a lower movable spring receiver 23, an upper movable spring receiver 24, and a fixed spring receiver 25 from the bottom to the top.

Further, the operating body 20 includes a lower return spring 26 between the lower movable spring receiver 23 and the protrusion 21 c provided on the shaft 21, and between the upper movable spring receiver 24 and the fixed spring receiver 25. Is provided with an upper return spring 27.

The lower movable return spring receiver 23, the protrusion 21c provided on the shaft 21, and the lower return spring 26 constitute a lower spring return mechanism 28. The upper movable spring receiver 24, the fixed spring receiver 25, and the upper return spring 27 constitute an upper spring return mechanism 29.

  The joystick controller 1 operates when the operator tilts the knob 22 and rotates and displaces the shaft 21 with the rotation center 17 as the fulcrum of operation.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, when the operator does not operate the knob 22, the lower movable spring receiver 23 is pressed against the sliding plate 12 by the spring force of the lower return spring 26. For this reason, the operating body 20 is held vertically.

As shown in FIG. 1 (b), the operator can move the lower part until the operator tilts the knob 22 and presses the upper movable spring receiver 24 against the stopper 15 provided at the edge of the opening of the housing 10. The side spring receiver 23 is pushed up by the sliding plate 12, and the lower return spring 26 is pushed and compressed.

  As shown in FIG. 1 (c), the operator further tilts the knob 22, and the upper movable side spring receiver 24 pushed up by the stopper 15 at the edge of the opening of the housing 1 is further placed on the stopper 15. When pushed up deeply, the upper return spring 27 is further pushed and compressed.

  At this time, the upper return spring 27 and the lower return spring 26 are selected so that the operating force for the operator to tilt the knob 22 is heavier than the lower return spring 26 for the upper return spring 27, and the upper return spring 26 is selected. The spring force of the spring 27 and the lower return spring 26 is adjusted.

  In the conventional joystick controller, in order to change the characteristics of the kick-down operation, it is necessary to replace the plurality of leaf springs and to align the characteristics of the plurality of leaf springs. For this reason, it takes time and labor to change the characteristics of the kick-down operation.

  In the joystick controller according to the embodiment of the present invention, a spring force required for one upper return spring 27 provided in the upper spring return mechanism 29 is calculated, and a return spring having a desired spring force is obtained. By exchanging, it is possible to obtain a desired kick-down characteristic without complicated calculation and adjustment.

  In the conventional joystick controller, the displacement direction of the leaf spring is perpendicular to the edge of the stopper, and the leaf spring needs to abut in parallel with the edge of the stopper. The degree of freedom of the operation direction was restricted.

  However, in the joystick controller of the present invention, the upper spring return mechanism 29 performs a kick down operation. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the opening of the housing is not limited to a square, but can be a cross, a circle, or the like, and the restriction on the degree of freedom in the operation direction of the operating body can be eliminated. .

Next, an example of an assembly method of the joystick controller according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, the housing case 14 is first attached on the fixing flange 11. The housing case 14 is provided with a stopper 15. Then, the lower movable side spring receiver 23 (see FIG. 1) is brought into contact with the sliding plate 12 (see FIG. 1) of the fixing flange 11 to temporarily fix the shaft lower portion 21a.

  Subsequently, the lower return spring 26 is inserted outside the shaft lower portion 21a. Then, the shaft upper portion 21b is inserted on the shaft lower portion 21a, and the shaft lower portion 21a and the shaft upper portion 21b are fixed by a set screw 36. Thereby, the shaft 21 is assembled.

  The upper movable spring receiver 24, the upper return spring 27, and the fixed spring receiver 25 are inserted into the shaft upper portion 21b and fixed by the retaining ring 37. A knob 22 is attached to the tip of the shaft upper portion 21b. Thereby, the operating body 20 (see FIG. 1) is assembled, and the assembled operating body 20 is supported by the housing 10.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the detection unit 30 of the joystick controller according to the embodiment of the present invention. The detection unit 30 of the joystick controller shown in FIG. 5 is connected to the shaft 21 of the operating body 20, an arm 31 that swings in the XY axis direction by the operation of the shaft 21, and a potentiometer 32 that detects the displacement of the arm 31. Have One potentiometer 32 is provided for each of the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction, and the swing angle of the arm 31 in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction is taken out as an electrical signal independently in the X-axis and Y-axis directions. be able to.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating output characteristics of the potentiometer of the joystick controller according to the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 6, the output characteristic of the potentiometer is shown by taking an analog output voltage as an example. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the normal operation range of the arm 31 is set in the range of the output voltage 20 to 80%, and the operation of the kick down mechanism is set in the range of the output voltage 10 to 20% and 80 to 90%. The

  In the joystick controller according to the embodiment of the present invention, the output range in which the kick-down mechanism operates is set as a range that alerts the operator to the control speed, for example, and the force for operating the operating body 20 is greater than the normal operation range. The operator should be alerted by increasing the weight.

  Here, when the power supply line or the ground (GND) line is disconnected, the output voltage becomes 0 or near 100%. If an output exceeding the range of 10 to 90% of the output voltage is detected, for example, the potentiometer The disconnection is determined, and the control operation performed according to the output voltage is stopped.

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention described in the claims. Needless to say, application examples are included.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 37, 38 ... Joystick controller 10, 40 ... Housing, 11 ... Fixing flange, 12, 43 ... Sliding plate, 14, 44 ... Housing case, 15, 45 ... Stopper, 17, 47 ... Center of rotation 20, 50, operating body, 21, 21 a , 21 b, 21 c, 51, shaft, 22 , 52, knob, 23, lower movable spring receiver, 24, upper movable spring receiver, 25, fixed spring receiver, 26 ... Lower return spring, 27 ... Upper return spring, 28 ... Lower spring return mechanism, 29 ... Upper spring return mechanism, 30, 60 ... Detection part, 31, 61 ... Arm, 32 ... Potentiometer, 36 ... Set screw 37 ... Retaining ring, 53 ... Movable spring receiver (conventional example), 55 ... Fixed spring receiver (conventional example), 6 ... return spring (conventional example), 58 ... spring return mechanism (conventional example), 59 ... plate spring, 62 ... potentiometer

Claims (2)

A housing comprising a sliding plate and a housing case ;
By operating force is applied from outside can be displaced by inclining and rotating around a rotation center, the shafts bets to be supported on the housing by the rotation center portion,
A lower spring is sandwiched between a lower movable spring receiver and a projection provided on the shaft above the rotation center of the shaft, and when an external force is applied to the shaft, the lower movable spring receiver is slid. First sliding the sliding plate to compress the lower spring by the sliding plate and holding the shaft perpendicular to the sliding plate by the lower spring when no external force is applied to the shaft . Spring return mechanism of
An upper spring is sandwiched between an upper movable spring receiver and a fixed spring receiver above the first spring return mechanism of the shaft, and when an external force is applied to the shaft, the lower movable spring receiver is slid. In order to displace the shaft, the upper spring is compressed by the upper edge of the casing case by sliding the moving plate and the upper movable spring receiver is pushed up to the upper edge of the casing case. A second spring return mechanism for performing an operation of increasing an operating force applied to the shaft from the outside ,
Is pre SL et provided under the first spring return mechanism, a detector for detecting the displacement of said shaft,
A joystick controller comprising: 2. The joystick controller according to claim 1 , wherein the second spring return mechanism is configured to increase a manipulation force applied to the shaft from the outside in order to displace the shaft .

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