JP4886528B2 - Wiper device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wiper device that can swing-control each of a plurality of wiper arms.

The wiper device for wiping the windshield of automobiles has the right and left ends of the windshield, that is, the driver's seat side and the passenger's seat side, in order to increase the wiping area with the recent increase in the size of the windshield and improve the lateral visibility. There is a type in which a wiper motor is arranged in each of them, and one wiper arm is controlled to swing by one wiper motor. In this case, the wiper arm is formed in a so-called counter-wiping type that is arranged from the left and right ends of the front glass toward the center of the front glass.
In a wiper device that can swing-control the wiper arms independently, it is necessary to adjust the position of each wiper blade so that the wiper blade attached to the tip of each wiper arm does not interfere on the wiping surface. Therefore, in the conventional wiper device, the first wiper motor and the second wiper motor are connected by a signal line, the electric control unit is provided in the first wiper motor, and the second wiper motor detects the rotational position and the relative rotational position. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1). The control unit acquires information about the position of the rotation axis of the second wiper motor detected by the sensor through the communication line, and controls the rotation of the first wiper motor.
Special table 2004-521004 gazette

In the counter-wiping type wiper device as disclosed in Patent Document 1, the wiping range of each wiper blade partially overlaps at the central position of the entire wiping range, which is the front glass central portion. Further, since the pair of wiper arms are not mechanically connected, the position of the wiper arm on the driver seat side and the position of the wiper arm on the passenger seat side may be switched due to an external factor.
However, when a Hall IC (Integrated Circuit) attached to the rotating shaft of the motor unit is used to detect the wiper arm position, the wiper arm position is only detected as a relative position. Once reset, it was not possible to detect a change in Yipower.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a main object thereof is to detect each position of the wiper arm during the wiping operation and confirm that there is no replacement.

The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention for solving the above-described problem has a plurality of wiper motors with a speed reduction mechanism for swinging the wiper arm between the upper reverse position and the lower reverse position. The wiper is configured to be communicable with each other, and the speed reduction mechanism includes a worm coupled to a rotation shaft of a motor portion of the wiper motor, and a worm wheel meshed with the worm and coupled to a link that swings the wiper arm. In the device
A first sensor that detects a rotational position of the worm wheel, and when the plurality of wiper arms are operated, the rotational position of each of the worm wheels is moved from a stop position to a predetermined origin position; The wiper apparatus is characterized in that the origin position is set on the opposite side of the direction from the stop position toward the upper reversal position .
In this wiper device, when the wiper arm is operated, the first sensor for detecting the rotational position of the worm wheel is used to rotate the worm wheel to the origin position and then perform a normal wiping operation. The first sensor is used to confirm that the worm wheel has moved to the origin position. The amount of rotation necessary to move to the origin position differs from the normal state when the position of the wiper arm is deviated, so it can be determined whether or not the wiper arm has been replaced with respect to the normal arrangement.
Moreover, in this wiper apparatus, by moving to the opposite side to that during normal wiping operation, the change of the wiper arm is detected without interference.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the wiper device according to the first aspect, the stop position is set on the opposite side of the direction from the lower reverse position toward the upper reverse position.
In this wiper device, the wiper arm is arranged with respect to the wiping area so as to be spaced apart from the lower inversion position during the wiper wiping operation when the wiper is not used. .

The invention according to claim 3, in the wiper device according to any one of claims 1 or claim 2, a second sensor for outputting a pulse signal by detecting a rotation of the rotary shaft of each of the wiper motor The pulse signal output from the second sensor is counted until the worm wheel moves to the origin position, and the change of the positions of the plurality of wiper arms is detected from the difference in the number of pulses. It is configured as described above.
In this wiper device, the number of pulses output from the second sensor is counted and the magnitude of the number of pulses is compared. For example, when the origin position is set on the opposite side of the upper reverse position with respect to the stop position, the wiper arm with the larger number of pulses is positioned on the upper side, so the replacement of the wiper arm is determined by comparing the number of pulses. it can.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the wiper device according to any one of the first to third aspects, when the control device detects a change in position of the plurality of wiper arms, the wiper arm on the upper side is moved. It is characterized in that the movement is first started to the upper reversal position, and then the lower wiper arm is started to move to the upper reversal position.
In this wiper device, when the wiper arm is in the replacement state, the wiper device is moved from the upper wiper arm to prevent interference.

  According to the present invention, since the worm wheel is moved to the preset origin position when the wiper arm is operated, it is possible to reliably determine whether or not the wiper arm is replaced from the rotation amount required to move to the origin position. Since a sensor for detecting the absolute position is not necessary, the cost can be reduced.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the wiper device 1 includes a first control device 4 and a first wiper motor 5 connected to a wiper switch 2 provided in a vehicle interior via a communication line 3, and a first control device 4. A second control device 7 and a second wiper motor 8 are connected via a communication line 6, and each wiper motor 5, 8 has one wiper arm 9, 10 via a link mechanism such as a crank arm 28. They are linked one by one. The first wiper motor 5 and the wiper arm 9 are arranged on the driver's seat side, and the second wiper motor 8 and the wiper arm 10 are arranged on the passenger seat side.

  The wiper switch 2 is an input device that accepts a driver's operation, and can input a signal for turning on and off the wiper device 1 and a signal for controlling the operation (intermittent operation and swing speed) of the wiper arms 9 and 10. It has become. Communication between the wiper switch 2 and the first control device 4 uses serial communication using an in-vehicle LAN, for example, CAN (Controller Area Network) or LIN (Local Interconnect Network).

  The first control device 4 includes a CPU (central processing unit) 21 to which a signal from the wiper switch 2 is input, and a memory 22A that stores fixed data necessary for rotation control of the first motor 5; A memory 22B capable of storing data is provided. Furthermore, it has the communication circuit 24 used when communicating with the driver circuit 23 (drive control means) of the 1st wiper motor 5, and the 2nd control apparatus 7. FIG. Here, the CPU 21 performs wiping control means 31 for controlling the normal wiping operation of the wiper arms 9 and 10, determination means 32 for determining the replacement of the wiper arms 9 and 10, and processing for executing processing when the replacement has occurred. The function can be divided into release means 33.

  The first wiper motor 5 includes a motor unit 5A composed of a brush motor, a brushless motor, and the like, and a speed reduction unit 5B that decelerates the rotation of the motor unit 5A. The motor unit 5 </ b> A rotates the armature according to the energization pattern input from the first control device 4. The first wiper motor 5 includes a motor rotation detection sensor 25 (hereinafter referred to as a second sensor 25) that detects the rotation of the rotation shaft 41, and a rotation position detection sensor 26 (hereinafter referred to as a first sensor) that detects a rotation position. 26) is attached.

As shown in FIG. 2, the rotation shaft 41 of the armature of the motor unit 5A is inserted into the speed reduction unit 5B. The speed reduction unit 5B includes a speed reduction mechanism 42 that transmits the speed to the crank arm 28 after the rotational speed of the rotary shaft 41 is reduced, and the board 43 of the first control device 4 is built therein.
The speed reduction mechanism 42 includes a worm 44 connected to the rotation shaft 41 and a worm wheel 45 that meshes with the worm 44. An output shaft 46 is fixed to the worm wheel 45. As shown in FIG. 1, the output shaft 46 projects out of the speed reduction portion 5 </ b> B and is fixed to the crank arm 28.

  The tip of the crank arm 28 is connected to the wiper arm 9 via a drive lever 29. The rotational movement of the first wiper motor 5 can be transmitted to the wiper arm 9 via a link mechanism including a crank arm 28 and a drive lever 29. The wiper arm 9 is supported so as to be swingable about a pivot shaft 9A. A wiper blade 30 is attached to the tip of the wiper arm 9. The wiper blade 30 is provided with a rubber member for wiping off water droplets on the glass surface.

  Here, a second sensor magnet 51 is fixed to the rotating shaft 41 of the first wiper motor 5. The second sensor magnet 51 is alternately magnetized with N and S poles in the circumferential direction of the rotating shaft 41. The second sensor 25 is disposed on the substrate 43 of the first control device 4 at a position away from the second sensor magnet 51 by a predetermined distance. The position of the second sensor 25 is a position where a change in the magnetic field formed by the second sensor magnet 51 can be detected. As the second sensor 25, for example, a sensor that can output a pulse signal in accordance with a change in magnetic pole and relatively detect the amount of rotation of the rotating shaft 41 such as a Hall IC. Therefore, the determination unit 32 counts the pulse signal of the second sensor 25, increments the pulse signal in the forward path (for example, normal rotation) of the wiping operation, and decrements the pulse signal in the backward path (for example, inversion) of the wiping operation. Thus, the relative positions of the wiper arms 9 and 10 can be detected.

  An annular first sensor magnet 52 is fixed to the worm wheel 45 so as to surround the output shaft 46. The first sensor magnet 52 has one N pole and one S pole magnetized in the circumferential direction, and the N pole is smaller than a half circumference. On the substrate 43 of the first control device 4, the first sensor 26 is arranged at a position away from the first sensor magnet 52 by a predetermined distance so that a change in the magnetic field formed by the first sensor magnet 52 can be detected. Has been. For the first sensor 26, for example, a Hall IC is used.

  The configurations of the second wiper motor 8 and the second control device 7 are the same as those of the first wiper motor 5 and the first control device 4. The wiper arm 9 and the link mechanism have the same configuration except that they are arranged symmetrically with the wiper arm 10 side.

  The communication line 6 connecting the first control device 4 and the second control device 7 is for synchronously controlling the two wiper motors 5 and 6 using the first control device 4 as a master and the second control device 7 as a slave. This is a dedicated communication line. An example of the communication protocol is a UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) protocol. As shown in FIG. 2, the data configuration to be communicated includes data indicating position information, wiper Lo / Hi operation information, and the like, and each is configured as data D composed of a plurality of bits. In this case, five frames of data D1 to D5 are continuous in one frame. In this embodiment, the ID bits (data order) in the data D1 to D5 are omitted. By doing so, the communication speed is increased and the burden on the CPU 21 is reduced.

FIG. 3 shows the arrangement of the first sensor magnet 52 and the first sensor 26. FIG. 3 shows a normal arrangement in which no replacement occurs, and the first sensor magnet 52 and the first sensor 26 in the rotation direction on the driver seat side (Dr side) and on the passenger seat side (As side). The arrangement of is the same.
One of the boundaries between the N pole and the S pole of the first sensor magnet 52 is set to the origin position OP, and the position advanced by a predetermined angle counterclockwise from the origin position is the storage position SP. In FIG. 3, since the first sensor 26 is in the storage position SP, the wiper arms 9 and 10 are in the storage position. Furthermore, a position advanced by a predetermined angle counterclockwise from the storage position SP is a lower inversion position BP during the wiping operation. After going counterclockwise from the lower inversion position BP and crossing the boundary between the N pole and the S pole, the upper inversion position TP is set. The stop positions of the wiper arms 9 and 10 are the storage position SP or the lower inversion position BP.

  On the other hand, when the wiper arms 9 and 10 are replaced, the wiper arm 10 on the passenger seat side is located above the wiper arm 9 on the driver seat side. In this case, the arrangement of the first sensor magnet 52 and the first sensor 26 when moved to the storage position SP is shown in FIG. Since the worm wheel 45 on the passenger seat side has not fully returned, the position of the first sensor 26 is on the labor side from the storage position SP.

The operation of the wiper device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
When the wiper switch 2 is turned on in the vehicle cabin (Yes in step S101), the CPU 21 performs an origin position confirmation operation (step S102).
First, the wiping control means 31 drives the driver circuit 23 in the first control device 4 to check the driver seat side origin position OP (step S103). At this time, the determination means 32 of the CPU 21 of the first control device 4 rotates the first wiper motor 5 from the stop position corresponding to the storage position SP in the direction opposite to that at the start of the normal wiping operation. Then, when the first sensor 26 detects switching to the magnetic pole of the first sensor magnet 52, the first wiper motor 5 is stopped. During this time, the determination means 32 counts the number of pulses of the pulse signal output from the second sensor 25, and stores the count value of the pulse signal in the memory 22A as the Dr-side pulse number after the first wiper motor 5 is stopped.

  Next, the wiping control means 31 drives the driver circuit 23 in the second control device 7 to check the passenger seat side origin position OP (step S104). At this time, the determination means 32 of the CPU 21 of the second control device 7 drives the second wiper motor 8 to rotate in a direction opposite to that at the start of the normal wiping operation from the stop position corresponding to the storage position SP. When the first sensor 26 detects switching to the magnetic pole of the first sensor magnet 52, the second wiper motor 8 is stopped. During this time, the determination means 32 counts the number of pulses of the pulse signal output from the second sensor 25, and stores the count value of the pulse signal in the memory 22A as the As-side pulse number after the second wiper motor 8 is stopped. Note that the confirmation processing of the origin position OP in steps S103 and S104 is preferably performed simultaneously.

  The determination means 32 of the first control device 4 acquires data on the As side pulse number via the communication line 6 and compares the two pulse numbers. If the number of Dr-side pulses is equal to or greater than the number of As-side pulses (Yes in Step S105), the wiper arm 9 on the driver's seat is on the upper side, and the wiper arms 9 and 10 are not replaced. A normal wiping operation is performed (step S107). That is, the first and second control devices 4 and 7 rotate the wiper motors 5 and 8 in synchronization. The pair of wiper arms 9 and 10 swings between the upper and lower reversing positions around the pivot shafts 9A and 10A, respectively, and wipes dirt and the like on the glass surface. When the second control device 7 is set as a master, the comparison of the number of pulses on the Dr side and the As side is performed on the second control device 7 side.

  On the other hand, when the number of pulses on the As side is larger (No in step S105), the determination unit 32 determines that the wiper arm 10 on the passenger seat side is on and the wiper arms 9 and 10 are switched. . As shown in FIG. 4, in the switching state, the distance from the first sensor 26 on the driver's seat side to the origin position OP and the distance L1 in the rotational direction from the first sensor 26 on the passenger seat side to the origin position OP are shown. The distance L2 in the rotation direction is longer. For this reason, the distance required to move the origin position OP to the position of the first sensor 26 on the driver's seat side is shorter than that on the passenger seat side. That is, during this period, the number of pulses of the signal output from each second sensor 25 increases on the passenger seat side where the moving distance is large. Therefore, the change state can be detected by comparing the number of pulses.

  When it is determined that the state is the replacement state, the replacement release means 33 performs the replacement release operation (step S106). As the replacement release operation, for example, the wiper arm 10 on the passenger seat side is operated in a state where the wiper arm 9 on the driver seat side is stopped, and the wiper arm 9 is operated after that. Then, after performing the replacement release operation, a normal wiping operation is performed (step S107).

In this embodiment, since the wiping operation is started after moving to the origin position OP, the replacement of the wiper arms 9 and 10 can be detected from the difference in the distance required to move to the origin position OP. become. Since only the relative position is known only by the second sensor 25, the current position cannot be known when the motor power is turned off. In this embodiment, the first sensor 26 confirms the origin position OP. As a result, the positions of the wiper arms 9 and 10 can be reliably detected.
Since the origin position OP is set in the direction opposite to the moving direction when performing the wiping operation, even when the positions of the wiper arms 9 and 10 are switched, detection can be performed without interfering with each other.
Even when a sensor that detects the relative position is used by combining the first sensor 26 that detects the origin position OP and the second sensor 25 that detects the rotation of the rotation shaft 41 of the motor units 5A and 8A, The absolute position of the pair of wiper arms 9 and 10 can be detected, and interference of the wiper arms 9 and 10 due to switching can be reliably prevented.

Note that the present invention can be widely applied without being limited to the above-described embodiment.
For example, in the normal state, the wiper arm 9 on the driver's seat side is down and the wiper arm 10 on the passenger seat side is up, but the wiper arm 9 on the driver's seat side may be up.
A timer may be used as means for detecting the amount of rotation required for the worm wheel 45 to reach the origin position OP. It is possible to detect the change by measuring the time until the origin position OP is reached by each of the wiper motors 5 and 8, and comparing the two.
As the amount of rotation required for the worm wheel 45 to reach the origin position OP, the amount of rotation when there is no replacement is stored in advance, and the measured value of the second sensor 25 is compared with the stored amount of rotation. The replacement of the wiper arms 9 and 10 may be detected. Communication between the control devices 4 and 7 becomes unnecessary.
The present invention can also be applied to control of three or more wiper arms and a wiper motor.
In the embodiment of the present invention, the wiper arms 9 and 10 connected to the pivot shafts 9A and 10A are driven to swing from the output shaft 46 of the motor through the crank arm 28 and the drive lever 29. For example, the output shaft 46 of the motor may directly drive the wiper arms 9 and 10 to swing.

It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the wiper apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of a wiper motor. It is a figure explaining the rotation position of the worm wheel in each of a driver's seat side and a passenger's seat side, and is a figure showing arrangement at the time of normal. It is a figure explaining the rotation position of the worm wheel in the state where the wiper arm was replaced. It is a flowchart explaining the wiping operation | movement in a wiper apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wiper apparatus 4 1st control apparatus 5 1st wiper motor 5A, 8A Motor part 5B, 8B Deceleration mechanism 7 2nd control apparatus 8 2nd wiper motor 9, 10 Wiper arm 21 CPU
25 Second sensor 26 First sensor 44 Worm 45 Worm wheel 51 Second sensor magnet 52 First sensor magnet

Claims (4)

A plurality of wiper motors with a speed reduction mechanism that swings the wiper arm between an upper reversal position and a lower reversal position, and each wiper motor control device is configured to be communicable with each other. A wiper device having a worm coupled to a rotation shaft of the worm and a worm wheel meshed with the worm and coupled to a link that swings the wiper arm.
A first sensor that detects a rotational position of the worm wheel, and when the plurality of wiper arms are operated, the rotational position of each of the worm wheels is moved from a stop position to a predetermined origin position; configured,
The wiper device characterized in that the origin position is set on the opposite side of the direction from the stop position toward the upper reversal position .   2. The wiper device according to claim 1, wherein the stop position is set on a side opposite to a direction from the lower reverse position toward the upper reverse position. Each of the wiper motors has a second sensor that detects the rotation of the rotary shaft and outputs a pulse signal, and the pulses output from the second sensor until the worm wheel moves to the home position. counting the signals, wiper device according to claim 1 or claim 2 from the difference between each number of pulses, characterized by being configured so as to detect the turnover positions of the plurality of wiper arms. When detecting the change in position of the plurality of wiper arms, the control device starts to move the upper wiper arm to the upper reversal position first, and then starts to move the lower wiper arm to the upper reversal position. The wiper device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the wiper device is configured as described above.

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