JPH0316182Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <<Industrial Application Field>> This invention relates to a multi-directional changeover switch used for attitude control of electric remote control mirrors for automobiles, etc.

<<Prior Art>> In an electric remote control mirror for an automobile, the mirror can be tilted in four directions (front, rear, left, and right) to adjust its posture so that the driver can obtain an optimal rear field of view. This adjustment is performed using a multi-directional selector switch located near the driver.

An example of such a multi-directional changeover switch is the switch disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application No. 70936/1983.
This switch has an operating knob at the top, a spherical part in the middle, an operating lever with a collar plate extending radially from the spherical part, and an operating lever that receives the upper part of the spherical part of the operating lever and has an inner part. a housing provided with a guide member that supports the lower part of the spherical portion; and a moderation plate disposed between the flange plate and the guide member in the housing and biased between the flange plates by a compression coil spring. and a movable contact piece provided in the housing and selectively connected to the fixed contact piece in the housing by tilting the operating lever from the neutral position. By tilting the control lever back and forth, left and right, it is possible to switch between multiple directions.

<<Problems to be solved by the invention>> However, in a multi-directional switch with such a configuration, when the operating lever is tilted,
The moderation plate is pressed by the flange plate, compressing the compression coil spring, switching the contacts, and when the operating lever is loosened, the moderation plate rises due to the restoring force of the compression coil spring, and the operation lever returns to the neutral position. return. In order to make the movement of the moderation plate within the housing smooth at this time, it is necessary to make the guide portion of the moderation plate relative to the housing long. If the guide portion is made longer, there is a problem in that the height of the entire switch increases accordingly.

The purpose of this invention is to avoid using a moderation board.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved multi-directional changeover switch capable of surely returning an operating lever to a neutral position.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The multi-directional switch according to this invention has an operation knob at the top, a spherical part in the middle, and a plurality of spring receiving rods extending radially from the spherical part. a housing having a guide member for receiving an upper part of the spherical part of the operating lever and supporting a lower part of the spherical part therein; and a housing for each spring receiving rod of the operating lever and the guide member. a compression coil spring interposed therebetween, and a movable contact piece provided in the housing and selectively connected to a fixed contact piece in the housing by tilting the operating lever from a neutral position. The multi-directional switch is provided with a stopper for regulating the rotational position of the spring receiving rod at a position corresponding to both ends of each of the spring receiving rods, and the stopper has a lower surface such that the operating lever is in the neutral position. The upper end of the compression spring is formed so as to be located substantially in the same plane as the lower surface of each of the spring receiving rods when the lever is in the position, and when the operating lever is tilted,
Among the plurality of spring receiving rods, one of the spring receiving rods facing each other protrudes from the lower surface of the stopper and presses the upper end of the compression coil spring, and the other enters into the stopper and the upper end of the compression coil spring is pressed against the stopper. It is characterized in that it comes into contact only with the lower surface of the.

<<Operation>> When the operating lever is tilted, the spring receiving rod on the tilted side presses the compression coil spring, but on the opposite side, the spring receiving rod enters between the stoppers, so the upper end of the compression coil spring is pressed. The part remains in contact with the bottom of the stopper and does not move. When the operating lever is loosened, the restoring force of the compression coil spring pushes the spring receiving rods that come into contact with it and attempts to return to the neutral position, causing each spring receiving rod to fit between the stoppers and their bottom surfaces to match. A neutral state is maintained in the position.

<<Embodiment>> FIG. 1 is a plan view of a mirror attitude control switch for an electric remote control for an automobile showing an embodiment of this invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view thereof. The housing 1 has locking protrusions 111 and elastic claws 112 on its sides, and is attached to a predetermined panel opening by these. At the top of the housing 1, there are a selection switch 2 for selecting the left and right mirrors and a switch 4 for tilting the mirror back and forth and left and right.
A direction switch 3 is provided. As shown in FIG. 3, the left/right selection switch 2 includes a slider 22 provided in the housing 1 so as to be slidable by an operation knob 21, and a compression coil spring 23 provided at the lower end of the slider 22. The movable contact piece 24 is provided with a movable contact piece 24, and an insulating plate 25 having a fixed contact piece selectively connected to the movable contact piece 24.
The slider 22 has a combination of a hole 26 and a ball 27 to give it a sense of moderation. Note that numerals 28 and 29 indicate wiring codes.

As shown in FIG. 4, the four-way switch 3 has an operating knob 31 at the top, an operating lever 33 having a spherical part 32 in the middle, and a conical part 34a that receives the spherical part 32 together with the housing 1. a guide member 34 fixed to the inner wall of the housing 1; a sliding member 35 driven by the lower end of the operating lever 33; and a first movable piece 36 arranged in a cross shape and driven by the sliding member 35. and a second movable piece 37, and a printed circuit board 38 having fixed contacts selectively connected to movable contacts provided on the lower surfaces of these movable pieces 36, 37. code 3
9 and 40 indicate wiring codes.

The parts of the housing 1 and the guide member 34 that receive the spherical part 32 are each formed in a shape that follows the curved surface of the spherical part 32, and the spherical part 32 is supported by these parts and can rotate around its center O. ing.

Four spring receiving rods 41 are provided at equal intervals in the radial direction of the spherical portion 32, and a compression coil spring 42 is interposed between the spring receiving rods 41 and the guide member 34. On the upper back surface of the housing 1, at a position facing the upper end of the compression coil spring 42 and corresponding to both sides of each spring receiving rod 41,
As shown in FIG. 5, eight stoppers 101 are provided. The lower surface of each stopper 101 is set to be substantially flush with the lower surface of each spring receiving rod 41 when the operating lever 33 is located at the neutral position. Therefore, the operating lever 33
is in the neutral position, the compression coil spring 4
2 is in contact with both the lower surface of each stopper 101 and the lower surface of each spring receiving rod 41, and each spring receiving rod 41 is connected to a pair of adjacent stoppers 1.
01, and the position of the operating lever 33 in the rotational direction is restricted.

Next, the operation of this four-way switch 3 will be explained. As shown in FIG. 6, the operation knob 31
When tilted to the left, the operating lever 33 tilts to the left around the center O of the spherical part 32, the sliding member 35 is pushed to the right, and its foot pushes the second movable piece 37, causing the movable contact on its lower surface to are selectively connected to fixed contacts on the printed circuit board 38. At this time, among the spring receiving rods 41 of the operating lever 33, the operating lever 33
The spring receiving rod 41 on the side that is tilted is the stopper 1
01 and presses the upper end of the compression coil spring 42, whereas the spring receiving rod 41a on the opposite side enters between the stoppers 101a on the opposite side, so the upper end of the compression coil spring 42 presses the upper end of the compression coil spring 42. It remains in contact with the lower surface 102a of 101a. Therefore, the tilting operation of the operating lever 33 by the operating knob 31 is light because it is not necessary to bend the entire compression coil spring 42. Next, when the pressing force on the operation knob 31 is weakened, the spring receiving rod 41 is pressed upward by the restoring force of the deflected spring 42, and the operation lever 33 rotates around the center O of the spherical portion 32. The lower surface of the spring receiving rod 41 rotates in the clockwise direction, and the stopper 101
When it coincides with the lower surface 102 of the spring 42, the pressing force of the spring 42 becomes equal, and the operating lever 33 returns to the neutral position and is held at that position.

For reference, FIG. 7 shows a contact connection diagram of the multi-directional changeover switch, and FIG. 8 shows a circuit diagram thereof.

In the above embodiment, an example in which this invention is configured as a four-way changeover switch is shown, but this invention can be applied to various multi-way changeover switches having two or more directions.

<<Effects of the invention>> As described above, the multi-directional switch according to this invention controls the position of the plurality of spring receiving rods of the operation lever that receive the compression coil springs in the housing from both sides by the stoppers provided in the housing, and When the operating lever is in its neutral position, the lower surface of the stopper and the lower surface of the spring receiving rod are located on almost the same plane, so when the operating lever is tilted, only the compression coil spring portion on the tilted side is bent. , it is possible to perform a tilting operation with a small force. Furthermore, when the tilting operation force is weakened, the operating lever returns to the neutral position due to the restoring force of the deflected spring, and the spring receiving rod enters between the stoppers, so that the neutral position is reliably maintained. In this way, the operating lever can be reliably returned to the neutral position without requiring a moderation plate like the conventional one, so the number of parts can be reduced and the height of the entire switch can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an electric remote control mirror attitude control switch for automobiles showing an embodiment of this invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of the switch shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a line taken along the - line in Fig. 1. A cross-sectional view along
4 is a sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the housing of the switch shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the multi-directional selector switch shown in FIG. This figure is a contact connection diagram of the switch shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of the same. 1...Housing, 2...Right/left selection switch,
3...Multi-directional selector switch, 31...Operation knob,
32...Spherical part, 33...Operation lever, 34...
Guide member, 35...Sliding member, 36...First movable piece, 37...Second movable piece, 38...Printed circuit board, 39, 40...Wiring cord, 41...Spring receiving rod, 42... Compression coil spring, 101...stopper.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] an operating lever having an operating knob at the top, a spherical section at the middle, and a plurality of spring receiving rods extending radially from the spherical section; a housing having a guide member supporting a lower portion of the spherical portion; a compression coil spring interposed between each spring receiving rod of the operation lever and the guide member; and a compression coil spring provided within the housing. A multi-directional changeover switch, wherein the operating lever is provided with a movable contact piece that is selectively connected to a fixed contact piece in the housing by tilting from a neutral position, and the switch corresponds to both ends of each of the spring receiving rods. A stopper for regulating the position of the spring receiving rod in the rotational direction is provided at the position, and the lower surface of the stopper is located in substantially the same plane as the lower surface of each of the spring receiving rods when the operating lever is in the neutral position. When the operating lever is tilted, one of the plurality of spring receiving rods facing each other protrudes from the lower surface of the stopper and is compressed. A multi-directional changeover switch characterized in that the upper end of the compression coil spring is pressed and the other end is inserted between the stoppers so that the upper end of the compression coil spring comes into contact only with the lower surface of the stopper.