JPH08129924A - Push-button switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a push-button switch having the good appearance in a state where a protective door is opened, and having high operability. CONSTITUTION: A plurality of push buttons 3 to 8 are arranged on a switch main body 2, a protective door 9 for protecting the group of the push buttons 3 to 8 is so attached as to be opened and closed, and a push-button switch 1 wherein a print circuit board 12 (electronic part) arranged in the switch main body 2 is controlled by operating the push buttons 3 to 8 is provided. All the push buttons 3 to 8 are arranged on the same surface, and movable caps 14, 15 as movable members capable of pressing the specified push buttons 3, 4 in the state the protective door 9 is closed are attached to the parts facing the specified push buttons 3, 4 (having the high frequency of use) of the protective door 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a push button switch for operating an electronic device such as an automobile air conditioner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a push button switch for operating an automobile air conditioner or the like has not been provided with a protective door for protecting the push button. Therefore, there is a problem that the push button is accidentally pressed or an operation mistake is made. In order to solve such a problem, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-3
It is conceivable to apply the push button switch 51 with a protective door as shown in FIGS. 6 to 9 described in the publication No. 0022 to a push button switch of an auto air conditioner or the like.

In this push button switch 51, a plurality of push buttons 52 and 53 are arranged in a switch body 59, and a protective door 5 is provided.
By opening 4, push buttons 52 and 53 appear,
The buttons can be pressed.

That is, the printed circuit board 55 to which a plurality of tactile switches 56 are attached is disposed in the switch body 59, and the first push button 52, which is rarely used, has its push rod as shown in FIG. 57 is opposed to the tact switch 56, and the first push button 52 is located on the surface 5 of the switch body 59.
It is arranged so as to be located deeper than 9a. The second push button 53, which is frequently used, is supported by the button mounting surface 54a of the protective door 54, and as shown in FIG.
When the switch 4 is closed, the switch 4 fits inside the switch body 59, as shown in FIG.
Rotate the protective door 54 90 ° as shown in
When the switch 4 is open, the button mounting surface 54a is flush with the switch body surface 59a, and the second push button 53 is exposed, and at the same time, the push rod 58 faces the tact switch 56.

When operating the electronic equipment, the protective door 54 is opened and the push buttons 52 and 53 are pushed,
ON / OFF of tact switch 56 with push rods 57 and 58
Then, the printed circuit board 55 is controlled.

As described above, in the push button switch 51, the second push button 53, which is frequently used, is exposed in front of the first push button 52, which is rarely used, with the protective door 54 opened. By improving the operability,
An operation error caused by pressing the first push button 52 is eliminated.

[0007]

However, in such a conventional device, there is a step between the first push button 52 and the second push button 53 with the protective door 54 opened. , The appearance quality is impaired, and the first push button 52
Since it is located deeper than the surface 59a of the switch body 59, it is inconvenient to operate the first push button 52 although the frequency of use is low.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a push button switch which has a good appearance when the protective door is opened and has high operability.

[0009]

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and the invention described in claim 1 is such that a plurality of push buttons are arranged on the switch body. , A protective door that can be opened and closed is attached, and when the protective door is closed, the push button group is covered, and when the open state, the push button group is set to be exposed. By operating the push button, In a push-button switch in which electronic components arranged in the switch body are controlled, all the push-buttons are arranged on the same plane, while a specific push-button of the protective door is closed when the protective door is closed. Is a push button switch in which a movable member capable of pushing the specific push button with the protective door closed is attached to a portion corresponding to.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the switch body is provided with a plurality of push buttons, a protective door that can be opened and closed is attached, and the push button group is covered with the protective door closed. , The push button group is set to be exposed in the open state, and by operating the push button, all the push button switches in which the electronic components arranged in the switch body are controlled The pushbutton switch is characterized in that the pushbuttons are arranged on the same surface and an opening is formed in a portion of the protective door corresponding to a specific pushbutton in the protective door closed state.

According to the invention described in claim 1 or 2, the specific push button can be pushed by pushing the movable member or through the opening even when the protective door is closed. At the same time, other push buttons can be protected. Therefore, by assigning a push button that is frequently used as a specific push button, it is possible to operate the push button that is frequently used to control electronic components while the protective door is closed, and at the same time, It is possible to prevent an operation error caused by pressing a push button, that is, a push button that is rarely used.

Further, by opening the protective door, it is possible to control the electronic parts by operating the push button which is not frequently used. At this time, since all the push buttons are arranged on the same surface, not only the appearance with the step between the push buttons as in the past, but also the appearance is better when the protective door is opened. It is easy to operate push buttons that are not used frequently.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in addition to the configuration of the first or second aspect of the invention, the storage space for storing the protective door in the open state is a push button switch provided in the switch body. It is characterized by that.

According to this structure, since the opened protective door can be housed in the switch body, the opened protective door does not interfere with the button operation and the appearance quality is good. Become.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to a push button switch for an automobile air conditioner.

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the structure will be described. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a push button switch for operating an automatic air conditioner (not shown) of an automobile, and a switch body 2 of the push button switch 1 is shown.
Is equipped with a power button 3 that is frequently used as a "specific push button", an automatic operation button 4, a fan speed up / down button 5 and 6 that is infrequently used, and an outlet mode up / down switching button 7 and 8. A protective door 9 for protecting the push buttons 3 to 8 is attached so as to be openable and closable.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the switch body 2 has a lower case 10 and an upper case 11 that fits into the lower case 10. Lower case 1
A printed circuit board 12 as an "electronic component" is arranged in the 0, and the printed circuit board 12 is electrically connected to the auto air conditioner side. Further, a plurality of tact switches 13 are attached to the printed circuit board 12, and push buttons 3 to 8 are arranged as opposed to each tact switch 13 as follows.

That is, the push buttons 3 to 8 are the same as those shown in FIGS.
Like the push buttons 3, 4, and 5 shown in, the tact switch 13
Attached to the upper case 11 so that it can move forward and backward,
These push buttons 3 to 8 are set so that their surfaces are flush with each other when they are not pressed.

The protective door 9 has a flat plate shape, and as shown in FIG. 5, pins 17 are attached to both side surfaces of its upper portion 9a. And this pin 17 is the spacer 16
It is inserted into the support hole 16a of FIG. Further, as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 3, the protective door 9 can be stored together with the spacer 16 in the storage space 10a in the lower case 10 by opening the protective door 9 and pushing it in the direction of arrow E. ing. The spacer 16 has a retaining portion 16b.
Is locked to the upper case 11 so as to be prevented from coming off.

Further, in the closed state of the protection door 9, a portion of the protection door 9 corresponding to the power button 3 and the automatic operation button 4 has a window 9b as an "opening", as shown in FIG. 9
b is formed, and movable caps 14 and 15 as "movable members" are attached to the windows 9b and 9b. The movable caps 14 and 15 are made of transparent silicon rubber, and have ribs 14a and 15a formed at the center thereof, and the outer edge 1
4b and 15b are fixed to the peripheral edge of the window 9b by welding or insert molding. Then, with the lid 9 closed, for example, by pushing the movable cap 15 in the direction of arrow F in FIG.
5a pushes the automatic operation button 4, and the tact switch 1
It is designed to press 3.

Needless to say, the movable caps 14 and 15 may be formed of a hard material instead of an elastic material and slidably fitted to the protective door 9. However, in this case, the thickness of the movable caps 14 and 15 is set to a thickness that does not interfere with the upper case 11 when the protective door 9 is stored.

Next, the operation of the push button switch 1 having such a structure will be described.

First, to start the automatic air conditioner,
As shown in FIG. 1, with the protective door 9 closed, the movable cap 14 is pushed to turn on the power button 3. Further, in the case of automatic driving, the movable cap 15 is pushed to turn on the automatic driving button 4.

As described above, when the power button 3 and the automatic operation button 4 which are frequently used are pushed, the button can be pushed with the protective door 9 closed, so that the labor for opening the protective door 9 can be saved. In addition, it is possible to prevent an operation error caused by pressing the fan speed up / down buttons 5 and 6 and the outlet mode up / down switching buttons 7 and 8.

Further, when adjusting the strength of the fan or adjusting the outlet mode, as shown in FIG. 2, the protective door 9 is opened, and it is stored in the storage space 10a in the lower case 10 to adjust the fan speed. By directly pressing the up / down buttons 5 and 6 and the outlet mode up / down switching buttons 7 and 8, the strength and the like of the fan are adjusted. At this time, since all the push buttons 3 to 8 are arranged so as to be flush with each other, not only the appearance is better, but also the buttons 5 and 5 have a step difference as in the conventional case.
Easy to press 6, 7, and 8. Moreover, since the protection door 9 can be housed in the switch body 2, the protection door 9 in the open state does not interfere with the button operation, and the appearance quality is good.

Although the movable caps 14 and 15 are attached to the windows 9b and 9b of the protective door 9 in the above embodiment, the opening may be opened without attaching the movable caps 14 and 15. it can. According to this, the power button 3 and the automatic operation button 4 can be directly pressed through this opening, the same operation as the above-mentioned embodiment can be obtained, and the structure of the protective door can be simplified. In this case, it is desirable to form the protective door 9 as thin as possible from a highly rigid material and bring it closer to the push button to reduce the step between the surface of the power button 3 and the automatic operation button 4 and the surface of the protective door 9.

[0028]

As described above, according to the invention described in claim 1 or 2, even when the protective door is closed, the movable member is pushed or the opening is made. The push button of can be pushed, and at the same time, other push buttons can be protected. Therefore, by assigning a push button that is frequently used as a specific push button, it is possible to operate the push button that is frequently used and control electronic components without hesitation while the protective door is closed. It is possible to prevent an operation error caused by pressing the other push button, that is, the push button which is not frequently used.

Further, by opening the protective door, it is possible to control the electronic parts by operating the push button which is rarely used. At this time, since all the push buttons are arranged on the same surface, not only the appearance with the step between the push buttons as in the past, but also the appearance is better when the protective door is opened. It is easy to operate push buttons that are not used frequently.

According to the invention described in claim 3, in addition to the above effect, since the opened protective door can be housed in the switch body, the opened protective door interferes with button operation. And the appearance quality is also good.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a push button switch according to an embodiment of the present invention with a protective door closed.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the push button switch according to the embodiment with a protective door opened.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2 showing the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 2 showing the same embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a protective door and a spacer according to the same embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a push button switch showing a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line CC of FIG. 6 showing the conventional example.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line DD of FIG. 6 showing the conventional example.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG. 8 in a state in which a protective door is opened in the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 push button switch 2 switch body 3 to 8 push button 3,4 specific (frequently used) push button 9 protective door 12 printed circuit board (electronic component) 14,15 movable member (movable cap)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A switch body is provided with a plurality of push buttons, and an openable / closable protective door is attached to the switch body. When the protective door is closed, the push button group is covered, and when the protective door is open, the push button group is opened. Is set so that all the push buttons are on the same surface in the push button switch in which the electronic components arranged in the switch body are controlled by operating the push buttons. On the other hand, a movable member capable of pressing the specific push button when the protective door is closed is attached to a portion of the protective door that corresponds to the specific push button when the protective door is closed. And push button switch. 2. A switch body is provided with a plurality of push buttons, and an openable / closable protective door is attached to the switch body. When the protective door is closed, the push button group is covered, and when the protective door is open, the push button group is opened. Is set so that all the push buttons are on the same surface in the push button switch in which the electronic components arranged in the switch body are controlled by operating the push buttons. On the other hand, the push button switch is characterized in that an opening is formed in a portion of the protective door corresponding to a specific push button in the closed state of the protective door. 3. The push button switch according to claim 1, wherein an accommodation space for accommodating the opened protective door is provided in the switch body.