JPH0955971A - Variable sound volume device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To adjust sound volume without steps by simple constitution without increasing the scale of a device and its cost by arranging a sound volume changing plate between a speaker and a sound hole provided on the size of a housing and moving the sound volume changing plate from outside. SOLUTION: The speaker 3 supported by a printed board 2 is arranged inside of the housing 1, and the sound hole 4 is formed at a housing wall facingto the output side of the speaker 3. Then the sound volume variable plate 5 is supported at a space between the speaker 3 and the sound pull-out hole 4 so as to be movable forward and backward in the direction of an arrow to shild a sound wave to be pulled-out from the speaker 3 to the sound pull-out hole 4 to adjust the volume of the calling sound from the sound pull-out hole 4 without steps. Namely, an opening 6 for adjusting sound volume is formed at the proper place of the sound volume variable plate 5 and when the sound volume variable plate 5 is moved in the direction of the arrow, a sound wave propagation path between the speaker 3 and the sound pull-out hole 4 is shielded by the opening 6 to adjust sound volume outputted from the sound pull-out hole 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a volume control device capable of mechanically adjusting a ringing tone of a wireless calling device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, mobile communication technology has developed and mobile communication devices have become widespread, and the demand for mobile communication devices has been increasing year by year. Among mobile communication devices, the demand and supply of mobile phones and radio callers (pagers), among others, will increase significantly, while at the same time reducing size and weight.
There is a strong demand for cost reduction. The radio paging device is provided with a structure for notifying the user of an incoming call by a ringing tone when a call is received, but the volume cannot be adjusted steplessly. That is, the radio paging device is provided with a volume changing device, and this volume changing device can adjust the volume of the ringing tone in several stages by the software in the IC and several semiconductor elements. As a general operating procedure, a push button is operated to shift to a volume adjustment mode, and then a desired volume is set.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a volume varying device having a function of switching the volume in three stages, and FIG. 4 is an exploded view of a speaker and a housing of a radio calling device having the volume varying device. In FIG. 4, the housing 20 is provided with a sound vent hole 21, and a speaker 22 is disposed inside the housing facing the sound vent hole 21 and supported by a printed circuit board 23. In FIG. 3, each terminal of the integrated circuit 1,
Are terminals for controlling high volume, medium volume, and low volume, respectively, and a pulse signal or an audio signal for generating a speaker sound is output from any of the terminals ,,
Transistors Tr1, Tr2, Tr connected to each terminal
3 collector-emitter current. The resistance values of the resistors R1, R2, and R3 connected to the collectors of the respective transistors are R1 <R2 <R3, and as a result, the magnitude of the current flowing through the respective transistors is inversely proportional to their respective resistance values. The high, medium, and low volume from is determined.

In the above-mentioned conventional volume adjusting circuit, the speaker driving element and the terminals of the integrated circuit for controlling the speaker driving element are required for each step of the volume, so that the area occupied by the components on the printed circuit board is increased and the calling device As a result, the size of the housing is increased and the cost is increased. In addition to the above, a volume control method using a variable resistor is also known, but the variable resistor has significant performance deterioration over time, has a large occupied area on the printed circuit board, and is expensive. It doesn't match the needs of the age of change. In any case, it is hard to say that the wireless ringing device that gradually changes the volume can completely satisfy the user's needs regarding the volume, and it has been desired to develop a device capable of stepless volume adjustment. It was rare.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional radio calling device, the volume of the ringing tone for notifying the incoming call can be adjusted only step by step, which completely meets the needs of the user. It was hard to say. In addition, the step amount must be reduced in order to bring it closer to infinite volume control, but not only does the device become larger and the cost increases, but it is also necessary to adjust the volume for setting the target volume. This is a problem because the number of times the operation button is pressed or the time for which it is held increases. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a volume variable device capable of realizing stepless volume adjustment with a simple mechanism without increasing the size and cost of the device.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a radio call in which a sound hole is provided at a proper position in a housing and a speaker is arranged inside the housing so as to face the sound hole. In the apparatus, a volume variable plate is arranged between the sound hole and the speaker, and the volume variable plate is moved to adjust the volume of the sound from the speaker to the sound hole steplessly. .

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 (a) is a cross-sectional view (exploded view) showing the internal structure of a radio pager (pager) equipped with a volume control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Case 1
A speaker 3 supported by the printed circuit board 2 is disposed inside the housing, and a sound vent hole 4 is formed in the housing wall facing the output side of the speaker 3. The characteristic configuration of the present invention is that the volume variable plate 5 is supported in a space between the speaker 3 and the sound vent hole 4 so as to be able to move forward and backward in the direction of the arrow so that the speaker 3 can be pulled out to the sound vent hole 4. The point is that the sound wave that is generated is blocked and the volume of the ringing sound from the sound extraction hole is adjusted steplessly.

The volume control plate 5 of this embodiment is composed of a plate material made of resin, metal or the like, a plate material made of a material having a sound absorbing effect, and the volume adjustment opening 6 is provided at an appropriate place.
And when the volume control plate 5 is moved in the direction of the arrow,
An opening 6 is provided for the sound wave propagation path between the speaker 3 and the sound hole 4.
The sound volume emitted from the sound vent hole 4 is adjusted by blocking the sound volume. In other words, as a result of shifting the position of the opening 6 to substantially change the opening area of the sound extraction hole 4, it becomes possible to adjust the volume. Although FIG. 1 is an exploded view, the exact positional relationship is not shown, but in reality, the volume control plate 5 is placed in close contact with or close to the inner surface of the housing wall having the sound vent hole 4, or Is speaker 3
The volume variable plate 5 is arranged at the closest position on the output side of the.

The shape of the opening 6 in this embodiment is the same as that of the sound vent hole 4.
A square part with a slightly larger area than the whole area,
It is composed of a triangular portion connected to one end of a square portion. However, what is illustrated as the shape of the opening 6 is only an example, and it is not necessary to limit to this shape. Various supporting structures for the volume control plate 5 are conceivable. For example, guide rails (not shown) may be provided on opposing inner walls of the housing, and the guide rails may be slidably supported in the arrow direction. As a means for moving the volume variable plate 5, for example, a structure is adopted in which a slide lever 11 is supported by a slit 10 provided at a proper position of the housing so that the slide lever 11 can move forward and backward, and the slide lever 11 is connected to the volume variable plate 5 by a connecting means (not shown). Just do
By moving the volume variable plate 5 according to the movement amount and the moving direction of the slide lever 11, the volume output from the speaker and output from the sound vent hole can be finely adjusted. In this embodiment, the volume is increased when the slide lever is moved in the "high" direction of the display, and is decreased when the slide lever is moved in the "low" direction.

Another example of the support structure of the volume control plate is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), slits 12 are formed along both edges of the variable plate 5 in the width direction, and guide projections and ridges (with a fall-prevention piece) provided on the housing wall having a sound hole are provided in the slits. It is also possible to fit and guide while preventing falling.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an example of a radio paging apparatus equipped with a volume varying device according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the volume varying plate 5 is not provided with an opening. Except for this, it is the same as the above embodiment. That is, also in this embodiment, the volume control plate 5 is connected to the slide lever 11,
By moving the slide lever 11 in either the left or right direction, the area in which the sound volume varying plate 5 opens and closes the sound extraction hole 4 (the area facing the sound extraction hole) is increased or decreased, so that the volume output from the sound extraction hole 4 is increased. It is possible to make fine adjustments to steplessly. However, the volume control plate of this embodiment is a plate that does not have an opening, and therefore it is the volume control plate itself that shields the sound waves from the speaker. End 5A of volume control plate 5
The volume becomes maximum when the sound wave from the speaker escapes from the propagation path, and the volume decreases as the end portion 5A enters the propagation path.

As described above, according to the present invention, instead of the conventional method of switching several speaker driving circuits, the opening / closing area of the sound vent hole 4 serving as a sound passage is varied by the volume control plate, so that there is no step. It is now possible to adjust the volume. Therefore, only one speaker drive circuit needs to be used, and the size and cost can be reduced.

[0013] It should be noted that if the structure of mechanically varying the area of the sound vent hole while keeping the volume at the maximum level as in the present invention is adopted, it seems that the power consumption is wasted. , Due to the recent technological improvement, the sound conversion efficiency of the speaker has been sufficiently increased. Therefore, the difference in the power consumption of the speaker drive circuit between the loud volume and the quiet volume is very small. The merit of the present invention that the power consumption can be finely adjusted in a stepless manner is more than compensated for this difference in power consumption.

The volume switching method of the present invention can be used together with the conventional switching method. That is, the rough volume adjustment is performed by the conventional multi-stage volume adjusting means by a soft method, and then the fine adjustment is performed by the mechanical multi-stage volume adjusting means of the present invention, thereby eliminating waste of power consumption. It is possible to

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the radio calling device, the volume control plate is arranged between the speaker and the sound release hole provided on the housing side to move the position of the volume control plate from the outside. With such a configuration, the volume can be adjusted steplessly. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, a speaker drive element for increasing the volume in multiple stages and a terminal of an integrated circuit for controlling the speaker drive element are not required, which is extremely effective in achieving miniaturization and cost reduction.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a radio paging device according to an embodiment of the present invention and a perspective view of another example of a volume control plate.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the configuration of a radio paging apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit configuration diagram of a conventional volume control device.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a conventional radio pager.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 housing, 2 printed circuit boards, 3 speakers, 4 sound holes, 5 volume control plate, 6 openings, 10 slits, 1
1 slide lever.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A radio paging device having a sound hole in an appropriate place in a housing, and a speaker arranged inside the housing so as to face the sound hole, wherein a volume is variable between the sound hole and the speaker. A volume varying device characterized in that a plate is arranged, and the volume varying plate is moved to adjust the volume of sound coming out of the speaker to the sound extraction hole.