JPH10151988A - Rearward warning lamp of vehicular door - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To point the optical axis rearward even if a door is opened in any condition by rotationally driving a lamp whose optical axis can be pointed to rearward of a vehicle by being rotatably supported, according to detecting output of door opening, and controlling a posture so that the optical axis becomes parallel to a car body. SOLUTION: When a door 10 is opened, an opening sensor 44 imparts a detecting value according to its opening to an ECU 46, and proportional control output is generated in a motor 18, and the motor 18 is reciprocally rotated in the direction that a warning lamp 16 always becomes parallel to a car body 40. When the fact that the direction of a lamp housing 22 coincides with door opening is detected, the motor 18 is stopped. In the warning lamp 16, a posture is repeatedly and continuously controlled so that the optical axis L becomes parallel to the car body 40 in optional door opening. When an ON condition of a courtesy switch 42 is detected, it is regarded as the door 10 is closed, and the motor 18 is inversely rotated until the lamp housing 22 is buried in a door trim 12, and the motor 18 is stopped when the door opening becomes zero, and the warning lamp 16 is put out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rear warning light for a vehicle door, and more particularly to a rear warning light having an optical axis always directed parallel to the vehicle body regardless of the degree of opening of the door. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a vehicle door is opened and closed, it is necessary to check the rear side. If the door is opened carelessly, it may lead to a contact accident with a following vehicle. Therefore, devices for safety have been developed conventionally. For example,
Japanese Patent No. 162077 discloses a control device for holding a door locked when the volume of a vehicle approaching rearward exceeds a certain set value. However, this control device has a high manufacturing cost and has elements that malfunction with respect to various sounds in the outside world. In addition, when such a control device is provided, the driver's attention is reduced. There is a possibility that it is not effective, so that it has not been put to practical use. On the other hand, a warning light is attached to the rear of the door. FIG. 7 shows a conventional vehicle door 1 to which the warning light is attached. By providing a rear warning light 2 on the rear end face of the door 1, it is intended to draw attention of a driver of a following vehicle, especially at night. This is considered to be an effective means when the driver stops at the shoulder of the road during night driving and tries to go outside by opening the door.

[0003]

However, even in a vehicle equipped with this kind of warning light 2, if the door 1 is opened larger than the vehicle body 3, the optical axis L indicated by a dashed line in the drawing will The vehicle turns in the direction of the release angle of 1 and becomes extremely difficult for a following vehicle to see, and is incomplete in the sense of preventing a contact accident. Of course, if the light diffusion angle is made large by devising a lamp lens or the like, a wide field of view can be obtained to some extent, but in that case, the brightness decreases,
Poor distant visibility. In addition, some vehicles have foot lights on the inside surface of the door, and these foot lights can be used as warning lights.However, these foot lights are mainly used to illuminate the feet when getting on and off, and light diffusion It was designed to take on a wide range of characteristics, so it actually lacked the function of a warning light. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a rear warning light for a vehicle door in which the optical axis can always be directed parallel to the rear of the vehicle body regardless of the opening degree of the door. And to improve safety. Another object of the present invention is to reduce the number of parts and the number of working steps by using the rear warning lamp as a foot irradiation lamp, and to reduce costs.

[0004]

A rear warning light for a vehicle door according to the present invention for achieving the above object is provided on a vehicle door and supported rotatably so that an optical axis extends rearward of the vehicle. A lamp that can be directed toward the lamp, a motor for rotating the lamp, detection means for door opening, and the motor is driven to rotate in accordance with the detection output of the detection means so that the optical axis is parallel to the vehicle body. Attitude control means for controlling the attitude of the lamp.

Further, in the rear warning light for a vehicle door according to the present invention, the lamp includes a lamp housing having a built-in lamp bulb, a lamp lens provided at a rear opening of the lamp housing, and a bottom surface of the lamp housing. A diffusion lens for illuminating the foot provided in the opening is provided, and the illuminating lamp also functions as a foot illumination lamp together with the rear warning light.

[0006] With the above configuration, the optical axis of the lamp is always parallel to the vehicle body and is directed rearward regardless of the door opening, so that the visibility is high and the safety can be improved. . In addition, a lamp housing with a built-in lamp bulb, together with a lamp lens provided in the rear opening,
Since it is configured to have a diffusion lens for illuminating the foot at the bottom opening, the rear warning lamp can be used also as a lamp for illuminating the foot.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a rear warning light for a vehicle door according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a vehicle provided with a rear warning light according to the present invention. Front door 1 on the driver's seat side in the figure
A rear warning light 16 according to the present invention is provided at 0 at a lower portion of an armrest 14 protruding outside the door trim 12 near the rear of the door trim 12.

The warning light 16 has a motor case 18 fixed inside the door trim 12 and a shaft 2 attached to the motor case 18.
And a lamp housing 22 which is rotatably supported via the opening 0 and is provided so as to be able to protrude and retract from an opening surface 12 a formed in the door trim 12.

A motor 24 for rotational driving such as a DC servo motor is disposed in the motor case 18. The motor 24 is connected to a pinion 24 a provided on an output shaft of the motor case 18 via an intermediate gear 26 around the shaft 20. Gear 28 fixed to
The lamp housing 22 is rotatable from the state buried in the door trim 12 to the maximum angle indicated by the imaginary line in FIG. This maximum angle is set to the maximum opening angle of the front door 10.

In the lamp housing 22, a high-intensity lamp bulb 32 is disposed at the focal position of the reflector 30 and has its optical axis L directed backward, and a high-intensity lamp bulb fitted to the rear surface of the lamp housing 22. It comprises a directional lamp lens 34 and a diffusion lens 36 for irradiating the feet arranged inside the vehicle, and the luminous flux from the lamp bulb 32 radiated through the lamp lens 34 is not diffused and has high directivity. Illuminate the back.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the diffusion lens 36 is fitted in an opening formed from the side surface on the vehicle interior side to the bottom surface of the lamp housing 22, and is formed by cutting out a substantially quarter circle of the reflector 30. Opening 30a
Through the lamp, light from the lamp bulb 32 is transmitted from the vehicle inner side surface toward the lower side. The diffusion lens 36 is configured by a diamond cut lens or the like in order to diffuse light widely according to the application.

[0012] As shown in FIG.
On the dash panel, the solar radiation sensor 38 and the vehicle body 4
In addition to a courtesy switch 42 for illuminating the foot, a sensor 44 for detecting the opening of the door is provided at the door hinge. In addition, on the upper surface side of the armrest 14 arranged on the driver's seat side door trim 12, an operation panel on which a power switch for opening and closing the door glass is arranged is provided. An electric control unit (ECU) 46 for controlling the ECU is built in.

FIG. 3 shows a hardware configuration of a control system. The ECU 46 in the figure is composed of a one-chip microcomputer or the like.
In response to the detection states of the sensors 38 and 44 and the switch 42, lighting control of a headlight, a half door warning indicator light, and the like is performed, and on / off control of the rear warning light 16 and attitude control according to a door opening degree. I do.

FIG. 4 shows a control procedure of the warning light 16 by the ECU 46. First, as shown in steps (1) to (3), the lamp 32 is turned on when the solar radiation sensor 38 and the courtesy switch 42 are off. Then, step (4)
As shown in (8) to (8), when the door 10 is opened, the opening sensor 44 gives a detection value corresponding to the opening to the ECU 46,
The CU 46 causes the motor 18 to generate a proportional control output, and causes the motor 18 to rotate normally and reversely in a direction in which the warning light 16 is always parallel to the vehicle body 40 as shown in FIG. Then, when it is detected that the direction of the lamp housing 22 matches the door opening θ, the motor 18 stops. That is, the posture of the warning light 16 is repeatedly and continuously controlled so that the optical axis L is parallel to the vehicle body 40 at an arbitrary door opening θ as shown in step (8). On the other hand, in step (8), when the ON state of the courtesy switch 42 is detected,
Assuming that the door 10 is closed, steps (9) to
As shown in (11), the motor 18 is reversed until the lamp housing 22 is buried in the door trim 12, and the motor 18 stops when the zero value of the door opening θ is detected. The warning light 16 goes out.

In the above control mode, the solar radiation sensor 3
In the ON state of the lamp 8, the lamp of the warning light 16 remains off and the lamp housing 22 remains buried in the door trim 12. This is because the following vehicle can sufficiently check the door open state without displaying the warning light 16 during the daytime or the like, and is intended to be used only at night or in a dark place such as in a tunnel. It is. However, conversely, if a control mode in which the brightness of the lamp bulb 32 is increased while the solar radiation sensor 38 is on is adopted, the spot irradiation can further alert the following vehicle. If it is desired to independently use the lamp as a foot irradiation lamp, a switch or the like may be arranged on the console panel of the armrest 14, so that even when the door is closed, only the foot can be irradiated.

Further, as the rotational position detecting means provided on the opening degree sensor 44 and the warning light 16 side, a rotary potentiometer or the like can be used, respectively. The specific configuration shown in FIG. 5 can be adopted. In the figure, a gear 52 that rotates in connection with a pinion 50 provided above an intermediate gear 26 is disposed in a motor case 18, and a pivot screw that moves up and down by forward and reverse rotation of the gear 52 is provided at the center of the gear 52. 54 are engaged.

A permanent magnet 56 is buried inside the lower part of the pivot screw 54, and the permanent magnet 56 is opposed to a hall element 58 fixed and disposed near the pivot screw 54 so as to be able to come and go. And the Hall element 58 is
The electromotive force that changes in accordance with the separation and connection of the magnet 56 is supplied to the ECU 46 through the connection cable 60 together with the wiring for driving the motor for detecting the rotational position. In the above embodiment, the front door 10 on the driver's seat side is used.
Although the warning light 16 is provided on the front door, it is needless to say that the warning light 16 can be provided also on the passenger side door or on the rear side door in the case of a four-door car.

[0018]

As described above, in the rear warning light for a vehicle according to the present invention, the optical axis is always directed parallel toward the rear of the vehicle body regardless of the opening degree of the door. Compared with the conventional warning light, the following vehicle can check the lighting state according to the door position, thereby further improving the safety. In addition, since the rear warning lamp is also used as a foot irradiation lamp, it is not necessary to separately install a foot lamp, so that it is possible to reduce the number of parts and the number of work steps, thereby reducing costs.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a cross section of the vicinity of a door of a vehicle provided with a rear warning light according to the present invention and a warning light.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control procedure.

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway view showing a specific example of a turning position detecting means of a warning light.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the warning light of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing the operation of a conventional warning light.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Front door 16 Rear warning light (lamp) 24 Motor 22 Lamp housing 32 Lamp bulb 34 Lamp lens 36 Diffusion lens 40 Body 44 Opening sensor (door opening detecting means) 46 Control ECU (posture control means) L Optical axis

Claims (2)

[Claims] A lamp disposed on a vehicle door, rotatably supported and capable of directing an optical axis toward the rear of the vehicle, a motor for rotating the lamp, a door opening detecting means, Rearward of a vehicle door, comprising: attitude control means for driving the motor in accordance with the detection output of the detection means to control the attitude of the lamp so that the optical axis becomes parallel to the vehicle body. Warning light. 2. The lamp according to claim 1, wherein the lamp includes a lamp housing having a built-in lamp bulb, a lamp lens provided at a rear opening of the lamp housing, and a diffusion lens for foot irradiation provided at a bottom opening of the lamp housing. 2. The rear warning light for a vehicle door according to claim 1, wherein the rear warning light also serves as a foot irradiation light together with the rear warning light.