JPS5923419A - Key switch unit - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a key switch unit capable of selectively outputting a cursor movement signal and a buzzer sound control signal.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, personal computers capable of outputting a buzzer sound have been in widespread use for the purpose of confirming the operation of a +/- switch by sound or calling attention to a display.

The tone of this buzzer sound is generally adjusted and fixed in advance during manufacturing, and even if the user wishes to change the tone, it is often virtually impossible. Some devices are equipped with a dedicated tone adjustment device, but it is not cost effective to provide a circuit or adjustment knob for this purpose.

It was a long time ago. Devices configured so that tone can be set programmably are also becoming widespread, but these devices are designed for the user and are often configured for convenience at the time of production. .

The current situation is that the user cannot easily change it.

The present invention has been made in view of these problems in the prior art.

This is what is proposed. In other words, they focused on the fact that the key switch used to move the cursor can provide multiple outputs by operating a single key top, and realized that the tone and volume control of the buzzer sound was suitable for the operability of this switch. be. The purpose of this is a key switch that can also output a buzzer sound control signal to the cursor moving key switch by operating a single output key switch installed close to the cursor moving key switch. The aim is to provide units.

Hereinafter, representative tk!s of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. l
! Examples will be explained in detail.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a personal computer equipped with a cursor moving key switch according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, inside this personal computer po main body 1, there is a CPU 9 for main control, a RAM 10, and a ROM.
l1. and a buzzer output section 13 are housed. Further, a display section 2 and a keyboard section 3 are provided in the sixth section. In addition, Figure 2 is a front view showing details 1118 of the keyboard section 3 including the key switch unit 5 according to the embodiment of the present invention. It consists of a key switch 51 (hereinafter referred to as a cursor movement key) that outputs a signal and a single output key switch 52.

Next, a case will be described in which the cursor 4 on the display section 2 is moved to the upper left or lower right as shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4, the cursor is moved by simply pressing the cursor movement key 51 upward to the left (arrow A) or downward to the right (arrow B). Moreover, if you want to move the cursor quickly, you can press Fi, cursor movement +-51 strongly in the moving direction. The key 51 for moving this cursor is I! As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a spherical operating conductive ball 6 and a leaf spring contact 7 are provided around the key top 5. Also.

Plate contact: 4-Contact 7 includes plate spring contacts 71 to 74 spaced apart by insulator 8. As the pressing force applied to the leaf spring contacts 71 to 74 and the key top 5 becomes stronger, the spring contacts 7I contact 7s, 7° contacts 7m, and 1 and 7m contact 74 one after another. Furthermore, leaf spring contact 7
The movement (5) direction and speed of the cursor 4 (by sensing information based on the contacts 1 to 74 by the CPU 9) is controlled.

Further, when the cursor movement key 51 is pressed in a direction where the leaf spring contact 7 is not provided, such as the direction A in FIG. 4, force is applied to both the leaf spring contacts 7x- and 7y+. In this case, as shown in FIG.

Component forces in the X direction and Y direction, which are divided by a parallelogram, are applied to the leaf spring contacts 7x- and 7y+, respectively, and the direction in which the cursor 4 moves is determined by the ratio of the component forces L.

Next, while referring to FIG.
+*7x-). Detection of opening and closing of 7y (7y+, 7y-) will be explained.

Is the CPU 9 a spring contact terminal that is periodically activated by pressing the cursor movement key 51? It is constructed by sequentially examining h to Ttn. When the top 5■ is pressed and the spring contacts 71 and 72 are closed, the terminal 7h is short-circuited to the grounded terminal 7tl and outputs 50V. However, spring contacts 72 and 73
When the terminal 7ta is not closed, the output of the terminal 7ta is 9 +5V due to the action of the pull-up resistor R. Therefore,
By looking at the output terminals 7tg to 7tneg, it can be easily determined which contacts are closed. For example, when the key top 511 is pressed 1 hard, 7h to 7t3. Another 7t
4 outputs Ov in turn. If the key top 511 is not pressed, all of the terminals 7h to 7tnh output +5■.

Therefore, by monitoring the terminals 7h to 7t4 of each of the four sets of spring contacts, it is possible to detect in which direction and at what speed the cursor is moved. The above-mentioned FIG. 7 shows points detected in this way. If the key 5 is pressed in the directions t'17x- and 7y+, for example, if the key 5 is pressed in the direction hTx+7y+, then the parallelogram formed by 7X-1-*7y+ An arrow points in the direction of the resultant force of the shape, and a predetermined point is pointed.

The configuration and operability of such a switch are also applied to the control of the buzzer sound, but the first case where the tone of the buzzer sound is changed will be explained. In this case, first, the single output key 52 is pressed. While detecting the depression of the key 52, the CPU 9 uses the output signal from the cursor movement key 51 as a buzzer sound control signal, and outputs a tone previewing buzzer sound based on this signal via the buzzer output section 13.

To explain this process in detail, for example, if the key 51 is pressed upward, control is performed so that a high tone is output.

If pressed downward, it controls the output of bass sounds.

The degree of the high-pitched sound is determined by the CPU 9 sampling the contact closure information according to the pressing force on the key top 5■ for a predetermined period, and when detecting that the contact information remains constant during this period, the value is stored in the entire RAM 10. , from then on, a buzzer sound with a tone based on this value is output.

According to another embodiment, it is assumed that RAMl0 stores the tone information of the previously set value, and since the tone change operation has now started, jlcPU9 changes the tone information to key top 5■. Closing information of the contact according to the pressing force is sampled as described above. Then, by adding or subtracting the predetermined value to be used based on the obtained friendship to the tone information already stored in the RAM 10, it is possible to change the tone relatively continuously. .

Furthermore, according to other OVM modes, each time a change operation is started, the tone information stored in RAM10 is initialized to a predetermined value, and from then on, the relative tone information is It is also possible to change the tone continuously.

Next, the operator presses the key 5 (seeing that the desired tone has been obtained).
Let go of 1. CPU9 Fi-? Detecting that the contact information input from -51 is zero, the output of the trial buzzer sound and the sampling of the contact information are stopped.

Next, by letting go of the key 52, the key 51
is used as the original cursor movement key.

Further, by pressing the key 52 and sliding the rear key 51 in the left and right directions, the sound of the buzzer can be controlled. Its structure and operation are the same as those for the nine-tone control described above.

In the above explanation, it was assumed that the single output lO- key 52 was pressed and kept changing during the tone change operation.
Alternatively, the operation will be made easier if the tone change flag is set by the first press of the key 52, and the wharf is reset by the second press.

This single output key 52 may be a commercially available switch that can simply determine whether it is on or off.

In the above description, it goes without saying that the display section 2 and the key switch unit 5 may be configured in a separate housing from the main body of the device. Furthermore, a configuration may be adopted in which the closed line of the spring contact is output as an analog line, and this analog line is converted into a digital value and fed to the CPU, or a commercially available switch may be used instead of the spring contact. Of course, it is also possible to configure the structure using

As described above, according to the present invention, the buzzer sound can be controlled very easily and manually without the need for a special buzzer sound control device, and this can be done at low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a personal computer equipped with a cursor moving key switch according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the keyboard section in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are explanatory views of the operation of the key switch unit according to the present invention. FIG. 5A is a sectional view of an embodiment of the key switch unit according to the present invention, FIG. 5B is a front view of the same, and FIGS. 6A and 6B are partial detailed views of the leaf spring contact. FIG. 7 is a graph diagram showing the relationship between the operation of the contacts of the cursor movement keys and the direction of movement of the cursor; FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a personal computer equipped with a key switch unit according to the present invention; Figure 9 is a circuit diagram showing an example of the terminal structure of a leaf spring contact. Here, 1...personal computer, 2...display s, 3...keyboard section, 4 river cursor, 5...=
? - Switch unit, 6... Operation conduction ball, 7.
...It is a leaf spring contact. Patent applicant: Canon Co., Ltd. 13- Figure 1 Figure 5 One strategy one Seventh interpretation/T- Figure 6 (A) (B)

Claims (1)

[Claims] A key switch that outputs different electrical signals in response to different displacements of a single key top, and a key switch that is close to each other in order to selectively give output functions of a cursor movement signal and a buzzer sound control signal to the output signal of the key switch. A key switch unit having a single output key switch provided with a single output key switch.