WO2005009573A2

WO2005009573A2 - Vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2005009573A2
Application number: PCT/EP2004/007750
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kurt Hesse
Original assignee: Kurt Hesse
Priority date: 2003-07-26
Filing date: 2004-07-14
Publication date: 2005-02-03
Also published as: WO2005009573A3; DE10334217A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a vehicle with a remote speed control and a remote vehicle steering mechanism, whereby a mountable and demountable guidance keel (4) is fastened to the vehicle.

Description

Description vehicle

The present invention relates to a vehicle according to the preamble of claim 1. Remote-controlled vehicles are known. These vehicles are usually equipped with a radio remote control, with which both the vehicle drive and the vehicle steering can be influenced. The vehicle drive, which is usually designed as an electric motor, can be switched on and off by radio remote control. In addition, the speed of the electric motor and thus the driving speed of the vehicle can be controlled via the radio remote control. Furthermore, the steering of the vehicle can also be influenced with the radio remote control, so that the direction of travel of the vehicle can be controlled with the radio remote control.

So-called rail-bound vehicles, in particular toy vehicles, are also known. These vehicles drive their vehicle wheels on a toy lane. In order to steer the vehicle on the road, these vehicles are provided with a guidance device. This guide device is usually designed as a guide keel protruding from the vehicle floor. This guide keel engages in a complementarily designed guide groove embedded in the road surface of the toy roadway. So it is a rail-guided vehicle. In contrast to a rail-guided vehicle, for example a railway, the direction of the vehicle is not, however, via the vehicle wheels, which are also partially designed as drive wheels, but via the guide formed from the guide device and guide groove.

Finally, it is also known to integrate electrical conductors into the toy lane of a vehicle racing track to supply the vehicles with electrical energy. In this case, the vehicles usually have current collectors on the vehicle floor, which make electrical contact with the conductors and tap the electrical energy required for vehicle operation from the conductors. Because the ladder accessible from the outside, the operating voltage must of course be selected so that damage to health is excluded. It is therefore common to operate the conductors with an operating voltage of 12 volts.

In the event that the toy racetrack, which is preferably composed of individual track sections, is provided with electrical conductors, speed regulators are interposed between the transformers feeding the 12 volt voltage into the conductors and the conductors on the racetrack. These controllers act like a potentiometer. These speed controllers are usually equipped with rotary or slide controls. By actuating these regulators, the electrical potential fed into the respective conductors is regulated and thus indirectly regulates the speed of the drive motor and thus the speed of the vehicle.

Finally, it is also known to guide vehicles on a racetrack only with the aid of a guide device, i.e. to design the direction mechanically as a track guide between the guide device / guide keel and guide groove in the racetrack and to implement the speed control of the vehicle using a radio remote control.

Starting from the described prior art, the object of the invention is to design a vehicle in such a way that it can be remotely controlled independently of a racetrack or roadway, as well as to provide measures which make it possible to use the same vehicle on a roadway with directional guidance ,

This object is achieved by the combination of features of claim 1 in an inventive manner. The invention is based on the basic idea of providing a toy vehicle which has both a remote-controlled speed control and a remote-controlled vehicle steering system with a mountable and demountable guide element. When the guide element is mounted, this guide element engages in a correspondingly designed guide groove in a play lane. The positive guidance then automatically deactivates the remote-controlled vehicle steering to a certain extent. Even if the vehicle steering is actuated, the corresponding forces are still transmitted to the roadway via the steered vehicle wheels, without the vehicle changing its direction, however, because the positive connection between the guide keel and guide groove largely neutralizes the forces transmitted to the road by the wheels.

With the invention it is therefore possible to operate the same vehicle by radio remote control on any surface as well as to drive a racetrack with the vehicle. It is therefore unnecessary to have separate vehicles for both purposes. Rather, two purposes can be fulfilled with a vehicle according to the invention. For example, when the weather is nice and the guide keel is removed, the vehicle can be operated outdoors with its radio remote control. In bad weather or in winter, the keel is simply mounted on the vehicle and the vehicle can also be operated on a toy race track as a race track vehicle. The saving effect associated with the invention is evident.

Advantageous and partly inventive developments of the invention are claimed in the back claims.

Claim 2 relates to the advantageous assembly of the guide device designed as a guide keel on the vehicle floor. This assembly has the advantage that the guide keel is not visible from the outside, particularly on the toy roadway, so that the guide device does not disturb the overall visual impression of the vehicle. In addition, the guide keel is mounted on the vehicle floor very close to its later point of action in the area of the road.

Claim 3 relates to a particularly effective arrangement of the guide keel with respect to the steerability of the vehicle. The force applied by the guide keel lies in the area of the steerable vehicle wheels. If the vehicle wheels are steered with the help of the remote control when the guide keel is activated / mounted, this has only an insignificant effect on the direction of travel of the vehicle, because the directional forces introduced by the guide keel also act on the vehicle in the area of the frictional forces exerted by the vehicle wheels and these frictional forces are effective neutralize. Besides, it is advantageous that the guide keel develops its steering effect in the same area as the steerable vehicle wheels.

By attaching the guide keel to a lever adapted to the vehicle floor according to claim 4, a stepless height compensation for the guide keel relative to the road is guaranteed. Uneven road surfaces in the area of the guide groove interacting with the guide keel are compensated by the lever without affecting the vehicle balance. In addition, the distance between the guide keel and the vehicle floor can be selected using the lever.

Claim 5 as well as the claims referring back to claim 5 relate to a vehicle with hybrid drive. The vehicle engine, which is designed as an electric motor, can be driven both with stored electrical energy and via the pantographs. The stored electrical energy can be present, for example, in the form of accumulators or batteries in the vehicle. As soon as the vehicle is operated with conductors on a carriageway, the electrical energy can then also be fed into the vehicle via the installed pantograph. Of course, it is advantageous to releasably fix the pantograph to the vehicle floor. Here the pantograph is located close to its point of action, namely the roadway. In addition, the pantograph does not disturb the overall visual impression of the vehicle.

It is also advantageous to design the guide keel and the pantograph as an integral component. It is then only necessary to assemble or disassemble a single component on the vehicle. This component then takes on both the function of the control device and the function of feeding energy into the vehicle. This solution saves space and reduces - as I said - the assembly effort. This also contributes to a compact construction of the vehicle. Finally, it is possible in this way to fasten the guide device and energy supply device to the vehicle with only one coupling element, so that the penetration of dirt or similar faults is reduced to a single coupling element on the vehicle. Finally, claim 8 relates to a measure for adapting the electrical components of the vehicle to the various possibilities of feeding electrical potential. Claim 8 relates in particular to a current-reducing circuit for reducing the rail voltage, with which the current collectors are applied to the permissible control voltage of the drive motor or the electrical circuit for driving the drive motor with the aid of the radio remote control.

This can be realized particularly advantageously with the collector circuit proposed in claim 9. Such a circuit is known for example from “U. Tietze, Ch. Schenk, semiconductor circuit technology, 6th edition, Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo 1983, p. 56 f (ISBN 3-540-12488-8) ".

Finally, claim 10 relates to the combination of a vehicle according to the invention with a correspondingly designed toy roadway. This toy carriageway has a guide groove which, together with the guide keel, forms a closed path guide for the toy vehicle. Claim 11 relates to the combination of a toy vehicle according to the invention with hybrid drive and toy track with a current-carrying contact rail for feeding the electrical potential into the pantograph of the vehicle with hybrid drive.

Finally, claim 12 relates to a combination of a toy road and a vehicle with speed control via the contact rail in the toy road.

The invention is further explained on the basis of the drawing figures. Show it:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram - partially cut - of a vehicle floor with attached guide keel, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram - partially sectioned - of a toy track with guide groove and contact rail and a complementary component with guide keel and pantograph, Fig. 3 shows a first circuit for a vehicle with hybrid drive,

4 shows a second circuit for a vehicle with hybrid drive,

Fig. 5 shows a third circuit for a vehicle with hybrid drive. Corresponding parts are always provided with the same reference symbols in the figures.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the vehicle floor 1 shown in section of the vehicle, not shown in the drawing figures. The vehicle floor 1 is arranged on the underside of the body of the vehicle, not shown. The body thus extends above the upper side 2 of the vehicle floor 1. The guide keel 4 is attached to the lower side 3 of the upper side 2 in the vertical direction. For this purpose, the guide keel 4 has a suspension which extends through a carrier plate 5 in the vertical direction. This suspension consists of a cylindrical pin 6 passing through the carrier plate 5 and a retaining flange 7 securing the guide keel 4 and the pin 6 in the vertical direction before it falls out of the carrier plate 5. The pin 6 lies in the carrier plate 5 with play so that the pin 6 and thus also the guide keel 4 is rotatably mounted on the carrier plate 5.

The carrier plate 5 is attached to the underside 3 of the vehicle floor 1 in the exemplary embodiment with the aid of adhesive elements 8. In the exemplary embodiment, these adhesive elements 8 are prismatic and each have an adhesive layer on their underside 3 of the vehicle floor 1 and on their contact surfaces facing the surface 9 of the carrier plate 5. With the help of this adhesive layer, the adhesive elements 8 exert the adhesive forces that are required to fix the carrier plate 5 to the vehicle floor 1.

The exemplary embodiment shows only one possible variant of fastening the guide keel 4. It is equally possible to mount the support plate 5 on handlebars which have one end on the underside 3 of the vehicle floor 1 and the other end on the surface 9 of the support plate 5 are stored. It is of course also possible to arrange the guide keel directly at the end of a handlebar, that is to say to dispense with the support plate 5.

The mode of operation of the guide keel 4 can be seen from FIG. 2. 2 shows a section of a section of a track 10 of a play lane. This web section 10 rests on its web underside 11, while that of the web underside 11 in vertical A play lane 12 forms in the direction facing away from the surface. A guide groove 13 is embedded in the play lane 12. The guide keel 4 engages in this guide groove 13. The guide keel 4 and the guide groove 13 thus form a closed web guide. The toy vehicle is thus guided by the guide keel 4 in the guide groove 13 on the play lane 12.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, electrical current collectors 14 are also provided in addition to the guide keel 4. These electrical current collectors 14 are arranged on a bearing plate 15 supporting the guide keel 4 and the current collectors 14. The bearing plate 15 thus combines the guide keel 4 and the current collectors 14 to form an integral assembly.

The current collectors 14 are supplied with electrical power by contact rails 16, which are embedded in the play lane 12. The current collectors 14 are connected to the electric motor or the electric motor control in the vehicle via connecting lines 17. This electrical connection can be established, for example, by plug contacts at the end of the connecting lines 17 remote from the contact. Sliding contacts or solder contacts or any other type of contacting are also conceivable. Corresponding plug contacts or the like can also be formed on the carrier plate 5 or a bearing arm or the like.

It is only important that the guide keel 4 and the current collectors 14 can be mounted on or removed from the vehicle. It is also possible to design the bearing of the guide keel 4, which consists of the holding flange 7 and the pin 6, to be mountable or demountable.

3 shows a circuit diagram in which the contact rails 16 and the current collectors 14 are each indicated qualitatively. The circuit diagram also shows an electric drive motor 20. In its one operating state, this electric drive motor 20 is connected to a remote control drive circuit, not shown in FIG. 3. This remote control drive circuit is used to operate the drive motor 20 in remote control mode. By moving a connector 21 (jumper) into the position set in FIG. 3, the remote control drive circuit is deactivated and the circuit shown in FIG. 3 is activated. This circuit serves to feed the electrical potential from the contact rails 16 via the current collectors 14 into the drive motor 20. In order to reduce the normally higher operating voltage of the contact rails 16, in the exemplary embodiment 12 volts, to the operating voltage of the drive motor 20, in the exemplary embodiment 6 volts , Two resistors 22, a transistor 23 and a diode 24 are provided. Together with the motor as a load, these elements form the above-mentioned collector circuit. The resistors 22 divide the voltage acting on the transistor base. The diode 24 prevents the operation of the circuit in the opposite direction of the path and serves as reverse polarity protection. In this operating position, the batteries that are required for the remote control drive circuit of the motor can be removed. By moving the connector 21, the remote control drive circuit of the motor can be reactivated. The motor is then operated again with the batteries to be reinserted. The electrical supply via the contact rails 16 and the current collectors 14 is then deactivated.

In a variant of the circuit according to FIG. 3 shown in FIG. 4, the transistor 23 is connected on the base side to resistors 25 and 26 and a Zener diode 27 which limits the base voltage applied to the transistor 23. R1 is dimensioned so that the current to the Z-diode is so low that the control of the rail voltage via the hand controller is still effective, but the output voltage is limited at higher transformer voltages. Furthermore, a diode 28 is connected downstream of the transistor 23 on the emitter side. The diode 28 reduces the battery losses via the permanently applied circuit when the battery is in motion and prevents the wrong direction of travel when the rail is operating on the playing lane 12. This means that damage to the circuit when the vehicle is not used properly, in particular when the forward remote control drive of the vehicle is activated, for as long this is placed on the play lane 12, prevented. Resistor 26 limits the base current at the transistor when the battery is reversing. An alternative activation or deactivation of the remote control drive and the rail drive, as is carried out in the circuit according to FIG. 3 by the plug connector 21, is therefore no longer absolutely necessary. The battery switch on the vehicle must be switched off when operating on a rail and remove the batteries, since the busbars are short-circuited in the idle state via the hand controller with brake (motor brake). The connector 21 is therefore not provided to simplify handling of the vehicle in the circuit variant according to FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 shows a variant of the circuit according to FIG. 4. Here, the collector circuit formed from the resistors 25 and 26, the zener diode 27 and the transistor 23 is replaced by a fixed voltage regulator 29, in particular of the MC7806CT type, which is implemented in integrated circuit technology.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

vehicle floor

top

bottom

Leitkiel

support plate

pen

retaining flange

adhesive elements

surface

track section

Railway side

game road

guide

pantograph

bearing plate

contact bars

connecting cables

drive motor

Connectors

resistance

transistor

diode

resistance

Zener diode

diode

Voltage regulators

Claims

Expectations

1. Vehicle, in particular toy vehicle with a remote-controlled speed control and with a remote-controlled vehicle steering system, characterized by a guide keel (4) which can be mounted on the vehicle and removed from the vehicle.

2. Vehicle according to claim 1, 0 characterized in that the guide keel (4) on the vehicle floor (1) is detachably fixed and that the guide keel (4) protrudes substantially perpendicularly from the vehicle floor (1) in the assembled state. 5

3. Vehicle according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that the guide keel (4) is arranged approximately between the steerable wheels of the vehicle.

4. Vehicle according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the guide keel (4) is pivotally mounted on a lever adapted to the vehicle floor (1).

5. Vehicle according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized by a mountable on the vehicle and removable from the vehicle pantograph (14).

6. Vehicle according to claim 5, characterized in that the pantograph (14) is releasably fixed to the vehicle floor.

7. Vehicle according to claim 6, characterized in that the guide keel (4) and the pantograph (14) are formed as an integral component.

8. Vehicle according to one of claims 5 to 7, characterized by an electric motor as the drive motor (20) of the vehicle and by an electrical circuit interposed between the pantograph (14) and the drive motor (20) to adapt the current collector (14) removed electrical voltage and / or current to the permissible voltage and / or current of the drive motor (20).

9. Vehicle according to claim 8, characterized in that the circuit is a collector circuit.

10. Combination of a vehicle according to at least one of claims 1 to 9 and a play lane (12) with at least one guide groove (13) in the road surface, characterized in that the guide keel (4) in the assembled state in the guide groove (13 ) immersed in such a way that the guide keel (4) and guide groove (13) form a preferably closed path guide with one another.

11. Combination of vehicle and roadway according to claim 10, characterized by at least one current-carrying contact rail (16) in the road surface for feeding an electrical potential into the pantograph (14).

12. Combination of vehicle and roadway according to claim 11, characterized in that that when the pantograph (14) is mounted, the speed is controlled via the electrical potential drawn from the pantograph (14) on the contact rail.