Patent Application
20170060169
This disclosure relates to controls having optional and selectable preset positions for ‘memorizing’ a preferred control position; more particularly, it relates to rotary control dials and their associated potentiometers.
Electronic musical instruments are capable of significant variations in sound, much of which is determined by manual adjustments to (or rotations of) the control knobs of the various instruments. In the case of electric guitars, byway of example and not exclusion, these control knobs are typically for volume and tone. Other musical devices, including instrument amplifiers and effects units, generally have similar controls, and often many other controls as well, including treble, bass, gain, reverb, and tremolo, among others that will be well known to those skilled in the art.
Users (typically musicians) experiment with different settings on the control knobs to achieve a desired sound or effect. On some instruments, a number of combinations of the control knobs is possible. Remembering precisely where the controls were set as a preference on an instrument (or a chain of instruments in the case of an electric guitar that is plugged into an effects unit and an instrument amplifier, for example) to achieve a desired sound or effect can be challenging. In the past, musicians have recorded control settings in notebooks or used tape or other markings affixed to their instruments and devices to indicate the location of the desired and preferred settings.
A user of an electronic musical instrument may also wish to achieve a pre-selected and preferred control setting quickly and precisely, for example while playing an instrument during a musical performance. Moreover, vigorous playing techniques, such as heavy strumming on an electric guitar, for example, can cause unwanted movement of the control knobs when they are jostled or accidently brushed by a user. In these and other scenarios, having the ability to quickly locate a desired setting, often by feel and or without benefit of sight, and to secure the setting to help prevent unwanted movement of the controls, would be advantageous.
The disclosed apparatus solves all of these problems and also opens new possibilities for enhanced user manipulation of an instrument's control knobs.
A new type of adjustable detent feature having at least one detent pair is disclosed for enhancing user control of sound and effects settings that are common on many electronic musical devices, also called instruments. In this discussion, control knobs on musical instruments are presented byway of example and not byway of exclusion of other devices that employ rotatable control mechanisms.
The detent feature works in conjunction with most ordinary potentiometers that use rotating contacts and which use control knobs to determine volume, tone, and other characteristics of sound and effects produced by such instruments. The detent feature allows a user to pre-select any point or value within the range of rotation of a control knob so that when the control knob is turned to the selected value it meets perceptibly tactile resistance in the form of a bump, click, or catch as the detent pair interengage with each other. This interengagement of the detent pair somewhat inhibits the free rotation of the knob so that it is arrested, or comes to rest, at the selected value, giving the user an easy-to-recognize tactile or by-feel reference indicating that the desired value has been attained. The detent interengagement is then released when sufficient additional manual rotating force applied to the knob “frees” (disengages) one part of the detent pair from the other.
The detent feature and knob components are compatible with most any electronic musical instrument that uses one or more potentiometers and shaft-mounted control knobs, including electric guitars and basses, instrument amplifiers, effects units (including pedals), and many other devices. To illustrate, a user may rotatably set the second part of detent pair 10 to a value of “5” on a volume knob that has a values range of 0 to 10. Doing so will allow the user to predictably locate by feel the value of “5” simply by turning the knob and feeling for the arrest or interengagement of the detent pair. The resistance provided by the engaged detent pair in turn permits a stable setting for the control, allowing the user to quickly achieve and maintain the desired setting, even during challenging conditions that may include poor lighting or vigorous playing of an instrument.
The detent feature thus provides an easily achieved adjustment that a user can quickly and reliably (precisely) set to any value within the range of rotation on a potentiometer and knob which provides an easily discernible (tactilely felt) resistance in the form of a bump, click, or catch, so the user can identify the selected value simply by rotating the control knob without the need for a visual reference that the value has been attained. It also advantageously provides a visual reference that indicates to the user at a glance the value adjustably selected for engagement of the detent feature on the control knob. Further, it provides a stable setting control that, once engaged, serves to hold, or secure, the selected control knob in place to forestall unwanted movement of the control. The disclosed feature is compatible with most existing setting or control assemblies, such as the potentiometers and knobs that are commonly used on electronic musical devices, and can be easily and quickly installed on such devices.
The components of the detent feature include:
a washer or like piece with a groove or other receptacle facing the underside of a control knob;
a rotatable adjustment component that attaches to or frictionally engages with the control knob;
a tooth, prong, pin, rounded-ball shape, or other similar type of protruding feature which is connected to or integral with the rotatable adjustment component. In some embodiments the male-female nature of the two detent pair parts are reversed.
The rotatable adjustment component may attach to or be integrated with the control knob in a variety of ways. It may be preformed to press outwardly against the knob's interior sidewall, or it may be preformed to grip the exterior of the knob's interior potentiometer shaft engaging cylinder (a structure with a hollow cylinder inside the knob that fits on to a potentiometer shaft), or it may otherwise attach to or be a part of a surface, section, or feature of the knob.
An aspect of the attachment or integration of the rotatable adjustment component is the incorporation of a friction load to create turning resistance when a user attempts to adjust the position of the component. This resistance is adequate to retain the component at a specific selected location or value in relation to the knob, and it also permits the component to rotate relative to the knob when a user applies sufficient turning force against the frictional resistance (while holding the knob steady and immobile) to change the detent value selected. It is believed that persons skilled in the art will be familiar with materials and arrangements of materials and parts for producing such a friction load, the frictional resistance against which the disclosed rotatable adjustment component is turned.
In addition, the rotatable adjustment component employs a spring force (of a sort that will be known to those skilled in the art) that produces downward pressure on the protruding feature such that the feature is urged into a resting position when it passes into the groove in the washer.
In one embodiment shown in
In
In
In
In general, to adjust the detent feature once installed, a user manually turns the rotatable adjustment component relative to the top part of the knob until a desired value is achieved. Once set, the knob will turn freely, along with the adjustment component until the two parts of the detent feature engage to arrest the turning of the control knob at the desired setting.
Alternative further embodiments of the detent feature are contemplated, including but not limited to the following:
The rotatable adjustment component may take any form and employ any material that creates sufficient friction to retain a stable value, or position, relative to a control knob, while still permitting a user to rotate the adjustable component against that friction as the knob is held. Materials or combinations of materials may include spring steel, wire, aluminum, and plastic, among others.
The rotatable adjustment component may be used hi conjunction with a range of specially configured control knobs having features designed to integrate with the detent pair assembly and enhance its operation.
The detent may provide more than one pre-selected setting if desired. For example, two rotatable adjustment components, each with its own adjustment mechanism and each with its own protruding feature may be used in conjunction with a washer still having only one groove. For example, one rotatable adjustment component presses outwardly on the interior sidewall of control knob and the other grips, or is otherwise frictionally engaged with the interior cylinder of the knob, each component capable of providing a unique detent value and each independent of the other in operation. Specially configured control knobs offer additional options for integrating more than one rotatable adjustment component.
The washer with a groove may be replaced or supplemented by any other component that provides the capability to receive or hold the protruding feature of the catch mechanism in place, including a nut or threaded washer with a groove, a ring with a groove and an adhesive backing in the form of a washer that is affixed to the surface of the instrument or to the existing washer in a potentiometer and knob assembly, a ring with a groove and an interior cutout that matches the measurement dimension of the nut (for example, inch or 13 mm) used to hold the potentiometer and knob assembly so (hat the ring's interior cutout slips precisely over the nut's measurement dimension to retain the groove in a fixed position.
Alternate embodiments also include placement of a fixed groove or notch on a vertical (as opposed to horizontal) surface, such as on a sleeve connected to a nut or washer that extends upward from the base of the potentiometer shaft (see
Another alternative is to reverse the components of the detent pair so that the washer and its receptacle becomes the moveable piece and the second part of the detent pair, while the detent pin (or the like structure) is “fixed” to the knob in a single location (such as the spring-loaded pin but with no other moving parts on the knob) as the first part of the detent pair. A “moveable” detent connected to a such washer assembly requires only that the mechanics be basically the same but reversed.
It Is contemplated that the rotatable adjustment component can take other forms than those described above. For example, and in a variation of the embodiment shown in
It should be noted that the second part of the detent pair located on the rotatable adjustment component does not necessarily need to be located near the visible pointer, where such a visible pointer is provided.
In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific as to structural features. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the specific features shown, since the means and construction shown comprise preferred forms of putting the invention into effect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms or modifications within the legitimate and valid scope of the appended claims, appropriately interpreted hi accordance with the doctrine of equivalents.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent application 62/283,306 filed Aug. 27, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by this reference as if fully set forth herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62283306 | Aug 2015 | US |
