High intensity flashlights are commonly carried by police and other law enforcement agents to aid in illuminating dark locations and to serve as a form of self defense. A bright intense light can temporarily stun or disorient an attacker when the light is directed at the attacker's eyes. Civilian versions of these flashlights are currently available in various shapes and sizes.
Many of the commercially-available self defense or tactical flashlights adapted for civilian use are intentionally large, bulky and heavy so that they can also be used as a club for striking in self defense. While these flashlights work well, they are not particularly well adapted for use by women and children who tend to prefer smaller and lighter flashlights.
Although some flashlights have been designed with reduced size and weight, they tend to overlook certain operating or human factors that are common to women. One factor overlooked is the long fingernails commonly worn by women. It has been found that long fingernails tend to interfere with the housings surrounding on-off switches of the type used in self defense and tactical flashlights.
This interference is a particular problem on flashlights having rear end-cap switches which are bordered or surrounded by a rim. When the switch is depressed in an axial or longitudinal direction, a long fingernail tends to abut or snag against any rim or other structure around the switch. This can prevent proper operation of the switch and result in a damaged fingernail.
Although some flashlight end cap switches project rearwardly and outwardly from the end cap, these exposed switches are easily activated unintentionally when bumped or dropped. This can unknowingly turn on the flashlight and drain the battery or batteries.
To overcome these problems, a compact flashlight has been designed with clearance for fingernails when operating and end cap switch, yet provides a guard around the end cap switch to prevent accidental actuation of the switch. The body and end cap of the flashlight are ergonomically designed for easy and comfortable one-handed operation.
In the Drawings
A flashlight 10 shown in
The end cap 18 includes a sidewall 20 that surrounds a user-operated switch actuator 22 which is operated by movement along flashlight axis 36. As seen in
The grooves 28 in
The corner points 32 are useful for breaking glass, such as automobile window glass if needed to escape from inside a car or to free someone trapped inside a car.
As seen in
The flat end surfaces 34 extend in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinally axis 36 of the flashlight 10 so that the flashlight 10 may be placed and remain upright on a flat surface in an on or off condition. This can free both of an operator's hands to work on overhead areas illuminated by the upright standing flashlight 10.
The cut-out portions or grooves 28 provide free finger or thumb access through the sidewall 20 to axially depress the switch actuator 22 and thereby operate the flashlight 10 with one hand. While this arrangement works well for most users, some users with long fingernails can hit the sides or edges of the cut-out portions 28 or hit the flat end surfaces 34 with their fingernail. This can prevent full or adequate axial depression of switch actuator 22 and thereby prevent the desired operation of the flashlight 10, i.e., turning the flashlight on or off or cycling the flashlight through other modes of operation such as high beam, low beam and high strobed beam. Moreover, such unwanted interference can cause split or damaged fingernails and chipped fingernail polish.
In order to further minimize or eliminate this condition, the flashlight 10 of
As seen in
The mouth or opening distance 44 between the corners 32 should be about 1.5 to 2.0 centimeters to comfortably accept a finger or thumb tip. The width 46 across the floor portion can be about 1.0 to 1.5 centimeters to nest one's finger or thumb comfortably in each cutout portion 28 and snugly against their side edges 40. The tapered side edges 40 tend to center and guide one's finger or thumb onto the switch actuator 22.
The switch actuator 22 can be recessed a distance 48 (
As shown in
Details of a representative end cap assembly 63 are shown in
The endcap assembly 63 includes a plastic insulating collar 64 which seats on a radial ledge 66 and receives a metal conical compression spring 68 which biases against and makes electrical contact with a battery housed within the tubular body 14. A copper wave washer 70 seats on a second radial ledge 72 and makes electrical contact with the aluminum end cap 18.
A circular circuit board 74 has conducting lands on its undersurface which make electrical contact with the spring 68 and with the end cap 18 through the wave washer 70. The circuit board 74 can be provided with one or more integrated circuits or “chips” including micro logic circuits 78 that can control the operation of the flashlight 10 as discussed below.
A conventional button switch 80 includes a rectangular or box-shaped housing. A pair of electrical leads 82 extending outwardly from within the housing interconnect internal button switch terminals within the switch housing with circuits and control logic on circuit board 70. A spring-biased plunger 84 completes contact between the electrical leads 82 when the plunger is axially depressed.
A plastic platform 86 seats on top of the button switch housing and provides a support surface for a dome-shaped resilient elastomeric diaphragm 88. An externally-threaded washer 90 mates with an internal threaded portion of end cap 18 to clamp and hold the perimeter of diaphragm 88 in fixed axial position. The diaphragm 88 includes a movable plunger portion 92 which is coaxially aligned with the plunger 84 on the button switch 80.
A light-activated luminescent material or a light-emitting material may be added to the elastomeric material of the diaphragm 88 to provide a “glow-in-the-dark” function. This facilitates locating and operating the diaphragm 88 in the dark.
When a user depresses the diaphragm 88, the plunger 92 on the diaphragm depresses the plunger 84 on the button switch 80 and completes an electrical circuit across electrical leads 82. This allows electrical current to flow through the circuits and logic components 78 on circuit board 74 via metal spring 68 which makes electrical contact with a land on the underside of circuit board 74. The circuit is completed through the battery or batteries, through the LED's and through the body of the flashlight and wave washer 70 and back to the circuit board 74.
Each time the button switch is pushed, the logic circuits 78 can be programmed to step the operation of the flashlight in virtually any desired sequence. For instance, the logic can operate as a simple alternating on-off switch which latches on or off each time the plunger 84 is fully depressed through a full axial throw.
Alternatively, the logic circuits 78 can be programmed to operate the flashlight in a sequence of high or bright light when the flashlight is first switched on, followed by a low or dull light when the plunger 84 is depressed again, and then off when the plunger is pressed a third time. In each case in this example, the functions of high, low and off are each maintained in a latched state until switched to the next function.
A rapidly pulsing or strobed lighting function can be easily provided to the function-switching sequences on either a high or low intensity setting by programming a timing and switching function in logic circuits 78. In this case a user could select from high, high strobe, low or low strobe, each in a latched state.
Another option is to provide lighting functions with a conventional latched on and latched off function in combination with high, low and strobe light functions. This can be achieved by turning on the flashlight with a relatively long axial depression or axial throw of the plunger 84 to latch the flashlight on. Smaller or shorter axial depressions or axial throws of plunger 84 can provide pulses to the logic circuits 78 to scroll through any desired sequence of operations until the plunger is again fully depressed and latched off.
For example, with the flashlight off, a user can latch on the flashlight 10 in a high-intensity mode by strongly pressing the diaphragm 88 through its full range travel and releasing it. The high intensity light beam will stay on until the user either strongly depresses the diaphragm 88 through its full length of axial travel or until the user lightly depresses and releases the diaphragm through a short stroke or depression of diaphragm 88. This short stroke and release will switch the light into a low intensity light beam output mode until the user fully and strongly depresses the diaphragm 88 again to turn the flashlight off, or again lightly depresses and releases the diaphragm 88 to switch to a strobe light output mode where the flashlight emits pulsed bursts of high intensity light beams.
The strobe mode will remain strobing until the operator fully depresses and releases the diaphragm 88 to turn off the flashlight or lightly depresses and releases the diaphragm 88 to cycle the function back to the high intensity light mode. In any mode of operation, the diaphragm 88 can be depressed and lightly held in a depressed condition without latching and thereby turn off the flashlight as long as the operator holds the diaphragm down. Upon releasing the diaphragm, the flashlight will return to its previous mode of operation. Alternatively, the circuit 78 will cycle the flashlight to a new mode of operation.
All of the above functions are conveniently provided by the microchip or control chip 78 in combination with the operation of the button switch.
There has been disclosed heretofore the best embodiment of the invention presently contemplated. However, it is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention.
This application is a continuation application of prior application Ser. No. 12/075,930 filed Mar. 14, 2008 entitled Compact Flashlight, and which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12075930 | Mar 2008 | US |
Child | 12586932 | US |