The present invention relates to a wheel type mechanical instruction switch and particularly to a mechanical switch adopted for use on a wheel on electronic devices such as mouses, remote control devices or keyboards to output different instruction signals.
In the scroll mouse now being commonly used, there is a wheel located between the left and the right keys to enable users to directly skip pages or text lines through rotation of the wheel when reading lengthy texts (such as novels or presentation data) without depressing the page down key on the keyboard or moving the mouse and cursor to the scroll bar on the right side of the screen and depress the left key to execute page down or line skip operation. Namely, the wheel can replace the scroll bar function on the right side of the screen to make user operation easier.
In R.O.C. patent No. 590292, Applicant proposes an improved mouse design. It provides an improved scroll bar function on the screen that not only has a longitudinal up and down movement on the right side, also has a scroll bar design on the lower side of the screen to provide leftward and rightward transverse movements. It is applicable to table listing software such as EXCEL or ACCESS or Web pages. However, for lengthy table fields, scroll bar operation and control cannot fully meet requirements. The general keyboard also does not have corresponding keys to provide transverse movement function. Users have to move the mouse to the scroll bar and depress the left key to operate. Such a design does not fully exploit the advantages of the wheel. Therefore the cited reference aims to provide a design that directly uses the wheel of the mouse, and the left and right keys, and left and right direction keys to output switch ON/OFF signals to move the mouse cursor to a desired location for execution or viewing without moving the mouse (referring to
Based on the two cited references mentioned above, it is clear that the industry at present still mainly focuses on the button switches to generate output signals. The button switch is more expensive. Moreover, with the prevailing product trend that requests lean and light, adding the button switch is against this trend in terms of the mouse size. Hence at present only the medium and large mouses adopt such a design. It also cannot be adapted to the keyboard or remote control device that also has a wheel. Because the location to accommodate the wheel is even more constrained on the keyboard and remote control device. Therefore to develop a small size, low cost and easy to fabricate wheel and instruction switch is one of the main design focuses in the industry.
There are other examples such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,564 which achieves picture scrolling function on the screen through pressure sensing. It still adopts a photoelectric design. The cost is higher and the required space is larger. Thus it also does not coincide with the current trend that demands lean and light.
Therefore the primary object of the present invention is to resolve the aforesaid disadvantages. The present invention aims to provide a low cost and easy to assemble mechanical terminal design to replace the conventional electronic switches that are expensive and complicated. The instruction switch according to the invention is located between a wheel and a bracing seat. The instruction switch includes a connection terminal which has a first fastening end on one end to be fastened to the bracing seat and an operation end on other end which is extended to where an axle is located and is driven by the axle to move for a displacement when the wheel is moved, and a conductive terminal which has a second fastening end on one end to be fastened to the bracing seat and a conductive end on other end extended to the displacement range of the connection terminal such that when the wheel is moved by a force, the axle drives the operation end of the connection terminal to connect the conductive end of the conductive terminal to generate instruction signals.
Another object of the invention is to provide a click sensing dock that has a boss located between the operation end of the connection terminal and the conductive end of the conductive terminal so that the operation end can pass over the boss to generate a click sense when users operate with forces.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an instruction switch that has a wheel tiltable relative to the bracing seat when subject to a force to generate a swaying displacement to produce leftward and rightward instruction signals, and depressible up and down for a displacement relative to the bracing seat to produce a depressing instruction signal.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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The wheel 10 has an axle 11 in the center which has an arched end 111. The bracing seat 20 has a holding section 21 corresponding to the axle 11 that has an operation space 212 to hold the axle 11. The holding section 21 has a closed end 213 on the top to prevent the axle 11 from escaping. The operation space 212 has an inner wall formed in a flat surface or an arched surface mating the arched end 111. The holding section 21 further has a chamfered surface 211 on a upper end to facilitate insertion of the axle 11 into the operation space 212. The axle 11 is coupled on the holding section 21 such that the wheel 10 is movable up and down for a displacement on the bracing seat 20. The instruction switch includes a connection terminal 30 and a conductive terminal 40 located on one side or the left side and the right side of the wheel 10. The connection terminal 30 and the conductive terminal 40 have respectively a first fastening end 31 and a second fastening end 41 on one end to be fastened to a corresponding anchor section 22 and 23 on the bracing seat 20. The connection terminal 30 has an operation end 32 on other end extended to where the axle 11 is located to be depressed by the axle 11 when the wheel 10 is moved to generate a displacement. The connection terminal 30 has a middle portion wound to form an elastic coil 33 to give the operation end 32 a resilience desired. The operation end 32 is extended beneath the axle 11 to brace the wheel 10. The bracing seat 20 has a first bracing section 221 corresponding to and holding the elastic coil 33.
The conductive terminal 40 has a conductive end 42 on other end that is extended within the displacement range of the connection terminal 30. The conductive terminal 40 also has an elastic section 43 in the middle portion to be held on a corresponding second bracing section 231 formed on the bracing seat 20. In addition, the bracing seat 20 has a click sensing dock 24 with a boss 241 located between the operation end 32 of the connection terminal 30 and the conductive end 42 of the conductive terminal 40.
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By means of the construction set forth above, the invention does not need a complicated design of a swaying seat shown in
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.