Koito Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Masataka Ando

Hideki Uchida

Kazuo Goto

Manabu Sasa

A leveling controller (ECU) calculates a pitch angle based on a vehicle height value of a vehicle and controls an irradiation direction of a vehicle lamp. The leveling controller includes a vehicle height value initialization unit for initializing the detected vehicle height value, a determination unit for determining whether initialization by the vehicle height value initialization unit has been made, and a leveling angle setting unit for setting the leveling angle of the vehicle lamp based on the initialized vehicle height value or setting the leveling angle to a predetermined leveling angle, in accordance with the result of determination by the determination unit. An aiming device is arranged to perform aiming adjustment on the vehicle lamp in which the leveling angle is set by the leveling angle setting unit.

Irradiation direction controller and leveling angle setting method of vehicle lamp

An emitting direction control apparatus for a lamp is provided with: a driver for deflecting an emitting direction for a lamp; and a controller that control the driver to perform a deflection. The controller includes an initialization function, for setting, at an initial position, a stepping motor that serves as a driving source for the driver. The initialization function detects a first current positional angle for the stepping motor; when the first current positional angle is greater than a reference angle, rotates the stepping motor in a bumping direction at a high speed until the reference angle is reached; after the reference angle has been reached, rotates the stepping motor to a bumped position an initial number of steps at a low speed; and after the bumped position has been reached, rotates the stepping motor in the reverse direction a predetermined number of steps and sets the stepping motor in the initial position.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Masataka Ando