Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Takashi Ichimura

Hisashi Nishikawa

Masahide Onishi

Yoshiyuki Nakade

Takeo Nakamura

Ichiro Tateishi

Satoru Fukui

Ryuji Baba

First rotator () and second rotator () rotating according to a rocking operation of outer lever () are provided. Magnetism of magnets () and () mounted on these rotators are detected by magnetic detecting elements () and () and output as a detected signal. Control portion () detects a rotation angle of each rotator from this detected signal and outputs an operation signal corresponding to the detected rotation angle.

Lever switch

An operative body is provided at one end of an arm attached behind a steering wheel. The arm protrudes from the outer periphery of the steering wheel. The operative body has a plurality of operative buttons. Such a structure enables various kinds of operation, and provides a vehicle switch assembly easily operable by extending a finger for manipulation only, while grasping the steering wheel with the hands.

Vehicle switch assembly

A switch apparatus, including: a substantially box-like case; a cylinder section; a lever; a substantially cylindrical columnar support; an engagement convex section; an engagement concave section; and a press-in section. The cylinder section is provided at a substantial center of the case and has at an inner circumference thereof a reception section. The lever is attached to the case and is pivoted and operated to provide an electric connection of switch contacts provided in the case. The columnar support is inserted to the cylinder section and has one end that is abutted with the reception section. The engagement convex section is provided at one of the reception section and the columnar support and the engagement concave section is provided at the other. The press-in section is provided at one of the engagement convex section or the engagement concave section. The engagement convex section is pressed-in to and engaged with the engagement concave section via the press-in section. The structure as described above provides a switch apparatus that has a simple configuration, that reduces the backlash when the lever is operated, and that can be operated in a favorable manner.

Switch apparatus

A lever switch has a housing with an opening, a slider slidably accommodated in the housing, and a lever engaged with the slider for causing sliding of the slider and projecting from the housing via the opening. A cover is mounted to the housing to cover the opening. A knob is mounted to and surrounds the lever and has a base end portion that faces the cover and through which the lever extends. One of the cover and the base end portion of the knob is convex, and the other is concave so that the cover and base end portion of the knob have generally mutually complementary shapes facing each other.

Lever switch and composite switch using the same

In a rotation-angle detector, a first detector detects a movement of a driven body following the rotation of a change gear engaged with a rotary gear of a rotary body, and outputs the detection result as a detection signal which gradually increases or decreases. At the same time, a second detector detects a rotation of a detecting gear engaged with the change gear or directly with the rotary gear of the rotary body and outputs the detection result as a detection signal which repeats continuously. A detecting circuit detects a rotation angle of the rotary body based on these two detection signals. This structure allows the rotation-angle detector to produce a smaller detection error, and be downsized. Further, only a simple calculation in the detecting circuit is necessary.

Growing community of inventors

Fukui, Japan

Takashi Ichimura