JPS6323841Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the invention] A flashlight connects the battery, switch, and light bulb.
By making connections according to each purpose and closing the switch, the light bulb lights up and illuminates a dark place.

However, in the first case where a flashlight is needed, ie, for use in everyday life, some kind of illumination allows the user to know where the flashlight is and easily pick it up.

In such a case, there will be no inconvenience, but
There is a problem in the second case, namely in the case of an emergency.

The problem is that when a power outage suddenly occurs at night or indoors with no outside light due to some kind of disturbance, it is often difficult to recognize the presence of a flashlight.

Even if you have decided in advance where to install a flashlight, especially in case of an emergency, you will still have to search by hand.

Moreover, if it is placed without deciding where to install it, it is completely impossible to find it.

Also, when I finally found a flashlight and used it, the battery was dead and the light was dim.
The lighting time may be short, or in the worst case, the lighting may not turn on at all. Also, even if the battery is not exhausted, the light bulb may not turn on due to a disconnection.

The present invention attempts to solve the above-mentioned problems.

In other words, apart from the light bulb used as a flashlight,
An electronic circuit that emits flashes intermittently using an extremely weak current is installed to indicate the presence of a flashlight, and changes in the intermittent flash intervals and light intensity can also be used to indicate the degree of battery consumption. The flashlight is designed to be able to detect a disconnection of the light bulb, and is designed to be useful before using the flashlight.

One example will be explained with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 shows a wall-mounted flashlight, with batteries 2 and 2' placed inside the housing 1, and a switch 3 installed on the side.
Usually, the current is cut off by opening and closing the switch 3, and the light bulb 4 is turned on and off.

Further, in order to effectively illuminate the front, a reflector 5 is often provided around the light bulb 4.

In a wall-mounted flashlight, the bulb 4 and reflector 5 always face forward.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a part of the reflecting mirror 5 includes
A semiconductor light emitting device (hereinafter referred to as LED) 6 is provided,
The intermittent flash lighting (hereinafter referred to as flash) is made to be clearly visible from the outside, and at the same time, the reflector 5 is used effectively in the same way as the light bulb 4.

The flash is caused by the activation of the electronic circuit 7 provided inside the housing 1, causing the LED 6 to emit light.

The photoconductive cell 8 is provided for the purpose of stopping flashing when it is bright, which will be described later. The handle 9 is useful as a handle when carrying the bag, and is also used as a hook to hang it on the wall.

LEDs are generally turned on by a weak current and are used for various displays, but keeping them lit continuously for long periods of time places a large load on small batteries. Furthermore, in the case of a flashlight used for emergency purposes, it is assumed that the time it is turned off is much longer than the actual time it is used as a flashlight.
Since it is necessary to achieve the objective while minimizing battery consumption, flashlights that emit light with extremely weak current are used.

The batteries mentioned here are generally called dry batteries, and the number of batteries used is not limited to two, but can be one or more.

FIG. 2 is an electrical system diagram, in which an electronic circuit 7 whose connections are indicated by dotted lines and an LED 6 that operates in conjunction with the electronic circuit 7 are installed in a normal circuit for a flashlight shown by solid lines.

Since the electronic circuit 7 is operated using the voltage output between both terminals of the switch 3 when the light bulb 4 is turned off, that is, when the switch 3 is in an open state, the degree of consumption of the batteries 2 and 2' may be affected. The disconnected state of the light bulb 4 can be detected.

Next, a circuit for causing a flash of light will be explained with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3a shows a known switch circuit. That is, an NPN type transistor (hereinafter referred to as a transistor) 71 amplifies the signal applied between the input terminals m and n, and its output is used to amplify the signal applied to the next stage.
PNP type transistor (hereinafter referred to as transistor)
When the base current (arrow A) of transistor 72 reaches a set value, the collector current (arrow B) of transistor 72 flows, current flows to load 73, and load 73 is activated. That is, it is a switch circuit that connects or disconnects the current flowing to the load 73 depending on the presence or absence of input.

The electronic circuit used in the flashlight of the present invention is the circuit shown in FIGS. 3b and 3c, which is a modification of the switch circuit shown in FIG. 3a.

First, the circuit shown in FIG. 3b will be explained.

LED6 is used as the load. A current flows through the capacitor 83 through the resistor 84, and the capacitor 83 is charged to the polarity shown by the solid line.

When the charging voltage gradually increases and exceeds the set value of the transistor 81, the DC amplified collector current of the transistor 81, that is, the base current (arrow C) of the transistor 82 flows, and the transistor 82
is activated, collector current (arrow D) flows, and LED 6, which is the load, lights up.

At this time, since + electricity is applied to one pole side of the capacitor 83, the electricity charged in the capacitor 83 becomes the base current of the transistor 81, and is discharged all at once, and the operations of the transistors 81 and 82 are instantaneously stopped. For this reason, the LED 6 emits light for a moment and then immediately stops emitting light, which is why it is called a flash.

Next, the operation returns to the previous state, and as described above, the capacitor 8
However, since the polarity of the capacitor 83 is gradually reversed while charging is started, it takes a longer time than the time constant determined by the capacitor 83 and the resistor 84.

Next, when the battery is exhausted and the power supply voltage drops, the operating value will change with respect to the set value of the electronic circuit, the overall function will become weaker, the brightness of the LED 6 will drop, and the reverse charging voltage of the capacitor 83 will also drop. The effect of charging the capacitor 83 while gradually reversing its polarity is also reduced.

In other words, the interval between flashes becomes shorter.

Furthermore, when the battery wears out and the reverse charging effect disappears,
As the interval between flashes becomes shorter and the battery wears down further, the operating values of the transistors 81 and 82 change significantly with respect to the set values, and the lights turn on continuously.

Furthermore, if the battery is exhausted, the LED will turn off.

Here, the voltage that causes the LED to light up continuously is
If you want to set the final voltage value that the battery can use, that is, if you want to set the voltage value for the life of the battery, you can set the operation by changing the resistance value by using resistors 85 and 85' alone or together, or by changing the resistance value by using resistors 85 and 85' alone or together. Vessels 85 and 8
An arbitrary voltage can be set by using a resistor inserted in series with an LED 6 (not shown) that operates in conjunction with the LED 5'.

The above description of the circuit shown in FIG. 3b can be applied when the LED has a power supply voltage sufficient to emit light, and it is desirable that the power supply voltage be approximately 2.0V or higher.

However, it only requires one or two batteries, and
Many flashlights have a power supply with a voltage value that is only about the same as the light emission starting voltage value of the LED. An embodiment corresponding to such a case is shown in FIG. 3c.

The circuit enclosed by the dotted line in the figure allows it to be used with low-voltage flashlights.

The operation of the electronic circuit including transistors 91 and 92, capacitor 93, and resistors 94 and 95 is the same as the circuit operation described above with reference to FIG. 3b.

Resistor 95 is acting as a load resistor in this circuit. When transistors 91 and 92 are inoperative, capacitor 9 is connected by resistors 95 and 96.
7, a current E shown by a solid arrow E flows, and the battery is charged with the polarity shown.

Next, when the transistors 91 and 92 operate, a current F shown by a dotted arrow F flows and the LED 6 flashes.
In other words, the voltage that is the sum of the battery voltage and the voltage charged in the capacitor 97 is applied to the LED 6.
The LED 6 flashes with sufficient brightness.
Not only does the electronic circuit itself operate instantaneously as explained in FIG. 3b above, but in the circuit shown in FIG. The flash duration is also determined by the impedance of the passage indicated by arrow F. Naturally, resistor 95 has a higher impedance than LED 6, and resistor 96 has higher impedance than transistor 92.
If the battery is depleted, the flash interval will become progressively shorter, but this may differ somewhat from Figure 3b.

As mentioned above, LED light emission is performed by the voltage that is the sum of the battery voltage and the charging voltage of the capacitor 97, so if the added voltage falls, the brightness will fall, and if the added voltage falls below the light emission stop voltage, the transistor Even if 91 and 92 are in the operating state, they will not turn on, so they will not be in a continuous lighting state.

As a matter of course, it is necessary to select the time constants of the capacitor 93 and the resistor 94 at intervals suitable for charging the capacitor 97.

The circuit configuration as explained above causes the LED 6 to flash, but the fact that the flash is performed even when it is bright is wasteful and uneconomical even though the current is extremely weak. It is desirable to stop the flash when it is bright.

A cadmium sulfide semiconductor element, generally called a photoconductive cell, has a property of having a low resistance value when exposed to bright light and exhibiting an extremely high resistance value when not exposed to light, that is, in a dark place.

By connecting the photoconductive cell to 86 and 98 in FIGS. 3b and 3c, the photoconductive cell 8
Since the resistance values of 6 and 98 are low, the inputs are shorted and the circuit does not operate.

In the dark, the resistance of the photoconductive cells 86 and 98 becomes extremely high and the electronic circuitry begins to operate. Installing photoconductive cells as described above is desirable because it reduces battery consumption.

The best place to install the photoconductive cell is a place where it can easily receive outside light and also easily receive light when the light bulb is turned on.In the embodiment shown in FIG. It is set up.

However, I am not particular about this location.

Due to the circuit configuration described above, the flashlight is displayed using an extremely small amount of current using the battery installed inside the flashlight, so it not only clearly indicates the presence of the flashlight, but also reduces the degree of battery consumption. It can be said to be a perfect emergency measure because it is displayed by changes in flash interval and brightness, and it can also detect when the light bulb is disconnected.

When this electronic circuit is connected between both terminals of the switch, the electronic circuit 7 is short-circuited when the light bulb is turned on, so that no operation is performed and the battery is not consumed accordingly, which is economical.

If the electronic circuit is directly connected to the battery, the electronic circuit will continue to operate even when the light bulb is turned on, and it will not be possible to detect the disconnection of the light bulb.

In addition, in the case of a flashlight using the circuit shown in Figure 4, the electronic circuit 6' and LED 7' do not operate when the connection between the battery terminals is indicated by the dashed line. It is necessary to connect the electronic circuit 6 and LED 7 to the location shown by the dotted line, which is also between both terminals.

In the explanation so far, a wall-mounted flashlight has been exemplified, but the present invention is not limited to wall-mounted flashlights, and can also be applied to cylindrical or variously modified flashlights.

Also, the flashing LED does not necessarily have to be placed inside the reflector, but may be placed in the switch section, near the switch, on the side or rear of the cylindrical body, or in any other location that is most visible.

Furthermore, this invention is not limited to flashlights; in recent years,
It is a convenient device that can be attached to all battery-powered devices that are said to be in the cordless era.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a wall-mounted flashlight using the present invention, Fig. 2 is an electrical system diagram, Fig. 3 is an electronic circuit diagram, and Fig. 4 is an electrical system diagram of another embodiment. In the figure, 2 is a battery, 3 is a switch, 4 is a light bulb, 5 is a reflector, 6 is a semiconductor light emitting element, 7 is an electronic circuit section,
8 indicates a photoconductive cell.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A battery, a switch, and a light bulb are connected in series and built-in, and a semiconductor light emitting element is connected between both terminals of the switch, and the light emitting element is operated by an electronic circuit that causes the element to emit flash light intermittently. A flashlight with flash display.