Patent ID: 6800841
Filing Date: 2004-10-05
Classification: G01C,G02B,H01H,H01L,H03K

Abstract:
A tilt switch adapted to be in electric contact with a support, said tilt switch comprising:a housing body adapted to be mounted on the support in an upright direction, and including: a top wall which extends in a longitudinal direction that is transverse to the upright direction, and which has a modular concavity extending downwardly, a bottom wall which has a bottom wall surface that confronts said modular concavity and that is spaced apart from said top wall by a modular depth, and right and left inner modular walls which are spaced apart from each other by a modular width to confine said concavity in the longitudinal direction, and which have respectively emitting and receiving slits that extend respectively therethrough in both the longitudinal and upright directions, and that are aligned with each other in the longitudinal direction to permit passage of a broader beam of light; light emitting and receiving units which are disposed in said housing body, and which are respectively disposed rightwardly and leftwardly of said right and left inner modular walls to respectively emit and receive the broader beam of light that passes through said emitting and receiving slits; a modular insert body including: entry and exit walls which are opposite to and which are distant from each other in the longitudinal direction by a modular thickness that is slightly smaller than the modular width, said entry wall having an entry hole which extends in the longitudinal direction and towards said exit wall, and which is configured to admit entry of only a portion of the broader beam of light into said entry hole, thereby forming a narrower beam of incident light in said entry hole so as to continue to pass through said receiving slit along a light path when said modular insert body is inserted into said concavity in the upright direction to contact said bottom wall surface of said bottom wall and when said entry and exit walls are brought to confront said right and left inner modular walls, respectively, and an inner peripheral wall disposed between said entry and exit walls to confine an accommodation chamber which extends in the longitudinal direction to communicate with said entry hole, and which has a transit route that extends to intersect the light path at an intersection; a ball member received in said accommodating chamber, rollable across said intersection, and displaceable from a first position where said housing body is steady in the upright direction, to a second position where said housing body is tilted relative to the upright direction; an optoelectronic sensor member which is secured to said housing body, and which includes two electric contact terminals that extend downwardly and outwardly of said housing body so as to be adapted to be connected electrically to the support, and an optoelectronic switch which electrically couples said electric contact to said light receiving unit such that said optoelectronic switch shifts from a first switch state to a second switch state when said ball member is lurched as a result of tilting to roll across said intersection from the first position to the second position, thereby interrupting or restoring the transmission of the narrower beam of incident light; and a modular cover configured to cover said modular concavity so as to prevent ambient light from entering thereinto.