An on-vehicle display apparatus includes an analog meter mounted with a display surface facing downwardly within a meter hood of an instrument panel of a vehicle. A reflector is disposed below the meter to reflect a display image of the analog meter through an opening of the instrument panel into a driver's eyes so that the driver views a virtual image of the analog meter behind the reflector. The on-vehicle display includes a movement which has a rotating shaft and is positioned such that the movement is above the display surface. A pointer shaft rotatably is eccentric with the rotating shaft and is supported by a bearing. The pointer shaft has a pointer attached to a distal end thereof projecting below the display surface. The pointer angularly moves over the display surface together with the pointer shaft. A rotation transmitting means is provided between the rotating shaft and the pointer shaft for transmitting rotation of the rotating shaft to the pointer shaft.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. The present invention relates to a reflection type on-vehicle display 
where an analog meter is oriented downwardly within a meter hood and a 
display image of the meter is reflected by a reflector into the driver's 
eyes so that the driver sees a virtual image behind the reflector. 
2. Prior Art 
Conventional on-vehicle displays are mounted on the instrument panel of the 
vehicle to indicate various vehicle conditions to the driver. Such 
displays are designed so that the driver directly looks at a display image 
of the display. The driver sees scenes outside of the vehicle through the 
front windshield while driving. When he needs to know vehicle information 
such as speed, the driver has to substantially move his eyes to look at 
the display. It is difficult for the driver to quickly focus his eyes on 
the display close to his eyes after looking at a far way scene through the 
windshield, and vice versa. This is particularly inconvenient when the 
vehicle is running at a relatively high speed. 
To overcome the aforementioned drawbacks, a reflection type on-vehicle 
display has been proposed where the display image is reflected by a 
reflector into the driver's eyes so that the driver sees the virtual image 
of the display at a long imaginary distance behind the reflector. Such a 
reflection type on-vehicle display allows the driver to look at the 
display without having to move his eyes through a large angle. FIG. 6 
shows one such type of on-vehicle display. In the figure, a display or 
meter 51 is placed in position within a meter hood 50 and is oriented 
downwardly. Behind the display 51 is positioned a reflector 52 which 
reflects the image of the display 51 into the driver's eyes so that the 
driver sees a virtual image X behind the reflector 52. 
Conventionally, the above-mentioned display 51 takes the form of a digital 
display. Digital displays are usually expensive compared with analog type 
displays, necessitating higher overall costs of on-vehicle display 
apparatus. Besides, some users prefer analog type meters to digital type 
meters. An analog type meter is designed so that a movement causes a 
pointer to rotate over the dial to indicate information on the vehicle. 
Many of the movements are of a cross coil type having a pair of coils 
which generate magnetic fields crossing each other. A current flows 
through each of the coils in accordance with a physical quantity to be 
measured, driving a magnet rotator into rotation in a direction of a 
resultant magnetic field produced by the pair of coils. The pointer moves 
with the magnet rotator to indicate the information on the vehicle. 
FIG. 7 shows one such cross coil type movement. A movement 41 is provided 
with a cylindrical case 42 with its bottom closed. The case 42 has a coil 
bobbin 43 including an upper bobbin 43a and a lower bobbin 43b. Two coils 
44 and 44 are wound around the coil bobbin 43 so that coils 44 and 44 
cross each other. A magnet rotator 45 having magnetic poles S and N is 
positioned within the coil bobbin 43, rotating shaft 46 extends through 
the center of the magnet rotator 45 in line with the longitudinal axis of 
the coil bobbin 43. The coil bobbin 43 has a space for housing the magnet 
rotator 45. The space is formed with a recess in a bottom thereof as a 
bearing 47 at the center of the bottom of the space. The bearing 47 is 
filled with silicone oil. 
The bearing 47 rotatably supports the shaft 46 while at the same time the 
silicone oil applies a damping force to the shaft 46 so that the pointer 
will not vibrate while the vehicle is running or will not oscillate about 
the shaft 46 before it properly indicates information on the vehicle. The 
magnet rotator 45 and the shaft 46 are free to rotate in all angles when 
the coils are not energized, and are driven to rotate through an 
appropriate angle when the coils are energized. A dial 48 is mounted above 
the movement 41 as shown in FIG. 8. A pointer 49 is fixed to the end 
portion of the shaft 46 projecting outwardly of the dial 48. 
When an analog meter 40 is mounted as shown in FIG. 8 in place of the 
digital meter 51 in FIG. 6, the silicone oil may leak from the bearing 47 
since the movement 41 is oriented downwardly. In addition, a certain 
mechanism is required to support the shaft 46 of the movement 41. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to provide an on-vehicle display 
where the pointer and rotating shaft of the movement of an analog meter 
are properly supported as well as the silicone oil for damping vibration 
of the rotating shaft of the movement is prevented from leaking even when 
the analog meter is oriented downwardly. 
An on-vehicle display apparatus includes an analog meter mounted with a 
display surface facing downwardly within a meter hood of an instrument 
panel of a vehicle. A reflector is disposed below the meter, which 
reflector reflects a display image of the analog meter through an opening 
of the instrument panel into a driver's eyes so that the driver views a 
virtual image of the analog meter behind the reflector. The on-vehicle 
display includes a movement which has a rotating shaft and is positioned 
such that the movement is above the display surface. A pointer shaft is 
eccentric with the rotating shaft of the movement and is supported by a 
bearing. The pointer shaft projects downwardly of the face of the dial and 
a pointer is attached to a distal end of the pointer shaft. The pointer 
angularly moves over the display surface together with the pointer shaft 
to point to an appropriate value on the dial. A rotation transmitting 
means is provided between the rotating shaft and the pointer shaft for 
transmitting rotation of the rotating shaft to the pointer shaft. 
One aspect of the invention is that the rotation-transmitting means is in 
the form of gears. 
Another aspect of the invention is that the pointer shaft is positioned at 
one of the terminals of the movement.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Operation 
An input signal representative of information on the vehicle drives the 
rotating shaft of the movement into rotation through an angle in 
accordance with the value of the input signal. The rotation of the 
rotating shaft is transmitted to the pointer shaft via a gear train, so 
that the pointer shaft rotates through an angle accordingly to cause the 
pointer attached to the tip end portion thereof to angularly move pointing 
the corresponding information on the display surface. The display image is 
reflected by a reflector into the driver's eyes so that the driver views 
an virtual image behind the reflector. Since the movement is oriented 
upwardly, the silicone oil for applying a damping force to the rotating 
shaft will not leak or spill from the bearing that supports the rotating 
shaft. 
Construction 
An embodiment of an on-vehicle display according to the present invention 
will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an 
expanded perspective view of an analog meter 10 for use in an on-vehicle 
display of the invention. The analog meter 1O has a pointer assembly 11, 
which is in the form of an opaque disc having an edge thereof folded into 
a rim 11a. The pointer assembly 11 is formed with a light-transmitting 
slit therein and a light-transmitting pointer 12 is fitted into the slit 
so that the light entered the pointer 12 is directed to the tip end of the 
pointer 12 while being reflected in part within the pointer 12. The 
pointer 12 radially projects slightly beyond the circular edge of the 
pointer assembly 11. 
The movement 13 for driving the pointer assembly 11 is of a cross coil 
type, described later in more detail. The movement 13 is mounted to the 
bottom of a meter case 14 so that the rotating shaft 26, not shown, 
extends on the side of the bottom of the meter case 14. The pointer shaft 
13a of the movement 13 projects remotely from the meter case 14 relative 
to the movement 13. The pointer shaft 13a and the rotating shaft of the 
movement 13 are coupled together via gears A and B so that rotation of the 
rotating shaft 26 of the movement 13 is transmitted to the pointer shaft 
13a via the gears A and B. It is to be noted that the pointer shaft 13a is 
not concentric with the movement 13. 
A hollow conical reflector 15 is mounted on the rear side where the pointer 
shaft 13a projects, i.e., remote from the gears A and B. The conical 
reflector 15 has an eccentric top end where the top end is truncated to 
provide an opening 15a. An annular light source 16 is mounted so that 
annular light source 16 surrounds the reflector 15. Above the light source 
16 is disposed a dial 17 in the form of a light-diffusing plate on which 
appropriate characters and calibrations 17a of an opaque material are 
circumferentially arranged for indicating information on the vehicle. The 
dial 17 is formed with a hole 17b therein whose diameter is slightly 
larger than that of the pointer assembly 11 so that the pointer assembly 
11 smoothly rotates in the hole 17b provided at the center of the 
circumferentially arranged calibrations 17a. The light from the light 
source 16 is directly exposed to and reflected by the reflector 15 to the 
dial 17 so that the opaque characters 17a are highlighted. The light from 
the light source 16 is also directed to the pointer assembly 11 to cause 
the pointer 12 to glow. The pointer assembly 11 rotates together with the 
pointer shaft 13a when the rotating shaft 26 of the movement 13 rotates in 
accordance with an input signal thereof, thereby indicating the character 
and calibration corresponding to the input signal. A light leakage 
preventing ring 18 is fitted into the hole 17b. The light leakage 
preventing ring 18 has a concentric circular recess into which the rim 11a 
of the pointer assembly 11 slidably fits. The light leakage preventing 
ring 18 serves to prevent light from being leaking toward the circular 
edge of the pointer assembly 11, so that visibility of the dial is not 
disturbed. The pointer shaft 13aextends through the opening 15aof the 
reflector 15 into the center of the hole 17b and is fixed to the pointer 
assembly 11. 
The movement 13, which is a feature of the analog meter 10 of the 
invention, will be described in detail. 
FIG. 2A is a top view of the movement 13 and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional 
side view taken along lines 2B--2B of FIG. 2A. The movement 13 is of a 
cross coil type and is provided with a cylindrical case 22 with a closed 
bottom. The case 22 houses a coil bobbin 23 that includes an upper bobbin 
23a and a lower bobbin 23b. Two coils, not shown, are wound around the 
coil bobbin 23 in such a way that coils cross with each other. A 
disc-shaped magnet rotator 25 having magnetic poles S and N is disposed 
within the coil bobbin 23. A rotating shaft 26 extends through the center 
of the magnet rotator 25 substantially in line with the longitudinal axis 
of the coil bobbin 23. The coil bobbin 23 has a space 27 for housing the 
magnet rotator 25 therein. The space 27 has a recess formed at the center 
of the bottom thereof, which recess serves as a bearing 47. The bearing 47 
is filled with silicone oil and rotatably supports the rotating shaft 26. 
The silicone oil applies a damping force to the rotating shaft 26 so that 
the vibration of the rotating shaft 26 is quickly damped. The magnet 
rotator 25 and shaft 26 are free to rotate in all angles when the coils 
are not energized, and are driven to rotate through an appropriate angle 
when the coils are energized. The terminals 24 are secured to tracks 
formed on a flexible cable 36 by means of a nut 35. The pointer shaft 13a 
is positioned at one of the terminals 24 of the movement 13 and the front 
end portion of the pointer shaft 13a projects in the direction opposite to 
the gears A and B as shown in FIG. 2B. The gear B attached to the pointer 
shaft 13a meshes with the gear A mounted to the rotating shaft 26, so that 
the rotation of the shaft 26 is transmitted to the pointer shaft 13a. 
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a pointer shaft. In FIG. 3, one of the 
conventional terminals 24, shown in FIG. 2A, is modified into a bearing 
through which the pointer shaft 13a extends. The bearing and steel balls 
29 support the pointer shaft 13a. A thrust bearing may be used in place of 
the steel balls 29 to properly support the pointer 13a. The terminal 24 
and the pointer shaft 13a are constructed of a non-magnetic material so as 
not to affect the magnetic field acting on the magnet rotator 25 within 
the bobbin 23. A balance spring 30 operates as a zero-return spring that 
causes the pointer shaft 13a to return to its home angular position when 
the coils are deenergized. 
When arranging the analog meter based on the movement 13 with the display 
surface facing downwardly within the meter hood 50 as shown in FIG. 8, the 
movement 13 is oriented upwardly so that the silicone oil filled in the 
bearing 27 will not leak or spill and the rotating shaft 26 is still 
supported by the bearing 27. Thus, the display according to the invention 
does not necessitate modification to the coil bobbin, bearing, and rotator 
of the prior art movement. The reflector 15 may be omitted for thinner 
construction of movement 13, in which case, the shadow of the movement 13 
may be observed through the transparent pointer 12 as depicted by the 
hatched portion in FIG. 4A if the pointer 13a is positioned at the center 
of the movement 13. This is due to the difference in brightness between 
the portion of the pointer 12 near the pointer shaft and the tip end of 
the pointer 12 near light source 16. This shadow will not substantially be 
observed if the pointer shaft 13a is not in line with the movement 13 as 
shown in FIG. 4B. 
FIG. 5A is a top view of the meter 1O. FIG. 5B is a side view of an analog 
meter according to the present invention. FIG. 5C shows a prior art analog 
meter. If the conical reflector 15 is not omitted and the pointer 13a is 
positioned at the center of the movement 13, the height t2 of the 
reflector 15 makes the height of the meter 10 high as shown in FIG. 5C. 
However, if the pointer 13a is at a position away from the center of the 
movement 13 as shown in FIG. 5B, the height t1 of the reflector 15 will 
not result in thicker construction of the meter 10.