Abstract:
A hand held light for traffic control using an array of light sources such as colored light LEDs or lasers which either a red set or green set are energized by operation of a trigger switch. A third set of yellow light emitting light sources are also optionally operated, as well as a spot light mounted within the array of light sources. A position switch prevents energizing the red or green light sources so that arm motion can also be used to control the light sources.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims benefit of provisional patent application U.S. Ser. No. 60/134,753, filed May 18, 1999. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention concerns hand held light signaling devices, and more particularly hand held lights used to control traffic, as when a police officer must control traffic at an intersection where a signal light has become disabled. 
     Hand held lighted batons or flashlights and the like have been devised, but these prior designs have not provided sufficient signaling capability for effective traffic control. Most have required incandescent lamps, limiting the life of the supply batteries. None have been failsafe and very convenient and effectively controlled in use. 
     It is the object of the present invention to provide a hand held light which may provide manual traffic signaling, which is convenient and easy to use effectively, while not having high power requirements to allow a long battery life. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This object, and others which will become apparent upon a reading of the following specification and claims are achieved by a hand held light having a circular array formed by sets of solid state light sources, such as LEDs or low powered lasers, respective sets of the light sources emitting red or green light, either the red or green light sources energized depending on the state of a trigger switch operated by the finger of a person gripping an elongated handle with the right or left hand. 
     A set of yellow light sources also may be provided, energized by the trigger switch when a power switch is in the off state. 
     The light also has a white light emitting lamp which can be energized by a separate switch for enabling use of a flashlight. When the trigger switch is not squeezed, power circuitry establishes a normal red light source on condition which causes the set of red LEDs or other sources to flash, to indicate to traffic at which the light is directed should remain stopped. With the trigger switch squeezed, the set of green light emitting light sources are energized. 
     Both red and green light activation require a position switch to be in its closed position, produced only when the light is held upright, so that the red and green light sources can also be turned on and off with the arm position of the holder, improving the case and effectiveness of use. 
     Indicator lights at the back of the light to enable a user to see what light is on may be included, as well as, and charging circuitry for the batteries. 
     A detachable visor is also optionally provided, snap fit to a smaller night visor built in to the head portion of the light housing. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of the hand held signal light according to the present invention with a day visor attached. 
     FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the light shown in FIG. 1, with the day visor shown detached and separated from the light. 
     FIG. 3 is a partially sectional enlarged view taken lengthwise through the light housing, revealing the major internal components. 
     FIG. 4 is a front view of the light head portion showing the light source pattern. 
     FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the electrical components included in the light according to the invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following detailed description, certain specific terminology will be employed for the sake of clarity and a particular embodiment described in accordance with the requirements of 35 USC 112, but it is to be understood that the same is not intended to be limiting and should not be so construed inasmuch as the invention is capable of taking many forms and variations within the scope of the appended claims. 
     Referring to the drawings, the hand held traffic control light  10  according to the present invention includes a housing  12  having a generally cylindrical head portion  14  and an elongated handle portion  16 , the head portion turned at a right angle to the handle portion  16 , so as to be able to easily point a front face of the head portion  14  forwardly when the handle portion  16  is gripped. 
     A daytime visor  18  is shown snap fitted to the built in much smaller night time visor  22  of the head portion  14  in FIG.  1  and detached and separated in FIG. 2, which shields and directs the light emanating from a circular array  20  of solid state light sources (FIG. 4) facing forwardly on the front side of the head portion  14 . 
     The head portion  14  built in night time visor  22  acts to shield the light to some extent and improve its directionality. 
     The day time visor  18  has a bottom cut out  214  and the built in visor  22  also has a cut out  26  to allow ambient reflected light to be directed down and away from the light sources. The day visor  18  may have a reflector  19  and clear (or black tinted) lens  21 . Projections  40 ,  42  cooperate with slots  44 ,  46  to hold the day visor  18  on the night visor  22 . 
     The housing  12  may be constructed as a two piece injection molded construction in the well known manner. 
     The circular array  20  of colored solid state light sources (such as LED&#39;s or lasers) include a pattern of 16 red colored light sources  28 , 12 green colored light sources  30 , and eight yellow colored light sources  32 . 
     A single incandescent lamp  34  is mounted at the center of the colored light source array  20  for incidental use of the light  10  as a flashlight. 
     The handle portion  16  of housing  12  has a battery compartment  36  receiving a pair of lithium batteries  38  held between battery terminal clips  48 ,  50 . 
     A cover  52  is held with a screw held tab  54 . 
     A bottom located rocker switch S- 4  is accessible through an opening  56  in the bottom of the handle portion  16 . 
     A trigger switch S- 2  has a protruding rubber booted operator pin  58  facing forwardly at the upper part of the handle portion  16  pushable with the encircling index finger of the hand of the user gripping the handle portion  16 . The switch S- 2  is DPDT momentary switch. 
     The head portion  14  houses a light source base  60  a PC board  62 , and a power stand by rocker switch S- 1 , operable through an opening  64  at the rear of the head portion  14 . 
     The remaining electrical components shown in FIG. 5 are carried on the PC board  62 . 
     B 1  and B 2  are 1.5 vdc lithium batteries  38  that are connected in series to provide 3 vdc supply voltage to power the light  10 . F 1  provides over-current protection for the electronic components. D 1  protects the circuit from reverse polarity due to incorrect battery insertion. C 1  is a decoupling capacitor that minimizes unwanted oscillations. C 2  provides regulation and filtering of the supply voltage. 
     B+1 supplies power to power switch S 1  and S 1  supplies power to S 3 , S 4 , B+2, S 2 , BI−1 and L 1 . B+2 supplies power to IC 4 . B+3 supplies power to the red LEDs. B+4 supplies power to the Green LEDs. B+5 supplies power to the yellow LEDs. S- 3  is a position sensitive switch on the PC board  62 . 
     S 1  is a single-pole, double-throw rocker switch with a built in tri-color LED. S 1  is located in the rear of the head portion  14 . S 1  has two positions, power stand-by and power off. In the power off mode S 1  supplies power to S 4 . When S 4  is in the spotlight (white light) on position and S 1  is in the power off position, spotlight L 1  is activated. The position of the light  10  does not affect the power supplied to L 1 . 
     When S 1  is in the power standby mode, power is applied to S 3  and the battery indicator circuit BI−1. S 3  is a single-pole single-throw, position sensitive switch. Trigger switch S 2  is a momentary double-pole double-throw switch. The trigger switch S- 2  is used to activate the green or yellow LEDs  30 ,  32 . 
     When S 2  is in the normally closed position it applies power to the red LEDs. When S 2  is depressed power is applied to the green LEDs and associated circuits. S 1  must be in the power standby mode before the green LEDs will operate. Depressing S 2  will apply power to the yellow LEDs and associated circuits, provided S 4  is in the yellow light position and S 1  is in the power off position. When the light  10  is held in a vertical-up position, power is applied to B+2 and S 2 . 
     When S 1  is in the power standby mode and the HHTCL is held in the vertical-down position, red and green lights are off. Raising the light to the vertical-up position causes the red LEDs to flash on and off. The first automatic command when one raises the light up is stop. The first command will be a green light if S 2  trigger switch is squeezed (activated) and held while raising the light  10  to a vertical-up position. 
     The red and green LEDs will not operate unless: 1. S 1  power switch is in the power standby mode; 2. S 3  position switch is in the vertical-up position. S 2  trigger switch is in normally closed position (not depressed)=red LEDs on. S 2  trigger switch in depressed position=green LEDs on. 
     The yellow LEDs and white spotlight will not operate unless S 1  power switch is in the off position; S 4  spot light switch is in the on position=L 1  spot light on; S 4  spotlight switch in the off position=yellow LEDs on; and S 2  trigger switch is in the depressed position=yellow LEDs on. Note: B+C=yellow LEDs on. 
     IC 1  regulates the current to the red LEDs. IC 2  regulates the current tot he green LEDs. IC 3  regulates the current to the yellow LEDs. 
     TR 1  is a NPN bipolar transistor that supplies ground potential for the red and yellow LEDs. The duty cycle of TR 1  is controlled by IC 4 . 
     IC 4  is a  555  timer configured to supply a positive pulse to the base of TR 1 . The values of R 1 , R 2  or C 4  can be changed to alter the flash rate. The square wave astable configuration was selected because the timing network is not driven from the output. Loading at pin  3  will have no effect on timing. Pin  3  may be loaded on a relatively unrestricted basis. C 6  increases stabilization at output of IC 4 . R 3  is a current limiting resistor for the base circuit of TR 1 . 
     D 2  provides isolation between B+2 and B+5. D 2  provides power to IC 4  during the flashing yellow light operation. 
     LED 37  is a tri-color LED producing red or yellow or green light. LED  37  comprises an indicator allowing the operator to look at the rear of the head portion  14  and see which color light is active. The LED 37  is located at the rear of the head assembly. LED 39  is a tri-color LED that indicates the condition of the battery. LED 39  is built in S 4  and located at the bottom of the handle of the housing  12 . 
     The batteries  38  can be charged from the vehicle 12 vdc accessory power or 110 vac. TI is step-down transformer that applies ac voltage the full wave bridge rectifier D 3 . The electrolytic capacitor C 3  provides filtering for the power supply. S 5  is a double-pole double-throw switch on the charger that allows battery charging from the vehicle or office. BCHG 1  is an integrated battery charger. F 2  provides over current protection for the battery charging circuit. Battery indicator IC 5  monitors the power level in the batteries and displays through tri-color LED 38 . 
     The light source for the head assembly may be high output LEDs or lasers. LEDs are less expensive than lasers. O-LEDs (organic film LEDs) may be used. 
     The hand held light  10  is used for short-term traffic control. The primary function of the light  10  is to move street traffic safely and expeditiously through or around an incident. An incident is an emergency traffic accident, natural disaster or special event. 
     The light  10  is used to control traffic through a temporary traffic control area. The light  10  will allow a user to give drivers more positive guidance than a flashlight with cone, white gloves with hand signals or a whistle. The following instructions are for a person directing traffic at an intersection where an incident has occurred. 
     The person directing traffic is positioned in the center of the intersection with the light  10  pointed down. The S- 1  switch on the rear of the head position  14  is switched to the power stand by position. A glance down at the handle reveals a battery condition light, green=battery o.k., yellow=weak battery, and red=replace or recharge batteries. The battery condition LED is located in the bottom of the handle. The bottom of the handle  16  is visible when the light  10  is pointed down. 
     Raising the light  10  will automatically activate the flashing red LEDs by operation of switch S- 3 . Depressing and holding the trigger switch located at front of the handle before raising the light will activate the green LEDs. The green light will stay on as long as the trigger switch is depressed. The green LEDs produce a stable green light, they do not flash on or off. 
     To stop traffic, the operation should use the traditional hand-signaling procedure for stopping oncoming traffic at an incident. The operation should face traffic and extend the left arm horizontally away from the body with the palm toward approaching traffic. While the left arm is extended, the right hand raises the light  10  with the right arm extended away from the body and the light  10  pointed at oncoming traffic. The light  10  will then produce a bright flashing red light to stop oncoming traffic. 
     To advance traffic the operation should lower the light  10  and turn to face the stopped traffic that is waiting to be advanced. The operator should squeeze the light trigger switch S- 2  while raising and extending the right arm to point the light at stopped traffic. The light  10  produces a steady green light. The free hand is used to motion for traffic to proceed. Note: A left-handed operator may choose to hold the light  10  in the left hand. 
     To alert or slow traffic the operator should make sure that the power switch S- 1  at the rear of the head portion  14  is in the off position. The operator should extend the right arm to point the light  10  at approaching traffic and squeeze the light trigger switch S- 2  to activate the yellow light. The free hand is used to motion for traffic to proceed with caution. The yellow light cannot be activated unless the power switch S- 1  is in the off position. 
     The switch S- 4  to turn the spotlight on is located at the bottom of the handle portion  16 . The spotlight  34  produces a bright white light. The spotlight cannot be operated unless the power switch S- 1  is in the off position. The spotlight should not replace existing spotlights or flashlights but provide a convenient incidental or emergency light while at the area. 
     A tri-color LED 37  is located at the rear of the head assembly. The LED 37  indicates to the operator which color light is active at the front of the head portion  14  by displaying the same color light at the rear of the head assembly. 
     The sun visor  18  should be used when the sunlight impairs the visibility of the light produced by the light. The visor  18  snaps over the night visor  22  of the light  10 . The visor is black in color and has an opening at the bottom to eliminate sunlight being reflected onto the lens of the light. 
     The battery charger will recharge the batteries  34  from the office, home or vehicle with complete automatic operation. Two battery clips will be supplied to allow recharging of one while the other one is being used. The rechargeable batteries are located in the handle  16  of the light  10 . The battery clip must be removed from the light  10  before recharging. 
     The LEDs  28 ,  30 ,  32  may be two chip dual ultra bright LEDs. There are two chips that produce light inside a single 5 mm (T 1 -¾) case. The LEDs have three leads, left side anode, right side anode and a common cathode. The typical forward current is 20 ma but it produces twice the light output of a single chip LED. The advantage is twice the light output with the same current consumption as a single chip LED. 
     The light  10  uses 36 ultra bright LEDs. The 36 ultra bright LEDs have 72 chips, which is equivalent to 72 single chip LEDs. If 72 single chip LEDs were used the light head assembly would be 4 inches in diameter instead of 2 inches in diameter. A light with a 4 inch head assembly would not be portable enough for police officers and traffic control personnel.