Patent Publication Number: US-2009231871-A1

Title: Direction indicator lamp

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an automotive direction indicator lamp operated in a wireless sensing manner. 
     2. Related Art 
     The automotive external indicator lamp commonly used in daily life includes a direction indicator assisting the steering motion, and a third brake lamp assisting the braking motion, and such indicator lamps are usually electrically connected to a controller, a power source, and a lamp through electrical connecting wires. The controller is usually located within a vehicle, and the lamp is located at a proper position on the surface of the vehicle, for example, head of the vehicle, two sides of the vehicle body, tail of the vehicle, or rearview mirror. 
     Taking the direction lamp for an example, referring to  FIG. 1 , it is a schematic view of an installation of a conventional direction lamp. The direction lamps  10  include front and back direction lamps  10 , rearview mirror direction lamp  10 , and direction lamps  10  on two sides of the vehicle body and so on. When the direction lamps  10  are installed, the installation personnel must electrically connect the direction lamps  10  located on each part of the vehicle  20  to a lamp number controller  201  and a power source  202  of the vehicle  20  through a plurality of electrical connecting wires  101 , and as a result, the circuits spread all over an inner structure of the vehicle  20 . It can be known that, the wiring operation is rather complicated, and what&#39;s worse, the electrical connecting wires  101  must pass back and forth among plate parts and plastic components within the vehicle body. The installation and maintenance are quite inconvenient. Furthermore, due to the vibrations produced during the running of the vehicle  20 , frictions are generated between the electrical connecting wires  101  and the plate parts and the plastic components, which may cause the abrasion and stripping of the electrical connecting wires  101 , and as a result, the direction lamp  10  cannot work normally, thereby affecting the travel safety of the vehicle. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the disadvantages of the conventional direction lamp in terms of installation and usage, the inventors of the present invention design a novel externally-connected direction indicator lamp based upon the hard research and years of experience in this field. 
     The present invention is mainly directed to a direction indicator lamp, which is capable of omitting the fussy procedures and complicated wiring process during the installation through using a sensing signal and wireless transmission technique to replace the conventional way of installation through using electrical connecting wires for wiring. 
     In order to achieve the above objective, the direction indicator lamp provided by the present invention mainly includes lamp fittings in pairs and corresponding sensing and emitting modules. The lamp fitting has a light source, a receiver, and a battery set disposed within a case thereof, and the light source, the receiver, and the battery set are integrated on a circuit board. During installation, the case is adhered on an external part of the vehicle (for example, a surface of the vehicle body, left and right rearview mirrors, or windscreen, etc). The sensing and emitting module is mounted on one side of the lamp number controller, or located within an original direction lamp. The sensing and emitting module is formed by a sensor and an emitter, which is used to sense a signal frequency when the lamp number controller is operated, or sense lights when the direction lamp emits lights, so as to generate a control signal. Then, the control signal is sent to the receiver of the light fitting through the emitter by means of wireless transmission, so as to actuate the light source to emit lights. Therefore, the present invention can be installed without using any electrical connecting wire, so as to avoid using a great number of electrical connecting wires for wiring as the conventional lamp is installed, and thus avoiding the problems of damage and short circuit of the electrical connecting wires resulted from the friction. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic view of an installation of a conventional direction lamp; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an installation of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a three-dimensional exploded view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 4  is a hardware block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     In order to make the content of the present invention be understood more clearly, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , they are respectively a schematic view and a three-dimensional exploded view of an installation of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. A direction indicator lamp  30  of the present invention mainly includes lamp fittings  301  in pairs and corresponding sensing and emitting modules  302 . The lamp fittings  301  are adhered on an external part of a vehicle  40  (for example, a surface of the vehicle body, rearview mirror, or windscreen etc), and the sensing and emitting module  302  is disposed on one side of the lamp number controller  401 , or located within an original direction lamp  402  of the vehicle  40 . The direction indicator lamp mainly includes a light fitting  301  and a sensing and emitting module  302 . The light fitting  301  has a light source  3012  (a plurality of LEDs or conventional bulbs), a receiver  3013 , and a battery set  3014  disposed within a case thereof. The light source  3012 , the receiver  3013 , and the battery set  3014  are disposed on a circuit board  3015 , and the light source  3012  and the receiver  3013  are electrically connected to the battery set  3014  respectively. Once the receiver  3013  receives the signal, the light source  3012  is actuated to emit lights. Furthermore, the case  3011  is L-shaped (as shown in the figure, during installation, the case  3011  is rotated for 90 degrees when being disposed, so as to achieve an indicating effect similar to the configuration with left and right arrows), and is formed by mutually assembling a transparent first case  30111  with a second case  30112 . A waterproof ring  30113  is disposed at a position where the first case  30111  is assembled with the second case  30112 . A semi-permeable mirror  30114  is disposed on one surface of the first case  30111 . When the light source  3012  does not emit lights, a light-tight mirror may be formed on the surface of the semi-permeable mirror  30114  for reflecting lights irradiated from the back of the vehicle, which thus achieves another indicating effect. When the light source  3012  of the present invention emits lights, the lights penetrate through the semi-permeable mirror  30114  to form an indicating effect for steering. In addition, an adhesion portion  3016  (such as adhesion tapes, sucking disk, or magnet commonly used in the daily life) is disposed on the other surface of the case  3011 , so as to conveniently adhere the case  3011  on each position of the vehicle  40  in a nondestructive manner. For example, the adhesion tape or sucking disk is used on a smooth surface, and as for a metal part of the vehicle, the magnet may be used for adhesion. In this manner, it is convenient to disassemble the case  3011  for replacing the battery set  3014  or making maintenance. In addition, the sensing and emitting module  302  includes a sensor  3021  and an emitter  3022 . The sensor  3021  and the emitter  3022  are communicated with each other. The sensing and emitting module  302  is disposed on one side of the lamp number controller  401  of the vehicle  40 , or located within the original direction lamp  402  of the vehicle  40  (when being disposed on one side of the lamp number controller  401 , the sensor  3021  is a frequency sensor, which is capable of sensing the frequency signal when the lamp number controller  401  is operated, so as to generate a control signal. When being disposed within the direction lamp  402 , the sensor  3021  is a light sensor, which is capable of sensing whether the direction lamp emits lights or not, so as to generate a control signal). During the usage, the sensing and emitting module  302  communicates with the receiver  3013  of the light fitting  301  through the emitter  3022  by means of wireless transmission, such that the control signal generated by the sensor  3021  is sent to the receiver  3013  of the light fitting  301  through the emitter  3022  of the sensing and emitting module  302 , thereby actuating the light source  3012  to emit lights. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , it is a hardware block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The light source  3012 , the receiver  3013 , and the battery set  3014  of the direction indicator lamp  30  are disposed on a circuit board  3015 . The light source  3012  is electrically connected to the battery set  3014 , the receiver  3013  is also electrically connected to the battery set  3014 , and the light source  3012  and the receiver  3013  are communicated with each other. The sensing and emitting module  302  on the other end includes a sensor  3021  and an emitter  3022 , which are powered by an internal battery set, or powered by electrically connecting to the original power source of the vehicle. During actuation, the sensor  3021  senses the signal frequency when the lamp number controller  401  is operated, or senses the lights when the direction lamp  402  emits lights, so as to generate a control signal. Then, the control signal is sent to the receiver  3013  of the light fitting  301  through the emitter  3022  by means of wireless transmission, and then the light source  3012  is actuated by the receiver  3013  to emit lights. Therefore, the direction indicator lamp of the present invention can be installed without additional wiring, such that it can be randomly placed at any position of the vehicle  40 , which is quite suitable for the user to install manually. 
     As described above, the direction indicator lamp of the present invention has the following advantages. 
     1. The light fitting and the sensing and emitting module are independently designed in the present invention, the light fitting randomly located at any position of the vehicle can be actuated to emit lights through the sensing and the wireless transmission technique, so as to avoid using a great number of electrical connecting wires for wiring as the conventional direction lamp is installed, and thus avoiding the problems of damage and short circuit of the electrical connecting wires resulted from the friction. 
     2. Furthermore, the bottom surface of the light fitting is disposed with various adhesion portions with different features, so that the light fitting can be quickly mounted at any position on the surface of the vehicle, and thus it is convenient to dissemble the light fitting for maintenance and battery replacement. 
     3. In addition, a semi-permeable mirror is disposed on a surface of the case. When the light source does not emit lights, the light-tight mirror may be formed on the surface of the semi-permeable mirror, for reflecting the lights irradiated from the back of the vehicle, so as to achieve another indicating effect. 
     In view of the above, the above embodiments are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention, but not to restrict the scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents. 
     To sum up, the direction indicator lamp of the present invention does conform to the creativeness requirements as a patent and also has industrial applicability. Therefore, the present invention is filed for an innovation patent according to the law.