Patent ID: 8051740

Claim:
An actuating device for an automotive technical system or for selecting gears of a shift-by-wire gear change mechanism, said actuating device comprising: an actuating element mounted to be unlimitedly rotatable by itself; a blocking means with a crank arrangement and with stop elements for limiting the angle of rotation of said actuating element to a total switching angle, wherein said actuating element can assume a number of n, where n>1, switching positions within the total switching angle, said crank arrangement having, for each of the n switching positions of said actuating device, a separate stop element of said stop elements, which can be activated as a function of the state of the technical system or gear change mechanism, and a crank area comprising at least one crank segment, which extends over the total switching angle and between the end stops of which a stop element of said stop elements can assume one of n relative positions, which correspond to the n switching positions of said actuating element, wherein said crank segments assigned to said stop elements add up to a total crank angle of 360 degrees or a multiple thereof, and wherein one or more of said crank segments and said stop elements are arranged distributed over the total crank angle such that each of said n relative positions within one of said crank segments is occupied by one of said stop elements for each said relative switching position of said actuating element.