Tuner pinion gear guide
AssigneeMotorola, Inc.
InventorAlfred James Clark
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Radio tuner assembly with guide means for automatically maintaining the axis of the pinion gear in radial alignment with the crown gear on the tuner shaft. The tuner shaft is rotatably coupled to one end of the guide means. The pinion gear shaft is slidably and rotatably coupled to the other end of the guide means. The pinion gear shaft is coupled to a manual tuning control shaft through a universal joint connection. This arrangement provides a range of adjustable positions for the manual tuning control shaft relative to the radio tuner front panel while automatically maintaining the axis of the pinion gear in radial alignment with the crown gear.
Claims7
A radio tuner assembly having a support structure, tuning means mounted on the support structure for selecting a desired station, and tuning drive means adapted to position the tuning means by manual and by pushbutton means, the tuning drive means comprising:
- first shaft means rotatably and slidably mounted on the support structure, said shaft having a first portion, a second portion and a pivot means intermediate said first and second portion for coupling said portions together and providing means for changing the angle of the axis of rotation of the first portion relative to the axis of rotation of the second portion;
- manual control means fixedly mounted on the first portion of the first shaft means for causing rotation thereof;
- first gear means fixedly mounted on the free end of the second portion of the first shaft means for rotation therewith;
- second shaft means rotatably mounted on the tuner structure;
- second gear means mounted on a portion of the second shaft means;
- the first gear means being adapted to cause rotation of the second gear means;
- guide means having a first end coupled to the second shaft means to permit rotational movement therebetween and having a second end adapted to engage the second portion of the first shaft means to permit rotational movement therebetween, said guide means for cooperating with the pivot means of the first shaft means to position the axis of the second gear means in radial alignment with the first gear means;
- and
- variable means coupled to the first shaft means for accommodating variations in the lineal dimension measured along the first shaft means and the guide means to the axis of rotation of the second shaft means.
A tuner for a radio receiver comprising:
- a frame having a front wall with an aperture therein;
- a crown gear;
- a shaft rotatably supporting the crown gear in the frame;
- adjustable tuning means including a tuning control shaft rotatably mounted in the aperture of the front wall of the frame and means for selectively positioning the control shaft in one of a plurality of fixed positions in the front wall;
- pinion gear means carried by the tuning control shaft and cooperable with the crown gear for translating rotational movement of the control shaft to crown gear rotation for tuning to a desired frequency;
- and
- a control rod having one end journaled to the crown gear shaft and the other end slidably received within the pinion gear along its axis of rotation for maintaining the pinion gear axis in radial alignment with the crown gear for all selected positions of the control shaft while permitting relative rotational movement between the pinion gear and control rod.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.