US 6,618,036 B1Granted

Joy stick

AssigneeMitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.

InventorAtsushi Tanaka

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A joy stick which is simply constituted using a decreased number of parts. The joy stick has two swing arms 23 and 24 intersecting at right angles and are supported by a shaft so as to be operated by the swinging operation of a lever 27 and to transmit the rotational displacement to rotary encoders, and a contact switching means 33 that is switched by the depressing operation of the lever 27 in a casing 22, wherein an upper end of a spring 35 is brought into contact with the outer circumference of the lever 27 to maintain the attitude of the lever 27, a support member 31 is provided for limiting the upward displacement of the lever 27, plural protrusions 30, 30, —are formed near the lower end along the outer circumference of the lever 27 to protrude outward and to support the lower end of the spring 35, the contact switching means 33 is provided on a base plate 34, and the base plate 34 is used as the bottom plate of the casing 22.

Claims3

Dependent claims

A joy stick comprising:

a casing;
a lever held in said casing having a longitudinal axis and an upper large diameter portion, a lower curved portion, and protrusions extending from said lever;
a base plate mounted to said casing;
a flexible member on said base plate contacting the lower curved portion biasing said lever upward;
a support member having an inner and outer cylinder and an upper portion with an opening placed within said casing, the upper portion contacting the upper large diameter portion of said lever, the outer cylinder having openings for receiving the protrusions;
a spring placed between the inner and outer cylinder and retained between the upper portion and the protrusions, whereby said spring biases said lever downward towards said flexible support and said flexible support biases said lever upward towards the upper portion of said support member;
a contact switch formed between said base plate and said flexible member;
and
a rotary encoder coupled to said lever,
whereby movement of said lever is detected and said contact switch is capable of being operated by depressing said lever.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/677,148Filed 2 Oct 2000
Priority: JP 11-36188120 Dec 1999
Granted: 9 Sep 2003
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G05G 9/047
In which movement in two or more ways can occur simultaneously: the controlling member being movable by hand about orthogonal axes, e.g. joysticks
G05G 9/04796
Comprising additional control elements: for rectilinear control along the axis of the controlling member
G05G 2009/04748
Characterised by means converting mechanical movement into electric signals: position sensor for rotary movement, e.g. potentiometer
G05G 2009/04777
The controlling member being movable by hand about orthogonal axes, e.g. joysticks: with additional push or pull action on the handle