US 7,253,720 B2Granted

Programmable push button

AssigneePolara Engineering, Inc.

InventorsLeslie A. Beckwith, Wayne L. Russell

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Abstract

A programmable push button having a microcontroller located therewithin to provide a switching signal to operate an electronic switch and thereby enable power to be supplied from a source of power to a load to initiate an external event. The push button also has a piezoelectric assembly which is responsive to one or a sequence of manually applied pushing forces at a push button cap. The microcontroller is interconnected with the piezoelectric assembly on a printed circuit board so that output voltage signals generated by the piezoelectric assembly are applied to the microcontroller as a series of digital pulses. The microcontroller can be programmed by applying a particular sequence of pushing forces to the push button cap so that one or more times can be set during which the external event will be initiated or to require a predetermined security code to be entered before the external event can be initiated.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A programmable push button to initiate an external event, said push button comprising:

a push button body;
a pushing surface supported by said push button body and adapted to move relative to said push button body in response to a pushing force applied to said pushing surface;
a force transmitting member carried by and movable with said pushing surface;
a pressure responsive member supported by said push button body and aligned with said force transmitting member carried by said pushing surface, such that a pushing force applied to said pushing surface causes said pushing surface to move relative to said push button body and said force transmitting member to apply a corresponding pressure against said pressure responsive member, said pressure responsive member generating an output electrical signal in response to the pressure applied thereto;
an electronic switch responsive to said output electrical signal generated by said pressure responsive member for providing power to initiate the external event;
and
a microcontroller electrically connected between said pressure responsive member and said electronic switch, said microcontroller receiving the output electrical signal generated by said pressure responsive member and generating a switching signal to operate said electronic switch, whereby power is provided to initiate the external event.

4 more elements

A programmable push button to initiate an external event, said push button comprising:

a push button body;
a pushing surface supported by said push button body and adapted to move relative to said push button body to apply a pressure against said push button body in response to a pushing force applied to said pushing surface;
a pressure responsive member generating an electrical output signal in response to the movement of said pushing surface and the pressure applied against said push button body;
a microcontroller to generate a switching signal in response to the electrical output signal generated by said pressure responsive member, said microcontroller and said pressure responsive member being electrically connected to one another on a printed circuit board that is located within said push button body, said pushing surface and said printed circuit board lying in opposing axial alignment with one another;
and
an electronic switch connected to said printed circuit board within said push button body and responsive to the switching signal generated by said microcontroller for providing power to initiate the external event.

3 more elements

A programmable push button to initiate different events, said push button comprising:

a push button body;
a pushing surface supported by said push button body and adapted to move relative to said push button body to generate a pushing pressure in response to a pushing force applied to said pushing surface;
a pressure responsive member generating an output electrical signal in response to a movement of said pushing surface and the pushing pressure generated thereby;
a microcontroller to generate a switch signal in response to the electrical output signal generated by said pressure responsive member, said microcontroller being responsive to a plurality of pushing pressures generated by said pushing surface and a corresponding plurality of electrical output signals generated by said pressure responsive member, the switch signal generated by said microcontroller being dependent upon a particular sequence of pushing pressures generated by said pushing surface;
and
an electronic switch responsive to the switch signal generated by said microcontroller to cause power to be provided to initiate a particular one of the different events corresponding to the particular sequence of pushing pressures generated by said pushing surface.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.