Hand-held controller with external light source

#1. Technical Field

#The present invention relates to a hand-held controller connected to a control device for controlling the operating mechanism unit of a machine, and used by being gripped by an operator when the operating mechanism unit is manually controlled.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a machine tool furnished with a manual pulse generator according to one embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the manual pulse generator shown in FIG. 1;

#FIG. 3 is a front view showing the manual pulse generator shown in FIG. 1; and

#In what follows, the preferred embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a machine tool furnished with a manual pulse generator according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the manual pulse generator shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a front view showing the manual pulse generator shown in FIG. 1.

#As shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, a manual pulse generator (hand-held controller) 1 of this example is attached to a control panel 6 of a machine tool (machine) 5 made up of a spindle mechanism (not illustrated) for holding a tool, a workpiece attachment mechanism (not illustrated) to which a workpiece is attached, a feed mechanism (not illustrated) for relatively moving the tool and the workpiece by relatively moving the spindle mechanism (not illustrated) and the workpiece attachment mechanism (not illustrated) along three orthogonal X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis directions, a control device (not illustrated) for controlling an operation of the feed mechanism, and the control panel 6 including control keys 6a and a keyboard 6b for inputting various types of data to the control device and a display 6c for displaying a control state by the control device on the screen. The manual pulse generator 1 comprises a control section 11 for inputting a pulse signal (control signal) to the control device and a light-emitting diode 15 for illumination.

#The control panel 6 is also provided with an operation mode selecting switch for switching an operation mode between an automatic operation based on an NC program, a first manual operation based on an input from the control keys 6a and the keyboard 6b, and a second manual operation based on a pulse signal from the manual pulse generator 1. The control device controls the feed mechanism on the basis of the NC program if the automatic operation is selected, on the basis of the data input from the control keys 6a and the keyboard 6b if the first manual operation is selected, and on the basis of the pulse signal input from the manual pulse generator 1 if the second manual operation is selected, so that the spindle mechanism (tool) and the workpiece attachment mechanism (workpiece) relatively move. Furthermore, the spindle mechanism, the workpiece attachment mechanism and the feed mechanism function as an operating mechanism set forth in Claims.