CA1049113A - Motor vehicle safety and/or warning devices for excessive forces applied thereto - Google Patents
Motor vehicle safety and/or warning devices for excessive forces applied theretoInfo
- Publication number
- CA1049113A CA1049113A CA75226872A CA226872A CA1049113A CA 1049113 A CA1049113 A CA 1049113A CA 75226872 A CA75226872 A CA 75226872A CA 226872 A CA226872 A CA 226872A CA 1049113 A CA1049113 A CA 1049113A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- switch means
- time
- time delay
- expired
- closing
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
Landscapes
- Emergency Alarm Devices (AREA)
Abstract
A B S T R A C T.
A device for fitment to a motor vehicle and adapted to close a circuit upon excessive accelerative, decelerative or centrifugal forces being applied thereto, the circuit including means for preventing the closure thereof from being registered for a predetermined length of time in order to avoid registration of such closure as a result of bumps or the like in a road, the registration of closure being effected by a counter and/or audible alarm.
A device for fitment to a motor vehicle and adapted to close a circuit upon excessive accelerative, decelerative or centrifugal forces being applied thereto, the circuit including means for preventing the closure thereof from being registered for a predetermined length of time in order to avoid registration of such closure as a result of bumps or the like in a road, the registration of closure being effected by a counter and/or audible alarm.
Description
THIS INVENTION rela-tes to safe-ty and/or warning devices for use on motor vehicles and which are adapted to warn drivers or record information as to accelerating and/or decel-erating at excessive rates and/or as to cornering at excessively high speeds.
The need for such a device is due to the inability of many motorists to control a vehicle in high speed turns particu-larly on slippery and loose road surfaces and in fact to judge when a cornering speed is excessive. The device coupled with means for recording the number of times over a period when corner-ing has been effected at excessi~e speeds with conse~uent unnecess-ary tyre wear, is also;useful as a,check on drivers employed by commercial firms.
When a vehicle corners a lateral thrust is developed due to centrifugal force, the lateral thrust on the vehicle being dependent on speed,-radius of turn and degree of banking of the road. A device of the above type utilises this lateral thrust -as a means to operate a device indicative of whether a cornering speed is excessive or not.
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~049~13 Since the device is responsive to a lateral thrust it may also be located to be responsive to a fore and a-~t thrust, thus indicating excessive accelleration and braking.
Al-ternatively the responsive elements of the device may ~e duplicated and located so as to be responsive to both lateral and fore and aft thrust.
Such a de~ice has been described in my South A~rican Patent No. 66/6673 wherein mercury tubes were employed to effect switching of an alarm and/or activation o~ a counter according to whether or not the vehicle velocity changed su-f~iciently to oause switching. -~
~ Iowever, in the device described in my said Patent the possibility exists that a sudden jolt suob as when a,vehicle passes through a pot-hole could cause ,... .
switching by momentary conta~t o~ mercury which splaAhes~ '' onto the contacts in the tube.
; ~ .
It is accordingly the obJect of this invention ,~
-to provide'an improved device of this -type wherein the described disadvantage is overcome. '~
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; ' , ''' ' ' , . . ' . ~ , ~04~ 3 In accordance with an embodiment, apparatus for indica- -ting excessive accelerative, decelerative and centrifugal forces acting on a moving vehicle, comprise: at least one switch means, means mounting said switch means on a base member for movement from an open to a closed position upon application of an excessive inertial force to said base member, and circuit means coupled to said switch means for indicating and recording when said switch means is in the closed position, said circuit means ' `7 including time delay means for delaying the activation of said .~ :
circuit means to indicate and record said closed position until said switch means has remained closed for a period of time from about 0.1 to about 0.5 second. ;~
:
~,k A still further feature of the invention provides for the circuit to embody a further time delay arrangement adapted to prevent activation of the warning emitter or counter for a pre-determined time period after opening of a switch member which has been closed. Preferably this latter time period is of the order of 3 to 5 seconds.
In order that the invention may be more fully understood one embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example.
In this description reference is made to the accompanying drawlngs in which:-Fig. 1 is a top isometric view of a complete unit.
Fig. 2 is a dlagrammatic elevation il-lustrating the sensitivity adjustment means of the unit, and ' Fig. 3 is a circuit diagram embodying the present invention.
In this embodiment of the invention the device is adapted to warn a driver and count the number of warnings in res-pect of excessive acceleration, deceleration and cornering speeds in each direction. Thus ~che'device is provided with four inclined glass capsules'l two of which'are located parallel in ~lan view to the length of the box 2 in which they'are supported and are inclined upwardly in opposite directions in thé vertical plane.
The other two capsules are located at right angles to the first mentioned two in plan view and also are inclined upwardly in opposité'directions in the vertical plane. Thus, in use the box is located such tbat two capsule~ extend parallel to the length of the vehicle in plan view and the other two are located transversely to the vehicle length. The former two are for acceleration and deceleration and the,latter two are for the two cornering directions. ,, Each capsule contains a suitable amount of fluent con-ducting material which is preferably mercury and has a pair of ' -5- , .
. . . .
contacts at its upper end which can be closed by mercury should it be forced sufficiently far up the capsule. Also, these cap-sules are preferably coated with a suitable plastics material in order to render them unbreakable.
. Referring to figures 1 and 2, the capsules are pivotally mounted and their inclination is adjustable by means of a flex-ible filament 3 attached to the top of each capsule and passing through suitable eyelets 4 and onto a rotatable spindle 5. The latter is fitted with a knurled knob 6 and locking-nut 7 to enable the filament to be locked in the desired position. In order to hold the capsule in position the lower end of each is biased down- ~ ;
wardly by means of a spring 8. The four knurled knobs are located in a transverse partition wall 9 in the box which will also support a test button 10 connected simply to operate the audible alarm and -counter 11 described below. .
A main power switch 12 is mounted on the partition wall : ..to isolate the power ,supply pack which is in the form of a battery 13 from the circuit which is contained in a printed circuit board i...... .
14 within the box. All the contacts from the capsules are also connected to the printed circuit board and the remainder of the function of the circuit will be described with reference to Fig. 3. .
As shown in figure 3, the circuit embodies the four capsules represented as switches 15 all connected in parallel to the positive of the power supply and connected by way of two series arranged voltage dividing resistors 16 and 17 to the negative of the power suppl~. :
A first capacitor 28 is connected between negative and the opposite end of the one voltage dividing resistor 17 such that it is tp be charged through the other resistor 16. The cap-acitor is also connected to the base o-f an~npn transistor 18 which .
is arranged to fire a pnp transistor 19 when it i~s conducting. .: -The latter is arranged to fire an npn protective transistor 20 ..
,,;'' " '' ' ' '" ':; ' ' ' ' ' ' "' '" ' . . ' :
9~3 which in turn fires a power transistor 21. The latter operates a counter 22 and oscillator circuit 23 which powers an audible speaker unit 240 The emitter of the pnp transistoril9 is connected through a second capacitor 25 to negative and the la-tter is ar-ranged to be charged,through a resistor 26 from the positive. The usual voltage dividing resistors 27 are embodied in the circuit in a manner apparent to those skilled in the art.
The arrangement and values of the components.are chosen such that the first capacitor must charge to a predetermined level upon closure of one of the mercury switches before the ~irst trans-~ .
istor 18 is fired. The time taken for this is preferably between 0.2 and 0.3 seconds such that if a switch is momentarily closed by a splash of mercury the counter and audible alarm will not be activated.
. This first transistor will only fire the pnp transistor if the second capaeitor 25 is charged and the time taken to effect charging of this capacitor is preferably about-4 seconds. This prevents the counter and audible alarm from being activated,more .frequently than every four seconds. The principle behind this is to prevent a plurality of driving "faults" from being registered whilst a first fault is still in the process of being corrected~
Finally the oscillator circuit is arranged to be power-ed by discharge of an operating capacitor 29 such that the audible alarm only operates for about a second thereby preventing an ir-ritating or disturbing noise from continuing for an undesirable length of time.
- It will be appreciated that the device described above will operate only upon detection of a fault as opposed to ~splash-ing of the mercury for e~ample and will thus.obviate, at least tosome extent the disadvantages outlined above.
The invention applies equally well to capsules containing ,, ,, . . ,, .. . , , ' , , . . '. .. : '' . ., ,,: ., , . . ~ ' ' ' . . :
,.,: . :. , ' ' . ', .. . : ..
metal elements such as a ball or to pendulum or magnetic types of switches.
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.
~ ' .' ,";' .:
. ~. . ..
' ' : :
: ' '' ' ' ; ,',, , : '
The need for such a device is due to the inability of many motorists to control a vehicle in high speed turns particu-larly on slippery and loose road surfaces and in fact to judge when a cornering speed is excessive. The device coupled with means for recording the number of times over a period when corner-ing has been effected at excessi~e speeds with conse~uent unnecess-ary tyre wear, is also;useful as a,check on drivers employed by commercial firms.
When a vehicle corners a lateral thrust is developed due to centrifugal force, the lateral thrust on the vehicle being dependent on speed,-radius of turn and degree of banking of the road. A device of the above type utilises this lateral thrust -as a means to operate a device indicative of whether a cornering speed is excessive or not.
,',',..
' :
" ~ ' ,::
' ~' ' :, . ~ , - , , , .
. , . . :
~049~13 Since the device is responsive to a lateral thrust it may also be located to be responsive to a fore and a-~t thrust, thus indicating excessive accelleration and braking.
Al-ternatively the responsive elements of the device may ~e duplicated and located so as to be responsive to both lateral and fore and aft thrust.
Such a de~ice has been described in my South A~rican Patent No. 66/6673 wherein mercury tubes were employed to effect switching of an alarm and/or activation o~ a counter according to whether or not the vehicle velocity changed su-f~iciently to oause switching. -~
~ Iowever, in the device described in my said Patent the possibility exists that a sudden jolt suob as when a,vehicle passes through a pot-hole could cause ,... .
switching by momentary conta~t o~ mercury which splaAhes~ '' onto the contacts in the tube.
; ~ .
It is accordingly the obJect of this invention ,~
-to provide'an improved device of this -type wherein the described disadvantage is overcome. '~
.. .. ..
~:; .
~' '"
.. . . . . ...
. . .: :.: ' - . ,, , .,, : . -.. . . . . . . .
,. . . : . . .
~ ' ' ,, . . ~ ,:, ~ , .. . . . ..
:; . . ,. , , ' '.. , :
. . . . . .
; ' , ''' ' ' , . . ' . ~ , ~04~ 3 In accordance with an embodiment, apparatus for indica- -ting excessive accelerative, decelerative and centrifugal forces acting on a moving vehicle, comprise: at least one switch means, means mounting said switch means on a base member for movement from an open to a closed position upon application of an excessive inertial force to said base member, and circuit means coupled to said switch means for indicating and recording when said switch means is in the closed position, said circuit means ' `7 including time delay means for delaying the activation of said .~ :
circuit means to indicate and record said closed position until said switch means has remained closed for a period of time from about 0.1 to about 0.5 second. ;~
:
~,k A still further feature of the invention provides for the circuit to embody a further time delay arrangement adapted to prevent activation of the warning emitter or counter for a pre-determined time period after opening of a switch member which has been closed. Preferably this latter time period is of the order of 3 to 5 seconds.
In order that the invention may be more fully understood one embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example.
In this description reference is made to the accompanying drawlngs in which:-Fig. 1 is a top isometric view of a complete unit.
Fig. 2 is a dlagrammatic elevation il-lustrating the sensitivity adjustment means of the unit, and ' Fig. 3 is a circuit diagram embodying the present invention.
In this embodiment of the invention the device is adapted to warn a driver and count the number of warnings in res-pect of excessive acceleration, deceleration and cornering speeds in each direction. Thus ~che'device is provided with four inclined glass capsules'l two of which'are located parallel in ~lan view to the length of the box 2 in which they'are supported and are inclined upwardly in opposite directions in thé vertical plane.
The other two capsules are located at right angles to the first mentioned two in plan view and also are inclined upwardly in opposité'directions in the vertical plane. Thus, in use the box is located such tbat two capsule~ extend parallel to the length of the vehicle in plan view and the other two are located transversely to the vehicle length. The former two are for acceleration and deceleration and the,latter two are for the two cornering directions. ,, Each capsule contains a suitable amount of fluent con-ducting material which is preferably mercury and has a pair of ' -5- , .
. . . .
contacts at its upper end which can be closed by mercury should it be forced sufficiently far up the capsule. Also, these cap-sules are preferably coated with a suitable plastics material in order to render them unbreakable.
. Referring to figures 1 and 2, the capsules are pivotally mounted and their inclination is adjustable by means of a flex-ible filament 3 attached to the top of each capsule and passing through suitable eyelets 4 and onto a rotatable spindle 5. The latter is fitted with a knurled knob 6 and locking-nut 7 to enable the filament to be locked in the desired position. In order to hold the capsule in position the lower end of each is biased down- ~ ;
wardly by means of a spring 8. The four knurled knobs are located in a transverse partition wall 9 in the box which will also support a test button 10 connected simply to operate the audible alarm and -counter 11 described below. .
A main power switch 12 is mounted on the partition wall : ..to isolate the power ,supply pack which is in the form of a battery 13 from the circuit which is contained in a printed circuit board i...... .
14 within the box. All the contacts from the capsules are also connected to the printed circuit board and the remainder of the function of the circuit will be described with reference to Fig. 3. .
As shown in figure 3, the circuit embodies the four capsules represented as switches 15 all connected in parallel to the positive of the power supply and connected by way of two series arranged voltage dividing resistors 16 and 17 to the negative of the power suppl~. :
A first capacitor 28 is connected between negative and the opposite end of the one voltage dividing resistor 17 such that it is tp be charged through the other resistor 16. The cap-acitor is also connected to the base o-f an~npn transistor 18 which .
is arranged to fire a pnp transistor 19 when it i~s conducting. .: -The latter is arranged to fire an npn protective transistor 20 ..
,,;'' " '' ' ' '" ':; ' ' ' ' ' ' "' '" ' . . ' :
9~3 which in turn fires a power transistor 21. The latter operates a counter 22 and oscillator circuit 23 which powers an audible speaker unit 240 The emitter of the pnp transistoril9 is connected through a second capacitor 25 to negative and the la-tter is ar-ranged to be charged,through a resistor 26 from the positive. The usual voltage dividing resistors 27 are embodied in the circuit in a manner apparent to those skilled in the art.
The arrangement and values of the components.are chosen such that the first capacitor must charge to a predetermined level upon closure of one of the mercury switches before the ~irst trans-~ .
istor 18 is fired. The time taken for this is preferably between 0.2 and 0.3 seconds such that if a switch is momentarily closed by a splash of mercury the counter and audible alarm will not be activated.
. This first transistor will only fire the pnp transistor if the second capaeitor 25 is charged and the time taken to effect charging of this capacitor is preferably about-4 seconds. This prevents the counter and audible alarm from being activated,more .frequently than every four seconds. The principle behind this is to prevent a plurality of driving "faults" from being registered whilst a first fault is still in the process of being corrected~
Finally the oscillator circuit is arranged to be power-ed by discharge of an operating capacitor 29 such that the audible alarm only operates for about a second thereby preventing an ir-ritating or disturbing noise from continuing for an undesirable length of time.
- It will be appreciated that the device described above will operate only upon detection of a fault as opposed to ~splash-ing of the mercury for e~ample and will thus.obviate, at least tosome extent the disadvantages outlined above.
The invention applies equally well to capsules containing ,, ,, . . ,, .. . , , ' , , . . '. .. : '' . ., ,,: ., , . . ~ ' ' ' . . :
,.,: . :. , ' ' . ', .. . : ..
metal elements such as a ball or to pendulum or magnetic types of switches.
. , ..-.
.
~ ' .' ,";' .:
. ~. . ..
' ' : :
: ' '' ' ' ; ,',, , : '
Claims (11)
1. Apparatus for indicating excessive accelerative, de-celerative and centrifugal forces acting on a moving vehicle, comprising:
at least one switch means;
means mounting said switch means on a base member for movement from an open to a closed position upon application of an excessive inertial force to said base member; and circuit means coupled to said switch means for indica-ting and recording when said switch means is in the closed posi-tion, said circuit means including time delay means for delaying the activation of said circuit means to indicate and record said closed position until said switch means has remained closed for a period of time from about 0.1 to about 0.5 second.
at least one switch means;
means mounting said switch means on a base member for movement from an open to a closed position upon application of an excessive inertial force to said base member; and circuit means coupled to said switch means for indica-ting and recording when said switch means is in the closed posi-tion, said circuit means including time delay means for delaying the activation of said circuit means to indicate and record said closed position until said switch means has remained closed for a period of time from about 0.1 to about 0.5 second.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said switch means comprises four switching members each mounted to said base for movement from open to closed positions upon application of a respective force due to acceleration, deceleration, left vehicle turn and right vehicle turn.
3. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which the switching members are inclined capsules containing fluent electrically conducting material.
4. A device as claimed in claim 3 in which the inclination of the capsules is adjustable.
5. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which the switching members are inclined capsules containing a movable conductive element.
6. A device as claimed in claim 5 in which the inclination of the capsules is adjustable.
7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
second time delay means for preventing activation of said record-ing and indicating means for a second predetermined period of time after said switch means has moved from said closed position to said open position.
second time delay means for preventing activation of said record-ing and indicating means for a second predetermined period of time after said switch means has moved from said closed position to said open position.
8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said second predetermined period of time is between approximately 3 and 5 sec-onds.
9. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:
counter means for counting a first closing of said switch means only after the first time delay has expired and for counting a subsequent closing of said switch means only after said second time delay has expired.
counter means for counting a first closing of said switch means only after the first time delay has expired and for counting a subsequent closing of said switch means only after said second time delay has expired.
10. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising an audible alarm triggered into operation a first time upon a first closing of said switch means only after the first time de-lay has expired and into operation a second time upon a sub-sequent closing of said switch means only after said second time delay has expired.
11. The apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising means to shut off said alarm after a third predetermined time delay.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA75226872A CA1049113A (en) | 1975-05-14 | 1975-05-14 | Motor vehicle safety and/or warning devices for excessive forces applied thereto |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA75226872A CA1049113A (en) | 1975-05-14 | 1975-05-14 | Motor vehicle safety and/or warning devices for excessive forces applied thereto |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1049113A true CA1049113A (en) | 1979-02-20 |
Family
ID=4103075
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA75226872A Expired CA1049113A (en) | 1975-05-14 | 1975-05-14 | Motor vehicle safety and/or warning devices for excessive forces applied thereto |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1049113A (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5467073A (en) * | 1993-10-07 | 1995-11-14 | Elias; Jorge V. | System for the protection and safety of cars, passengers and pedestrians |
-
1975
- 1975-05-14 CA CA75226872A patent/CA1049113A/en not_active Expired
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5467073A (en) * | 1993-10-07 | 1995-11-14 | Elias; Jorge V. | System for the protection and safety of cars, passengers and pedestrians |
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