GB2492350A

GB2492350A - A touch switch with a backlight that is programmable in colour and intensity

Info

Publication number: GB2492350A
Application number: GB1110985.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Wang
Original assignee: King I Electromechanical Ind Co Ltd
Current assignee: King I Electromechanical Ind Co Ltd
Priority date: 2011-06-28
Filing date: 2011-06-28
Publication date: 2013-01-02
Anticipated expiration: 2031-06-28
Also published as: GB201110985D0; GB2492350B

Abstract

A touch switch for a lamp comprises a touch portion or portions for operating a lamp and further touch portions R,B,G for controlling the colour and intensity of the switch backlight. The user may thus choose a backlight colour to match interior decoration. The backlight may enable location of the switch at night, and the backlight brightness may be altered automatically when the switch is touched. The backlight may be provided by LEDs illuminating a transparent or translucent light guide plate (30, figure 4). The touch switch portions may be provided with apertures to allow light from LED switch status indicators to be seen. The touch switch is easy to clean and may be of capacitive, resistive or infra-red type.

Description

A TOUCH LAMP SWITCH

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

I. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a lamp switch, and more particularly to an improved one which is designed to control the on/off state of a lamp via touch sensing mode and provide backlight and brightness control functions in collaboration with LED indicators.

2. Description of Related Art

Switches are extensively used in household appliances, for instance, wall-mounted lamp switches are often used indoors or outdoors to turn on or off lighting or electrical appliances. Such lamp switches are mechanical types that turn on/off lamps via the contact of a metal spring.

Despite the applicability of the aforesaid common lamp switches, the following shortcomings are still observed during actual applications: 1. Elastic elements are generally assembled into the common lamp switches to turn on/off them mechanically; however, elastic fatigue or loosening may occur due to the pressure generated by the pressing of fingers in prolonged operation; invalid springing may occur when the point of force applied by the fingers is not accurate enough, or failure of switching or even operation may occur in the case of insufficient force of application.

2. A large number of spare parts require time-consuming assembly of the common lamp switches, in particular the gap between the faceplate and buttons makes it difficult for cleaning.

3. Given the gap between the faceplate and buttons, the buttons are protrude much out of the faceplate, leading possibly to abrasion and scratching, or even accidental electric shock in the case of moisture.

4. The faceplate and buttons of common lamp switches are generally designed into a fixed pattern, so such stiff design is often out of tune with the indoor decorations, Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement of the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve the efficacy.

Therefore, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a touch lamp switch, which is designed to control the on/off state of lamp via touch sensing mode; and when the lamp switch isn't used, small night lights are replaced by multiple variable backlights for improved convenience and functionality.

A second objective of the present invention is to provide a touch lamp switch, which couJd minimize the spare parts and facilitate the assembly based on design of modular electronic parts; meanwhile, spare parts of the same dimension and high compatibility are available for different touch switches on the faceplate, thus reducing extra moulding cost for better economic benefits.

A third objective of the present invention is to provide a touch lamp switch, which could reduce the dirtiness, facilitate cleaning and prevent any accidental electric shock via integrated design of the faceplate and touch switch.

A fourth objective of the present invention is to provide a touch lamp switch, which permits the users to decide the colour of rear plate at their own discretion, through aesthetically-pleasing appearance design, colourful indication and backlighting; other than creating a comfortable atmosphere, the colourful backlight can also be used as a small night light, helping to beautif' the indoor decorations and save the space for better fashion.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide an alternative to existing products and it is to be understood that embodiments of the invention may fulfil one or more of these objectives.

The invention provides a touch lamp switch, comprising: Prefabricated upper/lower housings; the center of the upper housing is hollowed and mated with a protruded keying portion; touch switches of different functions are divided on the surface; the lower housing is provided with a depressed holding space; a faceplate, attached firmly with the upper housing; a light guide plate, made of transparent or semi-transparent materials, attached firmly with the surface of the faceplate; a hollow frame, embedded into the center of the light guide plate and faceplate for locking of the light guide plate; and a circuit structure, set into the holding space of the lower housing, comprising of a circuit board with touch switch circuit, multiple LED indicators and multiple LED bacldights set around the circuit board, so as to provide touch control, status display and colourful backlighting effects.

As for said touch lamp switch, at least one raised line or groove of different shapes is set on the surface of the keying portion, or touch switches of different functions are divided through screen printing.

Linear, arched or geometric shapes or patterns can be provided for either screen printing or raised lines or grooves.

As for the touch lamp switch, every touch switch is provided with a through-hole for status display of rays emitted when LED indicators are highlighted.

As for the touch lamp switch, multiple punch holes are distributed on the periphery of the keying portion, allowing for backlighting of rays emitted when colourful LED backlights are highlighted.

As for the touch lamp switch, the touch switch circuit is of capacitance, resistance or infrared touch types.

As for the touch lamp switch, the colourful LED backlights permit the users to decide the colour of rear plate at their own discretion; other than creating a comfortable atmosphere, the colourftil backlight can also be used as a small night light; the colour change of LED is controlled by the chips in the circuit structure, and the colours are selected by different buttons: RGB 64-level colour selection and single-level colour adjustment with internal settings; button R, red: I 6-level; button 0, green: 16-level; button B, blue: I 6-level.

As for the touch lamp switch, LED indicators also consist of a touch status indicator.

As for the touch lamp switch, LED backlight allows a touch switch to control the highlighting status for the desired backlighting effect of the lamp switch, and change automatically the brightness via chips whenever the touch switch is touched by the users.

Embodiments of the invention include a touch lamp switch comprising a housing, a circuitry received in said housing, internal lighting associated with said circuitry, a light guiding member through which light from said internal lighting can be seen, a faceplate and a keying device via which a user can operate the touch lamp switch.

The light guiding member, faceplate and keying device may be held in connection with the housing by a snap or press fitting engagement system.

The present invention will be more readily implemented by those skilled in the art, upon a thoughtful deliberation of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: an external view of a preferred embodiment of touch lamp switch of the present invention.

FIG. 2: an external view of a preferred embodiment of another two touch lamp switches of the present invention.

FIG. 3: an exploded view of a preferred embodiment of touch lamp switch of the present invention.

FIG. 4: a partial sectional view of a preferred embodiment of touch lamp switch of the present invention.

FIG. 5: a wiring diagram of a preferred embodiment of touch lamp switch of the present invention.

S

FIG. 6: a status view of a preferred embodiment of touch lamp switch of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an external view of a preferred embodiment of the touch lamp switch of the present invention, wherein the lamp switch 1 functionally comprises: two touch switches 13 for switching control of the lamp and a single touch switch 13 for backlighting control; in fact, the lamp switch II is designed to comprise either a single touch switch 13 or at least one touch switch 13 (e.g.: two, three or four sets currently available); FIG. 2 discloses the external structure of a lamp switch 1, covering: a single touch switch 13 for lamp control and two touch switches 13 with variable backlighting colour control functions (R, 0, B); the keying portion 12 herein is only required to be divided simply for implementation, and the other spare parts of higher compatibility could reduce the moulding cost for better economic benefits.

Referring also to FIG. 3--an exploded view of said lamp switch, the lamp switch I comprises: prefabricated upper/lower housings 10, 11; a faceplate 20, attached firmly with the upper housing 10; a light guide plate 30, attached firmly with the surface of the faceplate 20; and a circuit structure 40, set into the holding space of the lower housing 11.

The upper housing 10 is of a square plate; the center of the upper housing 10 is hollowed and mated with a protruding keying portion 12; touch switches 13 are divided through at least one raised line or groove 121 of different shapes (linear, arched or geometric shapes or patterns) on the surface of the keying portion 12 (or by screen printing); every touch switch 13 is provided with a through-hole 14, allowing for displaying the standby/service state of the touch switch 13 when the rays are emitted by highlighted LED indicators; multiple punch holes 15 are distributed on the periphery of the keying portion 12, allowing for backlighting of rays emitted when colourfttl LED backlights are highlighted; a plurality of embedding slots 16 for positioning purpose is set at any two corresponding sides of the keying portion 12; the lower housing 11 is provided with a depressed holding space 111, into which a wire hole zone 112 is segregated; and a tenon 113 for snapping purpose is set at the opening edge of the holding space 111.

The faceplate 20 is a square plate of certain thickness, which is attached firmly with the upper housing 10; and an empty slot 21 allowing for tight penetration of the keying portion 12 is set at the center; notched slots 22 are formed at central section of every side on the empty slot 21, allowing the tenon 113 to pass it tightly; an L-shaped tenon 23 is set at every corner, so as to mate with a square hollow frame 24 tightly set onto the periphery of the keying portion 12; L-shaped bulges 241 are set correspondingly at the corners on the opposite sides of the frame 24, such that when the frame 24 is mated with the faceplate 20, the bulge 241 can be embedded securely into the tenon 23; moreover, a notch 242 is formed at central section of every inner surface of the frame 24, and a salient point 243 is set separately at both sides of the notch 242; when the periphery of the keying portion 12 is set, the salient point 243 can be embedded into the corresponding embedding slot 16 for snapping purpose, so as to ensure that the faceplate 20, frame 24 are mated firmly with the keying portion 12 and upper housing 10.

The light guide plate 30 is also a square plate made of transparent or semi-transparent materials of certain thickness, which can be attached firmly with the surface of the faceplate 20; a groove 31 allowing for penetration of the keying portion 12 is also set at the center of the light guide plate 30; a snapping portion 32 is slightly protruded from the center of every side of the groove 31, such that when the light guide plate 30 is attached with the faceplate 20, the mating of the frame 24 with the faceplate 20 could position firmly the light guide plate 30; referring also to FlU, 4, an inclined surface is formed by the inner surface of the light guide plate 30 from the periphery of the groove 31, the rays can be distributed uniformly to the entire light guide plate 30.

The circuit structure 40 is embedded into a space formed by the upper and lower housings 10, 11, including at least: a circuit board 41, provided with a touch switch circuit correspondingly to the touch switch 13 on the surface of said keying portion 12; the touch switch circuit is of capacitance, resistance or infrared touch types. Its operating principle is that, once upon manual touch, the touch switch circuit could sense the change of current, resistance or infrared coverage, so as to turn on or off the lamp via current control; with this design, when either of the touch switch 13 on the keying portion 12 is touched by fingers, the internal touch circuit could sense the change of current, resistance or infrared coverage, so as to control the on/off state of the designated lamp; multiple LED indicators, set properly onto the circuit board 41, and also located correspondingly with through-holes 14 of the touch switches 13 divided by said keying portion 12, so as to display the current state (standby or in service); and multiple LED backlights 42, available with colourful backlighting ftmctions; the chips in the circuit structure 40 are used to control the colour change of LED indicators and the brightness change of LED backlights 42 from full highlighting to extinguishment; and the colours are selected by different touch buttons 13: RGB 64-level colour selection and single-level colour adjustment with internal settings; button R, red: 16-level; button U, green: 16-level; button B, blue: 16-level. Moreover, automatic colour skipping is made possible by touching any touch switch within the keying portion 12.

Tn addition, the LED backlight(s) 42 is/are designed to adjust the brightness, and four-stage (or more stages) control from full highlighting to extinguishment is adjusted by chips in the circuit structure 40, thus realizing backlighting effect of the lamp switch 1; the colour is changed automatically whenever the touch switch 13 is touched by a user, and the rays are emitted from the periphery of the keying portion 12 to the light guide plate 30 for desired colourful and variable backlighting effects.

The wiring method of said touch lamp switch is illustrated in FIG. 5, wherein two touch switches for switching control and one for backlighting control are provided. Such wiring method for either a single switch or two more switches can be easily implemented or freely modified by those skilled in the art. After completion of assembly, the coloured rays are emitted by the LED indicators from the through-hole 14 of any touch switch 13 in the keying portion 12, thus realizing display and night-time searching by the users.

Referring also to FIG. 6, when the user intends to turn on the lamp by touching any touch switch 13 on the keying portion 12, the indicators from the through-hole 14 on the touch switch 13 are extinguished, and the designated lamps are highlighted for desired lighting effect. When the user intends to turn off the lamp, the lamp is extinguished by touching repetitively the touch switch 13. In addition, LED backlight 42 permits to change the brightness or colour by the preset 64-level, whenever the user touches a touch switch 13 (semi-circular) on the keying portion 12 for backlighting control.

The on/off state of lamp can be controlled by touching the common lamp switch for improved ease-of-operation and convenience in tune with technological progress and humanized applications; the combination of designed touch switches with modular electronic parts could minimize the spare parts and facilitate the assembly; on the other hand, the integrated design of unique faceplate and touch switch could reduce the dirtiness, but also prevent accidental electric shock for better safety; meanwhile, aesthetically-pleasing appearance design could help to save the space and enhance the decorative effect, and also create the sense of fashion through automatic change or manual control of 64-level backlighting effects.

Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

Claims

<claim-text>CLAIMS: I. A touch lamp switch, comprising: prefabricated upper/lower housings; the center of the upper housing is mated with a protruded keying portion; touch switches of different functions are divided on its surface; the lower housing is provided with a depressed holding space; a faceplate, attached firmly with the upper housing; and an empty slot allowing for tight penetration of the keying portion is set at its center; a light guide plate, attached firnily with the faceplate, made of transparent or semi-transparent materials and designed with an inclined surface; a hollow frame, embedded simultaneously into the light guide plate and faceplate for locking of the light guide plate; and a circuit structure, set into the holding space of the lower housing, comprising of a circuit board with touch switch circuit, multiple LED indicators and multiple LED bacldights set around the circuit board, so as to provide touch control, status display and colourful backlighting effects.</claim-text> <claim-text>2. The touch lamp switch as claimed in Claim 1, wherein at least one raised line or groove of different shapes is set on the surface of the keying portion, or touch switches of different functions are divided through screen printing.</claim-text> <claim-text>3. The touch lamp switch as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the grooves are of linear, arched or geometric shapes or patterns.</claim-text> <claim-text>4. The touch lamp switch as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein every touch switch is provided with a through-hole for status display of rays emitted when LED indicators are highlighted.</claim-text> <claim-text>5. The touch lamp switch as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, wherein multiple punch holes are distributed on the peripheiy of the keying portion, allowing for backlighting of rays emitted when colourful LED backlights are highlighted.</claim-text> <claim-text>6. The touch lamp switch as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, wherein a plurality of embedding slots for the upper housing is set at any two corresponding sides of the keying portion; tenons are set for the lower housing at any two corresponding sides on the periphery of the opening of the holding space, allowing for embedding into the slots for snapping purpose.</claim-text> <claim-text>7. The touch lamp switch as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, wherein notched slots are formed at central section of every side on the empty slot, an L-shaped tenon is set at every corner, and L-shaped bulges are set correspondingly at the corners on the opposite sides of the frame.</claim-text> <claim-text>8. The touch lamp switch as claimed in Claim 7, wherein a notch is formed at central section of every inner surface of the frame, and a salient point is set separately at both sides of the notch. When the periphery of the keying portion is set, the salient point can be embedded into the corresponding embedding slot for snapping purpose.</claim-text> <claim-text>9. The touch lamp switch as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, wherein said touch switch circuit is of capacitance, resistance or infrared touch types.</claim-text> <claim-text>10. The touch lamp switch as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, wherein LED backlights are available with colourfUl backlighting and brightness adjustment functions; the chips in the circuit structure are used to control the colour change of LED indicators; and the colours are selected by different touch buttons 13: RGB 64-level colour selection and single-level colour adjustment with internal settings; button R, red: 16-level; button G, green: 16-level; button B, blue: 16-level.</claim-text> <claim-text>11. The touch lamp switch as claimed in Claim 10, wherein the LED backlight is designed to adjust the brightness, and four-stage (or more stages) control from full highlighting to extinguishment is adjusted for the desired backlighting effect of the lamp switch, 12. The touch lamp switch as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, wherein LED indicators also consist of a touch indicator.13. A touch lamp switch substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.</claim-text>