Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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REMOTE CONTROL HELMET V~SOR
The present invention relates to l~rotecti~e helmets of the type used by
persons riding on motorcycles, snowmobiles, all terrain vehicles and the like. The
invention relates more particularly to a helmet of this type having a power operated visor.
Motorcycle and the like helmets are frequently equipped with visors that
open and close over at least part of the face of a wearer. Opening and closing the visor
while in motion involves the release of one hand from the vehicle steering and other
controls. This is not recommended practice. The present invention proposes a power
operated visor that can be operat~ed without rele~ing the vehicle controls.
According to the present invention there is provided a protective helmet
having a visor mounted on the helmet for movement between an open position for exposing
at least part of the face of a wearer of the helmet and a closed position extending across the
face of a wearer, and a visor opel~ting system comprising:
motor means mounted on the helmet and engaged with the visor for
moving the visor between the open and closed positions;
motor ~ctu~ting means adapted to be mounted at a position remote
from the helmet for selective manual actuation, the motor ~ctu~ting means generating
motor control signals in response to manual actuation thereof; and
comml~niç~tion means communicating between the motor ac~ting
means and the motor means for lr~n~ g the motor control signals from the motor
actl-~ting means to the motor means for operating the motor.
Preferably, the motor ~hl~ting means is a radio frequency tr~n~miner
mounted on the vehicle and controlled by a readily ~cces~ihle switch, for example on the
handlebars. A receiver in the helmet receives the signals tr~nsmitted and causes the motor
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to raise or lower the visor according to the signal received.
It is prerelled to include a manual override so that the visor can be operated
by hand when necessary. This may include a mechanism for di~ngaginP the motor and
eng~inp a m~ch~ni~ t, preferably in the form of a click stop mech~nism. Anescape m~ch~ni~m for relP~cing the drive train when excessive force is applied to the visor
may also be included.
In the accolllpanying drawings, which illustrate an exemplary embodiment
of the present invention:
Figure 1 is a front view of a helmet according to the present invention;
Figure 2 is a side view of the helmet;
Figure 3 is a right side view of the helmet with the right side cowling
removed;
Figure 4 is a view along line 4-4 of Figure 3;
Figure S is a view along line 5-5 of Figure 4;
Figure 6, on the same sheet as Figure 3, is a left side view of the helmet
with the cowling removed;
Figure 7 is an electrical sc~ em~tic of the vehicle mounted electrical system;
and
Figure 8 is an electrical schem~tic of the helmet mounted electrical system.
Referring to the accompanying drawings, there is illustrated a helmet 10
having a hard helmet shell 12 lined with shock absorbing m~t~ri~l in the usual way. The
helmet has a face opening 13 on the front side that may be closed by a transparent visor
14. The visor is mounted on the helmet for pivotal movement between a closed position
shown in solid line in Figure 2 and the open position shown in broken line in that Figure.
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The helmet is equipped with a right side cowling 16 and a left side cowling
18 mounted externally on the helmet and enclosing the components of an operating system
for controlling movement of the visor.
On the bottom of the right side cowling is an on-off toggle switch 20 for the
visor operating me~h~ni~m. Imm~li~te1y in front of the toggle switch is a pilot light 22
that is illumin~ted when the operating mech~nism is on. Imme~ t~1y in front of the pilot
light is a motor release lever 24. This lever is mounted on the helmet, as will be described
more fully in the following, and projects through a slot (not shown) in the cowling 16.
On the left side of the helmet, a manual visor l~llaint lever 26 projects
through a slot in the bottom of the cowling 18 as will be described more fully in the
following.
Referring to Figures 3, 4 and 5, the right side of the visor 14 has a lug 28 at
the upper rear corner that extends over a circular boss 30 (Figure 4) on the side of the
helmet. A pivot shaft 32 projects from the boss through a hub 34 fixed to the visor lug 28.
On the outer side of the hub is a spur gear 38. This meshes with a smaller pinion 40 below
the gear 38. The pinion is mounted co-axially with a bevel gear 42 on a slide 44. The
slide also carries a motor 46 driving a second bevel gear 48, meshing with the bevel gear
42. The motor is a small servo type motor modified to rotate continuously in both
directions. The motor has an integral shut off system for shutting off the motor when the
driven element, in this case the visor, reaches the end of its travel.
The slider 44 is mounted on a slide base 50 fixed to the side of the helmet
below the visor pivot 42. This slide base includes a channel S2 that receives a rail 54
mounted on the slide 44 so that the motor and the drive train con~i~ting of bevel gears 48
and 42 and pinion 40 slide up and down towards and away from the gear 38 to cause
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engagement and di~eng~gement of the gears 40 and 38.
At the bottom of the slide base 50 is a flange 56 that projects outwardly
below the slide 44 and motor 46. A rod 58 projecting downwardly from the motor extends
through a bore 60 in this flange. A spring 62 surrounding the rod 58 is compressed
between the motor 46 and flange 56 to bias the slide and the components carried on it
upwardly from the flange 56, thus urging the gears 38 and 40 into engagement.
A tension link 64 is connected to the slide 44 and extends downwardly to an
arm 66 projecting from a rotary shaft 68. The shaft carries the release lever 24. A spring
clip 72 acts as a retainer for the lever 24 to hold the lever, the slide, the motor and the
drive train in a released position with the gear 40 out of engagement with the gear 38,
against the force of the spring 62.
Mounted on the side of the helmet imm~liatP.Iy behind the slide base 50 is a
radio fre~uency receiver 74. This receiver is of the type used in radio controlled model
aircraft. It is intended to receive a coded signal from a tr~n~mitter, to decode the signal
and to produce motor control signals for driving the motor 46.
As illustrated in Figure 6, on the left side of the helmet the visor 14 has a
visor lug 75 collt;sponding to the lug 28 on the right hand side. The lug is pivotally
mounted on a pivot shaft 76 co-axial with the pivot shaft 42 on the opposite side. A
toothed disc 78 is secured to the lug to rotate with it. Tmm~i~tP1y below the toothed disc
is a brake block 80 with a convex upper surface 81 formed with teeth 82. The teeth 82
engage the teeth on the disc 78 to retain the visor in position. The brake block 80 is fixed
to the end of a rod 84 that slides in a bore in a mounting block 86 fixed to the side of the
helmet below the brake block 80. Two coil springs 88 extend between the mounting block
86 and the brake block 80 to bias the brake block 80 upwardly into engagement with the
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disc 78.
A lower end of the rod 84 is connected eccentrically to a disc 90 rotatable
on a shaft 92 fixed to the helmet. The disc 90 also carries a boss 94 that serves as an
actuator for a micro switch 96. The re~iner lever 26 is fa~tene~ to the disc 90 so that as
the lever is moved backwards and forwards it will either pull down on the rod 84, rel~ing
the brake block 80 from the disc 78, or release the brake block to move upwardly under
the influence of springs 88. In the released position, when the springs are coll-plessed, the
lever 26 engages a spring clip 97 to hold the components in this released condition.
Mounted on the side of the helmet imm~Ai~t~ly behind the brake block 80
and mounting block 86 is a battery pack 98 .
Figure 7 is an electrical schematic of a part of the system that is mounted on
the vehicle to be ridden. The vehicle has a battery 100 with a negative ground and a horn
circuit 102 connected to the positive battery terminal. The present system is tapped off the
horn circuit. It includes a voltage regulator 104 that provides a regulated voltage to an
encoder circuit 106. Three lines 108, 110 and 112 lead from the encoder circuit to a single
pull double throw switch 114. This is preferably a rocker switch with a neutral position in
which neither of the switch contacts is closed. Line 108 is a power line leading to the pole
of the switch. The line 110 delivers an "up" signal to the encoder 106 when the switch is
closed to deliver power to that line. Similarly, line 112 delivers a "down" signal to the
encoder 108 when the switch is closed to deliver power to line 112.
The encoder delivers encoded up and down signals to a tr~nsmitt~r 116
which tr~n~mit~ the signals locally using an ~ntenn~ 120. This entire system is mounted on
the vehicle, e.g. a motorcycle, with the switch 114 ~dj~,ent one of the hand grips so that it
can be thumb oper~ted without rele~ing the hand grip. Apart from the physical mounting
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of the components, the only interconnection to the vehicle system is the connection of the
positive lead of the regulator to battery power, and the grounding of the regulator.
The cil~;uilly of the helmet mounted system is illustrated in Figure 8. The
battery 122 is carried by the battery pack 98 on the left hand side. The negative terminal
of the battery is connected to a ground line 124, which is in turn connected to the pilot
light 22 and the receiver 74. The positive terminal of the battery 122 is connected through
the on/off toggle switch 20 to the pilot light 22 so that when the switch is closed the light
will be on. In series with the on/off switch 20 is the microswitch 96 which in turn delivers
power to the receiver 74. The receiver is electrically connected to the motor 96 to drive
the motor in opposite directions according to the signals received from the tr~nsmitter.
The micro~ilch 96 is closed when the brake block 80 is released from the
toothed disc 78 to allow normal operation of the motor. When the brake block is engaged,
the power to the receiver is shut off so that the motor will not operate against the brake.
Returning to Figures 3 and 4, these drawings illustrate the normal drive
condition of the motor drive train. Moving the lever 24 draws the motor and drive train
away from the gear 38 to di~ng~ge the drive. This leaves the visor free to pivot up and
down. To prevent unwanted free movement of the visor, the lever 26 is pushed to the rear
to engage the brake block 80 with the toothed disc 82. This provides a click stop type of
r~ ~nt on the movement of the visor, with the teeth of disc 82 c~mming the teeth of the
brake block downwardly so that the visor can be placed in a partially open position if
desired.
With the brake block 80 diseng~ged and the gears 38 and 40 engaged,
excessive force on the visor tending to either open or close the visor with the motor
inactive will cause the teeth of the gear 38 to cam over the teeth of pinion 40, displacing
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the gear 40 and the slide 44 downwardly against the spring 62. The gears then act as a
ratchet clutch providing an override or release function to prevent damage to the motor and
drive train when the visor is raised or lowered manually while the drive train is engaged.
As will be observed from the foregoing, the remote mode of operation of
the helmet visor requires that both of the levers 24 and 26 are in the folwar~ position. For
manual operation, both levers are in the rear position, ~1i~ng~ging the motor and eng~ging
the manual latch mechanism.
While one embodiment of the present invention has been described
foregoing, it is to be understood that other embo liment~ are possible within the scope of
the invention, which is to be ascertained solely by reference to the appended claims.
