BUTTON STRUCTURE FOR GAME CONTROLLER

• US 20140378227A1
• Filed: 06/20/2013
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cheng UEI Precision Industry Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Cheng UEI Precision Industry Company Limited
• Inventors: Lee, Tsung Shih
• Granted Patent: US 8,961,311 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/24 Constructional details thereof, e.g. game controllers with detachable joystick handles
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 21/36 Driving mechanisms

Abstract

A button structure includes a base frame longitudinally defining an arc-shaped guide slot, a sliding part transversely defining a guide channel and longitudinally slidably mounted on the base frame, a rotating part defining a guide pillar and rotatably mounted under the base frame with the guide pillar being inserted in the guide slot and the guide channel, and a button body having a lower portion pivoted to the base frame. A drive part is rotatably pivoted between an upper portion of the button body and the sliding part, and can drive the sliding part to longitudinally slide on the base frame by the push of the button body and an elastic part clamped between the drive part and the base frame, so as to drive the guide pillar to slide rearward and forward along the guide slot and the guide channel and further drive the rotating part to rotate.

Claims

1. A button structure used in a game controller in which a circuit board is disposed, comprising:

a button body assembled in a front face of the game controller;

a base frame fixed in the game controller and located parallelly over the circuit board, the button body having a lower portion thereof pivoted to a front end of the base frame, a rear of the base frame defining an arc-shaped guide slot extending along a front-to-rear direction;

a sliding part with a guide channel being transversely opened in a rear thereof;

a drive part, the sliding part being slidably mounted on the base frame along the front-to-rear direction by virtue of the drive part being rotatably pivoted between an upper portion of the button body and a front end of the sliding part under the elasticity of an elastic part, the elastic part being flexibly clamped between the drive part and the base frame; and

a rotating part with electronic components being fixed thereon and away from a rotation axis thereof, a guide pillar being protruded at a position of the rotating part away from the rotation axis, the rotating part being rotatably mounted to the rear of the base frame through the rotation axis thereof being pivoted to the centre of a circle of the guide slot, the rotating part being parallelly rotatable between the base frame and the circuit board, the guide pillar passing through the guide slot to be slidably inserted in the guide channel of the sliding part;

wherein the sliding part can slide on the base frame along the front-to-rear direction by virtue of the drive part under the push of the button body and the elastic part, the sliding of the sliding part can drive the guide pillar to slide rearward and forward along the guide slot under the cooperation of the guide slot and the guide channel and further drive the rotating part to rotate with respect to the circuit board, the rotation of the rotating part further drives the electronic components to electrically connect with or disconnect from the circuit board.

2. The button structure as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a pair of immovable pivotal arms, wherein the immovable pivotal arms have front ends thereof fixed to two sides of a lower position of a rear face of the button body, and rear ends thereof define a pair of first pivot shafts, a pair of connecting arms is protruded at two sides of the front end of the base frame with a pair of pivot portions formed thereon, the button body is pivoted to the base frame by virtue of the cooperation of the first pivot shafts of the immovable pivotal arms and the pivot portions of the connecting arms.

3. The button structure as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a pair of driving pivotal arms, wherein the driving pivotal arms have front ends thereof fixed to two sides of an upper position of the rear face of the button body, and rear ends thereof define a pair of second pivot shafts, two sides of the front end of the sliding part protrude forward to form a pair of extension arms, a pair of third pivot shafts is oppositely protruded sideward at front ends of the extension arms, the drive part is substantially of H-shape of which two lateral arms each has two free ends thereof define a pivot hole respectively, the second pivot shafts of the driving pivotal arms and the third pivot shafts of the extension arms are pivoted to front two and rear two of the pivot holes of the drive part respectively.

4. The button structure as claimed in claim 3, wherein the driving pivotal arms are shorter than the immovable pivotal arms in length.

5. The button structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein a pair of restraining blocks is protruded at two sides of a substantial middle of a surface of the base frame opposite to the circuit board, and bent towards each other to define a sliding path between the base frame and the restraining blocks, the guide slot is located in rear of the sliding path, the sliding part is slidably disposed in the sliding path by means of the restraint of the restraining blocks.

6. The button structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein a hole is opened at the centre of the circle of the guide slot of the base frame, the rotating part has a substantially disc-shaped base board of which the center perpendicularly protrudes to form the rotation axis, the base board further perpendicularly protrudes towards the same direction as the rotation axis to form the guide pillar at a substantial edge away from the rotation axis, the rotating part is rotatably mounted to the rear of the base frame through the rotation axis is pivoted to the hole of the base frame.