CN109950082B

CN109950082B - Keyboard with a keyboard body

Info

Publication number: CN109950082B
Application number: CN201910285934.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨宸; 谢铭元; 江治湘; 谢育群; 刘家宏
Original assignee: Darfon Electronics Suzhou Co Ltd
Current assignee: Darfon Electronics Suzhou Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-04-10
Filing date: 2019-04-10
Publication date: 2020-09-01
Anticipated expiration: 2039-04-10
Also published as: CN109950082A

Abstract

The invention relates to a keyboard which comprises an upper base plate, a first key, a second key, a lower base plate and a circuit board device. The lower base plate is slidably arranged below the upper base plate and is provided with a clamping hook corresponding to the position of the first key. The circuit board device is arranged on the upper base plate or on the upper base plate and the lower base plate, and the circuit board device is provided with a first trigger switch corresponding to the position of the first key and a second trigger switch corresponding to the position of the second key. When the lower base plate slides to the folding position relative to the upper base plate, the clamping hook presses the first key, so that the first key descends to the folding height and does not trigger the first trigger switch when being pressed, and the second key maintains the non-folding height and triggers the second trigger switch when being pressed. The invention can achieve the purpose of locally descending the keys and assist the user to accurately and rapidly press the second key without mistakenly pressing the first key with the height of the keycap descending, thereby greatly improving the operation convenience and the key pressing precision of the keyboard.

Description

Keyboard with a keyboard body

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a keyboard, and more particularly, to a keyboard having a function of lowering some keys.

Background

In terms of the current usage habit of personal computers, a keyboard is one of the indispensable input devices for inputting characters, symbols or numbers. Moreover, for example, consumer electronic products in contact with daily life or large processing equipment used in the industry, a key structure is required to be provided as an input device for operating the electronic products and the processing equipment.

Generally, in order to meet various diversified input applications, all the keys on the keyboard must be arranged according to a specific key distribution and can be maintained at the same height when not pressed, so that the user can perform related pressing input operations, but with the rapid development of the electronic competition industry, in addition to the game process, the user often only needs to frequently and rapidly press certain keys (such as the W, S, A, D key) with specific key functions, so how to effectively avoid the user from pressing by mistake to facilitate the user to perform high-precision key operations is one of the main subjects of the current keyboard in key design.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a keyboard with a function of lowering some keys to solve the above problems.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a keyboard, comprising:

an upper base plate;

at least one first key disposed on the upper base plate, the at least one first key comprising:

a first keycap;

the first supporting device is arranged between the upper base plate and the first keycap, so that the first keycap can move up and down relative to the upper base plate through the first supporting device; and

the first elastic recovery device is arranged between the upper base plate and the first keycap and is used for driving the first keycap to return relative to the upper base plate through the first supporting device;

at least one second key, it sets up on this upper plate, and this at least one second key contains:

a second keycap;

the second supporting device is arranged between the upper base plate and the second keycap, so that the second keycap can move up and down relative to the upper base plate through the second supporting device; and

the second springback device is arranged between the upper base plate and the second keycap and used for driving the second keycap to return relative to the upper base plate through the second supporting device;

the lower bottom plate is slidably arranged below the upper bottom plate so as to slide between an unfolded position and a folded position relative to the upper bottom plate, and the position of the lower bottom plate corresponding to the first supporting device is provided with at least one clamping hook; and

the circuit board device is arranged on the upper base plate or on the upper base plate and the lower base plate, and the circuit board device is provided with a first trigger switch corresponding to the position of the at least one first key and a second trigger switch corresponding to the position of the at least one second key;

when the lower base plate slides to the folded position from the unfolded position relative to the upper base plate, the at least one clamping hook presses the first supporting device to enable the first keycap to descend to the folded height, the at least one first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first keycap is pressed, the second keycap is maintained at the unfolded height, and the at least one second key triggers the second trigger switch when the second keycap is pressed.

As an optional technical solution, the first supporting device includes a first supporting member and a second supporting member, the first supporting member and the second supporting member are pivotally connected to the first keycap and the upper base plate, so that the first keycap moves up and down relative to the upper base plate along with the pivoting of the first supporting member and the second supporting member, and when the lower base plate slides from the uncollapsed position to the closed position relative to the upper base plate, the hook presses the first supporting member to make the first keycap descend to the closed height.

As an optional technical solution, the first resilient device is an elastic body and is disposed through the first supporting member and the second supporting member to provide an elastic force to drive the first keycap to return.

As an optional technical solution, the first resilient device includes a first magnetic member and a second magnetic member, the first magnetic member is disposed on the first supporting member, the second magnetic member is disposed at a position of the upper base plate corresponding to the first magnetic member, and the first magnetic member magnetically attracts the second magnetic member to generate a restoring force; when the first keycap is not pressed, the restoring force enables the first keycap to be maintained at the uncollapsed height; when the first keycap is pressed by external force, the first magnetic piece is far away from the second magnetic piece along with the pivoting of the first supporting piece relative to the upper base plate; when the external force is released, the restoring force makes the first magnetic part and the second magnetic part close to each other, so that the first keycap returns to the uncollapsed height along with the first supporting device.

As an optional technical solution, when the circuit board device is disposed on the upper base plate and the lower base plate, the circuit board device includes a first circuit board and a second circuit board, the first circuit board is disposed on the lower base plate and has the first trigger switch corresponding to the position of the at least one first key, the second circuit board is disposed on the upper base plate and has the second trigger switch corresponding to the position of the at least one second key, when the lower base plate slides to the retracted position, the first trigger switch slides to a position dislocated from the at least one first key along with the lower base plate, so that the at least one first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first key cap is pressed.

As an optional technical solution, when the circuit board device is disposed on the upper base plate and the lower base plate slides to the retracted position, the circuit board device closes the first trigger switch, so that the first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first key cap is pressed.

As an optional technical solution, the first trigger switch includes an optical receiver and an optical transmitter, the optical receiver and the optical transmitter are opposite to each other, the optical transmitter transmits light to the optical receiver, and the first supporting device extends downward from the circuit board device to form a blocking plate; when the first keycap is pressed, the blocking plate moves downwards along with the first supporting device to a position for blocking the transmission of the light path between the optical transmitter and the optical receiver, so that the first trigger switch is triggered.

As an optional technical solution, the method further comprises:

the driving motor is connected with the lower bottom plate and is used for driving the lower bottom plate to slide relative to the upper bottom plate; and

and the processing unit is electrically connected with the driving motor and used for controlling the driving motor to drive the lower base plate to slide to the folding position when detecting that a specific program is executed.

In summary, when the keyboard configured with the first key and the second key is applied to a portable electronic device (e.g., a notebook computer) generally having an opening and closing mechanism composed of an upper cover and a lower housing, the keyboard can drive the lower base plate to slide from the un-folded position to the folded position relative to the upper base plate under an application situation that a user only needs to perform frequent and fast pressing operations on the second key, so that the first key cap can be lowered to the folded height but the second key cap is still maintained at the un-folded height, thereby achieving the purpose of local lowering of the keys to assist the user in performing frequent and fast pressing operations on the second key without mistakenly pressing the first key whose key cap height is lowered, and greatly improving the operation convenience and key pressing accuracy of the keyboard. It should be noted that, because the present invention adopts the design that the first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first key cap is pressed, even if the user accidentally presses the first key with the height of the key cap reduced, the present invention can still reliably avoid the problem of the user mistakenly pressing the first key.

The invention is described in detail below with reference to the drawings and specific examples, but the invention is not limited thereto.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a keyboard according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the first button of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the second button of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the first key of FIG. 1 taken along section line A-A when the first key cap is lowered to the retracted height;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view along section line B-B of the first key and the second key of FIG. 1 when the first key cap is lowered to the retracted height.

Detailed Description

The foregoing and other aspects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Directional terms as referred to in the following examples, for example: up, down, left, right, front or rear, etc., are referred to only in the direction of the attached drawings. Accordingly, the directional terminology is used for purposes of illustration and is in no way limiting.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 4, and fig. 5, fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a keyboard 10 according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 2 is an enlarged schematic view of a first key 16 in fig. 1, fig. 3 is an enlarged schematic view of a second key 18 in fig. 1, fig. 4 is a sectional view of the first key 16 along a sectional line a-a in fig. 1 when a first key cap 22 is lowered to a collapsed height, fig. 5 is a sectional view of the first key 16 and the second key 18 along a sectional line B-B in fig. 1 when the first key cap 22 is lowered to the collapsed height, wherein in order to clearly show internal structures of the first key 16 and the second key 18, fig. 2 omits illustration of the first key cap 22, and fig. 3 omits illustration of the second key cap 32. The keyboard 10 can be applied to a portable electronic device (such as a notebook computer or a foldable keyboard device) having an opening and closing mechanism composed of an upper cover and a lower housing for a user to press and execute a function desired by the user (but not limited thereto), in practical applications, the keyboard 10 can adopt a design of driving the lower base plate 14 to move horizontally relative to the upper base plate 12 in a conventional motor-driven connecting rod manner (but not limited thereto, it can also adopt a design of manually pushing and pulling the lower base plate 14 to move horizontally), for example, the keyboard 10 can use a motor-driven connecting rod linkage mechanism to make the lower base plate 14 move horizontally relative to the lower housing along with the opening and closing of the upper cover of the portable electronic device, and the structural design and the operation principle of the motor-driven connecting rod linkage mechanism are common in the prior art, and thus are not described herein again.

As shown in fig. 1 to 5, the keyboard 10 includes an upper base plate 12, a lower base plate 14, at least one first key 16, at least one second key 18, and a circuit board device 20, wherein the first key 16 may be regarded as a key (e.g., Q, E key) that is less used by a user in some specific use situations (e.g., when the user uses the keyboard 10 to perform an input operation of a shooting game) and has a key cap folding function, the second key 18 may be a key (e.g., W, S, A, D key) that is frequently pressed and does not have a key cap folding function, and the number and arrangement of the first key 16 and the second key 18 are determined by the practical application of the keyboard 10, and are not limited to fig. 1. The lower board 14 is slidably disposed under the upper board 12 to slide relative to the upper board 12 and has at least one hook 15 (two hooks are shown in fig. 2, but not limited thereto) at a position corresponding to the first supporting device 24 of the first key 16, and the hook 15 may preferably protrude from the lower board 14 toward the first key 16 and be bent through the upper board 12. For simplicity, the following description is directed to one of the first keys 16 and one of the second keys 18 having the key cap folding design, and the other structural designs of the first keys 16 and the second keys 18 having the same design may be similar to the other structural designs.

As shown in fig. 1, fig. 2, and fig. 5, the first key 16 is disposed on the upper base 12, and the first key 16 includes a first key cap 22, a first supporting device 24, and a first resilient device 26. The first supporting device 24 is disposed between the upper base 12 and the first key cap 22 and can be preferably designed as a scissor-foot supporting mechanism commonly applied to the keyboard keys (but not limited thereto, other common key lifting supporting designs such as a magnetic key design, etc.), in this embodiment, the first supporting device 24 can include a first supporting member 28 and a second supporting member 30, and the first supporting member 28 and the second supporting member 30 can be movably connected to the first key cap 22 and the upper base 12 and are pivotally connected to each other in a crossing manner, so that the first key cap 22 can move up and down relative to the upper base 12 along with the crossing of the first supporting member 28 and the second supporting member 30. In this embodiment, the position of the first supporting member 28 corresponding to the hook 15 may have an abutting surface structure 29, and the abutting surface structure 29 may be preferably a slope structure and formed by extending in a manner of decreasing thickness (but not limited thereto, for example, in another embodiment, the invention may adopt a design in which the abutting surface structure is a curved surface structure), so that the hook 15 can slide along the abutting surface structure 29 along with the sliding of the bottom board 14, so as to drive the first key cap 22 to descend to the retracted height during the sliding process of the bottom board 14 relative to the top board 12.

In the design of the second key 18, as shown in fig. 1, 3, and 5, the second key 18 is disposed on the upper base plate 12, the second key 18 includes a second key cap 32, a second supporting device 34, and a second resilient device 36, the second supporting device 34 is disposed between the upper base plate 12 and the second key cap 32 and is preferably configured to be supported by scissors (the related description can be analogized to the above description, and the description is not repeated herein) to movably connect the second key cap 32 and the upper base plate 12, so that the second key cap 32 can move up and down relative to the upper base plate 12 via the second supporting device 34. It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the first resilient device 26 and the second resilient device 36 may preferably adopt an elastic return design for providing an elastic force to drive the first key cap 22 and the second key cap 32 to return, for example, as shown in fig. 2, the first resilient device 26 may be an elastic body (preferably, but not limited to, a rubber gasket) and is disposed through the first support 28 and the second support 30, so that when the external force pressing the first key cap 22 is released, the first resilient device 26 can drive the first key cap 22 to move upward, thereby generating an effect of automatically returning the key cap for the user to perform a subsequent pressing operation.

Regarding the triggering design of the first button 16 and the second button 18, as can be seen from fig. 5, the circuit board device 20 has a first trigger switch 38 corresponding to the position of the first button 16 and a second trigger switch 40 corresponding to the position of the second button 18, wherein the circuit board device 20 may be a membrane circuit board (membrane) and the first trigger switch 38 and the second trigger switch 40 may be membrane switches (membrane switches) or other triggering switches, but not limited thereto. More specifically, in this embodiment, the circuit board apparatus 20 may include a first circuit board 42 and a second circuit board 44, the first circuit board 42 is disposed on the bottom plate 14 and has a first trigger switch 38 corresponding to the position of the first key 16, the second circuit board 44 is disposed on the top plate 12 and has a second trigger switch 40 corresponding to the position of the second key 18, such that when the first key cap 22 is pressed, the first resilient device 26 can press down to trigger the first trigger switch 38, and when the second key cap 32 is pressed, the second resilient device 36 can press down to trigger the second trigger switch 40, so that the keyboard 10 can execute the function desired by the user.

As can be seen from fig. 1 to 5, when the first key cap 22 is not pressed and the lower base plate 14 slides relative to the upper base plate 12 to the retracted position shown in fig. 4, the hook 15 can slide along the abutting surface structure 29 to press the first supporting member 28 downward to drive the first key cap 22 to overcome the elastic force of the first elastic device 26 and descend to the retracted height (shown in fig. 5), in this process, as can be seen from fig. 3 and 5, since the lower base plate 14 does not have the hook 15 at the position corresponding to the second key 18, the second key 18 is not pressed downward along with the sliding of the lower base plate 14, and therefore, the second key cap 32 can be maintained at the retracted height shown in fig. 5.

Through the above design, when the keyboard 10 configured with the first key 16 and the second key 18 is applied to a portable electronic device (e.g., a notebook computer) having a general opening and closing mechanism composed of an upper cover and a lower housing, the keyboard 10 can drive the lower base plate 14 to slide from the un-folded position to the folded position relative to the upper base plate 12 under an application situation that a user only needs to perform frequent quick pressing operations on the second key 18, so that the first key cap 22 can be lowered to the folded height but the second key cap 32 is still maintained at the un-folded height (as shown in fig. 5), thereby generating a key local lowering effect to assist the user in performing frequent quick pressing operations on the second key 18 without mistakenly pressing the first key 16 with the lowered key cap height, and greatly improving the operation convenience and key pressing accuracy of the keyboard 10. It should be noted that, as can be seen from fig. 5, in the process of sliding the lower plate 14 to the retracted position relative to the upper plate 12, the first trigger switch 38 can slide to a position offset from the first key 16 along with the lower plate 14, so that even if the user accidentally presses the first key 16 with the height of the keycap reduced, the first trigger switch 38 is still not triggered, thereby reliably avoiding the problem of being pressed by the user by mistake.

In practical applications, as shown in fig. 4, the keyboard 10 further includes a driving motor 46 and a processing unit 48 (shown in fig. 4 as a functional block diagram), the driving motor 46 (such as a stepping motor, but not limited thereto) is connected to the bottom board 14 for driving the bottom board 14 to slide relative to the top board 12, the processing unit 48 (such as a microprocessor, but not limited thereto) is electrically connected to the driving motor 46, so that the processing unit 48 can be used for controlling the driving motor 46 to drive the bottom board 14 to slide to the retracted position to generate the effect that the keys can be automatically and locally lowered when detecting that a specific program (such as a shooting game program) is executed, thereby further improving the operational convenience of the keyboard 10.

It should be noted that the key cap reset design adopted by the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, that is, the present invention can adopt other common key cap reset designs (such as magnetic attraction reset design). For example, in another embodiment, the first resilient device may include a first magnetic member disposed on the first supporting member and a second magnetic member disposed on the upper base plate at a position corresponding to the first magnetic member to magnetically attract the first magnetic member to generate a restoring force. Therefore, when the first keycap is not pressed, the restoring force between the second magnetic piece and the first magnetic piece can enable the first keycap to be kept at the uncollapsed height; when the first keycap is pressed by external force, the first magnetic piece can be far away from the second magnetic piece along with the pivoting of the first supporting piece relative to the upper base plate; when the external force is released, the restoring force can enable the first magnetic part and the second magnetic part to be close to each other, so that the first keycap returns to the non-folded height along with the first supporting device, the effect of automatic returning of the keycap is generated, and a user can conveniently perform subsequent pressing operation.

In addition, the configuration of the circuit board device is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment in which the first circuit board is disposed on the upper base plate and the second circuit board is disposed on the lower base plate, for example, in another embodiment, the circuit board device may be a single circuit board disposed on the upper base plate and has a first trigger switch and a second trigger switch respectively corresponding to the positions of the first key and the second key, and when the lower base plate slides to the retracted position, the circuit board device can close the first trigger switch, so that the first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first key cap is pressed, thereby reliably preventing the false triggering problem.

In addition, the switch triggering design adopted by the circuit board device is not limited to the above embodiments, and a common key triggering switch design (such as an optical triggering design) can be adopted. For example, in another embodiment, the first trigger switch may include an optical receiver and an optical transmitter, the optical receiver and the optical transmitter are opposite to each other, and the optical transmitter transmits light to the optical receiver, the first supporting member may extend downward toward the circuit board device to form a blocking plate, so that when the first key cap is pressed, the blocking plate may move downward along with the first supporting member to a position blocking transmission of a light path between the optical transmitter and the optical receiver so that the first trigger switch is triggered, and when the lower plate slides to the retracted position, the circuit board device may close the optical transmitter and the optical receiver so that the first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first key cap is pressed, thereby reliably preventing the false triggering problem.

The above detailed description of the preferred embodiments is intended to more clearly illustrate the features and spirit of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention by the preferred embodiments disclosed above. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the scope of the appended claims. The scope of the invention is therefore to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements as is within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A keyboard, comprising:

an upper base plate;

a first keycap;

a second keycap;

2. The keyboard of claim 1, wherein the first supporting device comprises a first supporting member and a second supporting member, the first supporting member and the second supporting member are pivotally connected to the first key cap and the upper base plate, so that the first key cap moves up and down relative to the upper base plate along with the pivoting of the first supporting member and the second supporting member, and when the lower base plate slides relative to the upper base plate from the uncollapsed position to the collapsed position, the hook presses the first supporting member to lower the first key cap to the collapsed height.

3. The keyboard of claim 2, wherein the first resilient device is an elastic body and is disposed in the first supporting member and the second supporting member to provide an elastic force to drive the first key cap to return.

4. The keyboard of claim 2, wherein the first resilient device comprises a first magnetic member and a second magnetic member, the first magnetic member is disposed on the first supporting member, the second magnetic member is disposed on the upper base plate at a position corresponding to the first magnetic member, and the first magnetic member magnetically attracts the second magnetic member to generate a restoring force; when the first keycap is not pressed, the restoring force enables the first keycap to be maintained at the uncollapsed height; when the first keycap is pressed by external force, the first magnetic piece is far away from the second magnetic piece along with the pivoting of the first supporting piece relative to the upper base plate; when the external force is released, the restoring force makes the first magnetic part and the second magnetic part close to each other, so that the first keycap returns to the uncollapsed height along with the first supporting device.

5. The keyboard of claim 1, wherein when the circuit board assembly is disposed on the upper base and the lower base, the circuit board assembly comprises a first circuit board disposed on the lower base and having the first trigger switch corresponding to the at least one first key, and a second circuit board disposed on the upper base and having the second trigger switch corresponding to the at least one second key, wherein when the lower base slides to the retracted position, the first trigger switch slides to a position dislocated from the at least one first key along with the lower base, such that the at least one first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first key cap is pressed.

6. The keyboard of claim 1, wherein when the circuit board device is disposed on the upper base plate and the lower base plate slides to the retracted position, the circuit board device closes the first trigger switch, such that the at least one first key does not trigger the first trigger switch when the first key cap is pressed.

7. The keyboard of claim 6, wherein the first trigger switch comprises an optical receiver and an optical emitter, the optical receiver and the optical emitter are opposite to each other, the optical emitter emits light to the optical receiver, and the first supporting device extends downward to the circuit board device to form a blocking plate; when the first keycap is pressed, the blocking plate moves downwards along with the first supporting device to a position for blocking the transmission of the light path between the optical transmitter and the optical receiver, so that the first trigger switch is triggered.

8. The keyboard of claim 1, further comprising: