JPH08175462A - Controller arrangement structure of bicycle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a controller arrangement structure of a bicycle which can reduce the number of part items, assembly man-hours, weight, and cost of a bicycle and shorten electrical wires used to the minimum extent. CONSTITUTION: A space is formed around a crankshaft 14 of a bicycle in a right and left split type case 21 which supports the crankshaft 14 rotatably, and a controller 50 is stored in the space. Since the controller 50 is stored rationally around the crankshaft 14 in the existing case 21, an exclusive case for storing it and bolt and bracket for mounting it become unnecessary. Consequently, it is possible to reduce the number of constituent parts, assembly man- hour, weight and cost of the bicycle. Moreover, wires which connect the controller 50 to other electrical equipment are shortened to the minimum extent and a coupler or the like can be omitted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an arrangement structure of a controller such as a bicycle equipped with an electric motor and having an electric motor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Bicycles with an electric motor have been proposed and put into practical use, in which the driving force by human power is supplemented by auxiliary power from an electric motor. This bicycle with electric motor
In addition to a drive system driven by human power, a drive system driven by an electric motor is provided, and the physical load on the rider is reduced by detecting human power and applying auxiliary power corresponding to the magnitude to the wheels.

By the way, in such a bicycle with an electric motor, the magnitude of the auxiliary power is adjusted by controlling the voltage (or current) supplied to the electric motor by a controller. Conventionally, this controller is a dedicated case. And was attached to the lower part of the main frame in front of the power unit with bolts, and the power unit, the electric motor, and the battery were electrically connected by a long wire harness.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional controller layout structure, a dedicated case and bolts and brackets for mounting the case are required, so that the number of parts is increased and the height is increased accordingly. There is a problem that the weight is increased, the number of assembling steps is increased, and the cost is increased.

Further, since the wire harness for connecting the power unit to the electric motor and the battery is long and a coupler for connection is also required, this causes a problem that the number of parts and the number of assembling steps increase.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to reduce the number of parts and assembling steps of a bicycle, reduce the weight, reduce the cost, and shorten the electric wiring. It is to provide a controller arrangement structure for a bicycle.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a bicycle controller arrangement structure capable of improving the heat dissipation of the controller.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 defines a space around the crankshaft in a left-right split type case that rotatably supports a crankshaft of a bicycle. The controller is housed in the space.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the controller is viewed from the side so as to sandwich the crankshaft and parallel to the crankshaft. It is characterized in that the power unit is provided on one of the two substrates bent in a letter shape, and the control unit is provided on the other.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the bracket for fixing the controller to the case is made of a material having high thermal conductivity, and the bracket generates heat from the controller. The feature is that parts are attached.

[0011]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the controller is reasonably housed around the crankshaft in the existing case. Therefore, a special case for accommodating the controller and the case are attached to the frame or the like. Since bolts and brackets are not required, the number of components of the bicycle and the number of assembly steps can be reduced, and the weight and cost can be reduced. Also, the wires that connect the controller to other electric devices such as electric motors and batteries can be minimized and couplers can be omitted, further reducing the number of parts and the resulting reduction in weight and cost. You can

According to the third aspect of the invention, the heat from the heat-generating component included in the controller is transmitted to the case through the bracket having a high thermal conductivity, and is radiated from the case to the atmosphere. The heat dissipation is improved.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of an electric motor vehicle having a controller arrangement structure according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view of a power unit portion of the same electric motor bicycle, and FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of the power unit portion. is there.

First, a schematic structure of the bicycle 1 with an electric motor will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a head pipe located in front of the vehicle body, and a handle stem 3 is rotatably inserted in the head pipe 2. A handle 4 is attached to the upper end of the handle stem 3, and a front fork 5 is attached to the lower end of the handle stem 3, and a front wheel 6 is rotatably attached to the lower end of the front fork 5. It is supported.

A front end of a main frame 7 bent into a substantially U-shape is connected to the head pipe 2, and a portion which also stands up diagonally above the main frame 7 also serves as a seat pipe. The seat 9 is supported via the seat post 8. The battery 10 is supported on the straight portion of the front half of the main frame 7.

By the way, a power unit 11 is supported by the main frame 7 via brackets 12 and 13 at a substantially central lower portion of the vehicle body. The power unit 11 is constructed by arranging a drive system by human power and a drive system by an electric motor in parallel, and a crankshaft 14 is rotatably supported on the power unit 11, and the crank 1 is provided at both left and right ends of the crankshaft 14.
5 is attached to the end of each crank 15 and the pedal 1
6 is pivotally supported.

A pair of left and right chain stays 17 extend rearward of the vehicle body from the power unit 11. The rear end of the chain stay 17 and the main frame 7 are connected by a pair of left and right seat stays 18. Has been done. A rear wheel 19 is rotatably supported at a connecting portion of the rear end of the chain stay 17 with the seat stay 18, and a wheel sprocket 20 is attached to an axle supporting the rear wheel 19.

Details of the configuration of the power unit 11 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

In the power unit 11 shown in FIG.
The crankshaft 14 is attached to the case 21 divided into two parts on the left and right
Are rotatably supported by bearings 22 and 23. Behind the crankshaft 14, a hollow drive shaft 24 and a resultant shaft 25, which are horizontally divided into two and are coaxially arranged in the lateral direction, are provided as bearings 26, Each of them is rotatably supported by 27. The drive shaft 24 and the resultant shaft 25 are rotatable relative to each other, and one end of the resultant shaft 25 is provided on the outer periphery of the end of the drive shaft 24 as shown in the figure.
It is fitted via 8 so that relative rotation is possible. A torsion bar 29 is inserted through the inside (hollow portion) of the drive shaft 24 and the resultant shaft 25, and one end of the torsion bar 29 is connected to the outer end of the drive shaft 24 by pin coupling. The other end of the torsion bar 29 has a resultant shaft 2
It is also connected to the outer end portion of 5 by pin connection.

By the way, the drive shaft 24 and the resultant shaft 2
A rotary potentiometer 30 for detecting the twist angle (phase difference) between the two is provided on the unit 5.

A small-diameter speed increasing gear 31 is connected to the outer circumference of the outer end of the drive shaft 24 by serration coupling. The speed increasing gear 31 is a one-way clutch on the outer circumference of one end of the crankshaft 14. It meshes with a large-diameter internal gear speed-up gear 33 supported via 32. Also, the resultant shaft 25
A large-diameter speed-increasing gear 35 is provided on the outer periphery of the intermediate portion of the drive shaft 25 via a one-way clutch 34, and a drive sprocket 36 is connected to the outer periphery of the end of the joint shaft 25 extending outside the case 21 by screwing. It is worn. An endless chain 37 is wound around the drive sprocket 36 and the wheel sprocket 20 shown in FIG.

On the other hand, an electric motor 38 is laterally attached to the case 21, and a reduction gear 40 having a small diameter is formed at one end of a motor shaft 39 of the electric motor 38. The reduction gear 40 meshes with an idle gear 41. The idle gear 41 has a large diameter and is connected by serration coupling to one end of a reduction shaft 43 rotatably supported by a bearing 42 in the case 21. It meshes with the reduction gear 44. A reduction gear 45 having a small diameter is integrally formed at the other end of the reduction shaft 43, and the reduction gear 45 meshes with the reduction gear 35.

By the way, in this embodiment, the case 2 is used.
In the space S defined inside the speed-increasing gear 33 in 1 and around the crankshaft 14, the voltage (or current) supplied from the battery 10 to the electric motor 38 is supplied.
A controller 50 for controlling the is stored.
As shown in FIG. 3, the controller 50 is folded in a V shape in a side view so as to sandwich the crankshaft 14 and to be parallel to the crankshaft 14 (direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 3). It has two bent boards 51 and 52, one board 51 is attached with a CPU 53 which constitutes a control section, and the other board 52 is provided with a condenser 54 constituting a power section and the condenser 54 and the battery. 10 or CP
Connectors 55, 56, etc. for connecting to U53 are attached.

The boards 51 and 5 of the controller 50 are also provided.
A flat plate-shaped bracket 57 made of a metal having a high heat conductivity such as aluminum is attached to the joint portion of 2 for a long time in the width direction (the direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 3). A plurality of FETs 58 are attached.

The controller 50 is supported by the case 21 by screwing the bracket 57 to the case 21 with screws 59. At this time,
Both ends of the bracket 57 are in contact with the inner wall of the case 21.

Next, the operation of the bicycle 1 with an electric motor will be described.

When the rider alternately depresses the left and right pedals 16 to drive the crankshaft 14 to rotate, the rotation of the crankshaft 14 is accelerated through the one-way clutch 32 and the speed increasing gears 33, 31 to drive the drive shaft 24 and the torsion bar. 29, and further transmitted from the torsion bar 29 to the resultant shaft 25. Therefore, the human power (torque) input to the crankshaft 14 is transmitted to the resultant shaft 25 via the torsion bar 29.

On the other hand, the rotation of the motor shaft 39 of the electric motor 38 is controlled by the reduction gear 40, the idle gear 41, and the reduction gear 4.
4, the reduction shaft 43, the reduction gears 45 and 35, and the one-way clutch 34 are decelerated and transmitted to the resultant shaft 25. Therefore, the auxiliary power generated by the electric motor 38 is transmitted to the resultant shaft 25 through the above path. It

The resultant shaft 25 is rotationally driven by both human power and auxiliary power, and its rotation is driven by the drive sprocket 36, the chain 37 and the wheel sprocket 20.
After being transmitted to the rear wheel 19, the rear wheel 19 is rotationally driven by both human power and auxiliary power, and the bicycle 1 with an electric motor is driven.

By the way, as described above, the human power input to the crankshaft 14 is transmitted through the torsion bar 29 to the resultant shaft 2.
5, the torsion bar 29 is twisted by an amount proportional to the amount of human power, and this twist causes a phase difference between the drive shaft 24 and the resultant shaft 25, which is detected by the rotary potentiometer 30. The detection result is input to the controller 50.

Then, the controller 50 drives the drive shaft 2
4, the magnitude of human power (torque) is obtained based on the phase difference between the resultant force shaft 25 and the resultant force shaft 25, and the supply voltage (or current) from the battery 10 to the electric motor 38 is controlled according to the magnitude of the human power.
The auxiliary power generated by the electric motor 38 is adjusted to a predetermined value with respect to human power.

In the above, according to the present embodiment, the controller 50 is reasonably accommodated in the space S defined around the crankshaft 14 in the existing case 21, so that the controller 50 is exclusively used for accommodating it. The case and the bolts and brackets for attaching the case are unnecessary, the number of constituent parts of the bicycle 1 and the number of assembling steps are reduced, and the weight and cost are reduced. Further, since the controller 50 is housed in the closed space S, the controller 50 is highly waterproof.

Further, the controller 50 and the electric motor 3
8. The wires (not shown) for connecting other electric devices such as the battery 10 can be minimized to omit the coupler and the like, and the number of parts can be further reduced, and the weight and cost can be reduced accordingly. it can.

Further, according to this embodiment, the controller 50
The heat from the FET 58, which is a heat generating component included in, is transmitted to the case 21 via the bracket 57 having high thermal conductivity,
Since heat is efficiently radiated from the case 21 to the atmosphere, the heat dissipation of the controller 50 is enhanced.

In the above, the example in which the present invention is applied to a bicycle with an electric motor has been described, but the present invention can be applied to other bicycles.

[0038]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a space is defined around the crankshaft in the left and right split type case that rotatably supports the crankshaft of the bicycle, and the space is defined. Since the controller is housed in the vehicle, the number of parts and the number of assembly steps of the bicycle can be reduced, the weight can be reduced, the cost can be reduced, and the electric wiring can be minimized.

Further, according to the present invention, the heat from the heat-generating component included in the controller is transmitted to the case through the bracket having a high thermal conductivity and is radiated from the case to the atmosphere. The effect of being hit is obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an automobile with an electric motor having a controller arrangement structure according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view of a power unit portion of an electric motor vehicle having a controller arrangement structure according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of an electric motor vehicle having a controller arrangement structure according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Bicycle with electric motor (bicycle) 14 Crankshaft (human power input part) 21 Left and right split type case 50 Controller 51, 52 Board 53 CPU (control part) 54 Condenser (power part) 57 Bracket 58 FET (heat generating part) S space

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A controller layout structure for a bicycle, characterized in that a space is defined around the crank shaft in a left-right split type case that rotatably supports a crank shaft of the bicycle, and a controller is housed in the space. . 2. The power unit is provided on one of two substrates that are bent in a side view V shape and are arranged so as to sandwich the crankshaft and are parallel to the crankshaft. The controller arrangement structure for a bicycle according to claim 1, wherein the controller is provided on the other side and a control part is provided on the other side. 3. The bicycle according to claim 1, wherein a bracket for fixing the controller to the case is made of a material having high thermal conductivity, and a heat-generating component of the controller is attached to the bracket. Controller layout structure.