JP2003162214A - Method and device for connecting for simulation of radio- controlled model operation - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and device for connection which can be inexpensively and compactly realized for operation simulation by a computer using a radio transmitter of a radio-controlled model. <P>SOLUTION: The connection device is attachably and detachably fixed on an antenna 41 of a radio transmitter 4 by a metal clip 13. High frequency current flowing through the antenna 41 is picked up by capacitor coupling at a pickup circuit 51, and a pulse signal is generated through a detection circuit 521 and a waveform shaping circuit 522 of a signal processing section 52. The pulse interval corresponding to the amount of operations of the operation lever of the radio transmitter 4 is converted into a digital value through a signal conversion circuit 523 and an AD converter 524, and turned into packet data by a USB (universal serial bus) interface tip 525 to be passed to a computer from a USB connector 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connection method and apparatus for connecting a wireless transmitter and a computer for computer simulation of a radio controlled model operated by using a wireless transmitter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Radio-controlled (radio control) models that are operated by using radio transmitters include models of automobiles, ships, airplanes, helicopters, etc., and they are a popular hobby that is enjoyed by a wide range of age groups from children to adults. There is. In order to control the aircraft freely using a wireless transmitter, it is necessary to learn the control technique through practice. In particular, operating a radio-controlled model of an airplane or a helicopter requires a high degree of control technology, and if a person who does not have sufficient control technology operates it, there is a risk of significant damage due to the crash of the aircraft or collision with other equipment. is there.

Therefore, software (program) for carrying out a control simulation of a radio-controlled model using a computer has been put into practical use (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-
32705). By using such a simulation program, by repeating the practice of manipulating the image of a model of an airplane, helicopter, etc. displayed on the screen of the computer, you will acquire a certain degree of maneuvering skill before the practice practice on the actual aircraft. be able to.

In such a steering simulation using a computer, an operating device called a joystick is used instead of the wireless transmitter. By obtaining simulation software and a joystick for driving practice, installing the simulation software in the computer, and connecting the joystick to the computer, the steering simulation using the computer becomes possible.

[0005]

This kind of control simulation software can be enjoyed as a computer game by itself, but originally, as described above, a certain degree of control technology is learned prior to the control on an actual machine. Used to Therefore, in the case of a user who already has a radio control model (including a radio transmitter),
It would be convenient if the wireless transmitter used in the actual device could be used instead of the joystick. By doing so, at least with regard to the operation section for controlling, the same operation feeling as in the case of the actual machine can be obtained in the simulation, and it becomes unnecessary to purchase a new joystick.

However, in order to perform a computer simulation using a wireless transmitter, it is necessary to connect a wireless receiver corresponding to the wireless transmitter to the computer. Providing such a dedicated radio receiver and interface with the computer would be more costly than providing a joystick. Further, it is necessary to supply necessary power to the wireless receiver and the interface, which inevitably increases the outer shape and installation space of the entire device.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive and compact connection method and device for carrying out a computer simulation using a radio control model radio transmitter. .

[0008]

A connection method for controlling simulation of a radio controlled model according to the present invention is a connection method for performing a control simulation by a computer using a radio transmitter of a radio controlled model, which is a wireless transmitter. A pickup circuit that directly or indirectly picks up the high-frequency current flowing in the antenna is attached to the antenna, and the analog signal obtained by detecting the high-frequency signal output from the pickup circuit is converted into a digital signal and input to the computer. And

A connection device for controlling simulation of a radio controlled model according to the present invention is a connection device for performing control simulation by a computer using a radio transmitter of a radio controlled model, which is attached to an antenna of the radio transmitter. Pickup circuit for directly or indirectly picking up the high frequency current flowing through the antenna, a signal processing section for detecting the high frequency signal output from the pickup circuit, processing the obtained analog signal and converting it to a digital signal, and signal processing And a connector section for passing a digital signal output from the section to an input / output port of a computer.

According to the configuration of the present invention as described above, an inexpensive and compact connection device can be realized, and a control simulation by a computer is performed through the connection device using a radio control model radio transmitter. be able to. Therefore, the user does not need to purchase a joystick for driving simulation, and the same operational feeling as in the case of the actual machine can be obtained by the driving simulation. It is also possible to use the radio transmitter to operate the real machine while simultaneously monitoring the operation of the real machine on the computer simulation screen.

In a preferred embodiment, the connecting device has a metal clip removably engaged with the antenna, and the pickup circuit is configured to pick up a high frequency current flowing through the metal clip to the antenna by capacitor coupling. ing. According to this structure, the metal clip functions as a fitting for mounting the connecting device to the antenna of the wireless transmitter, and at the same time, as a current path for directly picking up a high-frequency current flowing in the antenna. Alternatively, the pickup circuit may be configured to pick up a high frequency current flowing through the antenna in a non-contact manner by an electromagnetic induction effect.

Further, it is preferable that the input / output port is a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, and the operating power is supplied from the computer to the connecting device via a connector connected to the USB port. The power consumed by the connection device is small, and the power that can be supplied from the USB port is sufficient. This eliminates the need to prepare a power supply means (for example, an AC adapter) for the connection device, which is advantageous in terms of cost and makes the entire device compact.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view of a connecting device for controlling simulation of a radio-controlled model according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this connecting device, the main body 1 and the USB connector 2 are connected by a USB cable 3. Figure 1
(A) shows the upper surface of the main body 1 and the USB connector 2,
(B) is a side surface of the main body 1, (c) is a lower surface of the main body 1,
(D) has shown the back surface of the main-body part 1, respectively. USB
The connector 2 is connected to a USB port of a computer in which software for driving simulation is installed.

The main body 1 is a pickup circuit for picking up a high frequency current flowing through the antenna of the radio transmitter, and a signal for detecting a high frequency signal output from the pickup circuit and processing the obtained analog signal to convert it into a digital signal. It has a built-in processing unit. Two LEDs 11 are provided on the upper surface of the main body 1 to indicate whether the power is on or off and whether or not radio waves are present.
And a push button switch 12 for adjusting the movement range of the operation target on the computer simulation screen.

An elastic metal clip 13 is provided on the lower surface of the main body 1. This metal clip 1
3 is a plate-shaped base portion 1 extending along the lower surface of the main body portion 1.
3a and a pair of elastic engaging portions 13b and 13c protruding downward from both widthwise end portions thereof. The pair of elastic engaging portions 13b and 13c are provided apart from each other in the longitudinal direction of the base portion 13a, and play a role of detachably fixing the main body portion 1 to the antenna of the wireless transmitter. In addition, the high frequency current flowing through the antenna causes the elastic engaging portions 13b, 13b of the metal clip 13 to
It flows from c to the internal pickup circuit through the base portion 13a.

FIG. 2 exemplifies a state in which the main body of the connecting device according to the present invention is attached to the antenna of the radio transmitter of the radio controlled model. The box-shaped main body of the wireless transmitter 4 is provided with an antenna 41 for transmission. The main body portion 1 of the connecting device includes elastic engaging portions 13b and 13c of a metal clip 13.
Is mounted on the antenna 41 so that the antenna 41 of the wireless transmitter 4 is sandwiched therebetween. As can be seen from FIG. 1D, the elastic engagement portions 13b and 13c have elastically deformed tips so that they can be easily attached to and detached from the side portion of the rod-shaped antenna 41.

Next, an outline of the wireless transmitter 4 will be described.
A power switch 42 is provided at the center of the upper operation panel of the wireless transmitter 4, and a power lamp (indicator) 43 is provided above it. Further, two operation levers (operation sticks) 44 and 45 are provided on both sides of the power switch 42. The respective operation levers 44 and 45 can be operated in the left-right direction and the up-down direction.

For example, the vertical operation of the first operating lever 44 corresponds to the pitching operation of the helicopter model, and the horizontal operation corresponds to the yawing operation. The vertical operation of the second operating lever 45 corresponds to the lifting operation (throttle power), and the horizontal operation corresponds to the rolling. If the correspondence of the four channels in total is the first mode, a second mode of another correspondence is also prepared, and any one of the modes can be selected by using the mode selection switch 46.

Inside the radio transmitter 4, four variable resistors are built in, and the above-mentioned two operation levers 44 and 4 are provided.
By operating a total of four channels by 5, the resistance values of the four variable resistors are individually changed and output as a voltage change. In the joystick described in the prior art, these voltages are converted into digital values by the A / D converter and input to the computer. In the case of the wireless transmitter 4, it is finally converted into a pulse interval, put on a carrier wave, and transmitted from the antenna 41 as an AM modulated wave.

In FIG. 2, three adjusting volumes are provided below the two operating levers 44 and 45. These potentiometers are used to perform center correction (zero point adjustment) of three operations (rolling, pitching, yawing) except for lifting / lowering operations (throttle power) of the four channels and corresponding lever operations.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a circuit built in the main body of the connection device according to the embodiment of the present invention. The main body includes a pickup circuit 51 and a signal processing unit 5.
2 is built in. The pickup circuit 51 is connected to the above-mentioned metal clip 13 via a capacitor C. Thereby, the pickup circuit 51 can directly pick up the high frequency current flowing through the antenna 41 of the wireless transmitter 4 from the metal clip 13.

The high frequency signal output from the pickup circuit 51 is AM-detected by the detection circuit 521 of the signal processing unit 52 and shaped by the waveform shaping circuit 522 to have a pulse signal waveform as shown in FIG. This pulse signal waveform is substantially the same as the waveform before AM modulation in the wireless transmitter 4 described above. That is, the pulse interval corresponds to the lever operation amount of 4 channels.

In FIG. 4, the reference first pulse P
The interval L1 from 0 to the second pulse P1 corresponds to the lever operation amount of channel 1, and the second pulse P1 to 3
The interval L2 up to the second pulse P2 corresponds to the lever operation amount of channel 2, the interval L3 from the third pulse P2 to the fourth pulse P3 corresponds to the lever operation amount of channel 3, and the fourth pulse P3. From the fifth pulse P4
The interval L4 up to corresponds to the lever operation amount of channel 4. For example, channel 1 operates the second operation lever 45 in the horizontal direction (rolling), channel 2 operates the first operation lever 44 in the vertical direction (pitching), and channel 3 operates the second operation lever 45 in the vertical direction (rolling). Throttle power) and channel 4 correspond to the left-right direction operation (yawing) of the first operation lever 44, respectively.

As an example, the repetition period of the same pulse (for example, from P0 to P0) is 16 milliseconds, and the center value of the adjacent pulse intervals L1 to L4 is 1.5 milliseconds.
The center value corresponds to the center (neutral) position of each operation lever 44, 45. Adjacent pulse intervals L1 to L4 when the operating levers 44 and 45 are moved to the upper limit or the right limit
Decreases to 1.0 msec, and the adjacent pulse intervals L1 to L4 when moving to the lower limit or the left limit increase to 2.0 msec. That is, the adjacent pulse intervals L1 to L4 corresponding to the respective channels change according to the lever operation amount within a range of plus / minus 0.5 ms centering on 1.5 ms.

The adjacent pulse intervals L1 to L4 as described above.
Is converted into a voltage in the signal conversion circuit 523 of the signal processing unit 52. Further, it is converted into a digital value by the AD converter (ADC) 524, and converted into a communication packet by the USB interface chip 525. Then, the digital signal (packet data) output from the signal processing unit 52 is passed to the computer via the USB connector 2. Further, a power supply current is supplied from the computer to the main body unit 1 including the signal processing unit 52 via the USB connector 2. The power consumption of the main body 1 including the signal processing unit 52 is small and satisfies the power supply condition defined by the USB interface standard.

In the computer in which the software for maneuvering simulation is installed, the image of the helicopter model and the three-dimensional image of the background (for example, the room) are displayed on the screen. Then, the operation lever 4 of the wireless transmitter 4
When 4, 45 is operated, a digital signal corresponding to the amount of operation is generated by the main body 1 of the connection device as described above and passed to the computer. The relative position and attitude (angle) of the helicopter model image with respect to the background image displayed on the screen of the computer change according to the digital signal of the operation amount input from the connection device to the computer.

The relationship (operation sensitivity) between the operation amount of the operation levers 44 and 45 and the movement amount (angle) of the helicopter model image on the computer screen should be adjusted using the setting screen of the operation simulation software. You can This adjustment is performed by pressing the push button switch 12 provided on the upper surface of the main body 1 of the connection device a plurality of times for each channel according to the instruction displayed on the screen.

The connecting device of the present invention is not limited to the shape and structure illustrated in the above embodiment, and can be implemented in various forms.

For example, the structure for attaching the main body 1 of the connection device to the antenna 41 of the wireless transmitter 4 is not limited to the structure in which the metallic clip 13 is used to attach and detach from the side of the antenna 41. For example, a tubular metal fitting or a molded product that can be detached from the tip of the antenna 41 may be provided in the main body 1. Alternatively, a structure may be adopted in which a mounting bracket that surrounds the antenna 41 is provided in the main body 1 and the mounting bracket is fixed to the antenna 41 by tightening a screw.

The pick-up circuit 51 is not limited to the method of directly picking up the high frequency current flowing in the antenna 41 by the contact of the metallic clip 13. For example, a method may be used in which electrostatic coupling is formed between the metal plate provided in the main body 1 of the connection device and the antenna 41, and the high frequency current flowing in the antenna 41 is picked up in a non-contact manner. In this case, the capacitor C of the pickup circuit 51 can be omitted.
Alternatively, a pickup coil may be provided in the pickup circuit 51 and electromagnetic coupling may be formed between the pickup coil and the antenna 41 to pick up a high frequency current flowing in the antenna 41 in a non-contact manner.

Although a USB (Universal Serial Bus) is used as an interface for connection with a computer in the above embodiment, an RS232C serial port,
It is also possible to configure it to use another interface that is standard in the computer, such as a parallel port or an IEEE 1394 port.

The connection device of the present invention is not limited to the radio system for AM-modulating and transmitting the signal obtained by converting the operation amount of the operation lever into the pulse interval as shown in the above embodiment.
For example, it can be applied to a radio controlled model using a radio transmitter of FM modulation system.

[0034]

As described above, according to the connecting method and device for controlling simulation of the radio controlled model of the present invention, an inexpensive and compact connecting device can be realized. The user does not have to purchase a joystick for driving simulation, and can practice driving by computer simulation using the actual wireless transmitter. As a result, the same operational feeling as in the case of the actual machine can be obtained even in the steering simulation.
It is also possible to use the radio transmitter to operate the real machine while simultaneously monitoring the operation of the real machine on the computer simulation screen.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a connecting device for controlling simulation of a radio-controlled model according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram exemplifying a state in which the main body of the connection device according to the present invention is attached to the antenna of the radio transmitter of the radio controlled model.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a circuit built in the main body of the connection device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a pulse signal waveform detected and waveform-shaped by a signal processing unit incorporated in the main body of the connection device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Main unit of connection device 2 USB connector (connector section) 4 wireless transmitter 13 metal clips 13a, 13b Elastic engaging portion of metal clip 41 antenna 51 Pickup circuit 52 signal processor 521 Detection circuit 522 Wave shaping circuit 523 Signal conversion circuit 524 AD converter 525 USB interface chip C capacitor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A connection method for computer-controlled simulation using a radio transmitter of a radio controlled model, wherein a pickup circuit for directly or indirectly picking up a high frequency current flowing in an antenna of the radio transmitter is provided. A connection method for controlling simulation of a radio controlled model, characterized in that an analog signal obtained by detecting a high frequency signal output from the pickup circuit is converted into a digital signal and input to a computer. 2. A connection device for computer-controlled simulation using a radio-controlled model radio transmitter, which is attached to an antenna of the radio transmitter to directly or indirectly pick up a high-frequency current flowing through the antenna. A pickup circuit, a signal processing unit that detects a high frequency signal output from the pickup circuit, processes the obtained analog signal and converts the analog signal into a digital signal, and a digital signal output from the signal processing unit to a computer. A connecting device for controlling simulation of a radio-controlled model, characterized in that it has a connector section that is passed to an output port. 3. A metal clip removably engaged with the antenna, wherein the pickup circuit is configured to pick up a high frequency current flowing through the antenna by a capacitor coupling via the metal clip. The connection device for controlling simulation of a radio controlled model according to claim 2. 4. The connection for controlling simulation of a radio controlled model according to claim 2, wherein the pickup circuit is configured to pick up a high frequency current flowing in the antenna in a non-contact manner by an electromagnetic induction effect. apparatus. 5. The input / output port is a USB port,
The connection device for controlling simulation of a radio controlled model according to claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein power for operation is supplied from the computer through the connector connected to the USB port.