Touchpad Device With Balance Bars And Swing Plates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional touchpads often fail to generate accurate signals when pressed on the pivot side or adjacent regions, leading to inconvenience and poor operation feelings due to incomplete downward movement.
Innovation Solution
The touchpad device incorporates a substrate, circuit board, connection plate, resilient member, triggering member, first and second balance bars, and swing plates, which allow pressing forces to be transmitted effectively across the touchpad, ensuring the triggering member abuts and presses the trigger switch, even when pressed on corners or edges, thus reducing idle stroke and improving operation feedback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the touchpad is pivotally fixed on the substrate through the pivot side, then the touchpad can swing downwardly to generate signals, but pressing the pivot side or adjacent regions cannot allow the touchpad to move downwardly smoothly, causing poor operation feelings
Solution Approach 1:
The touchpad device is segmented into multiple functional components: the touchpad, pivot mechanism, balance bars, swing plates, and triggering member. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, ensuring that pressing any region of the touchpad can be transmitted effectively to the triggering mechanism without interference from the pivot side structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The balance bars and swing plates act as intermediary elements between the touchpad and the triggering member. When the touchpad is pressed, these intermediaries transmit and distribute the pressing force uniformly, ensuring that the triggering member is activated reliably regardless of where on the touchpad the user presses.
2Reliability
If the touchpad is pressed at the pivot side or adjacent corners, then the pressing force cannot be transmitted effectively, but adding more transmission components increases device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The balance bars and swing plates are merged into a single integrated transmission mechanism. The balance bars connect the pivot side to the swing plates, which in turn connect to the triggering member, creating a unified force transmission path that efficiently transmits pressing forces from any touchpad region without requiring separate complex mechanisms for different pressing zones.
Solution Approach 2:
The balance bars are designed to create an equipotential force distribution system, where pressing force applied at any location on the touchpad is evenly distributed and transmitted to the triggering member. This ensures uniform activation thresholds and reliable signal generation across the entire touchpad surface, eliminating dead zones near the pivot side.
3Ease of manufacture
If the touchpad structure is simplified, then manufacturing is easier, but the idle stroke cannot be reduced and operation feedback is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The touchpad employs dynamic components including the swing plates that can rotate and the balance bars that can pivot, allowing the mechanism to adapt to pressing forces from any direction and location. This dynamic design provides immediate mechanical feedback to the user while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure that is easy to manufacture using standard assembly techniques.
Solution Approach 2:
The balance bars and swing plates are designed with specific geometric parameters and material properties that optimize both manufacturing ease and operational feedback. By carefully selecting parameters such as bar thickness, plate dimensions, and pivot point locations, the design achieves effective force transmission and reduced idle stroke without requiring complex manufacturing processes.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design ensures that pressing any part of the touchpad generates a clear signal, reducing the idle stroke and enhancing user operation feelings by ensuring the triggering member consistently contacts the trigger switch, thereby improving the overall operational efficiency and feedback.
Implementation Method 1
The resilient member is disposed between the substrate and the circuit board
Implementation Method 2
The first balance bar is disposed between the first side and the substrate, and the second balance bar is disposed between the second side and the substrate. The first swing plate and the second swing plate are disposed between the substrate and the circuit board
Data Source
AI summary
A touchpad device includes a substrate, a circuit board, a connection plate, a resilient member, a triggering member, a first balance bar, a second balance bar, a first swing plate, and a second swing plate. The circuit board is disposed above the substrate and includes a trigger switch. The connection plate has a hollow hole corresponding to the trigger switch. The resilient member is disposed between the substrate and the circuit board. The triggering member corresponds to the hollow hole. The first balance bar is disposed between a first side of the connection plate and the substrate, and the second balance bar is disposed between a second side of the connection plate and the substrate. The swing plates are disposed between the substrate and the circuit board and are pressable to move with respect to the substrate, thereby driving the triggering member to move toward the trigger switch.