Odometers Patents (Class 235/95R)
  • Patent number: 4083259
    Abstract: A cranking apparatus comprising a shaft within a sleeve for insertion into a machine casing containing a rotor. The shaft carries a friction wheel for tangentially engaging a circular surface on the rotor, so that when the shaft is rotated the rotor will be cranked. The shaft may be angularly adjusted with respect to the rotor axis, and the friction wheel resiliently urged against the rotor surface. The sleeve may carry a revolution counter engaging the shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1976
    Date of Patent: April 11, 1978
    Assignee: MTU Munchen GmbH
    Inventors: Dieter Seliger, Arun-Kumar Das-Gupta
  • Patent number: 4068307
    Abstract: This specification discloses a mile post location system particularly useful with a vehicle having a citizens band radio. The system includes a keyboard having switches which are representative of numbered digits, such that the vehicle operator may input an initial mile post designation indicative of the present location of the vehicle. The keyboard further includes switches to enable the vehicle operator to input incrementing or decrementing instructions. A computer circuit is responsive to the operation of the keyboard switches in order to store the initial mile post designation and the incrementing or decrementing instructions. A transducer is responsive to the distance traveled by the vehicle in order to generate and apply signals to the computer circuit. In response thereto, the computer circuit causes the initial mile post designation to be incremented or decremented in accordance with the stored instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1976
    Date of Patent: January 10, 1978
    Assignee: David Floyd
    Inventors: Robert D. Floyd, Lee V. Gorman
  • Patent number: 4053749
    Abstract: A distance meter for vehicles wherein the distance to be travelled from the place of departure to a destination is preset and on the way to the destination the distance travelled since the departure of the vehicle is subtracted from the preset travelling distance whereby to always display the remaining distance to the destination. The number of operations of the switch are counted to determine each preset digit. Its presetting circuit for presetting the travelling distance to a destination, computing circuit and display circuit each consists of an electronic circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1976
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1977
    Assignee: Nippon Soken, Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshio Shinoda, Akira Kuno
  • Patent number: 4044471
    Abstract: Yardage measurement attachments for golf carts and the like normally have to be factory installed or else use a fricton type actuator which slips when wet. The present device can be installed readily and easily and without detaching the wheel from the cart. It includes a split disc which can be bolted to the face of one of the wheels said disc having teeth or notches around one face thereof adjacent the outer rim. These engage with a gear in a converter supported by the axle and the gear drives a flexible cable which in turn attaches to a cutter mounted on or near the handle of the cart. A cable can be attached to the counter to show yardage covered or to show yardage remaining from a preset figure representing the yardage of the particular golf hole being played.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 1976
    Date of Patent: August 30, 1977
    Inventor: Oscar Fredrick Allan Peterson
  • Patent number: 4022016
    Abstract: A simplified gear drive mechanism for an indicating device such as a clock. The output shaft of the indicator's drive motor carries an eccentric which orbits a multiple gear tooth orbiting gear. One gear on the orbiting gear engages a stationary ring gear having a different number of teeth while another gear on the orbiting gear engages an output ring gear having a different number of teeth. This output ring gear may, for example, be employed to drive the minute hand of a clock. To provide multiple indicators such as required in a clock, a second orbital gear train is provided having an eccentric on the output gear of the first gear train for the purpose of orbiting an orbiting gear in the second gear train. An output ring gear in the second orbiting gear train is employed to drive the hour hand of the clock. In another embodiment of the present invention, a similar orbiting gearing arrangement is employed for driving a digital indicator, such as a digital clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 1976
    Date of Patent: May 10, 1977
    Assignee: Stewart-Warner Corporation
    Inventor: Frans Brouwer
  • Patent number: 3981441
    Abstract: A counter comprises a body housing a set of discs which are freely rotatable on a sleeve and which have numerals on their peripheries. A series of drive plates are keyed to the sleeve and interleaved with the discs. At one end of the set of discs a spring-loaded collar also keyed to the sleeve urges the drive plates and discs into frictional engagement. The sleeve is rotatable with a reset wheel while the collar is driven by a star counting wheel through an orbital drive arrangement. The orbital drive arrangement may include a further collar having outwardly directed projections thereon which engage an abutment carried by a resilient arm, the abutment and projections restraining the further collar against rotation during counting. Each disc has a set of first abutments and a second abutment on its periphery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 1975
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1976
    Assignee: The Lucas Electrical Company Limited
    Inventor: John Benjamin Leslie Walters
  • Patent number: 3965847
    Abstract: An odometer assembly having a shaft on which a plurality of numbered counting wheels are mounted for rotation and including a rotatable service indicator wheel supported on the shaft next to the highest order counting wheel for rotation therewith until a flag portion which overlays the indicator wheel becomes visible to the vehicle operator. A drive mechanism between the service indicator wheel and the highest order counting wheel couples the wheels together for the aforementioned rotation and thereafter permits the highest order counting wheel to rotate with respect to the service indicator wheel. A rotatable reset lever means is also provided to counter-rotate the service indicator wheel back to its original non-indicating position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 1975
    Date of Patent: June 29, 1976
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventor: Kenneth R. Deming
  • Patent number: 3962986
    Abstract: A set of display wheels are jointly driven from a conventional vehicle odometer so as to complete a revolution each time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance of, for example, 10,000 kilometers. Each display wheel has one or more warning zones on its circumference such that each warning zone, when turned to a display position for observation by the vehicle driver, indicates the fact that some particular part of the vehicle is in need of inspection or servicing. The display device further comprises means for automatically locking any one of the display wheels against rotation when the warning zone thereon turns to the display position, and means for unlocking and resetting the display wheel after the necessary inspection or servicing, as by the depression of a push button.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 1975
    Date of Patent: June 15, 1976
    Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Haruyasu Fujita, Fumio Muroya
  • Patent number: 3950633
    Abstract: Two successive ordinal toothed counter wheels are connected by toothed transfer means to make a tens-transfer once during each revolution of the counter wheel of the lower order. The teeth of the counter wheels and of the transfer means are cut out and hollowed so that the teeth are resilient and dampen impacts thereon during the transfer operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 1974
    Date of Patent: April 13, 1976
    Assignee: Kienzle Apparate GmbH
    Inventors: Heinz Kelch, Helmut Mueller
  • Patent number: 3949202
    Abstract: The invention consists of an improved method of constructing and installing digital counting devices, such as odometers, digital time recorders and digital gauges, consisting of a self-destructing and tamperproof "first" or left counting wheel. The numeral of the "first" counting wheel is obliterated by mechanical (or other) means after such numeral has passed the viewing window, thereby making it useless to attempt to "wheel back" the counter to indicate lesser usage, and thereby promoting safety and honesty to and by user, seller and buyer of the machines or devices to which the digital counter is attached. Such improved counters are practically irreversible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 1975
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1976
    Inventor: Peter D. Bogart
  • Patent number: 3949201
    Abstract: The invention consists of an improved method of constructing and installing digital counting devices, such as odometers, digital time recorders and digital gauges, consisting of a self-destructing and tamperproof "first" or left counting wheel. The numeral of the "first" counting wheel is obliterated by mechanical (or other) means after such numeral has passed the viewing window, thereby making it useless to attempt to "wheel back" the counter to indicate lesser usage, and thereby promoting safety and honesty to and by user, seller and buyer of the machines or devices to which the digital counter is attached. Such improved counters are practically irreversible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 1975
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1976
    Inventor: Peter D. Bogart
  • Patent number: 3945563
    Abstract: This invention has for its object to do away with the defects of the prevailing transfer pinion carrier plates made of metal. In the process of manufacturing a metallic carrier plate, a separately prepared small shaft for supporting the transfer pinion should be planted vertically to the plate with care. Further, as the transfer pinion is only partially surrounded by the plate, a gap is always formed between each pair of the figure wheels of the completed odometer. Such a gap not only admits the intrusion of dust and dirt into the odometer but invites the destruction of the transfer pinion permitting the insertion of a sharp tool through the gap inadvertently or by a malicious person. All such defects may be effectively avoided by producing carrier plates with plastic materials in accordance with the present invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 1975
    Date of Patent: March 23, 1976
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaishya Inoue Seisakushyo
    Inventor: Shiro Inoue
  • Patent number: 3938395
    Abstract: A bicycle speedometer tire drive gear adaptor assembly comprising a pair of helical gears engaging at an angle of substantially 120.degree.. The gears are supported in a unitary housing with one of the gears rotated by a friction wheel engaging the bicycle tire and the other, which utilizes its own teeth as a bearing, rotates at a substantially reduced speed to transmit movement through a flexible shaft to the speedometer. The angle of gear engagement aids in eliminating sharp corners or small radii in the flexible shaft. The housing is secured to the front bicycle fork by oppositely directed arcuate spring clip fingers having reverse bent ends nesting in and conforming to the shape of a pair of longitudinal grooves in the housing to securely hold the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 1974
    Date of Patent: February 17, 1976
    Assignee: Stewart-Warner Corporation
    Inventor: Charles F. Henecke
  • Patent number: 3935996
    Abstract: A counter mechanism for the digital measurement of increments of a selected physical quantity, such as distance travelled by a motor vehicle, includes a first set of numbered counting wheels rotatably mounted in sequence upon a driven shaft with gear means interconnecting said counting wheels one with another in a velocity ratio of 1 to 10, and a second set of numbered counting wheels similarly arranged on a second shaft driven from a predetermined one of said numbered counting wheels in said first set. The second set of counting wheels commences to count multiples of said increments when said predetermined one counting wheel commences to rotate. The second set of numbered counting wheels can be reset to zero by means of a ratchet resetting device without affecting the position of the first set of numbered counting wheels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 1975
    Date of Patent: February 3, 1976
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventor: Helmut Kleinbohl