Toy vehicle wireless control system

Abstract

A toy vehicle remote control transmitter unit wirelessly controls the movements of a programmable toy vehicle. The toy vehicle includes a motive chassis having a plurality of steering positions. A microprocessor in the transmitter unit emulates manual transmission operation of the toy vehicle by being in any one of a plurality of different gear states selected by an operation of manual input elements on the transmitter unit. Forward propulsion control signals representing different toy vehicle speed ratios associated with each of the gear states are transmitted from the transmitter unit to the toy vehicle. The motive chassis has a steering feedback sensor with a plurality of defined steering positions to vary rate of steering position change to avoid overshoot.

What is claimed:  
     
         1 . A toy vehicle remote control transmitter unit comprising: 
 a housing;    a plurality of manual input elements mounted on the housing for manual movement;    a microprocessor in the housing operably coupled with each manual input element on the housing;    a signal transmitter operably coupled with the microprocessor to transmit wireless control signals generated by the microprocessor; and    wherein the microprocessor is configured for at least two different modes of operation, the microprocessor being configured in one of the at least two different modes of operation to emulate manual transmission operation of the toy vehicle by being in any of a plurality of different gear states and to transmit through the transmitter forward propulsion control signals representing different toy vehicle speed ratios for each of the plurality of different gear states, the microprocessor further being configured to be at least advanced through the plurality of different consecutive gear states by successive manual operations of at least one of the manual input devices.    
     
     
         2 . The remote control transmitter unit of  claim 1  wherein the microprocessor is configured to further generate the forward propulsion control signals for the toy vehicle in response to manual operations of the one manual input device.  
     
     
         3 . The remote control transmitter unit of  claim 2  wherein the microprocessor is further configured to respond to two successive changes of state of the one manual input element within a predetermined period of time to change a current gear state of the microprocessor to a next consecutive gear state.  
     
     
         4 . The remote control transmitter unit of  claim 1  further comprising a sound generation circuit with a speaker controlled by the microprocessor and wherein the microprocessor is programmed to generate sound effects controlled at least in part by the current gear state of the microprocessor.  
     
     
         5 . The remote control transmitter unit of  claim 1  wherein the microprocessor is configured to respond to a propulsion input element of the plurality of manual input elements to generate the forward propulsion control signals for the toy vehicle and wherein the microprocessor is configured for at least a second mode of operation wherein the microprocessor responds to the propulsion input element to generate only a single forward propulsion control signal with a maximum forward speed ratio of the toy vehicle under any mode of operation of the remote control transmitter unit.  
     
     
         6 . The remote control transmitter unit of claim  14  wherein the forward propulsion control signals generated by the microprocessor include at least a variable duty cycle component, each transmitted duty cycle component corresponding to one of a plurality of predetermined speed ratios of the toy vehicle.  
     
     
         7 . The remote control transmitter unit of  claim 6  in combination with the toy vehicle, the toy vehicle including a receiver circuit, a toy vehicle microprocessor coupled with the receiver circuit, a variable speed steering motor and a variable speed propulsion motor, each motor being operably coupled with the vehicle microprocessor, and the vehicle microprocessor being configured to operate the variable speed propulsion motor at a duty cycle corresponding to the variable duty cycle component of the propulsion control signals.  
     
     
         8 . The combination of  claim 7  wherein the remote control unit microprocessor is configured to generate and transmit steering control signals to the toy vehicle and wherein the toy vehicle microprocessor is configured to control the steering motor in response to the steering command signals and to a current steering position of the toy vehicle.  
     
     
         9 . The combination of  claim 8  wherein the microprocessor is further configured to control the steering motor at a first speed where a new steering position in a steering control signal is adjacent to a current steering position of the toy vehicle and at second speed greater than the first speed where the new steering position is other than adjacent to the current steering position.