Disengageable tuner control apparatus

Claim 2

Torque transmitting means for rotating a driven shaft from a driving shaft positioned at any angle with respect thereto comprising a first annular spherical segment member having a predetermined radius of curvature rigidly secured to one of said shafts to rotate therewith, a second annular spherical segment member having a radius of curvature substantially equal to that of said first mentioned annular spherical segment member and rigidly secured to the other shaft to rotate therewith; said members being positioned relative to each other such that predetermined surfaces of each of said members frictionally engage each other in a line contact which line contact lies in the plane defined by the axes of the two shafts.

Claim 3

Torque transmitting means as recited in claim 1 wherein said members are relatively thin sheet metal discs.

Claim 4

Torque transmitting means as recited in claim 2 and further including means for biasing said discs into engagement.

Claim 5

Torque transmitting means as provided in claim 3 and further including means for disengaging the disc on the driven shaft from the disc on the driving shaft to provide a clutch.

Claim 6

In a radio receiver having push-buttons for preset tuning of said receiver and a manual random selection tuning knob for random selection, the improvement which comprises torque transmitting means for rotating a random tuning drive shaft from a driving shaft coupled to said tuning knob and positioned at an angle with respect to said drive shaft including a first annular spherical segment member having a predetermined radius of curvature rigidly secured to one of said shafts to rotate therewith, a second annular spherical segment member having a radius of curvature equal to that of said first annular spherical segment member rigidly secured to the other shaft to rotate therewith, said members being positioned relative to each other such that predetermined surfaces of each of said members frictionally engage each other in a line contact which line contact lies in the plane defined by the axes of the two shafts.

Claim 7

In a radio receiver having push-buttons for preset tuning of said receiver and a manual random selection tuning knob for random selection, the improvement which comprises torque transmitting means for rotating a random tuning drive shaft from a driving shaft coupled to said tuning knob and positioned at an angle with respect to said drive shaft including a first annular spherical segment member having a predetermined radius of curvature rigidly secured to one of said shafts to rotate therewith, a second annular spherical segment member having a radius of curvature equal to that of said first annular spherical segment member rigidly secured to the other shaft to rotate therewith, said members being positioned relative to each other such that predetermined surfaces of each of said members frictionally engage each other in a line contact which line contact lies in the plane defined by the axes of the two shafts.

Claim 8

A radio receiver as recited in claim 5 wherein the circumference of the spherical segment member on the driven shaft is much larger than the circumference of the spherical-segment member on the driving shaft to provide a mechanical step down ratio.