Electrical connectors – Energy cell substitution device including plural contacts or...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-26
2001-09-11
Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Energy cell substitution device including plural contacts or...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06287140
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims benefit of priority under 35 USC §120 to Japanese Patent Application No. JP 10-354009 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Nov. 27, 1998, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved electronic mobile instrument, such as a personal computer, using a detachable battery as a driving source. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus and method capable of replacing a drained battery with a spare battery and which does not entail complex switching operations (i.e., turning an electrical switch OFF and ON) and inconvenience of a long waiting time until the electronic mobile instrument restarts its system, as is generally required when an electrical switch is turned OFF and ON.
2. Discussion of the Background
It is well known that a conventional electronic mobile instrument, such as a note book type personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a note book type PC), generally uses a battery as a driving source (electrical power supply) when it is carried outside of an office. The battery is generally detachable to the electronic mobile instrument and capable of being replaced with a spare battery which has been sufficiently charged with electricity, when it has been almost exhausted (i.e., substantially drained). In such a conventional electronic mobile instrument, when the drained battery is replaced with the spare battery, a data generating operation may necessarily be stopped. Therefore data displayed on a display may be removed therefrom and temporarily stored in a memory of the electronic mobile instrument. The electrical switch may then be turned OFF, and the drained battery may be removed from a battery receiving section arranged in the electronic mobile instrument. The spare battery may then be set to the battery receiving section and the electrical switch may be turned ON again so that the electronic mobile instrument can be used again.
However, this operation may force an operator to wait a long time (e.g., a few minutes) until a system of the electronic mobile instrument restarts after the switch is turned ON because a highly developed function of an Operating System (hereinafter referred to as an OS), such as a WINDOWS, is generally installed in the electronic mobile instrument. Accordingly it may take relatively a long time for initializing the system, and an operational efficiency may as a result be greatly lowered. Therefore, a detachable battery is generally strongly expected to last longer.
Further, if a great number of batteries are attached to the electronic mobile instrument, it unavoidably becomes bulky. Further, as described in Laid Open Japanese Patent Applications 6-43974, 4-25914, and 4-195211, it has been proposed to selectively attach a spare battery to the electronic mobile instrument instead of a unit device, such as a floppy disc and a hard disc drives, to make it compact and increase the life of the battery.
However, in such conventional electronic mobile instruments, when the unit device is used in the electronic mobile instrument, and accordingly the spare battery is not attached thereto, the above noted complex battery replacing operation may be required whenever a detachable battery attached thereto as a standard instrument has been substantially drained.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to address and resolve such problems and provide a novel electronic mobile instrument including a battery receiving recess configured to receive a detachable battery as a standard instrument and a spare battery, a pair of connectors each including electrodes configured to connect with a receptacle of a battery, and a pair of flexible lead wires respectively configured to connect respective of the connectors with the electronic mobile instrument. The pair of flexible lead wires have sufficient length so that the detachable battery can be withdrawn from the battery receiving recess along with one of connectors connected.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the pair of connectors have substantially the same shape and function.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the pair of flexible lead wires are expandable from the battery receiving recess.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the pair of connectors and flexible lead wires are installed in the battery receiving recess.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a pair of connector units are configured to support and electrically connect the battery with the electronic mobile instrument.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the pair of connector units are independently movable between an opening position where a battery is connected thereto and a closing position where the battery is brought into the battery receiving recess.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the connector units each include a lock mechanism configured to inhibit movement in a closed position.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the pair of connector units are disposed at respective opposed rear side corners of a body of the electronic mobile instrument.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a spare battery may be electrically connected to an unused of the two connectors when the detachable battery is substantially drained so as to electrically back up the electronic mobile instrument before the substantially drained detachable battery is disconnected from the connector to which it is connected.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4075402 (1978-02-01), Okamoto
patent: 5528460 (1996-06-01), Byrd
patent: 5703626 (1997-12-01), Itoh et al.
patent: 6045398 (2000-04-01), Narita et al.
Gushi Ross
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Paumen Gary
Ricoh & Company, Ltd.
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