Electrical connectors – With or comprising removable circuit modifying arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-02
2001-07-03
Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With or comprising removable circuit modifying arrangement
C439S497000, C439S507000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06254411
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to electrical cables used for connecting computers and other electrical equipment together and more particularly to a shunt that fits inside the cable connector and reliably couples different wires in the connector together.
Computer cables are used for transferring information between computers and other electrical systems. Connectors on the ends of the cables have pins that connect to interface circuitry in the computer. Often the same electrical signal in the cable is used on multiple pins on the cable connector. For example, more than one pin in the connector is often grounded. It is difficult to reliably couple common signals together on the connector. For example, any wires that connect connector pins together can eventually disconnect due to constant insertion and removal of the connector into a mating plug.
Depending on the type of interface associated with the cable, not all of the wires in the cable may be used. To reduce signal interference, the unused wires are required to be tied together. Tying or soldering together cable wires is time consuming. A small connector housing might not have enough space to hold a pigtail wire connection or multiple unused cable wires that have to be soldered together. Because coupling wires together inside a connector is unreliable or impractical, jumper wires are often used inside the computer system to couple common signal pins together.
However, it is often impractical to use jumper wires inside a computer. For example, there are 6 primary serial interface standards currently used in the computer industry. Each interface standard has a different signal configuration when operating in a Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) mode and a different signal configuration when operating in a Data Circuit Terminating Equipment (DCE) mode. A generic interface cable and generic interface circuitry is used to connect the different types of serial interfaces together.
Some signals in the generic interface cable are required to be terminated when not used. Since different signals are used for each interface, different termination configurations are required for different serial interfaces. It is impractical to use jumper wires to connect the common signals together inside the computer system since the wired connections would have to be manually changed each time a different serial interface is used. Changing jumper wires is time consuming and also requires a computer system operator to have sophisticated knowledge of the electrical characteristics for each serial interface. There is also a need to electronically identify the type of generic interface cable so that generic interface circuitry in the computer system can be automatically reconfigured for the specific interface associated with the cable.
Accordingly, a need remains for an electrical cable that quickly and reliably shunts different combinations of wires together inside a cable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An electrical cable according to the invention includes a connector containing an electrically conductive shunt. The shunt includes multiple electrically conductive clips that shunt selected wires in the connector together. The clips can be removed so different combinations of wires can be shunted together. The clips each comprise a pair of vertically aligned fingers forming slots that extend up from the sides of a shunt mounting plate. The fingers on each clip include oppositely aligned tapered top ends forming a wide opening for receiving the cable wires. The clips extend longitudinally along an entire front end and longitudinally along an entire rear end of the mounting plate. The clips on the front end of the shunt are offset from the clips in the rear end so that each clip aligns with only one wire in a connector wire guide.
The fingers apply lateral oppositely opposing forces against the insulated cover. The lateral force applied by the clips provides a secure electrical connection that does not weaken even when the connections between other parts of the connector loosen over time. The shunt is used for terminating unused wires in a generic serial interface cable. A different shunt configuration is used for each cable to uniquely identify the type of interface associated with the cable.
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3877771 (1975-04-01), Jensen et al.
patent: 4027941 (1977-06-01), Narozny
patent: 4406512 (1983-09-01), Schell
patent: 4643507 (1987-02-01), Coldren
patent: 4772212 (1988-09-01), Sotolongo
patent: 5267874 (1993-12-01), Koegel et al.
patent: 6024597 (2000-02-01), Lok
patent: 6065993 (2000-05-01), Lai et al.
Chapman John T.
Loose Robert A.
Schenk William H.
Cisco Technology Inc.
Hyeon Hae Moon
Marger & Johnson & McCollom, P.C.
Sircus Brian
LandOfFree
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