Modular electrical appliances and housing comprising same

Details Modular electrical appliances and housing comprising same Modular electrical appliances and housing comprising same

2001-12-27

2003-12-16

Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)

Electricity: conductors and insulators

Boxes and housings

C174S050510

Reexamination Certificate

active

06664468

ABSTRACT:

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Given the above problems of the prior art, the present invention proposes a housing containing a set of modular electrical devices mounted on supports and including at least one first modular electrical device provided with data sender means and at least one second modular electrical device including data receiver means, enabling wireless link communication from the first device to the second device. When the modular electrical devices are mounted in their operating position, the data sender means of the first device face a surface of walls of the housing.
It is therefore clear that the path of the signals from the sender means to the receiver means entails at least one reflection from at least one inside wall of the housing.
The application has discovered, surprisingly, that the signal sent does not have to be conveyed along a specified path to the receiver means of another module because the inside walls of the housing provide an adequate reflector for distributing the beams.
When the modular electrical devices are mounted in their operating position, the data receiver means of the second device advantageously also face a surface of the walls of the housing.
The wireless link can be an infra-red link. It can be provided by one or more light-emitting diodes (LED) and receiver photodiodes routinely used in the field of remote controllers.
It has been found that with this arrangement the inside walls of the housing
1
—and especially that of the back
2
—act as a sufficiently effective reflector to distribute a beam coming from a sending device to the receiver means of all the other devices in the housing, whether the latter are on the same rail or on another rail.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, in which the housing has at least one part providing access to the interior and in that, when they are in their operating position, the data sender means and the data receiver means face surfaces of walls that are not in said part providing access to the interior. In this way, it is possible to provide the normal links between the modular electrical devices even when the housing is “open”. A portion providing access to the interior can be a door, a cover plate, an access hatch or any other equivalent device.
When the modular electrical devices are in their operating position, the data sender means and the data receiver means preferably face the same inside face of the housing.
When the modular electrical devices are in their operating position, the data sender means and the data receiver means are advantageously oriented to obtain an internal reflection at the surface opposite said part providing access to the interior.
The housing can be equipped with support means, for example rails
14
as described with reference to
FIG. 1
, for removably fixing said first and second modular electrical devices in a plane and in an arbitrary manner, a first modular electrical device being able to transmit to at least one second modular electrical device at any location in said plane.
The invention provides the considerable advantage of being able to place the modular electrical devices at the locations most propitious to their respective function without worrying about providing a wired or wireless link that must comply with a specified alignment.
The invention also relates to a modular electrical device specifically intended for the aforementioned housing and having on the same face means for mounting it in said housing and wireless data sender and/or receiver means.
The invention finally provides a modular electrical device specifically intended for the aforementioned housing and having wireless data sender and/or receiver means on the top or bottom face.


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