Electrical connectors – With coupling separator – Including retainer or joiner
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-25
2001-02-13
Nguyen, Khiem (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With coupling separator
Including retainer or joiner
C439S928100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06186804
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the mounting and testing of electrical devices, particularly computer disc drives, and provides a bay for the temporary reception and connection of such electrical devices facilitating their testing.
Disc drive testers require multiple test bays, up to 120 per test apparatus. Each test bay or fixture is designed to load, clamp and electrically connect a disc drive ready for testing. After the test process, the drive needs to be ejected and removed by the operator to be replaced by the next drive to be tested.
Conventionally, disc drives have been manually pushed into the bays of test apparatus and have been manually removed. However, different approaches to the problem have been explored including the use of a mechanical lever to drive a sliding carriage to unplug the drive for removal and in some cases to drive such a carriage engaging the drive over the last part of its motion to insert and plug in a drive.
In most cases, it is necessary to provide means for retaining the disc drive during the test. Unfortunately, different drives have required different retention devices to suit their individual design and there remains a need for a general purpose, easy to use test bay that is able to provide both mechanical assistance for the insertion and removal of the drive. There is also a need for test bays providing improved means for retaining drives for testing.
The problems addressed by the invention are not however limited to the testing of computer disc drives but arise in other contexts also.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a bay for receiving an electrical device having a rearwardly facing electrical connector, a rearwardly facing abutment surface, and a forwardly facing abutment surface,
said bay comprising a front aperture for receiving a said electrical device, a rear portion having an electrical connector adapted to connect to the electrical connector of said electrical device, a sliding carriage bearing an ejection member having a forwardly facing abutment surface for engagement with the rearwardly facing abutment surface of the electrical device, a mechanism mounting said carriage for sliding movement in the bay, and a lever operated insertion and removal mechanism for the insertion and later removal of said electrical device, said mechanism comprising a pivoted lever having a manually engageable actuating portion, an abutment member carried by the lever for engagement with the forwardly facing abutment surface of the electrical device, and a rotary gear member driven by said lever and operatively coupled to the sliding carriage,
whereby said lever is pivotable from a first position in which said front aperture of the bay is open for receiving a said electrical device and said carriage is slid forwardly, via intermediate positions in which said carriage and said ejection member are driven progressively rearwardly by the action of said rotary gear member and the abutment member of the lever bears against the front abutment surface of the electrical device to push said device into said bay, to a second position in which said carriage is driven fully rearwardly and said device is brought to a position in the bay where the electrical connector of the device connects to the electrical connector of the bay,
and whereby the electrical device can be ejected from the bay by reversal of the movement of said lever from said second position to said first position to drive said carriage forwards in the bay with said ejection member bearing against the rearwardly facing abutment surface of the device to drive the device out of the bay.
Preferably, the abutment surface of the lever is provided on a roller mounted for rotation on said lever. The use of a roller provides a low friction interface between the front of the disc drive and the abutment of the lever which bears upon it.
Preferably, the rotary gear member driven by said lever is in engagement with a toothed rack on said carriage. Pivoting movement of the lever is thereby enabled to drive sliding movement of the carriage. Preferably there is a detent mechanism acting to retain the lever in its second position. This may for instance be provided by a dog on the lever engaging a sprung catch mounted fixed in the bay when the lever reaches its second position. The mechanism for retaining the electrical device in the bay preferably acts on the lever rather than on the electrical device directly, thus reducing or removing dependence on the design of the electrical device in the successful performance of the retention mechanism.
The distance between the abutment surface of the lever and the pivot of the lever may be constant. It will then dictate the amount by which the abutment surface of the lever displaces the drive into the bay as the lever is pivoted. The track followed by the abutment surface of the lever will then be a part circle.
However, the mechanism provided may act for shortening the distance from the abutment surface of the lever to its pivot progressively as the lever is moved from the first position to the second position.
To this end, the lever may comprise a first portion which is mounted for said pivoting movement and a second portion carried by the first portion for movements, e.g. sliding movement, with respect thereto so as to extend and contract said lever and bearing a cam follower and wherein the bay comprises a fixed cam engaged with said cam follower, the cam being shaped such that in said first position, the lever is extended and when moved through said intermediate positions to said second position the second portion of the lever is constrained to move with respect to the first portion to progressively contract said lever.
In an alternative arrangement, the lever is pivoted on the sliding carriage, a toothed rack is provided which is fixed with respect to the electrical connector of the bay and said rotary gear member is rotated by said lever and is in geared engagement with said rack such that pivoting of said lever from said first position to said second position drives said carriage toward the back of said bay. The gearing between the lever and the rack may be such as to produce a greater movement of the carriage towards the back of the bay for a given angle of displacement of the lever than would be obtained if the gear mounted on the lever were in direct engagement with the rack.
The invention includes apparatus for testing an electrical device comprising a bay as described above, preferably at least 10 said bays, e.g. more than 50 said bays. The invention includes also a method of testing the operation of a computer disc drive comprising inserting the drive into the or a bay of such apparatus and conducting electronic tests on the drive.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4979909 (1990-12-01), Andrews
patent: 4982303 (1991-01-01), Krenz
patent: 5010426 (1991-04-01), Krenz
patent: 5237473 (1993-08-01), Yoshida
patent: 5269698 (1993-12-01), Singer
patent: 5325263 (1994-06-01), Singer et al.
patent: 5325264 (1994-06-01), Kirk et al.
patent: 5340340 (1994-08-01), Hastings et al.
patent: 5518412 (1996-05-01), Larabell
patent: 6008984 (1999-12-01), Cunningham et al.
Cunningham George A.
Elmo Gianluca
Smith David J.
Havant International Limited
Hyeon Hae Moon
Nguyen Khiem
Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP
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