Patent Application
20050170895
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
A gaming terminal may be formed as a structure similar to a cabinet. The interior of the gaming terminal may include a monitor support to hold a monitor. The gaming terminal may include several parts, such as hinged doors, locks, many pieces of small hardware, and compartments. The compartments may be used to house different electronic components. The gaming terminals are often locked for security reasons, so that access to the interior is limited to personnel possessing, for example, keys or knowledge of security codes. A hinged door, for example, may form the front of the gaming terminal. The hinged door may have one or more apertures in the form of cutouts, slots, and/or windows. Some of the interior components may be accessible through these apertures. The gaming terminal houses the electronic devices, such as the monitor, processor, ticket printers, cables and bus connectors, fans, currency distributing and collecting devices, LEDs, etc.
In some gaming terminals, there may be gaps between the outer and interior components, such as between the door and the monitor. These gaps may allow dust and contaminates to enter the gaming terminal. Existing gaming terminals may not allow for adjustment of the monitor to eliminate these gaps or correct the alignment of the monitor within the gaming terminal.
It will be appreciated that where an identical feature is presented in different figures, the same reference numeral is used to indicate the identical feature in each of the figures.
For example, a monitor 112, is shown. The monitor 112 may be placed in the interior of a chassis 210. The chassis 210 may be supported by a tray 207. The tray 207 may be attached to the interior walls of the housing 105. It will be appreciated that other arrangements are contemplated, for example, the chassis 210 itself may be secured to one or more of the inner walls of the housing 105, or the chassis 210 and/or tray 207 may be built into the housing 105 during fabrication of the walls. The chassis 210 may have apertures 211, for example, screw holes, into which jack screw assemblies 213 may be inserted in order to secure the monitor 112 to the chassis 210. In this regard, the monitor may have retainers 215 with apertures, e.g., screw holes, through which jack screw assemblies 213 may be passed.
A guard plate 217, made of for example, aluminum or steel, may be placed above the monitor 112, as shown in
The jack screw assemblies 213 may be used to secure the monitor 112 to the chassis 210. In contrast to conventional screws, which hold the monitor 112 only in a particular position, the position of the monitor 112 may be adjusted after the jack screw assemblies 213 are tightened.
Jack stud 310 may include a shaft 311. The shaft 311 may have a head 312 at one of two ends 313 and 314. The shaft 311 may also have a shoulder 315. The shoulder 315 may be located, for example, close to head 312. The shoulder 315 may be formed with a circular circumference, or a polygonal circumference. The shaft 311 may be externally threaded. The shaft 311 may be any length necessary to accommodate the parts it will need to hold to secure the monitor to the chassis. For example, an M5 jack stud may be used. It will be appreciated that any variety of screw or bolt may be used to form the jack stud 310, such as a flat head, pan head, washer head, oval head, hex head, round head, fillister head, or phillips head or combination head. Alternatively a dowel or an anchor may be used.
The exemplary jack stud shown in
Jack screw 320 may include a hollow shaft 321. The shaft may have a shoulder 322 at one of two ends 323 and 324. The jack screw 320 may be internally threaded to match with the external threads of the jack stud 310. The jack screw 320 may be externally threaded. The jack screw 320 may include a longitudinal inner bore 326 having a size just large enough to accommodate jack stud 310.
The exemplary jack screw shown in
Washer 330 and nut 340 may be conventionally constructed and have dimensions such that they will securely fit on jack screw 320. According to the exemplary washer 330 shown in
Several measures may be taken to properly position the monitor using the jack screw assemblies. The gaming terminal door may be partially closed so that positioning of the monitor may be observed. While the door is closed, a distance between the monitor and the door may be measured. If an undesirably large gap is observed, one or more of the jack screws may be adjusted, for example, by turning the jack screw in a direction opposite the direction in which it was threaded onto the jack stud. This would move the monitor in a forward direction. Accordingly, the jack screws may be adjusted until the gap observed between the monitor and the door is desirably small or is eliminated. Therefore, these exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide for more accurate alignment of the monitor within the housing, thereby minimizing any gaps between the monitor and the housing. These gaps may allow dust and contaminates to collect inside the gaming terminal. Furthermore, the gaps may pose a security risk because it may be possible to forcibly open a locked gaming terminal, or in some way damage the gaming terminal, by inserting an instrument, for example, into the gaps.
The jack screw assemblies may be applied to other types of monitor supports which are not enclosed in a gaming terminal.
In another exemplary embodiment, where a structure is provided to support the monitor, an adjustable insert for securing the monitor to the structure may be provided at one or more points. The insert or inserts may be arranged to be separately adjustable at each of the points where an insert is located.
At 601 the jack studs are secured in place. It will be appreciated that the jack studs may be placed one or more at a time. The chassis may be tilted or otherwise modified in positioning to facilitate inserting the jack studs. A wrench or other conventional tool may be used to secure the jack studs. It may also be appreciated that the monitor may be disconnected while installing the jack screw assemblies. Additionally, some other components, including wires, cables, and connectors, may need to be tied, or fixedly held so as not to interfere with proper installation of the jack screw assemblies and positioning of the monitor.
At 602, the jack screws are placed over the jack studs. It will be appreciated that additional washers, or other spacing devices, may be added between any of the jack screw assembly components for better positioning.
At 603, the retainers may be placed on the jack screws, and additional washers and/or nuts may be loosely placed over the retainers. It will be appreciated that any numbers of jack screw assemblies may be used. It will also be appreciated that other pieces having apertures to accommodate screws, such as pieces located in places other than the corners of the monitor, may be used.
At 604, the alignment of the monitor may be evaluated. For example, in the case of the gaming terminal 101, measurements of the gap between the monitor and the gaming terminal door may be taken. For example, the measurement of this gap may be taken and compared to a predetermined value. If the measured value is greater than the predetermined value, the jack screws may be adjusted by turning them in the direction opposite the direction in which they were threaded onto the jack studs, thereby at least partially closing the gap.
For example, the predetermined value for the gap between the monitor and the terminal door may be 3 mm. The measured value of the gap may be, for example, 5.5 mm. Therefore, the jack screws may be backed out 2.5 mm to reduce the gap to 3 mm. If the pitch of the screw threading of the jack screw equals, for example 0.5 mm, then the screw may be backed out 5 turns in order to reduce the gap to 3 mm. It will be appreciated that jack screws having different threading pitches may be used and that these measurements are only exemplary.
At 605, the final positioning may be verified to be as desired, and the jack screws may be secured by tightening the washers and/or nuts.
At 606, if the positioning is not correct, more adjustments may be made until the position has been sufficiently corrected.
At 607 a final tightening of the jack screw assemblies may be accomplished by securing the washer and/or nut in place.
Modifications
In the preceding specification, the present invention has been described with reference to specific example embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.
