Embodiments are generally related to firearms, Picatinny rails, firearm rail systems, batteries, and firearm accessories.
Firearms, particularly military style carbines and rifles, are often outfitted with rail systems. Historically, Picatinny rails were attached to or formed into the upper receivers of M-16 style firearms to which sights such as scopes, red dots, and even iron sights have been mounted. Over time, more and more mounting rails have been added with current models having mounting rails on the receiver and four mounting rails on the forward hand guard. The reason is that a vast number of rail mountable firearm accessories have become available. Examples of these firearm accessories include the aforementioned sights as well as lasers, flashlights, bayonets, grenade launchers, sling swivels, cameras, bipods, vertical fore grips, and other items.
A number of the firearm accessories are electrically powered. Many solutions simply include battery compartments. For example, a flashlight accessory is basically a battery powered flashlight with rail compatible mount points. More recently, solutions are being developed for electrifying the firearms and rail systems. Hines (U.S. Pat. No. 7,627,975) and Thompson (US Patent Application 2011/0000120) teach bringing electrical power to forward mounted accessories. Darian (US Patent Applications 2010/0192446, 2010/0192448, and 2011/0131858) also teaches powering firearm accessories from a firearm rail. Many of the current art electrified rail systems use powered firearm mounting rails that conduct electrical energy from an electrical input connection to one or more rail mounted devices. Among the advantages of electrified rail systems is that the batteries and the active components can be located separately to reduce the weight at the front of the firearm. A carbine can be unwieldy if it has numerous accessories with batteries attached to the fore grip. Electrified rail systems allow those forward mounted parts to be much lighter because they themselves can be battery-less while electrically powered by electrical power sources located elsewhere such as in the butt stock. A new generation of firearms having electrified rail systems and compatible accessories are being introduced.
A large number of parts and products for non-electrified firearm systems have been in production and in the field for over a decade. Systems and methods providing forward and backward compatibility between the non-electrified firearm systems and the new generation of electrified firearms and electrified rail systems are needed.
The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
It is therefore an aspect of the embodiments to have a powered rail, a battery compartment, and a mounting base attached together to form an empowered mounting rail. These three components can be formed as a single unit or otherwise attached to one another in a more or less permanent manner. The mounting base attaches the empowered mounting rail to a firearm mounting rail such as a Picatinny rail. Before being locked in place, mounting bases can either slide along the firearm rail or can slot into position. Once positioned, a mounting base is locked into position. A firearm accessory that requires electrical power can be attached to the powered rail and thereby be mounted to a firearm and also obtain electrical power. Such powered accessories include, but are not limited to, powered scopes, illuminated scopes, red dot sights, other powered sights, lasers, laser designators, range finders, flashlights, and cameras.
The battery compartment is designed to hold batteries and to help pass electrical power to the powered rail. Some embodiments can have switches that make-or-break the circuit between the powered rail and the batteries (or single battery). Other embodiments can have switches that control delivery of electrical power to the powered rail.
It is an aspect of some embodiments to provide power monitoring circuits. Batteries lose charge over time through use or through degradation. A monitoring circuit can produce a visible output indicative of the electrical power available in batteries that are installed in the battery compartment.
The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the embodiments and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the embodiments disclosed herein.
The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope thereof.
An empowered mounting rail is, essentially, an electrical power source, a powered mounting rail capable of passing electrical power to a firearm accessory, and a mounting base. The mounting base can attach the empowered mounting rail to a firearm's mounting rail. An electrically powered firearm accessory can be powered by the electrical power source when fastened to the powered mounting rail portion of the empowered mounting rail.
Note that the powered rails can be intentionally compatible with the currently available standard mounting rails. There are a number of different mounting rails standards, The United States defines the Picatinny rail with MIL-STD-1913 to be a standard small arms mounting rail. The Weaver rail is similar to the Picatinny rail with some accessories capable of using either the Picatinny or the Weaver. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has at least two rail specifications (STANAG 2324 and STANAG 4694) for mounting rails that are largely compatible with the Picatinny. Yet another mounting rail somewhat compatible with the Picatinny is the “Canadian Weaver” that was developed by the Canadian Military. Other world militaries such as the Chinese military and the Russian military have similar standardized mounting rails. The important point here is that the powered rails can be dimensionally compatible with standardized mounting rails.
An empowered mounting rail can be assembled by attaching together a powered rail 202, battery compartment 201, and mounting base 203. Alternatively, all three of those components can be formed together. For example, a single injection molding can be used to mold all three components at once such that they are attached together by being part of the same molding.
A powered mounting base 206 allows an empowered mounting rail to share electrical power with a powered firearm mounting rail 803. As such, a flashlight 102 having its own powered mounting base 206 can be attached to the powered firearm mounting rail 803 and can be powered by the empowered mounting rail 805. The electrical power can pass from a battery compartment in the empowered mounting rail 805, through a powered mounting base 206 and into the powered firearm mounting rail 803. From there, the electrical power passes through another powered mounting base 206 and into the flashlight 102. On the other hand, a non-powered mounting base 203 can not transfer power.
In many cases the firearm mounting rail 104 will be a Picatinny rail which is a standardized and well defined part available from many sources. It is therefore desirable for the powered firearm mounting rail to be either dimensionally similar or dimensionally incompatible. When dimensionally similar, legacy firearm accessories can be attached to the powered firearm rail. The negative aspect there is that, unless carefully designed, a non-powered mounting base 203 can cause an electrical short circuit if made of conducting material like aluminum. Similarly, an electrically conductive firearm mounting rail 104 can cause a short circuit through a powered mounting base 206. The short circuiting problem can be avoided by making the powered and non-powered variants incompatible.
Other ways of dealing with the short circuiting problem is through short circuit detection and shutoff, detection and indication, or current limiting. Current limiting circuits allow the passage of an electrical current as long as it remains below a threshold. Detection and shutoff detects short circuits by measuring resistivity or impedance and opening the circuit when those values are too low. An indicator, such as an LED, can show that a short is detected.
With the increased use of accessories drawing power through the rail system, there will be devices that loose power when parted from the host rail or when the powered rail or rail powering system fails. Empowered rails or similar battery adaptive devices can serve as power sources separate from firearm rail systems. Similarly, the empowered rail can be the electrical power source or a back-up electrical power source for an entire powered rail system or firearm system. In fact, a battery compartment electrically connected to a powered base and mounted to an electrified rail system can power that electrified rail system.
It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.