Patent Application
20100065326
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cable assembly, and more particularly to a cable assembly transmitting power signal.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, cable assemblies are widely used in an electronic equipment, especially for transmitting power, and the performance of the cable assembly directly impacts on the entire electronic equipment whether can normally run.
A conventional cable assembly comprises a print circuit board, a LED soldered to the print circuit board to indicate the work status of the cable assembly, a light pipe receiving the LED, a cable with a plurality of wires, a plurality of contacts connected with the cable, a columnar mating member, and an insulated shell enclosing the print circuit board, the LED, the light pipe and the mating member partially. The LED may indicate working status of the cable assembly. The wires include a positive wire and a negative wire, both of them comprise an inner conductor and an insulative outer jacket respectively. The outer jackets of the positive wire and the negative wire have different colors to be distinguished. An inner cover is molded onto the electrical conjunction between one of the contacts and the wires to enhance the interconnection therebetween, and part of the wires is enclosed by the inner cover, the inner cover is made of fuscous material to avoid the outer jacket in chromatic color throwing out, such as black plastic. The cable are attached with a strain relief portion in the front thereof commonly, however the inner cover or the train relief portion may prevent the light passing therethrough, and it may be difficult for users to observe actual working status of the cable assembly.
Hence, it is desirable to have an improved structure to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a cable assembly with a ring to avoid an inner cover or a strain relief preventing the light from a LED passing through.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a cable assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises a mating member, a print circuit board, a LED attached to the print circuit board, a cable, a light pipe having a visible area, an insulative shell, an inner cover, and a ring located in the light pipe and neighboring to the light pipe. The cable has a positive wire and a negative wire connected with the mating member, and a strain relief portion molded on the wires. A detective contact is connecting with the cable. The insulative shell encloses the print circuit board, the cable and the mating member. The visible area is exposed out of the insulative shell. The inner cover is over-molded on a junction between the cable and the detective contact. The ring is enclosing one of the inner cover and the strain relief portion, and the ring is lighter in color than the inner cover or the strain relief portion enclosed by the ring.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail.
Referring to
Referring to
The print circuit board 2 is arranged along a direction vertical to the mating direction, the mating member 3 and the cable 6 are located on opposite sides of the print circuit board 2. The print circuit board 2 comprises a first conductive area 21 and a second conductive area 22 disposed on opposite edges thereof, the first conductive area 21 is arranged in an aperture (not numbered), the second conductive area 22 is disposed on an upright side. The first and second conductive areas 21, 22 can be defined with other shapes in other alternative embodiments, such as a curved shape or round in shape. The print circuit board 2 also has a central hole 23 defined through a center thereof, a Light Emitting Diode (LED) 24 and a resistor (not numbered).
The cylindrical mating member 3 comprises a hollowed mating section 31 in the front end, a polygonal flange 35 surrounding the cylindrical mating member 3, and a positive tube 32 located behind the polygonal flange 35 and communicated with an inner wall 36 of the cylindrical mating member 3. The mating section 31 serves as a negative portion of the mating member 3 and is isolated from the positive tube 32 by an insulator 34. The insulator 34 defines a through hole 341 in a center axis thereof along the pluggable direction, the through hole 341 is aligning with the central hole 23 of the print circuit board 2 along the mating direction. A linking portion 311 is extending backwards from the mating section 31.
The light pipe 4 is of fork-shape and made of transparent plastic material to transmit the light from the LED 24. The light pipe 4 is also a hollowed configuration and defines two U-shaped cutouts 41 through the light pipe 4 along a direction perpendicular to the mating direction, and a pair of parallel protrusion 42 are formed on both sides of the cutouts 41. The protrusion 42 is adjacent to the LED 24 of the print circuit board 2. The light pipe 4 also has a sleeve portion 43 connecting with the protrusions 42, a visible area 431 is formed on an end of the sleeve portion 43 to indicate the status of the LED 24 for users looking at. A block member (not shown) is inserted into the light pipe 4 through the cutouts 41 to prevent the insulative material from reaching the printed circuit board 2 when a strain relief is injection molded over the cable. The protrusions 42 are vertical to the print circuit board 2 in the cable assembly 100, each protrusion 42 has a recess 421 in the surface adjacent to the print circuit board 2, and the recesses 421 are aligning with the LED 24 respectively. Each protrusion 42 defines a slick arc surface on exterior side and a slick plane on interior side, so to make the light to the protrusions 42 homogeneous. Each protrusion 42 defines a gibbous block 422 on the exterior side thereof to be received in the rectangle groove 14.
The cable 6 comprises a strain relief portion 64 for releasing stress, a positive wire 61 and a negative wire 62 extending forwardly from the strain relief portion 64, and a middle wire 63 connected to a detective contact 631 and located between the positive wire 61 and negative wire 62. The positive wire 61 and negative wire 62 respectively have outer jackets 610, 620 and inner conductors 611, 621 with part of the corresponding outer jackets 610, 620 stripped away from front end thereof.
Referring to
The ring 5 is made of plastic material and in light color, the ring 5 is located in the light pipe 4 and arranged adjacent to the light pipe 4, the ring 5 is located on interior side of the visible area 431 of the light pipe 4 and aligning with the visible area 431. In the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention (shown in
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200820302115.6 | Sep 2008 | CN | national |
