Patent Application
20110127959
The present disclosure relates generally to chargers for battery operated communication devices and more particularly to facilitating the user interface of a battery charger.
Portable communication devices powered from rechargeable batty packs utilize chargers for charging and recharging the batteries. A single portable communication device may accommodate battery packs of varying thicknesses with the variation in thickness typically being based on battery capacity or chemistry. A drop-in charger can accommodate a battery pack alone or a battery pack coupled to a portable communication device. However, accommodating the complete battery powered portable communication device presents additional design challenges for both single-unit and multi-unit chargers. Alignment and retention issues can make designing the charger interface difficult.
Accessories and attachment cords present yet another problem to the charger interface environment. Accessories typically have to be removed when a battery powered portable communication device is being charged. Accessory cords and the accessories themselves tend to get tangled up in a multi-unit charger environment. Users can become frustrated when attempting to withdraw their own communication device from a multi-unit charger.
Even in the single-unit charger environment, maintaining more than one single-unit charger in a common workspace can be problematic in terms of clutter and organization. In some cases, it is not feasible or advantageous for a consumer to purchase a multi-unit charging system that typically charges six or more radios.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a charger device which provides an improved user interface for a battery powered portable communication device.
The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views and which together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
Before describing in detail embodiments that are in accordance with the present invention, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations of apparatus components related to providing an improved battery charger interface for a battery operated portable communication device. The present disclosure is directed towards providing a charger that allows a portable communication device to be placed face up or face down while maintaining proper alignment thereby providing flexibility to the end user. When the unit is placed face down, the charger interface can further accommodate a variety of different battery thicknesses without having to remove accessories or attachments.
Briefly, a drop-in charger provides a charger interface which utilizes two sets of symmetrically opposed charger contacts within a charger pocket. The contacts are designed to provide the electrical contact between the charger and the communication device within the drop-in charger. With the contacts symmetrically opposed, the device can be placed in the charger face down allowing for variations in the battery thicknesses and permitting the device to be charged without requiring the removal of accessories or attachments. Because the accessories and attachments can now remain with the device, a separate storage bin is included within the battery charger to manage accessories and attachments, such as a headset. Additionally, individual chargers can now be stacked together via magnetic coupling to further facilitate organization of multiple single charging units and accessories.
In the description herein, numerous specific examples are given to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the invention. The examples are included for illustrative purpose only and are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention in any way. It should be noted that various equivalent modifications are possible within the spirit and scope of the present invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that an embodiment of the invention can be practiced with or without the apparatuses, systems, assemblies, methods, components mentioned in the description.
As an additional embodiment, the first and second set of charger contacts 106, 116 may be, but are not necessarily, spring loaded contacts which provide an additional retention means for retaining a portable communication device within pocket 104. Other types of charger contacts may also be used, such as, data or audio interfaces for real time applications or monitoring functions. As an additional embodiment, a separate set of charging contacts may be included within open-faced pocket 104 for charging a battery pack that has been removed from the battery powered portable communication device.
Moving to
The face-up and face-down user interface configurations shown and described in
The plurality of battery powered portable communication devices 200 may also be placed within the multi-unit charger 400 in a combination of face-up and face-down positions. A number of different users are thus able to use the multi-unit charger using the interface configuration of their choice while maintaining the accessories in an organized untangled manner.
Accordingly, there has been provided drop-in charger which accommodates a battery operated portable communication device in both face-up and face-down positions in either a single-unit or multi-unit charger environment. The dual contact scheme allows for the user to select either the face-up or face-down configuration. The face-down configuration accommodates portable communication devices having accessories coupled thereto. The face-down confirmation accommodates portable radio housings of varying thickness (to accommodate larger battery packs within the radio). Additional storage bins have been configured within the charging systems to further improve organization of multiple accessories. Magnetic coupling has also been provided to facilitate organization of two or more single-unit chargers.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present teachings.
The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above recognized advantages and other advantages described herein are merely exemplary and are not meant to be a complete rendering of all of the advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention.
