Patent Grant
6923675
This invention relates to telephone plug receptacles that receive the plugs of telephone sets. More particularly, the invention relates to a color coded plug receptacle for identifying the positions where the wires of a cable are to be connected to the receptacle.
Household and business telephone sets require at least a pair of wires leading from the set back to the central telephone facilities, with one wire operating the ringer of the telephone set and the other wire being the communications wire. It is important to make sure that the wires of the telephone set are properly connected to the wires of the cable leading back to the communications center. Because there are so many telephone sets for a typical telephone system, expedient and accurate connection of the sets to the wires of the system is extremely important.
Historically the communications industry color coded the insulation of the wires in a cable in order to make it simpler for the installer to install various telephone plug receptacle assemblies, known as “phone plates” or “jacks.” The installer uses the color code of the insulation of the wires of the cable to determine the positions where each wire of the cable is to be connected to the contacts of the phone plate.
An example of this is the older type cable commonly called “station wire” that has four wires in a cable. The insulation for each of the four wires is colored differently: green, red, black and yellow. The four conductor station wire was used in most if not all residential applications. The phone plates having four sockets for receiving the four pins/prongs of a plug also had those same four colors of insulation on the short wires leading from the sockets that received the pins of the plugs to the screw heads of the wire connectors or junctions. To install the phone plate correctly you simply attached the wires of the cable to the screws of the phone plates with the color of each cable wire matching the color of the wire of the screw head. The green cable wire is connected to the screw having a green wire connected thereto, the red cable wire is connected to the screw having a red wire connected thereto, etc. The installation process was simple and self explanatory. Attach the same color of cable wire to the same color of the phone plate wire and the phones in the home worked. Phone plates that are color coded for station wire are still in common use, even though they are not currently being installed.
Later it became necessary to accommodate more complex communication devices, i.e. the “fax,” and the more complicated and sophisticated 6-wire systems were created and installed using the same four colors green, red, black, and yellow, and the two added wires were colored white and blue. The keystone jack and plug were developed and provided a smaller and more stable connection between the cable wires and the phone set wires and provided more spaces for additional wires. The six pin phone plate that this cable wire connected to had the appropriate colored wire going from the pins to the screws. Again installation was self explanatory. Match the colors of the cable wires to same colors of the phone plate wires and the six pin plate worked.
Next the 8-Wire system was developed which added wires having brown and white insulation as a pair. As long as the color of the insulation of the wires coming from the cable in the wall matched the color of the insulation of the wires of the phone plates to which they were connected, there was little chance of mismatching. That is the simplicity of the installation system.
An example of the system using this older system of wiring is as follows. This table addresses installation of three devices: An 8 pin/screw phone plate, a 6 pin/screw phone plate and a 4 pin/screw phone plate. We are mostly concerned with the 4 and 6 pin application.
Later, the industry changed the cable wire that is installed so that in some installations the color of the insulation on the wires of the cable no longer matched the colors of the insulation of the wires of the old station wire phone plates or the colors of the later developed phone plates as shown in the above table. Therefore, the installers no longer have the convenience of simply matching colors to achieve proper connections of wires of newer cables to the older phone plates in all situations. In order to properly install the newer telephone cable to the older phone plates that are color coded for station wire the installer must know how to match different colored wires together. This results in improper installation of wires in many instances.
The industry changed from installing four, six and eight conductor station wire in the colors identified above to category 3 and category 5 cable wire in the residential application. The categories 3 and 5 cables have a different color code so that the wire colors do not match the colors of the short wires of the phone plates. This transition from station wire began around 1997 and still continues. However, station wire is not totally obsolete. Most new homes are wired with category 5 cable today, but there are many older homes that are wired with station wire.
Category 3 cable is available in two, three and four pairs of wires. A pair is two individual wires each bearing color coded insulation and twisted around the other wire of the pair. The pairs, either 2, 3, or 4 pairs, are then collected together and covered with a overall jacket or sheath to form a cable. A three pair cable has six wires. A two pair cable has four wires. A four pair cable has eight wires.
For example, a three pair category three cable has the following individual wire colors: pair one—blue, and white with blue stripe; pair two—orange, and white with orange stripe; and pair three—green, and white with green stripe. The solid colored wires usually are paired with the white wire that bears a stripe that is the same color as the solid color wire. The following table outlines the different colors of wires in a cable.
The problem is that the phone plates commonly used and available for residential construction have the old station wire colors attached to the pins leading to the screws but the cable that is installed throughout the house is likely to be the newer category 3 or category 5 cable which has different colored individual wires than station wire of the phone plate. When connecting phone plates to category 3 and category 5 cable, the installer can no longer simply attach the cable wires to matching colors of the wires of the phone plate. This requires the installers to develop their own installation procedures when connecting the category 3 or category 5 cable to the phone plate.
In an example of connecting phone plates with a four pin/screw phone plate to category 5 cable, the installer could connect the blue wire to the screw with the green wire going to the pin , then connect the white wire with blue stripe wire to the screw with the red wire going to the pin, then connect the orange wire to the screw with the black wire going to the pin, then connect the white with orange stripe wire to the screw with the yellow wire going to the pin. The remaining two pairs of the category 5 cable would not be connected in this application. As long as this color combination was used throughout the house the phone system would work.
The problem is that there may be several different installers working on the house at different times, all with different levels of experience. If any of the installers mistakenly connect a phone plate differently than the previous example that phone plate will not work. Looking back at the previous example, if an installer connected the blue wire to the screw with the black wire going to the pin and the rest of the house was wired as described above, that phone plate would not work. When the home owners moved in they likely would call the installer and the installer would have to return to the job and reconnect that particular phone plate correctly. This costs money and time for the installer. This happens virtually all the time in the industry and is a major complaint of installation contractors. The installers usually do not like installing the phone systems because it is too confusing.
One solution is the “Keystone” system that uses the idea of a plug which when wired correctly will simply plug into the phone plate and the devices may be run off of the correctly wired system. This is accomplished by using a device that has a series of slots on the back that match the color coding of the new category wires. By using a device to force each wire into it's proper slot, one can wire the Keystone device to work properly. The problem is that not all houses are wired with the costly Keystone devices or the even more costly switch box or boxes.
The Keystone devices are 8 pin devices which aid the user to run multiple tasks from one phone plate. Not all phone plates need to be that sophisticated or costly. Therefore, if the end user wishes to use a computer, a fax machine and a telephone at the same time, he or she can do so with this device wired properly. For example a single extension phone in another room does not need the Keystone device or eight pin phone plate. This means that most contractors in a residential setting use the standard phone plates as described above.
The solution to the problem where a building has been wired with category 3, category 5 or even category 6 wiring and the technician wishes to install a standard four, six or eight pin phone plate/wall jack, is to color code the phone plate/wall jack's wires to match the colored pairs of wires of the cable. This makes it easier to install the required phone plates at remote locations throughout the premises. That is to say, the short wires affixed to the phone plates at the factory or assembly point will be color coded to match the category 3, 5 and 6 cabling. Not all the wires of the category 5 or 3 wiring insulation are necessary in every phone plate as will be shown below.
This new color coding of the wires on the back of standard phone plates solves a major problem in the installation process of new home phone systems. Simply match the colors and it works. An unskilled installer could do this with little training.
Therefore the installation process would be as follows: The brown wire of the cable is connected, as with screws, clamps, twists solder or other conventional connectors, to the brown wire of the phone plate, and the white with brown stripe wire of the cable is similarly connected to the white with brown stripe wire of the phone plate. The blue wire of the cable is similarly connected to the blue wire of the phone plate, and the white with blue stripe wire of the cable is similarly connected to the white with blue stripe wire of the phone plate. The green wire of the cable is similarly connected to the green wire of the phone plate, and the white with green stripe wire of the cable is similarly connected with the white with green stripe wire of the phone plate. The orange wire of the cable is similarly connected to the orange wire of the phone plate, and the white with orange stripe wire of the cable similarly connected to the white with orange stripe wire of the phone plate.
Another way of stating it is that the solid colored wires of a cable are matched with wires of the phone plate having the same solid colors and the white wires with colored stripes of the cable are matched with white wires having the same color stripe on the phone plate. This solves the problem for new installations using category 3 or category 5 cable.
However, this does not solve the problem when the same type phone plate is to be used to connect to station wire cable that has the old color combination of wires.
In order to solve the color code mismatch described above when installing a phone plate without the proper color code, I have developed a color code system that is compatible with cables having different color codes, for example, both categories 3 and 5 cable and with station wire cable. The different colored wire insulation is used on the short wires of the phone plates as described above for one of the cable color systems, such as the category 3 and category 5 cables, and in addition the phone plate itself is color coded for the other type of cable, such as the station wire. This places both color code systems on the phone plate so that the installer has access to both color codes of the cables when installing each phone plate.
For example, the insulation of the short wires of the phone plate can bear the color code of the categories 3 and 5 cable and the screws of the phone plate can bear the colors of the station wire. When connecting station wire cable to the phone plate, the installer would match the station wire colors of the cable with the colors of the screws. This means that while the station wire colors of the cable would match the colors of the screw connectors, they would not match the colors of the short wires of the phone plate. When installing category 3 or 5 cable, the colors of the cable wires would match the colors of the short wires of the phone plate but not the colors of the screw connectors.
Another example is that instead of color coding the screws of the phone plate, the material of the phone plate can bear the color code in positions closely associated with the screws.
Another example is, instead of using colors on the phone plate or on the connector screws, the phone plate and/or the screws can be marked with letters or other indicia that indicates color, such as “G” for the color green, “R” for the color red, “Bk” for the color black, “Y” for the color yellow, “W” for the color white, “Bu” for the color blue, “O” for the color orange, and “Br” for the color brown. The colored wires of the cable would be connected to the connector adjacent the indication for the same color.
Yet another coding of the phone plate is to use a combination of colors on or adjacent the connector screws to designate white with a colored stripe. An example is to use screws bearing both a white or neutral color and another color to indicate white wire with a colored stripe. This same type of color combination can be directly applied to the phone plate itself instead of to the screw connectors.
Also, instead of using colors, the designations W/G for white wire with a green stripe, “W/R” for a white wire with a red stripe, etc. can be applied to the phone plate adjacent a screw connector for indicating white wire with green stripes or white wire with red stripes, etc.
A major advance is provided in the above noted examples in that it is simpler and easier to correctly match up the cable wires to their appropriate mates on the phone plate without mistake because the wires placed on the phone plate bear the same color code as the new cables and the screw connectors or the phone plate itself is color coded for the station wire. This makes the device simpler and faster to install, virtually fool proof for the installer who is not fully trained. There are no special tools or other devices necessary for installation, and the cost of the device is economical.
Referring now in more detail to the drawings, in which like numbers refer to like features throughout the several views,
As shown in
As shown in more detail in
In the embodiment illustrated in
In order to make sure that the wires of the telephone cable are correctly matched by the installer with the corresponding wires of the phone plate, the cable wires are color coded with distinctive colors and the phone plate bears a corresponding color code. The cable wires and the phone plate wires are color coded to match each other. The insulation jackets of each wire conductor of the phone plate bear a distinctive color or color combination that match the colors and color combinations of the wires of one type telephone cable, while each junction of the phone plate have a color identification that matches the colors or color combination of the wires of another type cable.
For example, one wire 27 of a pair of wires of the cable is formed of a solid color blue and another wire 25 of the other pair of wires is formed of the solid color orange. The second wire of the first pair of wires is white or other light color that contrasts with the solid color, and dark colored blue stripes are formed on the light color. The blue stripe is a color that matches the solid blue color of the other wire in the pair of wires. Likewise, the other second wire of the second pair of wires of the cable is white and a dark colored orange stripe is formed on the light color. These same color combinations would be present on the four wires of the phone plate. With this arrangement, the telephone installer simply matches colors of the wires of the cable with the wires of the phone plate to accurately connect them. For example, referring to
Likewise, solid orange insulation wire 25 of the cable will be connected to junction 31 where solid orange short wire 35 is connected, and the cable wire 28 having light background and orange stripe insulation will be connected to junction 34 where the short wire 38 also with insulation of light background and orange stripe is connected.
As shown in
It should be noted that the junctions 31-34 are arranged in a U-shaped array, around a central axis 45, with one-half of the junctions on one side of the axis and the other half of the junctions on the opposite side of the axis, and the plug wires of each pair of plug wires are connected to junctions on opposite sides of the axis. This is another way of simplifying the installation procedures for the installer, so that the installer will always know to connect the solid color cable wire on one side of the axis and the corresponding striped color cable wire on the opposite side of the axis. Moreover, the mounting blocks of
While
For example,
Again, it will be noted that the solid color wires are placed on one side of the axis of the U-shaped array of junctions, whereas the matching wire would be placed on the opposite side of the axis, and the wires would be connected progressively from the base of the U-shape toward the ends of the U-shape.
Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in detail herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that variations and modifications of the disclosed embodiment can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
Applicant claims the benefit of Provisional Patent Application 60/325,036 filed Sep. 26, 2001.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20040127089 A1 | Jul 2004 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60325036 | Sep 2001 | US |
