BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
FIG. 1 is a side view of an electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a part of the first body and the cover in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is an explosion diagram of the part of the first body and the cover in FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the part of the first body and the cover in FIG. 2 taken along line I-I.
FIGS. 5A-5F are diagrams illustrating the operation of the cover.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
To protect a port of an electronic apparatus from dust and to resolve the problem that a cover cumbers the plugging of a plug of a peripheral equipment into the port, the present invention provides an electronic apparatus with a rotatable cover, and embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, and FIGS. 5A-5F.
FIG. 1 is a side view of an electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the electronic apparatus 100 includes a first body 110, a cover 130, and a restoring element 140. The first body 110 has at least one sidewall 112 and an opening 114 on the sidewall 112. At least a part of the cover 130 passes through the sidewall 112 and is pivoted to the first body 110. There is an endpoint C at one end of the cover 130, and the arc AB in FIG. 1 is the path of the endpoint C when the cover 130 rotates.
When the endpoint C is at point A, namely, the cover 130 is at a first position, the cover 130 covers the opening 114. When the endpoint C is at point B, namely, the cover 130 is at a second position, the cover 130 exposes the opening 114. The restoring element 140 is disposed in the first body 110, and the restoring element 140 imposes an elastic force to the cover 130 so that the endpoint C of the cover 130 is moved from point A to point B along arc AB, namely, the cover 130 is rotated from the first position to the second position by the elastic force.
As shown in FIG. 1, the opening 114 of the first body 110 is an electric connector opening. The first body 110 has a plurality of electric connectors 116 located in the opening 114. The electric connectors 116 may also be power ports for power supply besides the ports described in the conventional technology. Thus, one of the electric connectors 116 may be a network cable port, a modem port, a parallel port, a serial port, an universal serial bus (USB) port, a PS/2 ports, a video output port, a removable media port, a S-video ports, a headset port for connecting a headset, a microphone port for connecting a microphone, a memory card port, or a power port for power supply.
The electronic apparatus 100 in the present invention may be an electronic apparatus having one or more of the foregoing electric connectors, such as a notebook PC, a desktop PC, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a cell phone. The electronic apparatus 100 of the present embodiment in FIG. 1 is a notebook PC which further includes a second body 120 pivoted to the first body 110. However, FIG. 1 only illustrates an embodiment of the electronic apparatus in the present invention, but does not limit the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a part of the first body and the cover in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 2, the electronic apparatus 100 further includes a first gear 151, a damper 150, a base 160, and an elastic strip 170, and the cover 130 further includes a shaft 132.
The first gear 151 fits the shaft 132. When the cover 130 rotates, the shaft 132 rotates along with the cover 130, meanwhile, the shaft 132 brings along the first gear 151 to rotate. Contrarily, when the first gear 151 rotates, the shaft 132 is rotated by the first gear 151, and accordingly the cover 130 is rotated.
The damper 150 has a second gear 152 engaged with the first gear 151. There is oil inside the damper 150. When the second gear 152 rotates, the oil in the damper 150 cumbers the rotation of the second gear 152, so as to reduce the rotate speed of the second gear 152. Since the second gear 152 is engaged with the first gear 151, the rotate speed of the first gear 151 is further reduced by the damper 150. Because the rotate speed of the first gear 151 is reduced, the rotation of the cover 130 is slowed down accordingly, so that the cover 130 can be prevented from being crashed, or being collided with the second body 120 that produces noise. Besides the damper 150 in FIG. 2, a third gear bigger and/or heavier than the first gear 151 can be used as the damper in other embodiments. In the present embodiment, the damper 150 in FIG. 2 is only described as an example but not for limiting the present invention.
The base 160 is disposed in the first body 110, and the main function of the base 160 is to provide a place for disposing the first gear 151, the second gear 152, and the elastic strip 170. The shaft 132 passes through at least a part of the base 160, and then the shaft 132 is fitted by the first gear 151 so as to pivot the cover 130 to the first body 110.
The restoring element 140 surrounds the shaft 132, and as shown in FIG. 2, the restoring element 140 is a torsional spring surrounding the shaft 132. When the cover 130 is rotated from the second position to the first position, the restoring element 140 produces deformation due to the affection of the torsional force produced by the shaft 132. The deformed restoring element 140 produces an elastic force to resist the torsional force from the shaft 132. When the elastic force of the restoring element 140 is greater than the torsional force of the shaft 132, the elastic force of the restoring element 140 rotates the cover 130 from the first position to the second position. In the present embodiment, the restoring element 140 in FIG. 2 is only described as an example but not for limiting the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an explosion diagram of the part of the first body and the cover in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 3, the sidewall 112 of the first body 110 further includes a hole 118. The shaft 132 passes through the hole 118 and is surrounded by the restoring element 140. A first contact end 135 of the restoring element 140 is in contact with the first body 110, and a second contact end 136 of the restoring element 140 is in contact with the shaft 132. By contacting the first contact end 135 against the base 160 and the second contact end against the shaft 132, the restoring element 140 surrounds the shaft 132, and at the same time, the restoring element 140 can impose an elastic force to the shaft 132 so as to rotate the cover 130.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the part of the first body and the cover in FIG. 2 taken along line I-I. Referring to FIG. 4, the electronic apparatus 100 further includes a button 180, and the shaft 132 further includes a locking portion 134. The main function of the button 180, the locking portion 134, and the elastic strip 170 is to start or stop the rotation of the shaft 132.
The button 180 is disposed on the first body 110. A first end 171 of the elastic strip 170 is fixed to the base 160 in the first body 110. When the cover 130 is at a first position, i.e., the endpoint C of the cover 130 is at point A (referring to FIG. 1), and a second end 172 of the elastic strip 170 is at the locking portion 134. The shaft 132 is driven by the elastic force of the restoring element 140 to rotate and which further drives the locking portion 134 to rotate towards the second end 172 (in FIG. 4, the shaft 132 driven by the elastic force rotates clockwise). However, the locking portion 134 rotated by the elastic force is resisted by the second end 172 so that the locking portion 134 is fixed, and accordingly the cover 130 is fixed at the first position.
To move the cover 130 from the first position to the second position, namely, to move the endpoint C of the cover 130 from point A to point B (referring to FIG. 1), the button 180 is pressed downward so that the tilted second end 172 is pressed down by the button 180 and is released from the locking portion 134. The shaft 132 driven by the elastic force is not resisted by the second end 172, so that the shaft 132 can rotate (in FIG. 4, the shaft 132 rotates clockwise), and accordingly, the cover 130 is rotated from the first position to the second position.
FIGS. 5A-5F are diagrams illustrating the operation of the cover. Refer to FIGS. 5A-5F in sequence. In FIG. 5A, the cover 130 is at the first position, and the button 180 is at the third position. The cover 130 is fixed to the first position since the second end 172 is at the locking portion 134.
Referring to FIG. 5B, even though when the button 180 is pressed downward from the third position to the fourth position, the button 180 pushes the elastic strip 170 down to release the elastic strip 170 from the locking portion 134. Here the cover 130 starts to rotate from the first position.
Referring to FIG. 5C, after the second end 172 is released from the locking portion, the cover 130 is affected by the elastic force from the restoring element 140 to rotate (in FIG. 5B, the cover 130 rotates clockwise). Here the button 180 is affected by the elastic force from the elastic strip 170 to restore to the third position.
Referring to FIG. 5D, the cover 130 is at the second position. The cover 130 driven by the elastic force keeps rotating until it rotates to the second position. Here, the opening 114 of the first body 110 is exposed so that one of the electric connectors 116 in the opening 114 can be connected with a plug of a peripheral equipment or a power supply cable.
Referring to FIG. 5E, since the cover 130 moves in relative to the second body 120, that is, the cover 130 rotates along with the rotation of the second body 120 in relative to the first body, the cover 130 rotates from the second position to the first position along with the second body 120 when the second body 120 rotates towards the first body 110.
Referring to FIG. 5F, when the second body 120 keeps rotating until the second body 120 and the first body 110 are brought face to face, the second end 172 of the elastic strip 170 is at the locking portion 134, so that the locking portion 134 is resisted by the second end 172, and accordingly the cover 130 is fixed to the first position.
In overview, according to the electronic apparatus with a rotatable cover in the present invention, the cover 130 pivoted to the first body 110 is used for covering the opening 114, so that the electric connectors 116 in the opening 114 are protected from dust. Besides, since the cover 130 rotates with the shaft 132 as its axis, the opened cover 130 will not be located between the plug of a peripheral equipment to be plugged (not shown) and the opening 114, so that the cover 130 will not block the plug of the peripheral equipment and the opening 114. Accordingly, the plug of the peripheral equipment can be easily plugged into an electric connector 116 in the opening 114.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Patent Application
20080055843
