Patent Application
20080266762
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device casing with a plug housing, and especially to an electronic device casing with a plug housing with a magnet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the growing popularity of computers and other information devices, many peripheral devices have been developed to support electronic devices. Such peripheral devices include portable storage devices, mice and the like. Although those devices are easy to carry, they have an electrical wire and a plug, which often prove to be cumbersome. Neatly coiling the wire and finding a way to safely store a somewhat bulky plug can be inconvenient. To overcome these shortcomings, casings for some devices have been developed with a fixture to store a plug.
With reference to
The casing (90) has a recess (91) and an outer edge. The recess (91) has an inner end, an outer end, an inner surface, a cavity (93) and a slot (92). The cavity (93) is formed in the inner end of the recess (91) and has a slanted guide (94). The slanted guide (94) is an inclined plane and slants toward the inner surface of the recess (91) and has a bottom and a top. The slot (92) is formed in the casing (90) between the outer end of the recess (91) and the outer edge of the casing (90).
The plug (80) connects to an external device, is stored in the recess (91) in the casing (90) and has a proximal end, a distal end, an electrical wire (82) and a connector (81). The electrical wire (82) is connected to the proximal end of the plug, extends through the casing (90), connects to the electronic device and is stored in the slot (92) when the plug (80) is in the recess (91). The connector (81) connects to an external device, is formed in the distal end of the plug (80), is stored in the cavity (93) when the plug (80) is in the recess (91) and may be a Universal Serial Bus (USB). With further reference to
However, the conventional electronic device casing with a plug housing as described has a number of shortcomings. Bending the electrical wire (82) to mount the plug (80) in the recess (91) or pulling the electrical wire (82) to remove the plug (80) from the recess (91) may fatigue or break the electrical wire (82) or cause an electrical short. Furthermore, the slanted guide (94) in the cavity (93) must be formed precisely and cause the production to be intricate and the costs of the electronic device casing with a plug housing to be expensive.
To overcome these shortcomings, the present invention provides an electronic device casing with a plug housing to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide an electronic device casing with a plug housing that has a housing, a plug and a recess. The plug has an electrical wire that connects the plug and the housing, and a connector that electrically connects to the electrical wire through the plug. The recess corresponds to the plug and the connector and has a magnet mounted on the recess where the connector may be stored. When the plug is stored in the recess, the magnet holds the connector. Consequently, the plug can be mounted easily and stably in the recess and removed from the recess without pulling and tugging the electrical wire. Thus the electrical wire will be less likely to have contact faults. Besides, the recess may have a simpler shape that reduces the production cost of the plug housing.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
The housing (10) has a base (12), a cover (11) and a circuit board (13). The cover (11) is mounted on the base (12) and has an outer edge and a proximal end. The circuit board (13) is mounted between the cover (11) and the base (12).
The plug (20) connects to the housing (10) and has a distal end, a proximal end, an electrical wire (22) and a connector (21). The electrical wire (22) is connected to and extends from the proximal end of the plug (20), connects the plug (20) to the circuit board (13) and extends from the proximal end of the cover (11). The connector (21) is formed on and protrudes from the distal end of the plug (20), is electrically connected to the electrical wire (22) through the plug (20), and may be any type of connector for electrically connecting the electronic device to an external electronic device or circuit. For instance, the connector (21) may be a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector with a metal contact housing. Because the metal contact housing is usually ferrous, the connector (21) is usually attracted to a magnet.
With further reference to
The electronic device casing with a plug housing as described has the following advantages. The recess (30) has a simpler structure since no other indention or protrusion is in the recess (30). Furthermore, the plug (20) may be easily mounted in and removed from the recess (30) with the electrical wire (22) mounted in the slot (31) and the connector (21) held by the magnet (32) in the inner bottom surface of the recess (30). Consequently, no undue force is applied to the electrical wire (22) when mounting the plug (20) in or removing the plug (20) from the recess (30).
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 features of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, 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.
