This invention relates to an electronic lock, for example a cable lock used for bicycles.
Electronic locks for bicycles are known. See, for example, U.S. Patent Application No. 2019/0368234 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,893,283; 9,679,429; and 9,495,820 all incorporated herein by this reference. Many such locks are activated via a Bluetooth signal transmitted to the lock from a smart device.
Some cyclists prefer flexible cable locks instead of the rigid hoop style described in published application No. 2019/0368234. On the other hand, known flexible cable locks can be easier to defeat by cutting the cable.
For any electronic lock, the design of the antenna and access to it for the RF signal are design considerations. Adding a port in the lock body for the RF signal to reach the antenna results in an access point for tools or the like which can be used in an effort to defeat the lock.
The size and weight of the lock also increases when the lock is electronically controlled. A battery, a motor, an RF receiver, a controller, and the like are required.
Finally, power management is a concern especially when power is used to both unlock and lock the lock.
Featured in one specific design is a flexible cable electronic lock with a difficult to defeat cable and a spherical lock body which is also difficult to defeat. The lock body has no RF signal port. The lock is made smaller and lighter due to a unique configuration of the mechanism(s) which engages the lock shackle and the retainer which locks the shackle in the lock body. Power is conserved because power is only required to unlock the lock when the retainer is driven for a short time to release the shackle from the lock body. And, the retainer is itself a component of a small solenoid rendering the lock body compact. Also, power for the solenoid is provided by a unique boosting circuit in the lock body.
Featured is a cable lock comprising a cable, a shackle pin connected to one end of the cable, and a lock body connected to another end of the cable. The lock body preferably includes a channel for the shackle pin, at least one lock member adjacent the channel pivotable from an open position disengaged from the shackle pin to a closed position engaging the shackle pin, and a retainer associated with a lock member driven from a released position disengaged from the lock member to an engaged position retaining the lock member in the closed position.
In one preferred example, an electronically driven linear actuator, such as a solenoid, drives the retainer to the released position. The linear actuator may include a winding about the retainer. The linear actuator may further include a first spring biasing the retainer in the engaged position. A second spring preferably biases the lock member in the open position and a third spring in the channel biases the shackle pin outwards from the channel.
In one example, the lock member includes a striker face which engages the shackle pin to pivot the lock member to the closed position, the shackle pin includes a ledge and the lock member includes a tab seated on the ledge when the lock member is in the closed position. The retainer is in the form of a shaft and the lock member includes a recess receiving the shaft therein when the shaft engages the lock member in its closed position. The recess is aligned with the shaft when the lock member is in the closed position and the recess is not aligned with the shaft when the lock member is in the open position.
Preferably, the majority of the lock body includes curved surfaces. The lock may further include a power supply for the linear actuator controlled via signal from a receiver in the lock body. In one example, the receiver is a Bluetooth receiver. The power supply may include a battery charging one or more capacitors. The battery is charged via a charging circuit. A circuit is configured to supply a voltage from the one or more capacitors to the linear actuator in response to an unlock signal received by the receiver.
In one preferred example, there is an antenna for the receiver, for example, the cable serves as the antenna and includes a wire rope surrounded by a sheath itself surrounded by interlocking metal beads. The sheath can be made of Kevlar®.
Also featured, is a lock comprising a shackle and a lock body receiving the shackle therein and including at least one lock member driven by the shackle to a first position engaging the shackle and biased to a second position disengaged from the shackle, and a retainer associated with a lock member biased to a first position engaging the lock member and driven to a second position disengaged from the lock member
Also featured is a method of operating a lock, the method comprising locking the lock by urging a shackle into a lock body closing a lock member to engage the shackle and moving a retainer to engage with the lock member and unlocking the lock by disengaging the retainer from the lock member, an opening the lock member to disengage from the shackle and urging the shackle out of the lock body. Preferably, power is consumed only to disengage the retainer from the lock member and spring forces are used to engage the retainer with the lock member, and to open the lock member, and to urge the shackle out of the lock body.
The subject invention, however, in other embodiments, need not achieve all these objectives and the claims hereof should not be limited to structures or methods capable of achieving these objectives.
Other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of a preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings, in which:
Aside from the preferred embodiment or embodiments disclosed below, this invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Thus, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. If only one embodiment is described herein, the claims hereof are not to be limited to that embodiment. Moreover, the claims hereof are not to be read restrictively unless there is clear and convincing evidence manifesting a certain exclusion, restriction, or disclaimer.
Shackle pin 20,
When pin 36 is retracted, spring 54,
Preferably, an electrically driven linear actuator such as solenoid 60,
In this way, solenoid windings 62 need only be energized a very short time in order to unlock the lock saving battery power. Locking the lock requires no battery power and instead occurs by the mechanical action of the shackle pin being driven into the lock body, the action of the locking members being moved to their closed position via the insertion of the shackle pin into the locked body, and the action of the solenoid pin biased to engage to the locking members to retain them in their closed position.
Plastic membrane 70 between cable end 26
In one version, an antenna for the Bluetooth receiver or transceiver is realized using one or more extra pins of the Bluetooth charging port connected to printed circuit board 90 which includes the receiver and the appropriate logic circuitry. But, in one preferred embodiment shown, the antenna includes conductive wire rope 24,
A receiver coupled to antenna 160 (or a transceiver for two-way communications) receives, typically via the Bluetooth standard, a communication from a smart device (e.g., a cell phone with the appropriate application loaded thereon) a signal to unlock the lock. Controller 162 receives and processes this signal and activates switching circuitry 164 which allows the capacitors 100 to discharge their power to solenoid 60. A short high voltage pulse is all that is required. The windings of the solenoid then drive the shaft out of engagement with the locking members as described previously and the lock is unlocked. One preferred antenna structure is also previously described.
Bi-directional communications may be useful for authentication, battery power indications, unlock and lock times and date data, GPS location data, and the like.
Although specific features of the invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, this is for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the invention. For example, the lock described here can be used as lock for lockers, doors, and the like. The words “including”, “comprising”, “having”, and “with” as used herein are to be interpreted broadly and comprehensively and are not limited to any physical interconnection. Moreover, any embodiments disclosed in the subject application are not to be taken as the only possible embodiments.
In addition, any amendment presented during the prosecution of the patent application for this patent is not a disclaimer of any claim element presented in the application as filed: those skilled in the art cannot reasonably be expected to draft a claim that would literally encompass all possible equivalents, many equivalents will be unforeseeable at the time of the amendment and are beyond a fair interpretation of what is to be surrendered (if anything), the rationale underlying the amendment may bear no more than a tangential relation to many equivalents, and/or there are many other reasons the applicant cannot be expected to describe certain insubstantial substitutes for any claim element amended.
Other embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art and are within the following claims.
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