Patent Application
20190382041
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The disclosure and prior art relates to alarm assemblies and more particularly pertains to a new alarm assembly for a railroad track.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing that defines an interior space. The housing is positioned on a first side of a railroad track. A power module and a microprocessor are coupled to the housing and positioned in the interior space. The microprocessor is operationally coupled to the power module. A transmitter and a speaker are coupled to the housing and operationally coupled to the microprocessor. The microprocessor is positioned to command the transmitter to transmit a photoelectric beam. A receiver is positioned on a second side of the railroad track. The receiver is operationally coupled to the microprocessor and aligned with the transmitter. The receiver is positioned to detect the photoelectric beam and to signal the microprocessor in event of a blocking of the photoelectric beam, positioning the microprocessor to actuate the speaker to sound an alarm to warn persons of an oncoming train.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A power module 16 and a microprocessor 18 are coupled to the housing 12 and are positioned in the interior space 14. The microprocessor 18 is operationally coupled to the power module 16. A transmitter 20 and a speaker 22 are coupled to the housing 12. The transmitter 20 and the speaker 22 are operationally coupled to the microprocessor 18. The microprocessor 18 is positioned to command the transmitter 20 to transmit a photoelectric beam. The transmitter 20 emits visible light, infrared light, laser light, or the like. The transmitter 20 extends from a first end 24 of the housing 12. The speaker 22 is coupled to a side 26 of the housing 12.
The power module 16 comprises a third rail of the railroad track, as shown in
A cone 36 is coupled to and extends from the housing 12, as shown in
A receiver 38 is positioned on a second side of the railroad track. The receiver 38 is operationally coupled to the microprocessor 18. The receiver 38 is aligned with the transmitter 20 so that the receiver 38 is positioned to detect the photoelectric beam and to signal the microprocessor 18 in event of a blocking of the photoelectric beam, as would occur when a train passes between the transmitter 20 and the receiver 38. In this event, the microprocessor 18 is positioned to actuate the speaker 22 to sound the alarm to warn persons of an oncoming train.
A controller 40 is coupled to the second end 30 of the housing 12. The controller 40 is operationally coupled to the microprocessor 18 and the power module 16. The controller 40 is positioned to selectively couple the microprocessor 18 to the power module 16 to power the microprocessor 18.
The controller 40 comprises a first button 42 and a second button 44, as shown in
A cable 46 is coupled to and extends between the housing 12 and the receiver 38. The cable 46 is configured to supply power to the receiver 38 and to operationally couple the receiver 38 to the microprocessor 18. The cable 46 is positioned under the rails of the railroad track, as shown in
A stand 48 is positioned on the second side of the railroad track, as shown in
The stand 48 comprises a base 52 and a post 54. The base 52 is substantially circularly shaped. The post 54 is coupled to and extends perpendicularly from the base 52. The post 54 comprises a plurality of nested sections 56 so that the post 54 is selectively extensible. The post 54 is used to selectively position the receiver 38 to align with the transmitter 20.
The plurality of nested sections 56 comprises an upper section 58 that is selectively extensible from a lower section 60, as shown in
The first coupler 62 comprises a plurality of holes 66. The second coupler 64 comprises a pin 68. The pin 68 is spring loaded. The pin 68 is configured to be depressed to adjust the upper section 58 relative to the lower section 60. The pin 68 is positioned to selectively insert into a respective hole 66 to couple the upper section 58 to the lower section 60 to fixedly position the receiver 38 relative to the base 52.
In use, the housing 12 is positioned on the first side of a railroad track and the stand 48 is positioned on the second side of the railroad track with the cable 46 extending under the rails of the railroad track. The housing 12 is coupled to the third rail. The receiver 38 that is coupled to the stand 48 is aligned with the transmitter 20 by adjusting the upper section 58 of the post 54 relative to the lower section 60 of the post 54. The receiver 38 is positioned to detect the photoelectric beam emitted by the transmitter 20 and to signal the microprocessor 18 in the event of the blocking of the photoelectric beam, positioning the microprocessor 18 to actuate the speaker 22 to sound the alarm to warn the persons of the oncoming train.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
