Embodiments are generally related to firearms, Picatinny rails, firearm rail systems, batteries, and firearm accessories.
Firearms, particularly military style carbines and rifles, are often outfitted with rail systems. Historically, Picatinny rails were attached to or formed into the upper receivers of M-16 style firearms to which sights such as scopes, red dots, and even iron sights have been mounted. Over time, more and more mounting rails have been added with current models having mounting rails on the receiver and four mounting rails on the forward hand guard. The reason is that a vast number of rail mountable firearm accessories have become available. Examples of these firearm accessories include the aforementioned sights, lasers, flashlights, bayonets, grenade launchers, sling swivels, cameras, bipods, vertical fore grips, and other items.
A number of the firearm accessories are electrically powered. Many solutions simply include battery compartments. For example, a flashlight accessory is basically a battery powered flashlight with rail compatible mount points. More recently, solutions are being developed for electrifying the firearms and rail systems. Hines (U.S. Pat. No. 7,627,975) and Thompson (US Patent Application 2011/0000120) teach bringing electrical power to forward mounted accessories, Darian (US Patent Applications 2010/0192446, 2010/0192448, and 2011/0131858) also teaches powering firearm accessories from a firearm rail. Among the advantages of electrified rail systems is that the batteries and the active components can be located separately to reduce the weight at the front of the firearm. A carbine can be unwieldy if it has numerous accessories with batteries attached to the fore grip. Electrified rail systems allow those forward mounted parts to be much lighter because the batteries are located elsewhere. A new generation of firearms having electrified rail systems and compatible accessories is being introduced.
There are a large number of parts and products for the previous non-electrified firearms systems already in production and in the field. Systems and methods providing forward and backward compatibility between different generations of electrified and non-electrified firearms and rail systems are needed.
The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
There are a great number of battery powered firearm accessories on the market. Examples include laser designators and flashlights. They are designed to mount on a firearm rail and thereby enhance the function of the firearm. They also have battery compartments such that the firearm accessory can be electrically powered by batteries installed in the battery compartment. The firearm accessories have battery compartments because they are designed for a generation of firearms that lack electrically powered rail systems.
It is therefore an aspect of the embodiments to electrically power a firearm accessory by directing the electrical power from a powered firearm rail and into the firearm accessory's battery compartment. A battery compartment has at least one power terminal and typically has a positive terminal and a negative terminal that are intended to make electrical contact with the positive and negative poles (aka battery terminals) of batteries that are installed in the battery compartment. In many cases the battery compartment itself or its cover, the battery cover, contains circuitry (actually just electrically connected terminals) that connect batteries in series such that the accessory receives 3V when two 1.5V batteries are inserted in the battery compartment and the battery cover properly installed.
It is therefore an additional aspect of the embodiments that a power clamp attached to a powered firearm rail can accept electrical power from that powered firearm rail and pass it to the power terminals. The simplest embodiment would have insulated wires forming a direct electrical connection between the power clamp and the power terminals. Such an embodiment, however, could leave the battery compartment open to the environment. As such, a variety of means for powering the accessory from a power clamp are provided wherein the battery compartment is sealed. Some such means includes modification or replacement of the battery cover. Other such means include combinations of false batteries and seals that seal the gap between the false battery and sides of the battery compartment.
Further aspects of some embodiments include power matching circuitry that conditions the electrical power provided by the rail such that it is compatible with the firearm accessory. For example, the powered rail can provide 5V while a flashlight requires 1.5V and a laser requires 9V. DC-to-DC voltage converters can easily handle the required conditioning. Similar circuits that can help meet power conditioning needs include DC-to-AC converters and AC-to-DC converters.
The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the embodiments and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the embodiments disclosed herein.
The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope thereof.
Electrically powered firearm mounting rails are designed to provide electrical power to firearm accessories. A power clamp can tap into the rail electrical power and pass it to other items requiring electrical power. Principal among those items are firearm accessories having battery compartments and designed to be powered by batteries. The power clamp can be connected to power terminals in the battery compartment directly through additional circuitry, through modified battery covers, through false batteries, or through dummy batteries. In this manner, the need to install batteries in the firearm accessory is relaxed and the weight balance of the firearm improved.
Many devices have battery compartments with electrically conductive sidewalls or conductors along the sidewalls. Such devices often have battery covers that electrically connect one of the battery terminals to the sidewall. The false battery can have a sidewall facing terminal 207 that directly contacts the sidewall conductor, thereby effectively bypassing the need for a contact in the battery cover. Furthermore, the sidewall facing terminal 207 can be constructed to press against the battery compartment sidewall. Tightening a bolt or screw can squeeze rubberized material such that it presses the sidewall facing terminal 207 outward against the battery compartment sidewall. Similarly, a cam can be rotated to cause the needed expansion.
A set screw 206 in the power clamp 202 can be tightened to engage a mounting rail slot and also to press the clamp's electrical interface into contact with the rail's electrical interface to thereby electrically power the clamp.
For example, a prior art battery cover for an AA powered device can electrically connect the battery's negative terminal to the compartment sidewall and press the positive terminal into a positive terminal. A different battery cover 604 can include an external power connection 605 and electrically connect the negative pole from a power clamp 202 to the sidewall and the positive pole to an internal power connection 603. The electrical connection for the positive pole can be a wire between the battery cover 604 and the internal power connection 603 or can be any other conductor such as a dummy battery that merely conducts from one end to the other. The external power connection 605 can use an electrical plug/socket, a power jack, magnetically attracted terminals, or even a USB socket/plug arrangement.
An alternative arrangement is to design the powered accessory 601 to accept batteries or to receive electrical power from a connector plugged directly into the internal power connection and electrically connected to the battery cover 604. In any case, the removal of the battery opens up a small storage volume. Furthermore, false batteries and dummy batteries can contain small storage volumes.
It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/286,835 titled “Battery Adaptive Device” and filed on Nov. 1, 2011 which is herein included by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13286835 | Nov 2011 | US |
Child | 13426222 | US |