Patent Grant
11509104
Priority is claimed to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2020 104 022.9, filed on Feb. 17, 2020, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a short-circuit probe, a plug-in connection with such a short-circuit probe and a method for producing such a short-circuit probe.
Due to the ever-increasing number of electrical devices, the desire to connect different electronic devices to each other is also increasing. This is done by establishing a corresponding plug-in connection by means of two plugs. Such a plug-in connection can be faulty, which then leads to the failure of a communication connection between the two electrical devices. On the one hand, a faulty plug-in connection can emerge over time when, for example, forces act on the plug-in connection. On the other hand, a plug-in connection can be incorrectly established right from the start because the two plugs have not been plugged into each other with the required force. The subsequent effort for rectifying the faulty plug-in connection can sometimes be very high. The detection of a faulty plug-in connection is therefore important.
DE 20 2019 104 312 U1 discloses a test plug that makes it possible to short-circuit a coaxial plug. This test plug is inserted into a coaxial plug. If a plug-in connection to another coaxial plug is established via this coaxial plug, its inner conductor will be short-circuited with its outer conductor. This can be detected at an early stage via a corresponding control device, and the plug-in connection, which has further connections as well, can be repaired accordingly. The test plug comprises a contact spring which simultaneously contacts and thus short-circuits an inner conductor and an outer conductor. The contact spring is held by a housing. The housing comprises a receptacle for the short-circuiting inner conductor. When the inner conductor is inserted into the receptacle, contact is made with the contact spring. Another part of the contact spring is used for contacting the outer conductor and projects from the housing. The contact spring is pushed into the housing in the same direction as the inner conductor later on. The contact spring increases in width from the contacting end and comprises slotted latching wings. The test plug shown can be manufactured only with great difficulty, especially in an automated manner. This applies all the more the smaller the coaxial plugs are. In the case of inner conductors having a diameter of less than 1 mm, the contact spring is inherently very unstable. The inner conductors of the coaxial cable to be accommodated can in the case of micro-coaxial lines have a diameter of approximately 0.4 mm. The dimensions which a necessary test plug must have are correspondingly small. The assembly of the test plug from the prior art is therefore highly problematic for such dimensions and cannot be achieved in an automated manner.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a short-circuit probe for short-circuiting an inner conductor with an outer conductor in a multiway coaxial plug of a plug-in connection. The short-circuit probe includes a contact spring for short-circuiting which consists of or comprises an electrically conductive material. The contact spring comprises a holding and stabilizing section and a contacting section. The contacting section is bent and comprises an inner-conductor contact section and an outer-conductor contact section which are spaced apart from one another perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the contact spring. The short-circuit probe further comprises a housing which comprises: a receiving space extending along a longitudinal direction of the housing; an inner-conductor insertion opening in a first end face of the housing, via which the short-circuiting inner conductor of the multiway coaxial plug can be inserted into the receiving space at least over a part of its length and can be brought into contact with the inner-conductor contact section; and a laterally and/or radially aligned outer-conductor contacting opening, wherein the outer-conductor contact section of the contact spring passes through the outer-conductor contacting opening and can be brought into contact with the outer conductor. The contact spring is arranged inside the receiving space of the housing and extends over a predominant length of the housing
Embodiments of the present invention will be described in even greater detail below based on the exemplary figures. The present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments. All features described and/or illustrated herein can be used alone or combined in different combinations in embodiments of the present invention. The features and advantages of various embodiments of the present invention will become apparent by reading the following detailed description with reference to the attached drawings which illustrate the following:
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a short-circuit probe for short-circuiting an inner conductor with an outer conductor in a multiway coaxial plug of a plug-in connection, which comprises an improved structure and is suitable for accommodating even the smallest inner conductor diameters, wherein production of this short-circuit probe is possible in an automated manner.
The short-circuit probe according to an embodiment of the invention comprises a contact spring which consists of or comprises an electrically conductive material. Via the contact spring, the inner conductor is electrically (galvanically) connected to the outer conductor via a low-resistance connection and is thus short-circuited. In contrast to the prior art, the contact spring comprises a holding and stabilizing section in addition to a contacting section. Both sections extend along a longitudinal axis of the contact spring. The contacting section is bent and comprises an inner-conductor contact section and an outer-conductor contact section that are spaced apart from each other perpendicularly or transversely to the longitudinal axis of the contact spring. The contacting section is preferably designed in a spring-loaded manner with respect to the holding and stabilizing section. In addition, the inner-conductor contact section may also be designed in a spring-loaded manner with respect to the outer-conductor contact section. A housing delimits a receiving space extending along, in particular, the entire length of the longitudinal direction of the housing.
At its first end face, the housing comprises an inner-conductor insertion opening, via which the short-circuiting inner conductor can be inserted into the receiving space at least over a part of its length. In the inner-conductor insertion opening, the short-circuiting inner conductor can be brought into electrically conductive contact with the inner-conductor contact section. The housing also has a lateral outer-conductor contacting opening, which is preferably arranged offset by 90° from the inner-conductor insertion opening. The outer-conductor contact section projects through the outer-conductor contacting opening and can thereby be brought into electrically conductive contact with the outer conductor that is to be received. It is particularly advantageous for the contact spring to be arranged within the receiving space of the housing and to extend over the predominant length of the housing.
Since the contact spring extends over the predominant length of the housing, the dimensioning of the contact spring can be selected even in the case of just a very small contacting section in such a way that a comparatively simple, preferably automated, handling is possible. In this way, embodiments of the invention can also be used with very small plug connectors which have, for example, an outer conductor diameter of 2 to 3 mm.
In order to further increase the stability, a development provides that the inner-conductor insertion opening and the outer-conductor contacting opening are two separate openings which are separated from each other on the outside by a part of the housing. This increases the stability of the housing, above all in the region of the first end face. In this case, the contact spring preferably does not have branches. The inner-conductor contact section and the outer-conductor contact section are arranged one after the other.
In order to further increase the stability, the inner-conductor contact section is bent back relative to the outer-conductor contact section, in particular by 180°, and thus forms a first end of the contact spring. Basically, the outer-conductor contact section can also be bent back relative to the inner-conductor contact section. The contacting section may have an unciform shape. It is particularly advantageous here for the greater part of the contact spring to be arranged within the housing and for only the bent-back part of the outer-conductor contact section to project from the corresponding outer-conductor contacting opening. In the prior art, the predominant part of the contact spring is accessible from outside the housing, which brings stability problems with it and means that the contact spring can be damaged more easily.
The housing can have a separate contact-spring insertion opening via which the contact spring can be inserted into the receiving space. The contact-spring insertion opening is arranged in particular in the region of a second end face of the housing. The inner-conductor insertion opening and the contact-spring insertion opening are therefore preferably formed at two opposite ends of the housing. The contact spring is inserted into the contact spring opening with its contacting section first and pushed forward in the direction of the inner-conductor insertion opening. In the prior art, this is done exactly the other way around. Here, the widened section is inserted first and the filigree contacting section last. The problem from the prior art of how the contact spring is ultimately to be held when it is being pushed in does not arise in an embodiment of the present invention because the contact spring can be held at the free end of the holding and stabilizing section without any problems and can be inserted into the contact-spring insertion opening with the contacting section first.
The holding and stabilizing section of the contact spring has a convex cross-sectional geometry. It is also possible to speak of a curvature of the holding and stabilizing section transversely to the longitudinal axis. As a result, not only can the receiving space be enlarged, wherein the contact spring is still arranged in the receiving space without play as before, which simplifies the production of the housing. At the same time, the convex profile also increases the stability of the entire contact spring. As a result, a greater length of the contact spring can also be realized, so that it extends in particular over the predominant part of the length of the housing. The at least one holding and stabilizing section may have a height of preferably less than 0.8 mm, more preferably less than 0.5 mm, most preferably less than 0.4 mm.
The plug-in connection according to an embodiment of the invention comprises a first and a second multiway coaxial plug, in particular in the form of a micro multiway coaxial plug, wherein the second multiway coaxial plug is the mating connector of the first multiway coaxial plug. The first multiway coaxial plug comprises at least two connections. It could also comprise three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or more than eight connections. The same also applies to the second multiway coaxial plug. The short-circuit probe is arranged in a first connection of the first multiway coaxial plug. An inner conductor and an outer conductor of a coaxial cable connected to the respective connection are arranged in the at least one second connection. The first and the second multiway coaxial plugs are plugged into one another so that an inner conductor in the first connection of the second multiway coaxial plug enters into the inner-conductor insertion opening of the short-circuit probe and thereby contacts the inner-conductor contact section of the contact spring. An outer conductor in the first connection of the second multiway coaxial plug-in connector contacts the outer-conductor contact section of the contact spring in the plugged-together state. The inner conductor and the outer conductor are thereby electrically conductively connected via the contact spring and short-circuited.
The inner and outer conductors in the second connection of the second multiway coaxial plug-in connector contact the respective inner and outer conductors in the respective corresponding connection in the first multiway coaxial plug-in connector via conventional means. The inner conductors in the connections of the second multiway coaxial plug-in connector can in turn be electrically conductively connected to an inner conductor of a connected coaxial cable. They can also be connected to a plug contact. This also comprises a one-piece construction, according to which the plug contact in the first connection of the second multiway coaxial plug-in connector represents the inner conductor which is inserted into the inner-conductor insertion opening. The plug contact can be soldered to a circuit board. Such a plug contact can preferably emerge from the second multiway coaxial plug at an angle of 90°. The same also applies to the outer conductors of the second multiway coaxial plug.
By connecting the second multiway coaxial plug to a control device, at least that connection where the short-circuit probe according to an embodiment of the invention is mounted can be queried regarding a short circuit. If a short circuit is detected, this is a sign that the plug-in connection has been established properly and corresponding signals can also be transmitted via the other connections.
The method according to an embodiment of the invention for producing the short-circuit probe comprises several method steps. These method steps are aimed in particular at an automated production of the short-circuit probe. In a first method step, a contact spring belt is produced. This contact spring belt comprises a plurality of contact springs which are later placed into corresponding housings. This first method step comprises several method sub-steps. In a first method sub-step, a metal sheet is punched out and/or lasered. Contact springs are punched out or lasered from this metal sheet. These are separated from each other, wherein each contact spring comprises a holding and stabilizing section, a contacting section and a connecting section. The contact springs are held together via a common upper connecting strip and a common lower connecting strip. The connecting section of each contact spring is connected to the upper connecting strip, and the holding and stabilizing section of each contact spring is connected to the lower connecting strip in the region of a respective end. The contact springs are therefore separated from one another and attached individually to the upper and to the lower connecting strips. Subsequently, in a further method sub-step, the contacting section is bent over, in particular into an unciform shape.
In the next method step, the connecting section is separated from the upper connecting strip. Subsequently, in a further method step, the contact spring is introduced into a receiving space of a housing via a corresponding contact-spring insertion opening. The contact spring is inserted into the contact-spring insertion opening with its contacting section first. After the contacting section, the connecting section is inserted, which is no longer attached to the upper connecting strip. The holding and stabilizing section is then inserted. The contact spring itself can be moved towards the housing. However, the housing is preferably moved in the direction of the contact spring. Even a common movement of contact spring and housing would be possible. Finally, the holding and stabilizing section is separated from the lower connecting strip.
The use of the contact spring belt is particularly advantageous because the respective contact springs in this contact spring belt are optimally aligned and can be correspondingly introduced into the respective housings. Such a contact spring belt, which can be rolled up, may comprise a plurality of contact springs and be fed to a corresponding automatic placement machine. An automatic production of the short-circuit probe according to embodiments of the invention is thereby possible.
Some particularly advantageous embodiments of the short-circuit probe are again highlighted below.
The short-circuit probe need not have its own outer conductor.
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following features:
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following features:
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following features:
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following features:
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following feature:
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following feature:
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following feature:
The short-circuit probe preferably has the following features:
Referring to the Figures, the short-circuit probe 1 according to an embodiment of the invention is described below. The short-circuit probe 1 comprises a contact spring 2 and a housing.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the holding and stabilizing section 3 is wider than the connecting section 5 and in particular also wider than the contacting section 4. At least two stop faces 3a are formed on the holding and stabilizing section 3 at the transition between the holding and stabilizing section 3 and in the connecting section 5 so that the connecting section 5 continues approximately centrally on the holding and stabilizing section 3. The stop faces 3a can be brought into contact with a corresponding stop counterface inside the housing, not shown.
The inner-conductor insertion opening 23 and the outer-conductor contacting opening 24 are separated from each other by a part 25 of the housing 20 and open into the common receiving space 21. Bearing surfaces 26 for the inner conductor 50 are also mounted in the receiving space 21 in the region of the inner-conductor insertion opening 23. In the exemplary embodiment shown, these bearing surfaces 26 are trough-shaped. The inner-conductor insertion opening 23 is preferably funnel-shaped and serves as a centering aid for receiving the inner conductor 50.
The housing 20 comprises a region 27a with a reduced diameter, which is surrounded by regions 27b, 27c with an enlarged diameter. A latching wing of the first multiway coaxial plug 40 can engage in the region 27a with the reduced diameter. This prevents the short-circuit probe 1 from being able to fall out of the first multiway coaxial plug 40. At the end of the short-circuit probe 1, there is a further region 27d with an enlarged diameter. The transition to this region 27d serves in particular as a stop which marks an end position of the short-circuit probe 1 when it is being pushed into the multiway coaxial plug 40.
It is also shown that the housing 20 comprises several pairs of openings 29. These pairs of openings 29 are let into the housing 20 laterally and/or radially and are arranged on two opposite sides. In a top view of the housing 20, it is therefore possible to see through the housing 20 through respective pairs of openings 29. The pairs of openings 29 are important in the production of the housing 20 in an injection-molding process. Auxiliary tools can thus be inserted for bilateral support of the tool which is responsible for the formation of the receiving space 21. In this way, it is possible to prevent the high pressures at which the liquid plastic is injected into the mold from leading to a deformation or a bending out of shape of the tool which creates the receiving space 21. These pairs of openings 29 are arranged along the longitudinal direction 22 of the housing 20.
The contact spring insertion opening 28 is arranged in the region of a second end face 20b of the housing 20. The contact spring 2 is inserted into the contact spring insertion opening 28 with its contacting section 4 first so that stable holding of the contact spring 2 on the holding and stabilizing section 3 is possible for the duration of insertion. The contact spring 2 ends with its second end 2b inside the receiving space 21. Referring to
In
In
The inner-conductor contact section 7 to be seen in
The first multiway coaxial plug 40 comprises four connections 40a, 40b, 40c, 40d. The short-circuit probe 1 is plugged into the first connection 40a. The remaining connections 40b, 40c, 40d are left unoccupied in
This is shown in
Referring to
In a further method sub-step S1B, the contacting section 4 is bent into an unciform shape. In this method step, the holding and stabilizing section 3 could also be given its convex shape. A latching wing 9 can also be introduced. The shortening of the latching wing 9 relative to the other corner region can take place in method step S1A.
In a further method step S2, the connecting section 5 is separated from the upper connecting strip 71a. This can take place by a stamping, cutting and/or lasering process.
In a further method step S3, the contact spring 2, which now no longer comprises an upper connecting strip 71a, is inserted into the receiving space 21 of the housing 20 via the contact spring insertion opening 28. The contact spring 2 can here be moved towards the housing 20 or the housing 20 can be moved towards the contact spring 2.
In a further method step S4, the holding and stabilizing section 3 is separated from the lower connecting strip 71b. This can take place by a stamping, cutting and/or lasering process.
In principle, in the method sub-steps S1A, spacer areas could also be left on the upper and lower connecting strips 71a and 71b, which project upwards and/or downwards from the respective connecting strip 71a, 71b. In the method sub-step S1b, these spacer areas could then be bent over to form spacers 72. The height of these spacers 72 is preferably greater than the height of the contacting section 4—bent into an unciform shape—of the respective contact fields 2.
Additionally or alternatively, in the method sub-step S1A, locking openings 73 could also be introduced into the upper connecting strip 71a and/or into the lower connecting strip 71b. This is preferably done at the position at which the respective contact spring 2 is arranged. When the housing 20 is being fitted out, a corresponding locking device (e.g., via gearwheels) of the automatic placement machine can engage in these locking openings in order to align the contact spring 2 securely and precisely, so that it can be introduced into the housing 20 with high precision.
The invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments described. Within the scope of the invention, all described and/or drawn features can be combined in any way with each other.
While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. It will be understood that changes and modifications may be made by those of ordinary skill within the scope of the following claims. In particular, the present invention covers further embodiments with any combination of features from different embodiments described above and below. Additionally, statements made herein characterizing the invention refer to an embodiment of the invention and not necessarily all embodiments.
The terms used in the claims should be construed to have the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the foregoing description. For example, the use of the article “a” or “the” in introducing an element should not be interpreted as being exclusive of a plurality of elements. Likewise, the recitation of “or” should be interpreted as being inclusive, such that the recitation of “A or B” is not exclusive of “A and B,” unless it is clear from the context or the foregoing description that only one of A and B is intended. Further, the recitation of “at least one of A, B and C” should be interpreted as one or more of a group of elements consisting of A, B and C, and should not be interpreted as requiring at least one of each of the listed elements A, B and C, regardless of whether A, B and C are related as categories or otherwise. Moreover, the recitation of “A, B and/or C” or “at least one of A, B or C” should be interpreted as including any singular entity from the listed elements, e.g., A, any subset from the listed elements, e.g., A and B, or the entire list of elements A, B and C.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2020 104 022.9 | Feb 2020 | DE | national |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20210257794 A1 | Aug 2021 | US |
