DE9000935U1 - Junction box, connection cable and connection device for a data network - Google Patents

Description

Telegärtner" iisrl Gärtner , 7049 Steinonbronn Junction box, connection cable and connection device for a data network

The innovation relates to a connection box, a connection cable and connection device according to the preambles of claims 1, 2,

unü 16, particularly designed for a star-shaped structured data network.

A data network is primarily used to connect several data processing devices or terminals to each ^other or to a central computer or similar in one room or high-rise building. For this purpose, a shielded cable is laid on the surface or under ^the plaster, which leads to various connection boxes to which the data processing devices are connected. Such a cable is called a data bus or bus for short because of the type of signals transmitted and must meet certain transmission requirements. In a star-structured network, connection boxes are installed to which several devices are connected in parallel (= star-shaped branching). Several passive connection boxes, which only contain ohmic decoupling resistors, can be connected in a star shape to an active connection box, which contains amplifier elements, in order to achieve a larger branching.

In the known data networks of this type, the passive connection sockets have 2 to 4 BNC sockets, which are electrically connected to one another directly (in the case of 2) or via decoupling resistors connected to a common star point. The connection to the data bus or the devices to be connected is made via connection cables, each of which has BNC plugs on both sides - this means that the data bus is also connected to the connection socket via a BNC plug. If a BNC socket on a connection socket is not occupied and therefore no device is connected to this connection, a so-called terminating resistor should be plugged into the free BNC socket instead of the device (this is in a special BNC plug

However, this is often not taken into account or there is no such terminating connector available. A star-shaped data network can tolerate it if a certain number of end points are not terminated with the correct load, but if the number of open connections predominates, the susceptibility to errors in the data network can become significant.

The aim of the innovation is therefore to largely avoid the termination of the data network.

This object is solved by the characterizing features of claims 1, 2, 14 and 16.

Some of the BNC sockets on the output side are now replaced by functional sockets of the type described in EP 0 038 431 B1.

Functional plugs are shown in EP 0 141 957 A3 or DE 3 015 138 C2. \ Due to the claimed connection of I terminating resistors integrated in the connection box via the functional sockets, the termination 1 of an unused connection takes place automatically, whereby this burden is also I

is automatically disconnected from the data network as soon as the functional plug of a connection cable designed according to claim 14 or 15 is plugged in.

I Since the functional plug with cable and the functional socket are I are coordinated, interrelated elements, the new

Z Connecting cable with the new connection box forms a functional unit,

.| namely the connection device according to claim 16, wherein of course generic

I -* identical connection cables can be interchanged. The remaining

f The BNC sockets provided on the connection boxes serve to largely fix

£ connection to the data bus.

■? The connection box according to claim 1 comprises only a BNC socket and a

;; Function socket and does not require decoupling, whereas the

k Junction box according to claim 2 allows branching to several locations,

^; which requires decoupling resistors in the junction box.

According to the further developing features of claim 5, two switching contact tongues are connected in parallel, which increases the functional reliability.

Further advantageous embodiments and developments of the junction box - are specified in claims 6 to i3.

The design of the connection cable according to claim 15 corresponds to the contact parallel circuit according to claim 5 and increases the functional reliability, as well.

The measure according to claim 17 is also called face coding, whereby

°in plugging in principle similar, but to other devices (such as telephone)

associated and correspondingly differently coded plug is prevented - such as lock and key.

Further advantageous developments and refinements of the innovation emerge from the further subclaims, as well as the following description of preferred embodiments based on the drawing.

' ^r s shows :

"ig. 1 the electrical circuit of a first embodiment of an innovative connection device,

rig. 2 the electrical circuit of a second version of a junction box according to the innovation,

Fn. 3 the electrical circuit of a third version of a junction box in accordance with the new regulations,

F;:. 4 a side view of a surface-mounted junction box according to the innovation

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XIl \, bnu LnVl t U\<ll\<l IIUUWI »A\*»«^-t &Lgr;*» vtrf%* , tt· · &ngr; ^ » . · · «y ^». . · w » » w< · . &eeacgr; j

schematically indicated,

Fig. 5 a detailed view of the circuit board in the direction of arrow 5 of Fig. 4 , to which special reference is made instead of further information,

":g. 6 a detailed view of the circuit board in the direction of arrow 6 of

Fig. 4 , to which special reference is made instead of further information,

^r ig. 7 a plan view of the junction box in the direction of arrow 7 of Fig. 4,

^r ig. 8 a side view of a flush-mounted junction box according to the innovation in about twice its natural size, with some parts only indicated schematically,

^r ig. 9 a connecting cable according to the innovation in twice its natural size, partially cut open.

^The circuit diagram according to Fig. 1 shows an incoming data bus 11, which is connected to ^a BNC connector 12. The only schematically indicated here

Connection box 13 contains a BNC socket 14 and a functional socket 15. This has two pairs of switching contact tongues 16, 17, which are in electrical contact with one another when no functional plug 18 is plugged in. However, if one is plugged in, as shown in Fig. 1, the switching contact tongues 16, 17 are separated from one another.

The functional connector 18 has two contact tongues 20, 21 arranged in pairs on opposite outer sides of an insulating carrier 19. A signal line 22 is connected to the left contact tongue 20, which is connected to the central contact pin 23 of a BNC connector 24.

The functional socket 15 now has another pair of switching contact tongues in the plane above the switching contact tongues 16, 17, which are not shown in Fig.1. These are each connected to the outer sleeve of the BNC socket, which corresponds to the ground pole of the connection box 13. The functional plug 18 also has another pair of contact tongues (not shown) in the plane above the contact tongues 20, 21, which are jointly connected to the shielding 25 of the signal line 22. The shielding is electrically connected at the other end to the outer sleeve of the BNC plug 24.

The signal line 22 with shielding 25, functional plug 18 and BNC plug (shown only schematically here) forms a prefabricated connection cable 26 in the form shown in Fig. 9 in lengths of 2 m, 3 m, 5 m and 8 m. It is used to connect a data processing device 27 to the connection box 13 or the data network.

When the functional plug is plugged in (as shown in Fig. 1), the signal path runs from the incoming data bus 11 via the central contact pin 28 of the BNC plug 12 to the central contact sleeve 29 of the BNC socket 14, from there to the switching contact tongue 16 of the functional socket 15 and via the contact tongue and the signal line 20 to the central contact pin 23 of the BNC plug 24, finally to the data processing device 27.

The second pole, the ground connection, leads from the shielding 30 of the data bus 11 to the outer sleeve 31 of the BNC plug 12, further to the outer sleeve 32 of the BNC socket 14, then via the internal ground wiring of the connection box 13 to the further pair of switching contact tongues not shown here (the switching function of which is not used here) and via the corresponding pair of contact tongues of the function plug 18 to the shielding 25 of the connection cable 26.

When the functional plug 18 is pulled out, the switching contact tongues 16 and 17 close the signal path to ground via a terminating resistor 33 connected to the switching contact tongue 17, which, depending on the network specification, has a value of around 90 ohms, for example. It goes without saying that this load is electrically separated as soon as a functional plug and thus a data processing device is connected to this connection box.

What is not shown in Fig.1 is that the functional socket 15 advantageously has another pair of switching contact tongues in the plane below the switching contact tongues 16, 17, which are electrically connected in parallel with those of the first pair (shown). The functional plug 18 also has another pair of contact tongues connected in parallel with the first pair. However, the contact tongues on the right in Fig.1 are not connected to a signal line. This contact doubling ensures the function even if one of the parallel contacts should suffer at one point, for example due to dirt penetrating it.

In the circuit diagram according to Fig. 2, the connection box 34 has two BNC sockets 35, 36 and two function sockets 37, 38. Up to four incoming or outgoing lines can be connected here, two of which are in the form of a data bus 39, 40. The circuit diagram no longer needs to be described in as much detail as before, since the signal path and ground connection are basically designed in a similar way. No connection cable is shown here. In accordance with the larger number of branches, the signal path only has decoupling resistors 42 connected to one another at a star point 41, which have a value of around 50 ohms. Thus, in the signal path between any two connections there is always a series connection of two decoupling resistors 42. Just as in the example in Fig. 1, the right switching contact tongue 43, 44 (or the one parallel to it in the plane above (not shown)) is connected to ground via a terminating resistor 45, 46.

In the example in Fig. 3, there are also four connections, but only one in the form of a BNC socket 47, whereas three are formed by functional sockets 48, 49, 50. Accordingly, three terminating resistors 51 are provided here that can be switched via the respective switching contact tongues.

The surface-mounted connection box 34 shown in Fig. 4 (shown here as a representative of the other possible configurations) has a circuit board 52, on the top of which the two BNC sockets 35 and 36 and the two functional sockets 37 and 38 are attached and contacted. The detailed spatial arrangement and shape of the conductor tracks can be seen in Figures 5 and 6 (which is particularly pointed out), with the hole pattern prepared for three adjacent functional sockets. It is striking that the conductor tracks for the signal paths (Fig. 6) are covered by a large copper surface 53 on the opposite side of the board (Fig. 5), which forms the common ground connection and is through-plated to the large copper surfaces 54, 55 (thereby connecting them) (in the area of the holes). Also visible is the conductor track 56, which forms the star point 41.

The BNC sockets 35, 36 are designed as 90° angle sockets so that their central contact sleeves run parallel to each other and also parallel to the circuit board 52 and point to the same side, while their solder connections protrude perpendicular to the board surface.

In the functional socket 37 (in Fig. 4) you can see the switching contact tongue 43 (or its external bracket) of the first pair, next to it on the left the switching contact tongue 43' of the parallel second pair and next to it on the right the switching contact tongue 43" of the third pair (which is connected to ground).

The circuit board 52 is housed in a two-part plastic housing, consisting of a plate-like base part 57 and a cap part 58 (only indicated), both of which are clipped together by means of locking hooks 59. The cap part is only indicated so that the interior remains visible. The outline follows the contour of the functional sockets 37, 38 as a jacket, is recessed for the BNC sockets 35, 36 and covers the space with the decoupling resistors 42 and terminating resistors 45, 46. The cap part 58 also has two openings 60, 61 that leave the plug openings of the functional sockets free, as shown in the top view of Fig. 7.

The plastic housing can be attached to a wall or similar with the base part 57 (the mounting holes for the mounting screws are not shown separately) and is then covered by a cover cap 62. Its side wall 63, which is located at the bottom in Fig.7, has a roughly U-shaped opening 64 with an open edge, so that space can be created.

is for the BNC plugs to be inserted there. Two recesses 66, 67 are cut out in the cover surface 65, through which functional plugs can be inserted into the functional sockets 37, 38.

In Fig.7 it can also be seen that the openings 60, 61 in the cap part have a so-called plug-in face coding in the form of the two lock-like grooves

68, 69. The functional connector has on its side surfaces corres-

ponding shaped and arranged key-bit-like bars, so that only j

appropriately coded function plugs (with the correct connection of the signal line) ü

can be plugged in. |

The flush-mounted connection box 34' shown in Fig. 8 also has a circuit board 70, with, for example, two functional sockets 37, 38 placed on top (according to the circuit of Fig. 2). However, here the BNC sockets 71, 72 (90° angle sockets) are arranged on the opposite lower side of the board, in such a way that their central contact sleeves are aligned parallel to one another and also parallel to the circuit board 70, but point to opposite sides.

The circuit board 70 is also housed in a two-part plastic housing, which is similar to the previous example. Only the base part now has recesses 73 through which the connection sockets 74 of the BNC sockets 71, 72 protrude. A metal fastening ring 75 is firmly connected to the plastic housing, which is of the type usual for light switch house installations. With this ring, the plastic housing can be anchored within a wall box 76, with the metal fastening ring 75 resting flush with the top of the wall (or plaster) on the edge of the wall box 76. Similar to light switches in a house installation, a cover plate 77 is screwed to the outside of the plastic housing, clamping a larger-shaped cover against the wall. The cover plate 77 also has two windows, comparable to the windows 66, 67 of Fig.7, which also provide the same view of the equally plug-face-coded openings in the cap part.

The connecting cable 79 of Fig. 9 consists of a single-core shielded cable BO, to the right-hand side of which a BNC connector RI with bayonet locking sleeve is connected in a known manner. A functional connector 82 is attached to the left-hand side. This has three pairs of contact tongues,

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of which only* those on one side are visible. The signal line 83 is soldered to the first two contact tongues 84 and 85 on the same visible side, while the opposite, invisible contact tongues remain unconnected. The shield 86, on the other hand, is connected to both
Contact tongues 87 (88 not visible) of the third pair.

This function plug Si 82 is inserted into the function socket " of Fig.7
For example, plugged in so that the cable leads 80 degrees downwards.
In this position the contact points 84, 85 and 87 point to the left and for better understanding these reference numbers are shown in Fig.7.

Claims (17)

Protection requirements: M 6 1. Connection box for a data network, with a BNC socket and a functional socket with at least two switching contact tongues arranged in pairs on opposite inner sides of the functional socket, which; are in electrical contact with one another if no functional plug is plugged into the functional socket, otherwise they are separated from one another, characterized, that a first of the paired switching contact tongues (16) is directly electrically connected to the central contact sleeve (29) of the BNC socket (14) and that the opposite second switching contact tongue (17) is connected to the ground connection of the BNC socket (14) via a cut - off resistor (33). 2. Connection box for a data network, with a BJC socket and at least two functional sockets with at least two switching contact tongues arranged in pairs on opposite inner sides of each functional socket, which contact each other in an electrically conductive manner when no functional plug is plugged into the functional socket, otherwise they are separated from each other, characterized, that a first of the paired switching contact tongues of each functional socket (37, 38; 48, 49, 50) is connected via a decoupling resistor (42) to a common star point (41), to which the central contact sleeve of the BNC socket (35, 36; 47) is also connected via a decoupling resistor (42) and that the respective opposite second switching contact tongue (43, 44) of each functional socket is connected via a terminating resistor (45, 46; 51) to the ground connection of the BNC socket (35, 36; 47). 3. Connection box according to claim 2, characterized in that three functional sockets (48, 49, 50) are provided. 4. Connection box according to claim 2, characterized in that two functional sockets (37, 38) and a second BNC socket (36) are provided, the central contact sleeve of which is connected to the star point (41) via a decoupling resistor (42). 5. Connection box according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the functional socket has three pairs of switching contact tongues, the first switching contact tongue of the first pair being electrically connected in parallel with a third switching contact tongue of the second pair arranged on the same first inner side, the second switching contact tongue of the first pair is electrically connected in parallel with a holding ^contact tongue of the second pair arranged on the same second inner side and the two opposite switching contact tongues of the third pair are each directly electrically connected to the ground connection of the BNC socket. 6. Connection box according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it has a circuit board (52, 70) to which at least one BNC socket (35, 36; 71, 72) and at least one functional socket (37, 38) are attached and contacted. 7. Connection box according to claim 6, characterized in that the circuit board (52, 70) is copper-clad on both sides, with a large-area copper surface (53) on one side of the board being connected to the common ground connection and essentially covering the connecting lines for the signal path on the opposite side of the board. 8. Connection box according to claim 6, characterized in that the circuit board (52, 70) is housed in a two-part plastic housing, consisting of a plate-shaped base part (57) and a cap part (58) which also encloses at least one functional plug socket (37, 38) up to the plug opening. 9. Connection box according to claim 6, characterized in that the one or two BNC sockets (35, 36; 71, 72) are designed as 9<P angle sockets. 10. Connection box according to claim 9, characterized in that the one or two BNC sockets (35, 36) are arranged on the same board surface as the functional socket (37, 38) and with their central contact sleeves parallel to the circuit board and optionally parallel to one another, pointing to the same side. -!Hi11. Junction box according to claim 8 and 10, characterized in that the plastic housing with the base part (57) is attached to a wall and is covered by a cover cap (62), in the cover surface (65) of which at least one window (66, 67) is provided to fit around the plug opening (60, 61) to at least one functional socket (37, 38) and one side wall (63) of which has an approximately U-shaped opening (64) open at the edge, whereby BNC plugs of the data bus cable of the data network can be connected to one or both BNC sockets (35, 36) of the junction box (34). 12. Connection box according to claim 9, characterized in that the one or two BNC sockets (70, 71) are arranged on the side of the circuit board opposite the functional socket (37, 38) and with their central contact sleeves parallel to the circuit board and optionally parallel to one another, facing opposite sides. 13. Connection box according to claim 8 and 12, characterized in that the plastic housing with the BNC sockets (71, 72) protruding through the base part can be inserted into a wall box (76), that the plastic housing is firmly connected to a metal fastening ring (7b) which can be placed flush with the wall side on the wall box for fastening the plastic housing in the wall box and that a cover plate (77) with at least one window matching the plug opening of the at least one functional plug socket (37, 38) can be placed on the cap part as a viewing cover. 14. Connection cable for connecting a data processing device to a connection box according to one of the preceding claims, with a BNC plug at one end and a functional plug at the other end, which has at least two pairs of contact tongues arranged on opposite outer sides of the plug, characterized, that a signal line (83) is connected to a contact tongue (84) of one pair on a first outer side of the plug, which is shielded and is led to the BNC plug (81) and connected to its central contact pin, and that the shielding (86) of the signal line (83) is connected to a contact tongue (87) of the other pair, which shielding is connected at the other end to the ground connection of the BNC plug 15. Connection cable according to claim 14, characterized in that the functional plug has three pairs of contact tongues, the contact tongues (84, 85) of the first and second pair located on the same first outer side of the functional plug being electrically connected in parallel to the signal line (83), the contact tongues of the first and second pair located on the opposite second outer side of the functional plug are unconnected and the two opposing contact tongues (87, 88) of the third pair are electrically connected in parallel to the shielding (86) of the signal line. 16. Connection device for a data network, consisting of a connection box that can be connected to the data network via its BNC socket and has at least one functional socket, as well as a connection cable with a corresponding functional plug on the one hand and a BNC plug on the other hand for connection to a data processing device, characterized, that the connection box is designed according to one of claims 1 to 13 and the connection cable according to one of claims 14 or 15. 17. Connection device according to claim 16, characterized in that that the functional plug and the functional socket are adapted to each other in a form-coded manner as a male/female part.