JP2007178174A - Cable terminal certification device and external power device to be used for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable to identify a terminal by making transparent or translucent terminal provide a built-in luminous body, and making an external power source device connect freely attachable without changing the shape of existing connector. <P>SOLUTION: The connector parts of both the ends of a cable are provided with the built-in luminous bodies. Both the sides of the luminous body are provided with receiving terminals, the receiving terminals are connected with external power source provided with supply terminal having a freely attachable clipping function. Thereby, by turning ON, OFF of the external power source, the luminous body can be made to blink or put off the light, and recognition of both the ends of the cable can be performed. Since the luminous body informs operator by emitting light in the transparent or semitransparent connector part, no member protruding externally to the connector exists, and the damage to the luminous body does not occur. Accordingly, the adjacent parts in the close-packed connector group do not interfere each other. The external power source device is connected freely attachable to the cable externally and is good in operability. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention is connected to a device such as a master computer and has a connection panel on one side having a large number of ports, and a connection panel on the other side connected to a number of terminal devices such as a telephone and a personal computer and having a large number of ports. It is related with the terminal confirmation apparatus of the cable for connecting, and the external power supply device used for this.

  Usually, as shown in FIG. 4, when a host model such as the master computer 1 and a terminal device such as a large number of telephones 2 and personal computers 3 are connected via a LAN, a patch panel having a large number of ports 4 on the host model side. 5 is prepared, and a patch panel 6 having a large number of ports 4 on the lower terminal device side is prepared, and these ports 4 and 4 are connected by a cable 7 shown in FIG. 5 in which a plurality of signal lines are bundled. And form a network. The cable 5 has the connector portions 7A and 7B at both ends inserted into the ports 4 and 4 of the respective patch panels 5 and 6, connected to the conductive state, and pulled out to the non-conductive state.

  By the way, as shown in FIG. 4, the number of ports may be several hundreds. During these connection work and confirmation work after connection, and also during maintenance work after a predetermined period of time, prevention of wiring mistakes and In order to correct a wiring mistake, after confirming which terminal of a specific cable 7 is on the other side, connect the target ports 4 and 4 and confirm the connection destination. Had to do. As a method for the primitive confirmation, there are a method in which the cable 7 is pulled by hand, or a method in which the label 8 having the same identification symbol is attached to the both end connector portions 7A and 7B (see FIG. 4). However, in these methods, it takes a very long time to draw the cable 7 and to search for a connector to which the label of the same identification symbol is attached, and it is a complicated operation.

  For this reason, conventionally, the means shown in Patent Documents 1 to 3 have been invented as means for confirming the end of a cable. In the invention shown in Patent Document 1, two LED signal lines are attached to the cable in addition to the signal lines, and LEDs are provided at both ends of the cable, and these are arranged in parallel with the two LED signal lines. Connected. And the connector part of a cable both ends is connected to each unit, and the battery and switch which were equipped in the said unit in each unit are connected to the signal line for LED. By turning on and off the switch installed in the unit, the LED on the opposite connector is turned on or off, and the connection status of the cable terminal is confirmed.

The inventions described in Patent Documents 2 and 3 basically have the same configuration. That is, in addition to the signal lines of the cable, two signal lines are attached, and an indicator is provided at each of both end connector portions of the cable to connect to the two signal lines. Then, a terminal is provided for each of the two signal lines of the connector section, and an inspection device is connected to the terminal on one side so that the display device is turned on or sounded, and the cable terminal is confirmed.
JP 2003-28909 A JP-A-5-340987 JP-A-6-68937

However, as described above, the invention described in Patent Document 1 confirms the cable end of the unit on the opposite side by supplying power to the LED through a circuit such as a battery and a switch fixed in the unit and causing it to emit light. Like to do. For this reason, it is necessary to equip the unit with a power source for checking the cable terminal, and it is necessary to perform work including wiring in the unit, resulting in a large-scale work.
In addition, maintenance such as battery replacement needs to be performed in the unit, and there is a problem that it is troublesome because the work is performed in an area limited in space. Furthermore, since a battery, a switch, and the like are provided in the unit, there is a drawback that it cannot be installed in an existing unit unless there is a sufficient space.

In the inventions described in Patent Documents 2 and 3, the indicator protrudes to the outside of the connector, and protrudes to the outside in a patch panel or the like where a large number of cables are closely mounted in close proximity. Due to the presence of the display device, there has been a problem that the cable cannot be attached smoothly or the display device itself is damaged by contact with other members. When the cable is damaged, the entire cable must be replaced, and there is a problem that it becomes expensive.
In addition, power must be supplied to the display unit by connecting an inspection device to the terminal provided on the connector side. In order to maintain the connection, an operator must be attached, In order to perform the connection work of the connector on the side, there is a drawback that at least two workers are required. In addition to the cable connection work, these drawbacks also occur in the connection destination confirmation work after the connection work is completed and in the connection destination confirmation work in the maintenance work after a predetermined period.

  The present invention is an improvement and removal in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, in which a light emitter is built in a transparent or translucent connector and an external power supply device is detachably connected, so that the existing connector can be removed. It is intended to provide a technology that can check the terminal without changing the shape.

  The means of claim 1 adopted by the present invention in order to solve the above problems is connected to a connection panel on one side having a number of ports connected to a device such as a computer and a terminal device such as a telephone or a personal computer. In the cable for connecting to the other side connection panel having a large number of ports, two light emitting conductors are attached to the cable in addition to the signal line, and both ends of the cable are made transparent or translucent, A light emitter is built in each of the connector portions at both ends, the light emitter is connected to the two light emitting conductors to form a closed circuit, and receiving terminals are provided at both ends of each light emitter. The power supply terminal with clip function of the external power supply device is detachably connected to the external power supply device, and the light emitters at the cable end connectors are blinked or turned off by turning the external power supply device on and off. It is a terminal verification device of the cable.

  The means of claim 2 adopted by the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problem is that the connector portions at both ends have a power feeding passage drilled from the opposing side surface toward the center side, A receiving-side terminal is disposed in the middle, and a supply-side terminal having a clip function of an external power supply device is inserted into the power supply passage, and is detachably crimped to the receiving-side terminal, thereby being attached to the light emitter. The cable terminal confirmation device according to claim 1, wherein the cable terminal confirmation device is energized and connected.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the present invention employs a means for providing a supply side terminal having a clip function at both ends of a battery, a flasher, and a switch connected in series. It is an external power supply device used for the terminal confirmation apparatus of the cable of Claim 1 or 2 which is detachably attached to the receiving side terminal of the connector part.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the connector at both ends of the cable is made transparent or translucent, and a light emitter is built in each of the connector portions at both ends. In addition to the signal line, two light emitting conductors are attached to the cable, and the light emitter is connected to the two light emitting conductors to form a closed circuit. When power is supplied to the closed circuit, the light emitter built in the connector is turned on.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, as means for lighting the light emitters, receiving terminals are provided on both ends of each light emitter, and a supply terminal having a clip function of an external power supply device is detachably attached to the receiving terminals. I try to connect.

As a result, the light emitter built in the connector at both ends of the cable can be blinked or extinguished by turning ON / OFF the external power supply device, and both ends of the cable can be recognized. In addition, the light emitting body emits and flashes light inside the transparent or semi-transparent connector part to notify the operator, and since there is no member protruding outside the connector, the light emitting and flashing member is damaged or densely packed. It doesn't get in the way of neighbors in the connector group.
Further, the external power supply device is detachably connected to a closed circuit for lighting the light emitter outside the unit or the like, and is easy and smooth rather than working in a space limited area. Is possible.

In the invention of claim 2, the both-end connector part has a power feeding passage formed from the opposite side surface toward the center side. A receiving terminal is disposed in the middle of the power feeding passage. By inserting the supply side terminal of the external power supply device into the power supply passage and crimping it to the reception side terminal, the light emitter incorporated in the connector portion is energized.
By setting it as such an electricity supply structure, the whole shape of a connector part can be made the same as the existing thing. Therefore, the existing cable can be replaced with the cable of the present invention so that the cable terminal can be confirmed, and the substitutability is excellent. In addition, it is possible to leave the connector part on the side where the external power supply is connected while maintaining the energized state, and to connect the connector part on the opposite side to the patch panel, etc. Is possible.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an external power supply apparatus comprising a supply-side terminal having a clip function at both ends of a battery, a flasher, and a switch connected in series. The supply side terminal is detachably attached to the receiving side terminal of the cable both ends connector part.
Therefore, it is possible to check the end of the cable sequentially using this external power supply device, and it is not necessary to configure a power supply means and a changeover switch circuit for each unit as in the prior art, and is excellent in versatility. .

  The configuration of the cable terminal confirmation device and the external power supply device used therefor according to the present invention will be described below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a cable 10 for connecting, for example, a patch panel connected to a host computer on the upper side and a patch panel (see FIG. 4) connected to devices such as a lower telephone and a personal computer terminal. It is drawing which shows the connector part 10A and the external power supply device 11 of one end side. The other connector portion has the same configuration and is not shown. The connector portion 10A at both ends of the cable 10 has an entire housing formed of a transparent or translucent resin material, and a large number of signal lines are exposed to the insertion port side. Light emitting conductors 12A and 12B are newly added to both ends of these signal lines in parallel with the signal lines.

  The light emitting conductors 12A and 12B on both ends are connected to receiving terminals 15A and 15B on both ends via connecting wirings 14A and 14B, respectively, and further straddle between the receiving terminals 15A and 15B on both ends. A light emitter 16 such as a light emitting diode (LED) is electrically connected. These connection wirings 14A and 14B, the receiving terminals 15A and 15B, and the light emitter 16 are integrally embedded in a connector housing made of a transparent or translucent resin material.

In addition to the embedding method of the light-emitting body 16 and the like, it is possible to attach and fix to the hollow portion in the connector housing by a fitting method. Further, on both side surfaces of the connector housing, round holes are formed as power supply passages 17 so as to face the receiving terminals 15A and 15B. A diameter of about 1 mm to 2 mm is sufficient for the diameter of the power supply passage 17. Furthermore, the light emitters 16 and 16 at the connector portions at both ends of the cable are a closed circuit 13 connected in series by light emitting conductors 12A and 12B as shown in the equivalent circuit of FIG. Has been made to form.

  On the other hand, the external power supply device 11 is provided with a flasher 18, a battery 19 such as a button battery or a box-type dry battery, and a toggle-type changeover switch 20 connected in series in the housing. Supply-side terminals 21A and 21B that can enter the power feeding passage 17 and come into contact with the receiving-side terminals 15A and 15B are connected to both ends of the circuit. The entire size of the housing is extremely small so that each electronic component contained in the housing is small in size and can be accommodated in the hand.

The supply-side terminals 21A and 21B are formed by bending the distal end side of the conductive stay inward, and the dimension protruding from the portion bent at a diameter of 2 mm or less to the distal end is also an extremely small size of about 2 mm. belongs to. Further, a coil spring, a leaf spring, or the like is attached in the middle of the stay and is urged so that the interval between the supply side terminals 21A and 21B is always narrowed, and has a clip function. In addition, a jig (not shown) for temporarily locking the protruding member of the patch panel by a hanging method or the like is attached to the housing of the external power supply device 11.

  Next, the usage mode of the cable terminal confirmation apparatus configured as described above and the external power supply apparatus 11 used therefor will be described by taking the case of a new connection work of the cable 10 as an example. First, a group of cables grouped in units of several tens is prepared, and this is laid between the upper patch panel and the lower patch panel. Then, one cable 10 is selected from the cable group, and the connector portion 10A on one side (for example, the upper side) is inserted and connected to a specific port of the corresponding patch panel. Next, from this state, the entire external power supply device 11 is locked to the patch panel via the hanging jig of the external power supply device 11. Then, the holding portion of the stay is gripped to temporarily widen the gap between the supply side terminals 21A and 21B at the tip, and the supply side terminals 21A and 21B are inserted into the power supply passages 17 on both side surfaces of the connector portion 10A and released. . At this time, the supply side terminals 21A and 21B have a diameter of 2 mm or less and the protruding dimension of the bent portion of the tip is also about 2 mm. Therefore, the maximum size when inserted into the power supply passage 17 is the width of the connector portion 10A. Since it is only about 5 mm larger than the entire size and only protrudes about 2.5 mm when viewed from one side, it does not interfere with the connector portion of the cable connected to the adjacent port.

As a result, the supply-side terminals 21A and 21B are elastically brought into contact with the receiving-side terminals 15A and 15B at their opposite inner ends with accumulative elasticity such as coil springs and leaf springs. Connected to. This can be represented by an equivalent circuit as shown in FIG. Thereafter, even when the supply side terminals 21A and 21B are released and released, these terminals are not detached from the reception side terminals 15A and 15B by the clip function described above.

Next, the changeover switch 20 of the external power supply device 11 is turned on from this state. As a result, due to the intermittent action of the flasher 18, the DC power source intermittently flows from the battery 19 to the light emitters 16, 16 of the cable both ends connector part, and the light emitters 16, 16 repeat flashing. That is, the terminal connector portion on the opposite side of the cable 10 can be easily found by flashing light emission, and the connecting worker inserts the flashing connector portion into a specific port of the lower patch panel to perform the connection work. be able to. The light emission color is preferably a visually recognizable color such as red or yellow, but is not limited to this and can be arbitrarily set.
After the connection of the connector portion on the opposite side is completed in this way, the changeover switch 20 of the external power supply device 11 is turned off, and the external power supply is connected from the connector portion 10A of the cable 10 inserted into the port of the upper patch panel. The supply side terminals 21A and 21B of the device 11 may be removed.

Thereafter, after all the cables of one cable group consisting of several tens of prepared cables are connected, the above operation is repeated to prepare another cable group consisting of several tens of cables. Then, it is laid between the upper and lower patch panels, and the wiring connection work for each cable 10 may be completed sequentially. Then, in order to confirm whether or not the proper connection has been made, after all the wiring work is completed, each of the connected cables 10 is further connected to the receiving terminal 15A of the connector 10A on one end side. , 15B are connected to the supply side terminals 21A, 21B of the external power supply device 11, the switch 20 is turned on, the light emitters 16, 16 are flashed and the connection destination of the connector on the opposite side is confirmed. Good. The supply side terminals 21A and 21B are connected by holding the holding part of the stay to temporarily widen the gap between the supply side terminals 21A and 21B at the tip, and supplying the supply side terminals 21A and 21B on both sides of the connector part 10A. What is necessary is just to put it in the channel | path 17 and to release | release a hand and to make it contact | abut to receiving side terminal 15A, 15B.

By the way, in order to maintain and manage the network so that it always functions correctly, there is a case where a connection check operation of the cable 10 is performed as a maintenance after a predetermined period after the connection operation is completed. Also, during network operation, there are cases where a wiring mistake is discovered and corrected. Even when the connection check operation and the connection correction operation are performed after the predetermined period has elapsed, a target cable terminal must be found from among a group of cables connected to hundreds of ports. Even in such a case, if the device of the present invention is used, it is possible to easily check the cable terminal as in the case of the connection work described above.

That is, for each of the connected cables 10 or a cable causing a wiring error, the supply-side terminal 21A of the external power supply 11 is connected to the reception-side terminals 15A and 15B of the connector 10A on one end side. , 21B are connected, the switch 20 is turned on, the light emitters 16, 16 are flashed and the connection destination of the connector on the opposite side is confirmed. Since it is only necessary to search for the connector of the cable that is flashing and emitting light, it can be found at a glance, and the confirmation work is extremely easy. In addition, what is necessary is just to perform the connection point to receiving side terminal 15A, 15B of supply side terminal 21A, 21B in the procedure mentioned above.
In an actual network society, after the connection work, it is more often performed to check the cable terminal after a predetermined period of time, and the device of the present invention can exert its effect in that case.

  By the way, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and appropriate modifications are possible. For example, the power supply passages 17 provided on both side surfaces of the connector portion 10A may be rectangular holes instead of round holes. In addition to the light emitting diodes, the light emitters 16 and 16 can be equipped with lamps. Furthermore, the present invention can be used in the case of maintenance work for confirming the connection destination of the cable after the connection in addition to the work for connecting the new cable 10, and further, the conventional existing one shown in FIG. It is also possible to replace the cable 7 to facilitate subsequent maintenance management work.

1 is a diagram illustrating a connector portion on one end side of a cable and an external power supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is an equivalent circuit diagram of a light emitting circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 6 is an equivalent circuit diagram when an external power supply device is connected to a light emitting circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a drawing showing an overall configuration when a conventional patch panel is connected to form a network. It is drawing which shows the whole including the both-ends connector part of the conventional cable.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Cable, 10A ... Connector part, 11 ... External power supply device, 12A, 12B ... Crimp type lead wire, 13A, 13B ... Lead wire, 14A, 14B ... Spring, 15A, 15B ... Reception side terminal, 16 ... Light-emitting body, 17 ... Power supply passage, 18 ... flasher, 19 ... battery, 20 ... changeover switch, 21A, 21B ... supply side terminal

Claims (3)

A cable for connecting a connection panel on one side having many ports connected to a device such as a computer and a connection panel on the other side having many ports connected to a terminal device such as a telephone or a personal computer. In addition to the signal line, two light emitting conductors are attached to the cable, the connector portions at both ends of the cable are made transparent or translucent, and a light emitter is built in each of the connector portions at both ends. A closed circuit is formed by connecting to the light emitting lead wire, and receiving terminals are provided on both ends of each light emitter, and a supply terminal having a clip function of an external power supply device is detachably connected to the receiving terminal, A cable terminal confirmation device characterized in that a light emitter at a connector at both ends of a cable is blinked or extinguished by turning on / off an external power supply device.
The connector portions at both ends have a power supply passage drilled from the opposing side surface toward the center, and a receiving terminal is disposed in the middle of the power supply passage, and an external power source is connected to the power supply passage. The cable terminal confirmation device according to claim 1, wherein a supply-side terminal having a clip function of the device is inserted and detachably pressed to the reception-side terminal so as to be electrically connected to the light emitter.
The supply side terminal having a clip function is provided at both ends of a battery, a flasher, and a switch connected in series, and the supply side terminal is detachably attached to a receiving side terminal of a cable end connector portion. An external power supply used for the cable terminal confirmation device according to 1 or 2.