JPH10308266A - Adapter and method for connecting extended equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and efficiently connect an information equipment main body and other extended equipment, which is to be connected thereto, to each other by providing an electric signal line for extended equipment, which has plural electric signal terminals, and a power source line part, which has plural power source terminals, independently from each other in the main body. SOLUTION: A device has an adapter case 2, an electric signal line part 4, which is formed of four electric signal terminals 3 for extended equipment, and a power source line part 8, which is formed of three power source terminals 5-1, 5-2, 5-3. With this structure, since the power source can be supplied from a computer main body, an external power source is not necessary for extended equipment. A power source line can be provided separately from an electric signal terminal so that limitation of the number of extended equipment is eliminated. Furthermore, since multiple similar adapters, which have one appearance and which have plural electric signal terminals, can be manufactured, manufacturing cost is restrained low.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connection adapter for an extension device, and more particularly, to a connection adapter for an extension device in which an electric signal line and a power supply line for the extension device are housed in the same housing. And even
In particular, the present invention relates to a method for connecting a computer and an extension device using the extension device connection adapter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a connection adapter for this type of extension equipment, an extension slot is provided by directly connecting to a board (or board).
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 58982, an arbitrary number of expansion slots having a distribution slot, a branch path connector, and an electric signal terminal section are prepared, connected to each other, and connected to a card edge connector. There is also a system in which an I / O board extension connector is connected to an I / O board as shown in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-112287. These are generally called board connection type expansion connectors.

[0003]

However, the conventional board-connectable expansion connector as described above has the following problems. That is, the first problem is that the expansion by the above-mentioned conventional methods can only secure the scalability only in one of the information devices, for example, in the housing of the computer device.

[0004] The reason is that, in order to directly connect to the I / O board or the extension board, the extension device and the I / O board must be directly connected. Therefore, it is difficult to connect to an extension device outside the computer device housing. The second problem is that in order to use different electric signal terminals together, it is necessary to redesign the board of the expansion device and the board of the computer body.

[0005] The reason is that the expansion connector and the electric signal terminal of the board such as the I / O board have a one-to-one correspondence, and the physical size must be the same. For this reason, once a change is required, it is necessary to redesign all the portions related to the connector to be connected. A third problem is that it is not possible to cope when an electric device connected to the expansion slot exceeds a power supply capacity supplied via a connector.

The reason is that the prior art assumes that the electric equipment to be connected is supplied with power from the outside, or the number of equipment to be expanded is increased in order to supply power from a computer device via a connector. I have to limit it. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and to easily connect not only the connection of the extension device inside the information device main body such as a computer but also other extension devices outside the information device. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a connection adapter for an extension device that can be used.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention employs a basic technical configuration as described below. That is, the extension device connection adapter according to the present invention is an extension device in which an extension device electric signal line portion having a plurality of electric signal terminals and a power supply line portion having a plurality of power terminals are provided independently of each other in a main body portion. This is a device connection adapter.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In other words, the connection adapter for an extension device according to the present invention employs the above-mentioned technical configuration, and connects an information device main body such as a main computer to an appropriate extension device. At this time, the extension device connection adapter is attached to each information device main body and an appropriate extension device, and the electrical connection between the information device main body and the appropriate extension device is measured through the extension device connection adapter. Therefore, it is possible to easily and efficiently connect an information device main body such as a computer to another extension device to be connected thereto.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A specific example of a connection adapter for an extension device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. That is, FIG. 1 shows a connection adapter 1 for an extension device according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of one specific example of FIG.
1 shows a connection adapter 1 for an extension device in which a power supply line section 6 having a plurality of power supply terminals 5 is provided independently of each other in a main body, that is, in a housing 2.

According to a specific example of the connection adapter 1 for an extension device according to the present invention, as is apparent from FIG. Signal line section 4 and three power supply terminals 5
And a power supply line section 6 composed of In the present invention, the reason why four electric signal terminals 3 of the electric signal line section 4 for the extension device are required in the connection adapter for the extension device is that the daisy chain connection for the connection between the extension devices or the device from A method of connecting devices sequentially to other devices. This is because a signal to the device is first sent to the first device, and when using a method of sending the signal to the next device from the device, an input connector and an output connector are required separately.

That is, in the present invention, it is desirable that the number of electric signal terminals in the electric signal line section for the expansion device is four, and the number of electric power terminals in the electric power line section is three. It is desirable to be individual. Further, in a specific example of the extension device connection adapter 1 according to the present invention, as is apparent from FIG. 1, two electric signal terminals 3 in the extension device electric signal line section 4 are connected. 2 and 3-3 are arranged on one main surface 20 of the extension adapter connection adapter main body 2 and the other two electric signal terminals 3-1.
And 3-4 are desirably connected to both sides of the main surface 20 and arranged one by one on each of the two side surfaces 21 and 22 formed to face each other.

Each of the power supply terminals 5 in the power supply line section 6 is connected to the connection adapter for the extension equipment in which the electric signal terminals 3 constituting the electric signal line section 4 for the extension equipment are arranged. It is preferable that they are arranged on the same plane as the plane. That is, in the specific example of the extension device connection adapter 1 of the present invention, the power input terminal 5-1 of the power terminal 5 is connected to the side surface 22 of the main body 2 of the extension device connection adapter. , Power output terminal 5-2
And 5-3 are respectively arranged on the main surface 20 and the side surface 21 of the main body 2 of the connection adapter for extension equipment.

In the present invention, the extension device connection adapter 1 itself can be connected to and separated from other extension device connection adapters 1 'and 1 "which are separately formed independently. Therefore, at least the electric signal terminals 3-1 and 3-4 of the electric signal line section 6 for the extension device formed on the opposing side surfaces 21 and 22 of the connection adapter 1 for the extension device, respectively. And / or the power supply terminals 5-1 and 5-3 of the power supply line unit 6 may be connected to another electric signal terminal 3 or the other electric signal terminal 3 disposed on the corresponding side surface of another separately formed extension device connection adapter. It is desirable that the power supply terminal 5 and the power supply terminal 5 be configured so as to be freely coupled and separated from each other.

Further, two electric signal terminals of the electric signal line section 6 for the extension device arranged on the main surface 20 of the connection adapter main body 2 for the extension device according to the present invention. One, for example, 3-2 is a signal output terminal for inputting a signal to the extension device main body 8, and the other one, for example, 3-3, is a signal output terminal from the extension device main body 8. It is desirable to configure the signal input terminal to receive the signal.

The extension device connection adapter 1 according to the present invention is connected to a predetermined portion of the extension device housing 7 housing the extension device main body 8 by an appropriate connection mechanism. is there. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the electric signal terminal 3 provided on the side surface 21 of the connection adapter 1
-4, a protruding connection portion 30 having an appropriate height is formed, and the peripheral portion of the electric signal terminal 3-1 provided on the other side surface 22 of the connection adapter 1 has the protruding shape described above. A concave portion (not shown) may be formed so that the connection portion 30 can be engaged. Similarly, the power supply line portion 6 provided on the side surface 21 of the connection adapter 1 may be formed. A protruding connection portion 32 having an appropriate height is formed around the power supply terminal 5-3, and the other side surface 2 of the connection adapter 1 is formed.
A concave portion (not shown) around which the above-mentioned projecting connection portion 32 can be engaged around the power supply terminal 5-1 provided on the base 2.
May be formed.

FIG. 2 shows the adapter 1 and the extension device 8 shown in FIG.
Is connected to an extended device housing 7 having a built-in. In the figure, reference numeral 9 denotes an electrical signal connector for an extension device.
Reference numeral 0 denotes a power supply connector for an extension device. in this case,
It is assumed that the width and height of the extension device housing 7 and the adapter 1 are the same as those of the extension device 8.

The purpose of making the sizes the same is to give the housing a sense of unity in the external design. In the present invention,
IEEE 1394, S
Standard signal terminals such as CSI, USB, PCI, and RS-232C can be used. That is, IEEE 1394
nstate of Electric an
d Electronic Electronics Engineers, a serial SCSI standard defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and SCSI (SmallComputer).
r System Interface), USB (U
universal Serial Bus), PCI
(Peripheral Component Int
erconnect) and RS-232 are (Rec
ommended Standard), each of which is ElectronicsIndustry Asso
Standards for serial communication formulated by C.I.

FIG. 3 shows another connection example according to the present invention. The connection adapter 1 for expansion device and the expansion device board 8 are expanded in the expansion device housing 7 without being directly connected to each other. An application example using the device electrical signal connection cable 11 and the extension device power supply connection cable 12 will be described. The purpose of using the connection cables 11 and 12 in the housing is as follows.
This is because the expansion device boards 8 having different sizes are incorporated into the expansion device housing 7 having the same size to absorb a difference between the housing and the board size. Therefore, a sense of unity of the entire computer system can be obtained.

That is, in the example shown in FIG. 3, as shown in FIG. 4, at least the information equipment main body 13 such as a computer is connected to the information equipment main body 13 on which the connection device is on-board and equipped with the connection adapter. Two expansion devices 8,
When stacking 8 ′, the second-stage expansion device 8 is such that the size of the connection device is small and the connection adapter 1 ′ is connected using the connection cable 25 separately. The third expansion device 8 'shows a case where the connection device itself is provided with the connection adapter 1 "for the expansion device.

In FIG. 4, a known terminator (not shown) may be attached to the unused electric signal terminal 3 and power supply terminal 5 to ensure insulation. FIG. 5 shows a computer main body 13 and some extended devices, for example, a CD-ROM 14 and a hard disk drive (HDD) 15, which are adapters 1, 1 'of the present invention.
1 "shows an example of connection.

In FIG. 5, 16 is an FD insertion portion, 17 is a power switch, 18 is a power lamp, and 19 is a reset switch. Note that, in the example of FIG.
Although this is an example in which 4 and 15 are connected in the vertical direction, they can also be connected in the horizontal direction. Further, in the present invention, the electric signal terminal 3-2,
The arrangement positions of the power supply terminal 3-3 and the power supply terminal 5-2 in the main body 2 and the arrangement positions of the electric signal terminal and the power supply terminal in the information device main body 13 and the extension device may correspond to each other in advance. It is necessary to set the standard at a suitable position.

As is apparent from the above-described specific example, the information device main body 13 and one or a plurality of extension devices 8 connected to the information device main body 13 using the expansion device connection adapter 1 according to the present invention. , 8 ', 8 ",..., An electric signal line section for extended equipment having a plurality of electric signal terminals and a power line section having a plurality of power terminals as shown in FIG. After the extension device connection adapters 1 provided independently in the main body are attached to the information device and the extension device respectively, the signal input terminal and the power terminal of one extension device connection adapter are connected to the other extension device. A connection method is adopted in which the signal output terminal and the power supply output terminal of the device connection adapter are connected to each other, and the information device body and one or more extension devices are connected so as to be arranged and fixed. You.

[0023]

The connection adapter for an extension device according to the present invention employs the above-described configuration, and can provide the following effects. That is, the first effect is that it is not necessary to request an external power supply for the extension device.

The reason for this is that power can be supplied from the computer main body through a power supply line built in the adapter of the present invention. A second effect is that it is not necessary to limit the number of extension devices. The reason is that by providing a power supply line separately from the electric signal terminal, the power supply capacity of a standard electric signal terminal (for example, the maximum current capacity of 5 amps in the case of IEEE1394) is not restricted.

A third effect is that a large number of similar adapters having a number of electric signal terminals can be manufactured in one appearance design, so that the manufacturing cost can be reduced. The reason is that the connection circuit is wrapped in a housing, and the internal structure is invisible to the user.

The fourth effect is that the appearance of the entire system is improved. The reason is that the connection cable cannot be seen from the outside. The fifth effect is that the operability of the user is improved. The reason is that since the electric signal terminal for the extension device and the power supply line are housed in the same housing, the user does not need to connect many cables. This is because attachment and detachment can be performed in one operation even though a plurality of wirings are possible in the housing.

A sixth effect is that the transportation of the entire system becomes easy. The reason for this is that it is easy to carry the extension device together with the computer main body since there is no connection cable. A seventh effect is that a system independent of the size of the extension device can be constructed.

The reason is that even if the size of each extension device is different, connection can be easily made by preparing several adapter sizes of the present invention. Generally, it is easier and less costly to change the size of the adapter only than to change the size of the expansion device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of an expansion device connection adapter according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a state where an adapter according to the present invention is connected to an extension device.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example in which a connection cable is used inside an expansion device housing without directly connecting the expansion device connection adapter according to the present invention to a board of the expansion device.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a specific example of the present invention shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example in which a computer and an extension device are vertically connected using the extension device connection adapter according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Connection adapter for extension equipment 2 ... Connection adapter main part for extension equipment 3, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4 ... Electric signal terminal for connection equipment 4 ... Electric signal line part for extension equipment 5 Reference numerals 5-1, 5-2, 5-3: power supply terminal 6: power supply line section 7: expansion device housing 8: expansion device 9: expansion device electric signal connector 10: expansion device power supply connector 11: expansion Device electrical signal connection cable 12 ... Expansion device power supply connection cable 13 ... Information device main body, personal computer 14 ... Expansion device example CD-ROM 15 ... Expansion device example HDD 16 ... FDD 17 ... Power switch 18 ... Power lamp 19 ... Reset Switch 25: Connection cable 30, 32: Projecting connection

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A connection for an extension device, wherein an electric signal line portion for an extension device having a plurality of electric signal terminals and a power supply line portion having a plurality of power terminals are provided independently of each other in a main body portion. adapter. 2. The expansion device connection adapter according to claim 1, wherein the number of electric signal terminals in the expansion device electric signal line section is four. 3. The expansion device connection adapter according to claim 1, wherein the number of power terminals in the power line section is three. 4. The two electric signal terminals in the extension device electric signal line section are arranged on one main surface of the extension device connection adapter main body, and the other 2
Electrical signal terminals are connected to both sides of the main surface, and each of the two side surfaces formed opposite to each other has one electrical signal terminal.
3. The connection adapter for an extension device according to claim 2, wherein the connection adapters are arranged one by one. 5. Each of the power supply terminals in the power supply line portion is the same as the surface of the extension device connection adapter on which the electric signal terminals constituting the extension device electric signal line portion are arranged. The connection adapter for an extension device according to claim 3, wherein the connection adapter is arranged on each of the surfaces. 6. An electric signal terminal of an electric signal line portion for an extension device or a power terminal of a power supply line portion formed on at least the side surfaces of the connection adapter for an extension device that are opposed to each other, respectively. The extension device according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the extension device connection adapter is configured to be freely coupled to and separated from another electric signal terminal or a power supply terminal disposed on a corresponding side surface of the extension device connection adapter. Connection adapter. 7. One of two electric signal terminals in the electric signal line section for the extension device, which is arranged on one main surface of the main body of the connection adapter for the extension device, is connected to the extension device. 5. The connection adapter for an extension device according to claim 4, wherein the signal output terminal is for inputting a signal to the device main body, and the other is a signal input terminal for receiving a signal output from the extension device. . 8. An electric signal line section for an extended device having a plurality of electric signal terminals and a plurality of power supplies for connecting an information device main body and one or more extended devices connected to the information device main body. A power supply line unit having terminals and a connection adapter for an extension device provided in the main unit independently of each other are attached to each of the information device and the extension device. The information device itself and one or more extension devices are arranged and fixed such that the power terminal is connected to the signal output terminal and the power output terminal of another extension device connection adapter. The connection method of the extension device to the information device to be used.