BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to electrical connectors and specifically to connectors commonly referred to as jacks. More specifically, this invention relates to jacks adapted for connection and mounting on a printed circuit board. In a still more specific aspect, this invention relates to a multifunction jack assembly for a printed circuit board.

In the prior art, jacks were designed for mounting on a printed circuit board to facilitate the connection of external apparatus to the printed circuit via a plug which was inserted into the jack. In the telephone communications industry, for example, test apparatus could be plugged into a printed circuit board jack to test a line, trunk, or miscellaneous circuit located thereon. In the case of line and trunk circuits, it is desirable to first determine if a customer is using the circuit before the circuit is interrupted for testing. This was accomplished in the prior art through the use of separate monitor and test jacks. More specifically, by inserting the test apparatus plug into the monitor jack, maintenance personnel could bridge onto the tip and ring transmission conductors of a line or trunk circuit and monitor for the presence of speech without interrupting a busy connection. If the circuit was found to be idle, the test equipment was then plugged into the test jack which divorced the line or trunk circuit from the tip and ring transmission conductors for test purposes.

While the prior art arrangement is wholly suitable for its intended purposes, it requires the use of multiple jacks with the accompanying increase in cost and space utilization.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The foregoing problem is solved and a technical advance is achieved by a jack arrangement capable of performing both monitor and test functions. More specifically, the jack comprises tip, ring and sleeve spring assemblies, each having a pair of break contacts and each assembly positioned to engage a correspondingly named member of a plug to open the break contacts when the plug is fully inserted into the jack. The ring and sleeve spring assemblies are further arranged to engage the tip and ring plug members, respectively, without opening the contacts when the plug is partially inserted.

More specifically, the ring spring assembly includes a spring element that extends into the opening for the plug and engages the plug tip when the plug is partially inserted. This spring element provides a positive force opposing the full insertion of the plug and positions the plug so that the ring and sleeve of the jack electrically engage the tip and ring, respectively, of the plug without opening the break contacts and disconnecting the circuitry coupled thereto. When the plug is fully inserted by overcoming the above force, the tip, ring and sleeve spring assemblies engage the corresponding tip, ring and sleeve of the plug and open their respective contacts to interrupt the associated circuitry.

Accordingly, if the jack arrangement is utilized on a printed circuit board having a trunk circuit thereon, the partial insertion of the test apparatus plug will permit maintenance personnel to monitor the trunk without interrupting the tip and ring transmission conductors. On the other hand, the full insertion of the test apparatus plug will separate the trunk circuit from its tip and ring transmission conductors to permit the testing of the trunk circuit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is an exploded pictorial view of a typical jack assembly employing the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the jack assembly shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the jack assembly as viewed along section line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the jack taken along section line 4--4 of FIG. 2 showing the jack with a plug partially inserted therein;

FIG. 5 is similar to FIG. 4 but shows the jack assembly with the plug fully inserted; and

FIGS. 6 and 7 show a schematic representation of the jack when used in a typical communication system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

While the invention can be utilized in many different jack arrangements, the invention is disclosed herein as an improvement to a jack similar to the jack disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,147 to J. J. Buck of Aug. 21, 1979. It will be obvious to the reader, however, that other jack arrangements can be modified according to our teaching to perform the monitor and test functions within the spirit and scope of the invention set forth herein.

FIG. 1 shows an exploded pictorial view of the jack assembly generally designated 99 which comprises a housing having a base 10, front and rear walls 11 and 12 with intermediate walls 13 and 14. The cylindrical opening 15 extends substantially the length of the jack housing through the intermediate walls 13 and 14 to accompany a plug, such as plug 80 shown in FIGS. 2, 4, and 5. Base 10, which is made of insulating material, is adapted to receive a plurality of break contact assemblies generally extending transverse to the opening 15. In the illustrative embodiment, three contact spring assemblies referred to herein as the tip assembly 91, ring assembly 92, and sleeve assembly 93 are provided. Each contact assembly comprises a fixed spring contact element, such as element 17, and a movable spring contact element, such as 20, both of which are part of the tip contact assembly 91. Each contact element includes a shaft with an appropriate barbed portion, such as 25, for insertion and retention within a corresponding slot of base 10.

Each stationary contact element also includes a contact surface, such as bar contact 23, affixed to element 17. A similar bar contact surface is affixed to the underside of each of the movable spring elements 20-22. When the contact elements 17-19 and 20-22 are retained in their appropriate slots in base 10, the bar contacts of each movable spring element are in physical engagement with the bar contacts of the associated stationary member, as shown in FIG. 3, to provide an electrical path through the contact pair.

The specific construction of a break contact spring assembly is best illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3 with FIG. 3 being a cross-sectional view of the ring spring assembly 92 taken perpendicular to the center line of the cylindrical opening 15 along the section line 3--3 depicted in FIG. 2. As shown, the movable spring element 21 is mounted in a cantilevered manner with respect to base 10 with its barbed portion 27 extending into base 10 and its shaft or lug portion 48 extending below the base in order to receive an electrical connection in a well known manner.

The curved portion 30 of movable spring 21 is designed to provide a sufficient contact force between contact bars 26 and 31 to provide a low electrical resistance when contacts 26 and 31 are in physical contact with plug 80 removed.

Each of the movable springs 21 and 22 is provided with a ribbed portion, such as the ribbed portion 32 of spring 21 as shown in FIG. 3. The ribbed portion 32 extends across the cylindrical opening 15 to contact the ring member of the plug 80 when the plug is fully inserted. Similarly, the ribbed portion 33 of the movable sleeve spring engages the sleeve member of the plug when the plug is fully inserted. These ribbed portions also insure better electrical contact with their respective plug members and provide additional rigidity to that portion of the movable springs.

Upon insertion of a plug into the cylindrical opening 15, the ribbed portion 32 is contacted by the plug causing an upward movement of spring 21, thereby opening the break contacts 26 and 31 to interrupt any electrical circuit coupled to lugs 48 and 49.

Movable tip spring element 20, as seen in FIGS. 1, 2, 4, and 5, has a generally V-shaped portion 61 which engages the tip member of the plug when the plug is fully inserted in cylindrical opening 15. This V-shaped portion also causes the movable tip spring element 20 to move upward thereby opening the break contacts associated with the tip spring assembly 91. The V-shaped portion 61 also tends to retain plug 80 within the jack assembly when the plug has been fully inserted therein as shown in FIG. 5.

Movable ring spring element 21 is provided with an additional spring element 29 having a generally V-shaped portion 60. In the illustrative embodiment, spring element 29 is fastened to spring 21 in the vicinity of area 62 in such a manner as to allow spring 29 to be positioned independently of spring 21. Thus, the movable spring element 29 can make electrical contact with a plug member without opening the break contacts 26 and 31 associated with the ring spring assembly 92. Of course, it is recognized as being within the spirit and scope of the invention that spring 29 could be independently mounted in the housing such that spring 29 can be independently positioned with respect to spring 21.

FIGS. 4 and 5 each show the side view section of the jack taken along section line 4--4 which coincides with the centerline of cylindrical opening 15. FIG. 4 shows the jack with a partially inserted plug in what will be referred to herein as the "monitor" position while FIG. 5 shows a fully inserted plug in what will be referred to herein as the "test" position.

The plug 80 comprises three electrically conductive members designated tip 40, ring 41 and sleeve 42. Tip 40 is electrically insulated from ring 41 by insulator 43, while ring member 41 is insulated from sleeve 42 by insulator 44.

The operation of the jack will now be described. In its normal position with plug 80 removed, the contact bar on movable spring element 20 is an electrical engagement with contact bar 23 on fixed contact element 17 thereby electrically connecting lugs 24 and 47 (FIG. 1). Similarly, lugs 48 and 49 of ring spring assembly 92 in FIGS. 1 and 3 are electrically connected and lugs 28 and 50 of sleeve spring assembly 93, shown in FIG. 1, are electrically connected.

When a plug is partially inserted into the jack assembly, as shown in FIG. 4, the V-shaped portion 60 of ring spring element 29 electrically engages the tapered portion of plug tip member 40. V-shaped portion 60 applies a force to the plug to restrain the plug from further insertion into the jack without the application of additional force. Although spring element 29 may move with respect to spring element 21, the break contacts 26 and 31 of the ring spring assembly remain in contact with each other so as not to interrupt the circuit connected to lugs 48 and 49. In this position, called the monitor position, the ribbed portion 33 of sleeve spring element 22 electrically engages the ring member 41 of plug 80 and the sleeve member 42 of the plug engages the insulated wall 16 of cylindrical opening 15.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram equivalent to FIG. 4 and shows the jack assembly used in a typical communications application. More specifically, trunk circuit 81 has its tip and ring transmission conductors 82 and 83 connected through normally closed (i.e., break) contacts 84 and 85, respectively, to transmission conductors 87 and 88 which connect to transmission facility 89. Transmission facility 89 can be a carrier system or metallic cable as is well known in the art and need not be detailed herein for an understanding of the invention. Tip transmission conductor 87 is also connected via conductor 90 to break contacts 86. The pairs of break contacts designated 84, 85, and 86 in FIGS. 6 and 7 correspond to the contacts of the tip, ring and sleeve spring assemblies 91, 92, and 93, respectively, as described above with reference to FIGS. 1-5.

It will be noted in FIG. 6 that the tip member 40 of plug 80 which extends to test circuit 94 is electrically connected via V-shaped portion 60 of the ring spring assembly 92 to ring conductors 83 and 88 without opening contacts 85 to interrupt these conductors. Similarly, ring member 41 of the plug is electrically engaged with the ribbed portion 33 of spring 22 to bridge onto the tip conductors 82 and 87 via conductor 90 without interrupting conductors 82 and 87. Thus, test circuit 91 can be bridged onto the transmission conductors of the trunk to monitor the trunk for speech and thereby ascertain the busy condition of the trunk without interrupting service.

Turning now to FIG. 5, it can be seen that when plug 80 is fully inserted in the jack assembly as determined by plug shoulder 45 engaging surface 46 of the cylindrical opening 15, the tip 40, ring 41 and sleeve 42 members of the plug are engaged with their respective spring elements 20, 21 and 22. Also, the V-shaped portion 60 of spring element 29 engages insulator 44 between the ring and sleeve members of the plug. Looking at the schematic diagram of FIG. 7 which is a circuit equivalent of the sectional view in FIG. 5, it can be seen that the tip, ring and sleeve plug members are engaged with the tip, ring and sleeve conductors 82, 83 and 95, respectively, of the trunk circuit 81 to permit testing of the trunk by test circuit 94. Also, contacts 84, 85 and 86 are fully open at this time disconnecting the trunk circuit 81 from transmission facility 89.

Of course, it will be understood that the arrangement described in the foregoing is merely illustrative of the application and principles of the present invention. Numerous other arrangements may be utilized by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, suitable arrangements for the monitor-test feature can be incorporated in jack assemblies having different spring configurations. Also, the specific shapes and positions of the springs shown herein might be altered to suit a particular need as long as ring and sleeve spring assemblies on the jack are suitably provided to engage the tip and ring plug members when a plug is partially inserted and provide a noticeable restraining action against the full insertion of a plug in order to position the plug in the monitor position.