Concealable connector and electronic device having the concealable connector

[0001] This application claims priority of Taiwanese Application No. 098224006, filed on Dec. 22, 2009.

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] The invention relates to an electronic device, more particularly to an electronic device having a concealable connector, and a concealable connector to be disposed in an electronic device.

[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0005] An input/output connection port (such as a universal serial bus (USB), a PS/2 port, an RJ45 port, etc.) of a conventional computer device is disposed directly in a housing of the computer device to be accessible externally for connection with a peripheral device, such as a mouse, a keyboard, a network cable, etc. In the case of a notebook computer, limited spaces at peripheral edges of the computer device are available for arrangement of connection ports of various specifications.

[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 7,200,002 discloses an input/output connection port module which can be flipped over and hidden within a housing of an electronic device when not in use by virtue of a latch mechanism, so as to facilitate use and to provide a dustproof effect while maintaining the integral appearance of the housing.

[0007] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism that permits a connector to be concealed within a housing of an electronic device when not in use, and the connector.

[0008] Accordingly, a concealable connector of this invention is for disposing in a housing of an electronic device. The housing has a base wall and a housing edge. The housing edge is provided with an opening. The concealable connector includes two upright sidewalls, a guiding groove, a guiding rod, and a sliding module. The upright sidewalls are spaced apart from each other and are disposed on the base wall. The opening is in spatial communication with a space between the upright sidewalls. The guiding groove is formed in the base wall and is interposed between the upright sidewalls. The guiding rod has a first end extending slidably into the guiding groove, and a second end. The sliding module includes a casing, a circuit board unit, and an input/output port. The casing is disposed between the upright sidewalls and is formed with an insertion slot. The second end of the guiding rod is pivoted to the casing. The casing is slidable relative to the upright sidewalls between a slid-out state, in which the casing projects outwardly of the housing through the opening and the insertion slot is exposed from the housing, and a concealed state, in which the insertion slot is concealed by the housing. The circuit board unit is disposed in the casing. The input/output port is connected electrically to the circuit board unit, and is exposed through the insertion slot.

[0009] The advantageous effect of the present invention resides in that, with the input/output port disposed within the casing, and through the cooperation between the guiding groove and the guiding rod, the casing can be slid out of the housing when use of the input/output port is needed, and can be slid into the housing to be concealed therein when use of the input/output port is not needed. This not only achieves the object of providing an increased number of connectors for an electronic device, the overall appearance of the housing can be maintained when use of the input/output port is not needed.

[0021] Before the present invention is described in greater detail, it should be noted that like elements are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the disclosure.

[0022] Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the preferred embodiment of an electronic device 100 having a concealable connector 3 according to the present invention is exemplified to be a notebook computer. The electronic device 100 includes a device body 1, a display 2 connected to the device body 1, and the concealable connector 3 disposed in the device body 1. However, the electronic device 100 should not be limited to a notebook computer, and may be a desk-top computer.

[0023] The device body 1 includes a housing 11 and an electronic component set 12 disposed in the housing 11. The housing 11 has a base wall 111 and a housing edge 112. The housing edge 112 is provided with an opening 113. In this embodiment, the base wall 111 is a bottom wall of the housing 11, and the housing edge 112 is, but is not limited to, a right lateral edge of the housing 11. The housing edge 112 may also be a left lateral edge, a front edge, or a rear edge. The electronic component set 12 includes a motherboard, a central processing unit disposed on the motherboard, and components, such as a hard disk, an optical disk drive, etc., which are connected to the motherboard and which are required for the normal operation of the device body 1.

[0024] Referring to FIGS. 2 to 4, the concealable connector 3 includes two upright sidewalls 31, 31′, a guiding groove 32, a guiding rod 33, a sliding module 4, and a spring 34. The two upright sidewalls 31, 31′ extend upwardly from the base wall 111 in a spaced apart relationship with one in front of the other, and are adjacent to the housing edge 112. The two upright sidewalls 31, 31′ are so positioned such that the opening 113 in the housing edge 112 is in spatial communication with a space between the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′. The opening 113 is positioned between the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′. In this embodiment, the upright sidewall 31 is provided with a lateral guiding groove 311 extending in a left-right direction perpendicular to the housing edge 112. Furthermore, the upright sidewall 31 has one wall surface confronting the upright sidewall 31′ and an opposite wall surface which is formed with a protruding mechanism 312 projecting therefrom. The protruding mechanism 312 is formed with a recess 310 having an opening directed toward the housing edge 112, and is located at one end of the lateral guiding groove 311 that is distal from the housing edge 112. The functions of the lateral guiding groove 311 and the protruding mechanism 312 will be described in the succeeding paragraphs.

[0025] The guiding groove 32 is formed in the base wall 111, is located in an area between the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′, and has a first positioning end 321 and a second positioning end 322 which is farther from the housing edge 112 than the first positioning end 321. In this embodiment, the guiding groove 32 is configured to have a heart-shaped profile, and is divided into a slide-in travel segment 323 and a slide-out travel segment 324 which are substantially symmetric to each other. The slide-in travel segment 323 and the slide-out travel segment 324 meet at two junctures, which respectively define a pointed portion of the heart-shaped profile that is directed toward the housing edge 112 and an indented portion of the heart-shaped profile that is farther from the housing edge 112 than the pointed portion. The first positioning end 321 is located at the pointed portion of the heart-shaped profile. The second positioning end 322 is located at the indented portion of the heart-shaped profile. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the slide-in travel segment 323 has a greater depth than the slide-out travel segment 324 at the pointed portion, and the first positioning end 321 is located at a distal end of the slide-in travel segment 322. The slide-in travel segment 323 has a smaller depth than the slide-out travel segment 324 at the indented portion, and the second positioning end 322 is located at a distal end of the slide-out travel segment 324.

[0026] The guiding rod 33 has a first end 331 and a second end 332. The first end 331 of the guiding rod 33 is extendable slidably into the guiding groove 32. The second end 332 of the guiding rod 33 is pivoted to the sliding module 4.

[0027] The sliding module 4 includes a casing 41, a circuit board unit 42 disposed in the casing 41, and a plurality of input/output ports 43 disposed on the circuit board unit 42. In this embodiment, the casing 41 is a substantially hollow shell which may be cooperatively formed by two or more shell parts. The casing 41 is located between the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′. One side surface of the casing 41 that confronts the upright sidewall 31 is formed with a post 411 projecting forwardly therefrom. The post 411 is disposed to extend forwardly through the lateral guiding groove 311 in the upright sidewall 31. The spring 34 has one end received in the recess 310 in the protruding mechanism 312 and an opposite end abutting against the post 411 so as to provide a resilient force to bias the casing 41 to project outwardly of the housing 11 through the opening 113 at the housing edge 112.

[0028] The second end 332 of the guiding rod 33 is pivoted to a bottom portion of the casing 41, and the two side surfaces of the casing 41 that respectively confront the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′ are respectively provided with a plurality of insertion slots 412. When the circuit board unit 42 is disposed within the casing 41, the input/output ports 43 disposed on the circuit board unit 42 correspond respectively to the insertion slots 412 and are accessible to the outside through the insertion slots 412. The input/output ports 43 may include connectors of various specifications, such as a USB port, a PS/2 port, an RJ45 port, etc., or connectors of card readers. Moreover, the circuit board unit 42 is connected electrically to the motherboard of the electronic component set 12 through wires.

[0029] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, when the casing 41 is disposed in a concealed state, the casing 41 is located between the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′, is partly exposed through the opening 113 at the housing edge 112, and blocks the opening 113. At this point, the insertion slots 412 are completely located within the housing 11 and are concealed. In addition, since the post 411 is closer to the protruding mechanism 312 of the upright sidewall 31 at that point, the spring 34 is compressed and accumulates a resilient force. Because the first end 331 of the guiding rod 33 abuts against the second positioning end 322 of the guiding groove 32 at this time, the entire casing 41 will not be ejected outwardly of the casing 41 by the resilient force of the spring 34.

[0030] Referring to FIGS. 3 and 5, when a user needs to use the input/output ports 43, by pushing the portion of the casing 41 that is exposed through the opening 113 at the housing edge 112 inwardly, the first end 331 of the guiding rod 33 can be caused to slide toward the first positioning end 321 along the slide-out travel segment 324 by virtue of the resilient force of the spring 34 that is exerted on the post 411 such that the casing 41 projects outwardly of the housing edge 112 of the housing 11 through the opening 113 until the first end 331 of the guiding rod 33 abuts against the first positioning end 321 to thereby place the casing 41 in a slid-out state. At this point, the insertion slots 412 are completely exposed from the housing 11 and are available for use.

[0031] If the user does not need to use the input/output ports 43, by pushing the casing 41 projecting from the casing 11 in a direction toward the housing edge 112 to slide along the slide-in travel segment 323, the first end 331 of the guiding rod 33 can be caused to slide along the slide-in travel segment 323 toward the second positioning end 322 such that the casing 41 once again slides into the area between the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′ of the housing 11 to be disposed in the concealed state. At this time, the insertion slots 412 are once again concealed by the housing 11.

[0032] Referring to FIGS. 2 and 6, to ensure smooth sliding of the casing 41 between the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′, in this embodiment, the confronting wall surfaces of the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′ are each formed with a flange 313 that extends along a lengthwise direction of the respective upright sidewall 31, 31′, and outer side surfaces of the casing 41 that respectively confront the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′ are each formed with an indentation 413. With the flanges 313 formed respectively on the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′ and extending respectively into the indentations 413 formed in the two outer side surfaces of the casing 41, when the casing 41 slides relative to the two upright sidewalls 31, 31′, the indentations 413 will also slide relative to the respective flanges 313, which has the effect of assisting and guiding sliding movement of the casing 41.

[0033] Reference is made to FIGS. 7 and 8, which illustrate a modification of the guiding groove 32′. Compared to the guiding groove 32 described hereinbefore, the guiding groove 32′ includes only the slide-in travel segment 323 (see FIG. 4), i.e., the guiding groove 32′ resembles the shape of a symmetric half of a heart. In other words, the slide-in travel segment and the slide-nut travel segment overlap. In this case, the end of the guiding groove 32′ that is proximate to the housing edge 112 is the first positioning end 321′, and the end of the same that is distal from the housing edge 112 is the second positioning end 322′. This configuration can likewise achieve the effect of guiding the first end 331 of the guiding rod 33 to slide along the guiding groove 32′.

[0034] Reference is made to FIGS. 9 and 10, which illustrate another modification of the guiding groove 32″. The guiding groove 32″ is configured to be a linear groove extending in a direction perpendicular to the housing edge 112. In this case, the first positioning end 321″ and the second positioning end 322″ are two opposite ends of the guiding groove 32″ Certainly, the guiding groove 32″ may be configured to have various depths or to be deeper at the first positioning end 321″ and the second positioning end 322″ so that the first end 331 of the guiding rod 33 can be positioned at the first positioning end 321″ and the second positioning end 322″. Alternatively, the sliding module 4 may further include a stop mechanism or a retaining mechanism (such as a stop piece 40 disposed pivotably at the housing edge 112 of the housing 11 to be turned pivotably for blocking the portion of the casing 41 that is exposed through the opening 113) disposed on the housing 11 at a suitable position to stop or position the casing 41 that is in the slid-in state so as to avoid undesirable situations in which the casing 41 cannot be positioned in the slid-in state due to the biasing force of the spring 34.

[0035] In summary, with the input/output ports 43 disposed within the casing 41, and through the cooperation between the guiding groove 32, 32′, 32″ and the guiding rod 33, the casing 41 can be slid out of the housing 11 when use of the input/output ports 43 is needed, and can be slid into the housing 11 to be concealed therein when use of the input/output ports 43 is not needed. This not only achieves the object of providing an increased number of connectors for an electronic device, the overall appearance of the housing 11 can be maintained when use of the input/output ports 43 is not needed. Therefore, the present invention offers another mechanism or configuration to permit the connectors to be concealed within the housing 11 when they are not in use.

[0036] While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.