Dockable electronic equipment container

• US 5,999,406 A
• Filed: 10/17/1997
• Issued: 12/07/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avid Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avid Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Tarr, Morton, McKain, James A., Fasciano, Peter, Sprague, Mark A., Deal, Robert F., Imblum, Raymond W., Denny, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Picard, Leo P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHERVINSKY, BORIS LEO
• Application Number:
  US08/953,151
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 361/683, 361/685, 361/687, 361/688, 361/690, 361/704, 361/709, 361/715, 361/816, 439/138, 439/248, 165/80.3, 312/223.1
• US Class Current: 361/704
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 31/006 with video camera or receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/08 Insulation or absorption of undesired vibrations or sounds
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/12 Disposition of constructional parts in the apparatus, e.g. of power supply, of modules
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/124 of the single recording/reproducing device, e.g. disk drive, onto a chassis
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure

Abstract

A dockable equipment container includes an outer shell of a durable material and an inner metallic container. The inner c,ontainer is suspended within the outer shell by blocks of energy absorbent material, such as SORBATHANE. The dockable equipment container further includes a connector at one end, which is covered by a protective door. When mated with external equipment, the protective door is moved to an open position by an alignment device, such as alignment pins, pressing against an end of the protective door. The alignment pins mate with corresponding alignment holes for ensuring that the connector properly mates with a corresponding connector in the external equipment. The dockable equipment container may contain various electronic equipment, which conmmunicates with the external equipment through the connector. The electronic equipment may include disk drives, which are protected from the environment and from shock by the construction of the dockable equipment container.

Claims

1. An electronic equipment container, comprising:

an environmentally sealed metal container having a passage through which an electrical cable communicates, the metal container further including means for removing heat from an interior portion thereof;

an outer shell of impact-resistant material;

a plurality of energy-absorbent cushions positioned between the outer shell and the metal container, suspending the container within the outer shell; and

a connector positioned at an end of the shell, the electrical cable terminated at the connectors, wherein the connector includes;

an electrical, connector; and

a mounting plate on which the electrical connector is mounted, the mounting plate further having a guide hole into which a mating guide pin fits, wherein the mounting plate has edges captured within a groove at one end of the outer shell.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cushions comprise:

blocks of material, each having an outer convex corner and an inner concave corner, the outer corner fitting into a corner of the center shell and the inner corner fitting on a corner of the container.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the cushions are composed essentially of a polyurethane elastomer.

4. The device of claim 3, where the elastomer is a flexible polyurethane of essentially linear structure containing unsatisfied hydroxyl groups, and having a compression set less than 15%, anm elongation at break of at least 500%, and a recovery which is delayed after compression by at least 0.7 seconds.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the outer shell includes edges defining apertures therethrough, and wherein the means for removing heat further comprises:

fins disposed on an exterior surface of the metal container.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the means for removing heat further comprises:

high heat transfer material disposed on an interior surface of the metal container.

7. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

a disk drive mounted in the metal container in contact with the high heat transfer material.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the high heat transfer material is energy absorbing.

9. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

communication equipment mounted in the metal container in contact with the high heat transfer material.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the connector further comprises:

a protective cover, rotatable mounted to protect the connector when closed, an end of the cover being positioned in a path of a part of a receptacle into which the device is received,

whereby the cover is operated from a closed position to an open position by passage of the part along the path.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the outer shell end at which the mounting plate edges are captured has a long axis of substantially 41/4", a short axis of substantially 23/4", and the connector substantially centered on the axes.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the connector is a 51-pin D-sub connector.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the connector comprises:

a first row of pins numbered 1-18;

of pins numbered 19-35; and

a third row of pins numbered 36-50;

the pinout defined by;

space="preserve" listing-type="tabular">______________________________________ Pin Pin Number Signal Name Number Signal Name ______________________________________ 1 V.sub.CC 26 ADDR(5) 2 V.sub.CC 27 V.sub.CC 3 DATA(0) 28 V.sub.CC 4 DATA(1) 29 S.sub.-- HIRQ(0) 5 DATA(2) 30 S.sub.-- HIRQ(1) 6 DATA(3) 31 CMD.sub.-- TYPE(0) 7 DATA(4) 32 CMD.sub.-- TYPE(1) 8 DATA(5) 33 TRANS.sub.-- ACT 9 DATA(6) 34 READY 10 DATA(7) 35 FIFO.sub.-- AVAIL 11 DATA(8) 36 FIFO.sub.-- ACK 12 DATA(9) 37 WORD.sub.-- AVAIL 13 DATA(10) 38 RW 14 DATA(11) 39 V.sub.CC 15 DATA(12) 40 N/C 16 DATA(13) 41 DISK.sub.-- PRESENT 17 DATA(14) 42 SPIN.sub.-- RST 18 DATA(15) 43 N/C 19 GND N/C 20 GND N/C 21 ADDR(0) 46 GND 22 ADDR(1) 47 GND 23 ADDR(2) 48 CLK13 24 ADDR(3) 49 GND 25 ADDR(4) 50 GND ______________________________________

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the connector is a two-row, 51-pin including pins numbered 1-51 by odd numbers and another row including pins numbered 2-50 by even numbers, the pinout defined by:

space="preserve" listing-type="tabular">______________________________________ Pin Pin Number Signal Name Signal Nameber ______________________________________ 1 S.sub.-- HIRQ(0) 27 DATA(9) 2 V.sub.CC DATA(7) 28 3 TORCH.sub.-- R.sub.-- W 29 DATA(5) 4 N/C GND 30 5 N/C ADDR(3) 31 6 DATA(14) S.sub.-- HIRQ(1) 7 ADDR(5) ADDR(2) 33 8 DATA(13) S.sub.-- CLK 9 DATA(8) S.sub.-- D.sub.IN 10 V.sub.CC CMD.sub.-- TYPE(1) 11 DISK.sub.-- PRESENT 37 FIFO.sub.-- AVAIL 12 DATA(2) GND 38 13 DATA(0) SPIN.sub.-- RST 14 CLK13 FIFO.sub.-- ACK 15 ADDR(0) DATA(15)41 16 ADDR(1) DATA(10)42 17 GND GND 43 18 D.sub.-- PROG DATA(6) 19 CMD.sub.-- TYPE(0) 45 DATA(4) 20 TRANS.sub.-- ACT DATA(3) 21 WORD.sub.-- AVAIL 47 DATA(1) 22 READY ADDR(4) 48 23 THROTTLE V.sub.CC9 24 V.sub.CC N/C 50 25 DATA(12) S.sub.-- DONE 26 DATA(11) ______________________________________

15. The device of claim 11, wherein the outer shell further comprises:

a first outer shell half defining an edge; and

a second outer shell half defining an edge adapted to mate with the edge of the first outer shell half;

the first outer shell half secured to the second outer shell half by a plurality of fasteners.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the first outer shell half has a surface defining a recess through which one of the plurality of fasteners passes the recess located substantially within a range of 13/4"-2" from the outer shell end at which the mounting plate edges are captured.

17. An electronic equipment container for use in a portable digital video camera, the container being removable from the portable digital video camera, the container comprising

a recording device for recording digital video information received from the digital video camera, the recording device having a passage through which an electrical cable for receiving the digital video information communicates with the portable digital video camera;

an outer shell of impact-resistant material;

a plurality of energy-absorbent cushions for absorbing shock and vibration positioned between the outer shell and the recording device, suspending the recording device within the outer shell; and

a connector positioned at an end of the shell, the electrical cable terminated at the connector.

18. The electronic equipment container of claim 17, wherein the plurality of cushions comprise:

blocks of material, each having an outer convex corner and an inner concave corner, the outer corner fitting into a corner of the center shell and the inner corner fitting on a corner of the recording device.

19. The electronic equipment container of claim 18, wherein the cushions are composed essentially of a polyurethane elastomer.

20. The electronic equipment container of claim 17, wherein the outer shell includes edges defining apertures therethrough.

21. The electric equipment container of claim 17, further including fins disposed on an exterior surface of the recording device for removing heat from the recording device.

22. The electronic equipment container of claim 17, wherein the recording device is a disk drive.

23. The electronic equipment container of claim 17, wherein the connector further comprises:

an electrical connector; and

a mounting plate on which the electrical connector is mounted, the mounting plate further having a guide hole into which a mating guide pin fits.

24. The electronic equipment container of claim 17, wherein the connector further comprises:

a protective cover, rotatably mounted to protect the connector when closed, an end of the cover being positioned in a path of a part of a receptacle into which the device is received,

whereby the cover is operated from a closed position to an open position by passage of the part along the path.

25. The electronic equipment container of claim 24, wherein the mounting plate has edges captured within a groove at one end of the outer shell.