Electrical patching system

• US 6,535,367 B1
• Filed: 06/13/2000
• Issued: 03/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Bittree Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bittree Incorporated
• Inventors: Carpenter, Bryan J., Garrard, Glen
• Primary Examiner(s): Jackson, Stephen W.
• Application Number:
  US09/593,278
• Time in Patent Office: 1,008 Days
• Field of Search: 361/42, 361/115, 361/58
• US Class Current: 361/42
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 12/73 connecting to other rigid printed circuits or like structures
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 12/79 connecting to rigid printed circuits or like structures
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 29/00 Coupling parts for selective co-operation with a counterpart in different ways to establish different circuits, e.g. for voltage selection, for series-parallel selection, programmable connectors
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 31/08 Short-circuiting members for bridging contacts in a counterpart
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 1/116 lightning or EMI protection, e.g. shielding or grounding
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 1/13 Patch panels for monitoring, interconnecting or testing circuits, e.g. patch bay, patch field or jack field; Patching modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2201/12 Printed circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2201/14 Screening, grounding or crosstalk reduction details

Abstract

By way of summary, in the preferred form of the invention, the patch panel comprises a manually programmable device that incorporates shunts or dip switches that are readily accessible from the front panel of the device. In the patch panel construction of the invention, a multi-pin connector block is connected to a first circuit board that, in turn, is connected to a second circuit board via a cable connector, thus allowing the signal switching (normalizing) and grounding circuits of the respective jacks to be selectively altered from the front access panel of the device. By manually changing the shunt or dip switch configurations, the respective normalizing and grounding circuits can easily and simply be altered as may be desired without costly system interruption.

Claims

1. A patch panel having a front panel comprising:

(a) a signal input;

(b) a signal output connected to said signal input;

(c) a plurality of first normalizing contacts connected to said signal input and being accessible from said front panel;

(d) a plurality of first grounding contacts connected to said signal input and being accessible from said front panel;

(e) a plurality of second normalizing contacts connected to said signal output and being accessible from said front panel;

(f) a plurality of second grounding contacts connected to said signal output and being accessible from said front panel;

(g) first connector means for interconnecting a selected pair of said first and second grounding contacts; and

(h) a second connector means for interconnecting a selected pair of said first and second normalizing pins.

2. The patch panel as defined in claim 1 in which said normalizing contacts comprise normalizing pins and in which said ground contacts comprise grounding pins.

3. The patch panel as defined in claim 1 in which said first connector means comprises at least one ground shunt.

4. The patch panel as defined in claim 1 in which said second connector means comprises at least one normalizing shunt.

5. The patch panel as defined in claim 1 comprising six normalizing contacts and four grounding contacts.

6. The patch panel as defined in claim 5 in which said connector means comprises three normalizing shunts and two grounding shunts.

7. A programmable patch panel comprising a chassis having a front panel and including:

(a) a plurality of electrical circuits carried by said front panel;

(b) a plurality of spaced-apart first normalizing contacts and a plurality of spaced-apart first ground contacts connected to a selected electrical circuit;

(c) a plurality of spaced-apart second normalizing contacts and a plurality of spaced-apart second ground contacts connected to said selected electrical circuit;

(d) first programming means for programming said selected circuits to full, half or non-normal, said first programming means comprising;

(i) a first normalizing shunt connected to a selected first pair of said first and second normalizing contacts;

(ii) a second normalizing shunt connected to a selected second pair of said first and second normalizing contacts; and

(e) second programming means for programming the grounding of said selected circuit, said second programming means comprising;

(i) a first ground shunt connected to a selected first pair of first and second ground contacts; and

(ii) a second ground shunt connected to a selected second pair of first and second ground contacts.

8. The programmable patch panel as defined in claim 7 in which said patch panel includes six normalizing contacts and four ground contacts connected to selected circuits.

9. The programmable patch panel as defined in claim 8 in which each of said contacts comprises a pin.

10. The programmable patch panel as defined in claim 9 in which each of said shunts comprises a body portion having a plurality of looping contacts for