JP2789017B2 - Eject device for card media - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a small and thin recording medium such as an IC card (referred to as a "card medium" in this specification). This is related to a device that discharges water from

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A small and thin recording medium such as an IC card has been widely used as an external storage device of a small information processing apparatus such as a notebook personal computer. In a device using a card medium, a card connector for receiving the card medium is provided on the main body side. As shown in FIG. 7, the card connector 1 has a slot 14 for guiding a card medium to be inserted, and a number of contacts 16 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the card medium are provided at the far end of the slot 14. I have. Such a card connector 1
Is usually mounted on a printed board in a state in which leads 17 extending from the contacts 16 are soldered to a wiring pattern of the printed board.

[0003] The card connector 1 is usually provided with an ejecting mechanism 2 for the inserted card and its operating ends 54a and 54b. The card medium is fitted into the contact 16 on the connector side by being inserted and pushed into the slot 14, and is held by the card connector 1 by this fitting force. In order to prevent an excessive force from being applied to the contacts fitted when the card is removed, an ejection mechanism 2 for pushing the card medium out of the connector is provided.

The ejecting mechanism shown in the figure has a pushing piece 23 positioned at the center of the back side of the card insertion portion, and this pushing piece 23 is fixed to one end of a seesaw lever 21 pivotally attached to the card connector 1.
A transmission rod 25 extending toward the insertion side of the card medium is pivotally attached to the other end of the seesaw lever 21, and a push button 54 for pushing the transmission rod 25 is provided. When the push button 54 is pushed in, the other end of the seesaw lever 21 is pushed via the transmission rod 25, and the pushing piece 23 moves to the near side by the action of the seesaw lever 21, and the card medium fitted with the contact 16. Extrude.

In order to allow a plurality of card media to be simultaneously mounted on the main body, a plurality of card connectors must be provided on the main body. In this case, a card connector provided with a plurality of slits for receiving a plurality of (usually two) card media is used. Even with such a card connector having a plurality of slots, insertion and removal of card media are performed individually one by one.
An independent card ejection mechanism 2 and its operation end 54 are provided for each slot.

[0006]

In a notebook computer or the like, the card connector 1 as described above is usually provided so that a card medium can be inserted and removed from a side surface of the apparatus main body. Therefore, insertion and removal of the card medium into and from the card connector 1 can be performed by using the connector slot 14 or the push button 54.
It is often done by fumbling without visually recognizing the position or the like. At this time, in the card connector 1 in which a plurality of slots 14 are provided adjacent to each other as shown in FIG. 7, the card medium may be inserted / extracted into a slot different from the slot intended by the operator. If you insert a card medium into the wrong slot, a message to that effect is displayed on the display or a message that the system cannot be read etc. is displayed, so it is good to replace the card medium, but mistake the card medium to be removed Sometimes
Serious failures such as data corruption may occur.

However, in the conventional card connector having a plurality of slots, the push button 54 for operating the ejection mechanism of each slot is provided adjacent to the card connector. There is a high risk that the next push button will be pressed, and there is a problem in preventing erroneous operations.

In order to prevent such erroneous operation, there has been proposed a structure in which the push buttons 54 of the adjacent ejection mechanism are provided at the tip portions 12a and 13a on both sides of the card connector, respectively. With this structure, the transmission rods 25 are arranged one on each side of the connector.
The width of both the side edges 12 and 13 of the connector is widened, so that the connector becomes large and there is a problem that the circuit mounting area of the printed board on which the connector is mounted is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to prevent an erroneous operation of the ejection mechanism when ejecting a card medium without increasing the size of the connector.

[0010]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ejecting apparatus comprising a plurality of card connectors provided adjacently in a direction perpendicular to the plane of a card medium into which a slot for receiving the card medium and an ejection mechanism are inserted. 1 is adopted.

[0011] In the present invention, a plurality of slots 14a for receiving a card medium, one operating end for 14b 3 2
The provided this operation ends 3 2 operably supported in two directions of the discharging operation direction and which is different from direction of the card medium, and select one of a plurality of discharge mechanism 2 By operating in the different directions, By operating in the discharging operation direction, the one selected discharging mechanism performs the discharging operation. Operation direction of the operation end 3 2, and forward and backward movement of the card discharging operation direction and the two directions of rotation of about its central axis, in this operation end 32 is eccentric from the central axis of the rotation operating position An engagement end 35 that engages with the ejection mechanism 2 is provided.

The operating end 32 can be held by the holding mechanisms 37, 38 at a selected position corresponding to the ejection mechanism 2 of each slot 14a, 14b. The operation end 3 2
A spring 34 for elastically holding the operation position in the selection direction at a predetermined position may be provided.

[0013]

In the eject device of the present invention, since there is only one operating end 32 of the discharge mechanism 2, it is unlikely that the other operating end will be operated by mistake. The operation of the one operating end 3 2 is to be done by the second operation of the selection operation and the discharge operation discharging mechanism 2 to operate, even when operating the operating end 3 2 by touch, the card medium to be discharged No selection mistakes occur. That is, the operation when selecting the medium
The operation direction of the working end 32 is a rotation about the center axis in the medium discharge direction.
The movement direction at the time of discharge is the movement in the direction of the central axis.
A withdrawal operation, since both the operating direction are completely different, the operator will be performing a selection operation with a clear consciousness, it no mistaking the groping in the discharge operation and also selection operation performed operation, also the operating end 32 By operating to one of the rotation ends , it can be confirmed that the selection has been made reliably.

[0014]

1 to 5 show a first embodiment of the present invention. Connector case 11 of card connector 1
Are flat U-shaped, and slots 14 (14a, 14a) for guiding a card medium are provided inside the side edges 12, 13 extending forward.
b) is provided, and a number of contacts 16 connected to the card medium are arranged on the back side 15. The slots 14 and the contacts 16 are provided in upper and lower tiers so that two card media are mounted. Each of the contacts 16 is drawn out as a lead 17, and the tip of the lead bent downward in the drawing is connected to the wiring pattern of the printed board. Screw insertion holes 1 for fixing the connector case 11 to the printed board are provided on both sides of the arrangement position of the leads 17.
8 are provided.

A seesaw lever 21 made of a thin metal plate is pivotally supported by a fulcrum pin 22 at the back 15 of the card connector. The tip of the seesaw lever 21 is located at the center of the inner side 15 of the card connector, and the pushing piece 23 is fixed to this tip. Seesaw lever 2
A transmission rod 25 is connected to the other end of the connector 1 by a connection pin 24, and the transmission rod 25 extends through one side edge 12 of the connector to near the front end of the side edge. The discharging mechanism 2 configured as described above is provided on each of the upper surface side and the lower surface side of the connector case 11 in the drawing, and the two transmission rods 25a and 25b are vertically adjacent to each other and have one side edge. 12 facing the front end.

An operating rod 31 is provided at the front end of the one side edge 12 so as to be rotatable about a central axis parallel to the extending direction of the transmission rod 25 (25a, 25b) and movable in the axial direction. A knob 32 is fixed to the front end of the operation rod 31. The operation rod 31 has a flange 33 at an intermediate portion, and a compression coil spring 34 is interposed between the flange 33 and the connector case 11 to urge the operation rod 31 toward the front side (the side where the knob 32 projects). Have been. Operation rod 3
1 has two transmission rods 25a, 25 of the discharging mechanism.
The push rod 35 is erected at the opposite end of the push rod 35 eccentrically from the rotation center axis of the operation rod 31. The rotation angle of the operating rod 31 is 2
It is regulated at an angle of 180 degrees by the sheet stoppers 36a and 36b. The stoppers 36a and 36b are in the cassette case 1.
It is a structure that is integrally formed with 1.

The operating rod 31 is provided with three axial holding grooves 37 spaced 90 degrees around the axis.
On the connector case 11 side, a ball 3 fitted into this groove is provided.
8 and a spring 39 for biasing the ball.
The three holding grooves 37 are such that the push rod 35 is connected to the upper transmission rod 25a.
, A position opposing the space 26 between the upper rod and the lower rod, and a position opposing the lower transmission rod 25b. Pick 3
An arrow 41 indicating the mounting direction of the push rod 35 is displayed on the front surface of 2.

In the device configured as described above, when the front surface of the knob 32 is pushed in the state of FIG. 2 in which the push rod 35 is held at a position facing the upper transmission rod 25a, the operation rod 31 is pushed in, The push rod 35 pushes the opposing upper transmission rod 25a, and the upper seesaw lever 2
1 is swung to move the upper extruded piece 23 in the card ejection direction, and push out the card medium inserted into the upper slot 14a. FIG. 3 in which the push rod 35 is rotated to the intermediate position.
In the state described above, even if the front surface of the knob 32 is pushed, the push rod 35 advances into the space 26 between the upper transmission rod 25a and the lower transmission rod 25b. No discharge operation is performed. In the state of FIG. 4 in which the push rod 35 is opposed to the lower transmission rod 25b, the push rod 35 is pushed by pushing the front surface of the knob 32.
Pushes the lower transmission rod 25b, swings the lower seesaw lever (not shown in FIG. 1), moves the lower extruded piece in the card discharging direction, and loads the lower slot 14b into the lower slot 14b. The ejected card medium is ejected.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show the operation rod 3
The three holding grooves 37 provided on the connector case 11 and the balls 38 provided on the connector case 11 side are held by fitting. To eject the card medium inserted into the upper slot 14a, the operator may turn the knob 32 counterclockwise to the rotating end, and then push the knob 32, and the card medium inserted into the lower slot may be ejected. When ejecting the card medium, turn the knob 32 clockwise to the rotation end, and then turn the knob 3
You just have to push 2.

The structure shown in FIG. 2 to FIG.
Are held in the respective positions facing the upper and lower transmission rods 25a, 25b and the middle thereof, but the rotary position of the knob 32 is held. Are always the upper and lower transmission rods 25a, 25
The structure may be such that it is located in the middle of b. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, protrusions 4 are provided at both ends of a compression coil spring 34 for urging the operation rod 31 toward the front side.
2 and 43 are provided, and one of the projections is fitted into a hole 44 provided in the flange 33 of the operation rod, and the other 43 is fitted into a hole on the cassette case side. The rotation position of the rod 31 around the central axis is maintained at a fixed position.

Even when such a structure is employed, the operation at the time of discharging the card medium is the same as that described above, and the operator always turns the knob 32 right or left to the turning end, and then the knob 32. By pressing down, the upper or lower card medium is ejected. Even when the structure shown in FIG. 5 is employed, stoppers 36a and 36b for defining the rotation angle of the knob 32 are provided.

[0022]

[0023]

[0024]

[0025]

According to the present invention described above, a card medium such as a plurality of IC cards mounted adjacent to each other can be ejected without error. In particular, the IC card slot is provided on the side of the housing. As in the case where the card medium is provided, there is an effect that an operation error does not occur even if the card medium is ejected by groping.

[0026]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a front view and a sectional view of a main part showing a first selection state.

FIG. 3 is a front view and a sectional view of a main part showing a non-selected state.

FIG. 4 is a front view and a sectional view of a main part showing a second selection state.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing a main part of another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a card connector having a conventional structure.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Discharge mechanism 14 (a, b) slot 32 knob 34 compression coil spring 35 push rod

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] A plurality of slots (14a, 14b) for receiving a card medium are provided adjacent to the card medium in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the card medium, and each slot (14a, 14b) receives the received card medium. discharging mechanism for discharging (2) is provided separately, double
In a card medium ejecting apparatus provided with one operating end (32 ) for operating a number of ejecting mechanisms (2), the operating end (32) moves forward and backward in the ejecting direction of the card medium.
And the rotation operation around the central axis in the discharge operation direction.
Operating end (32).
Engage with the discharge mechanism (2) at a position eccentric from the center axis of operation.
Engagement end (35), which is
Characterized in that the engagement end (35) of the card medium and the selected ejection mechanism (2) face each other. 2. The operating end (32) is connected to each slot (14a, 14b).
The holding mechanism (37, 37) that holds at the selected position corresponding to the ejection mechanism (2)
38. The ejecting device for a card medium according to claim 1, comprising: 3. The operating end (32) is resiliently rotated at a predetermined position.
Manner and a spring (34) for holding, eject apparatus according to claim 1 Symbol placement of the card medium.