JP2000099208A - External peripheral device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the portability of external peripheral device such as an external connector box and an external FDD(floppy disk drive) used while connected to a portable personal computer and the portable personal computer body. SOLUTION: A repeating cable 2 which connects the external peripheral device 3 and personal computer body 1 is made detachable and the connection is made by the same repeating cable 2 irrelevantly to the kind of the external peripheral device. The repeating cable 2 of the external peripheral device 3 is detached and then the need of troublesome processing such as storage is eliminated to improve the portability without enlarging the device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an external peripheral device for a portable personal computer such as a laptop type or a notebook type.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, demands for miniaturization and lightness of portable personal computers such as notebook computers have become extremely high. Especially for laptops of B5 size or smaller, it is easy to secure the height and sides required to provide the PC with serial connectors, parallel connectors, external display connectors, and input / output terminals such as a mouse / external keyboard terminal. is not. Therefore, the external connector box that integrates these input / output terminals is provided in a separate housing, and the personal computer and the external connector box are connected by a relay cable, responding to the demand for smaller, lighter and more multifunctional personal computers. ing. Also, as for the floppy disk drive (hereinafter referred to as FDD), similarly to the external connector box, the personal computer main body and the FDD are generally made smaller by connecting them to external units by cable connection. is there.

Conventionally, a connection between a portable personal computer such as a laptop type or a notebook type and external peripheral devices such as an external connector box and an external FDD is well known in the configuration shown in FIG. In the figure, a personal computer 14 has a connector 14A and a connector 14 on both sides.
B. Reference numeral 15 denotes an external connector box to which a relay cable 15A is fixed.
The connector A on the side of the personal computer body 14
A has a connector 15B connected to A. Reference numeral 16 denotes an external FDD provided with a relay cable 16A. An end of the relay cable 16A has a connector 16B connected to a connector 14B on a side surface of the personal computer main body 14.
The above configuration was convenient in that two devices, an external connector box and an external FDD, could be used simultaneously,
Connection cables 15A, 1
6A is fixed, and two connectors 14A and 14B are required for the personal computer body. For this reason, it was necessary to deal with a large-sized and complicated connection cable for carrying.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show examples of external peripheral devices in consideration of the storability of a relay cable. FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view of an external connector box provided with a relay cable housing, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of an external FDD provided with a relay cable housing. These are provided in the space created by enlarging the external peripheral device itself, in the connection cables 15A, 16A.
This constitutes the storage sections 17B and 18B of A. However, in such a method, the cables and connectors do not protrude from the device, but the device itself is large, and it is hard to say that the portability has been improved in consideration of the volume of the device when it is carried. Met.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a portable personal computer and an external peripheral device connected to the portable personal computer without increasing the size of the portable personal computer. The purpose is to improve.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve this problem, the present invention provides a detachable relay cable for connecting an external peripheral device and a personal computer, and the same relay cable regardless of the type of the external peripheral device. This enables connection with a portable personal computer.

[0007]

The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention relates to an external connector box or an external floppy disk drive (FDD) having a shared connector that is physically and electrically shared. An external peripheral device connector for connecting to a shared connector is provided at one end, and connection to the personal computer body is enabled by a relay cable having a main body connector connected to a connector provided on the personal computer body at the other end. Thus, by removing the relay cable from the external peripheral device, troublesome cable processing such as storage is not required, and the portability can be improved without increasing the size of the device. In addition, since the relay cable is common to the two external peripheral devices, it is possible to connect the personal computer to the two external peripheral devices by carrying only one cable, thereby improving portability. Also, since only one connector is required for the personal computer, the personal computer can be downsized.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, an auxiliary connector connectable to the common connector is provided in the external connector box, and the common connector and the auxiliary connector provided on the external floppy disk are provided. It is possible to connect directly with the connector,
External connector box and external FD with one relay cable
D and two external peripheral devices can be connected to the personal computer at the same time.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or the second aspect of the present invention, the common connector is provided with an empty terminal in the connector terminal and is electrically shared. As a result, electric sharing can be surely achieved.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a connection between a portable personal computer and an external connector box according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a connection between the portable personal computer and an external FDD. is there. 1 and 2, 1 is a personal computer main body, 1A is a connector provided on a side surface of the personal computer main body 1,
2 is a relay cable, 2A is a main body connector, 2B is an external peripheral device connector, 2C is a ferrite core, 3 is an external connector box which is an external peripheral device, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are serial connectors, parallel connectors, and external displays. A connector, an input / output terminal such as an external keyboard terminal, 8 is a common connector provided in an external connector box, 9 is an auxiliary connector, 10 is a latch knob, 11 is an external FDD, 12
Is a shared connector provided on the external FDD.

A ferrite core 2C for noise suppression is fixed to the relay cable 2, and has a main body connector 2A and an external peripheral device connector 2B at both ends thereof, and the connector 1A, the common connector 8, and the common connector 12, respectively. Can be connected to

Since the common connector 12 and the common connector 8 are physically formed in the same shape, both can be connected to the external peripheral device connector 2B. The signal line for each peripheral device connected to the external connector box 3 is input / output to / from the common connector 8, but only the external FDD wiring is input / output to / from the common connector 12. Therefore, the external peripheral device connector 2B can be physically and electrically connected to both the common connector 12 and the common connector 8. The connector 1A, the main body connector 2A, the external peripheral device connector 2B, the common connectors 8, 12, and the auxiliary connector 9 all have 68 pins.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the personal computer body 1 and the external connector box 3 are connected, the external connector box 3
Various peripheral devices can be connected to the personal computer 1 via the connectors 4, 5, 6, and 7 provided in the PC. Also, as shown in FIG. 2, the personal computer body 1 and the external FDD 11 can be connected by the same relay cable 2.

FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating an auxiliary connector 9 provided in the external connector box 3 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The auxiliary connector 9 can be physically and electrically connected to a common connector provided on the external FDD.
Can be directly connected to the common connector 12.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the external connector box 3 and the personal computer 1 are connected with the relay cable 2, the external FDD 11 cannot be connected to the personal computer 1 via the relay cable 2. The auxiliary connector 9 makes this connection possible. As shown in FIG. 3, the external connector box 3 according to the embodiment can be used with both the external FDD 11 and the external connector box 3 by directly connecting the common connector 12 to the auxiliary connector 9 provided in the external connector box 3. It is possible.

In FIG. 3, when the user finishes work from the use state and moves the place while storing the equipment, first, the latch knob 10 is slid to disconnect the external FDD 11, the relay cable 2 is disconnected, and the relay is performed. The cable 2 can be rolled up and stored in a bag or the like together with the device and carried.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, in an external peripheral device of a portable personal computer such as a laptop type or a notebook type, each external peripheral device is provided with a detachable relay cable, so that storage and the like can be performed. The need for cumbersome cable processing is eliminated, and portability can be improved. Also,
By making it possible to connect each external peripheral device to the personal computer with one common relay cable, not only the portability can be improved but also the cost of parts can be reduced. Furthermore, the PC itself can be connected to a plurality of external peripheral devices only by providing one connector for the external peripheral device, and the advantageous effect that the side portion of the PC main body can be more effectively utilized can be obtained. Can be

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a connection between a personal computer main body and an external connector box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a connection between a personal computer main body and an external FDD according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a personal computer body according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Top view showing connection of external connector box / external FDD

FIG. 4 shows a conventional personal computer body and an external connector box,
Plan view showing connection of external FDD

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an external connector box having a conventional relay cable storage section.

FIG. 6 shows an external FDD having a conventional relay cable storage section.
Partial sectional view showing

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 14 PC main unit 1A Connector 2, 15A, 16A Relay cable 2A Main body connector 2B External peripheral device connector 3, 15 External connector box 8, 12 Shared connector 9 Auxiliary connector connected to shared connector 11, 16 External FDD

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An external connector box having a shared connector physically and electrically shared, or an external peripheral device including an external floppy disk drive (FDD), wherein the external peripheral device is connected to the shared connector. An external peripheral device, wherein the external peripheral device and the personal computer main body are connected by a relay cable having a connector at one end and a main body connector connected to a connector provided on the personal computer main body at the other end. . 2. The external connector box according to claim 1, wherein an auxiliary connector connectable to the common connector is provided in the external connector box, and the common connector provided on the external floppy disk can be directly connected to the auxiliary connector. External peripherals as described. 3. The external peripheral device according to claim 1, wherein said common connector is electrically shared by providing an empty terminal in a connector terminal.