GB2235824A

GB2235824A - Portable battery-powered electrical device

Info

Publication number: GB2235824A
Application number: GB8919943A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Hans Lowenthal
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1989-09-04
Filing date: 1989-09-04
Publication date: 1991-03-13
Also published as: GB8919943D0

Abstract

An electrical device comprises a unit such as a television (24), which can be held in a raised position at a selected attitude by metallic telescopic arms (19) and an adjustable coupling (21, 23). The unit is energised by batteries in a base 10, via a circuit incorporating the arms, the weight of the batteries stabilising the base. <IMAGE>

Description

DESCRIPTION ELECTRICAL DEVICE Portable electrical devices, such as televisions and clocks, usually have to be stood on a shelf or table where their screen or display is often not conveniently situated for viewing by, for example, a person relaxing in bed or in an armchair.

In accordance with the present invention, a portable battery-powered electrical device comprises an elongate base which is arranged to be supported on a surface and incorporates a battery housing containing a battery nest, and an electrical unit which is carried from the base by two telescopically extendible electrically conducting arms, the inner ends of which are pivotally mounted on the base and to the outer ends of which the unit is coupled by an adjustable coupling, the arms forming conductors of an electrical circuit interconnecting the battery nest and unit, and the arrangement being such that the arms may be retracted and folded down so that they extend along the base from one end and towards the other end of the base.

A device of this construction is extremely versatile in that it can be stood with its base on virtually any available horizontal surface, the batteries which are, in use, accommodated within the battery housing providing sufficient weight to make the device stable against toppling, even if the base is made from comparatively light moulded plastics parts, and if the arms are extended by 75 cms or more obliquely upwardly so as to carry the electrical unit to one side of the base. This, together with the adjustable coupling, by means of which the attitude of the electrical unit can be set appropriately at the outer ends of the arms, makes the device suitable for use by, for example, a person lying in bed and wishing to view, sanipulate, read or adjust the electrical unit in a comfortable, head back or other, position.The device has no need for trailing wires as it is self powered by its own batteries, which may be rechargeable, and the use of the telescopic arms as electrical conductors between the battery nest and the electrical unit further simplifies the electrical connections and avoids the need for extra wiring. In spite of these advantages, the device can be made extremely compact, for travelling, upon retraction and folding down of the arms, so that is readily portable.

In this latter respect in the retracted and folded position, the arms preferably lie alongside, i.e. on opposite sides of, or between parts of, the battery housing. Thus the arms may extend along respective longer edges of the base. The arms may extend substantially fully to the other end of the base. To provide maximum telescopic extension from a minimum number of telescopic parts, the retracted arms may have a length substantially equal to the length of the device.

Also in order to obtain maximum compactness when the device is not in use, the electrical unit is preferably arranged to be accommodated substantially between the arms, or beyond an end of the base, when the arms are retracted and folded. In any case, in the retracted and folded position of the arms, the arms, and preferably also the unit and coupling, may be arranged to lie substantially fully between parallel planes defined, when the base is resting on a horizontal surface, one by the horizontal surface and the other touching the uppermost part of the battery housing. Indeed, all parts of the device may be arranged to lie fully between these parallel planes.

This can lead to an arrangement in which, when the device is retracted for carrying purposes, the primary parts nest together to form a substanti#ally flat block shape with dimensions of the order of l9cms x 8cms x 3cms, and, containing four cylindrical type EPll 1.5 volt batteries, each of which has a diameter of about 25 mm. Even so, when the device is erected, the arms, which can consist of five or six telescopic sections, may then extend to a length, such that the unit, via the arms and coupling, extends to a distance from the base of the order of lm.

The adjustable coupling, for adjusting the attitude of the electrical unit may itself swivel on an axis extending transversely to the arms. The coupling itself may incorporate a universally adjustable part, which is capable of retaining the unit in a selected orientation. Such a coupling may be a ball joint or a bendable cable of the kind which will take and hold a set when bent. A particularly convenient construction is achieved using such bendable cable if the battery housing is laterally divided into parts and the unit folds down onto the one end of the base with the cable extending between the battery housing parts. Upon erection, the cable then effectively extends the arms, and hence the elevation of the unit, by an additional height of up to the length of the base.

Those parts, such as a screen or display, of the unit, which needs to be exposed for use may be arranged to remain exposed when the unit is folded down.

The invention is applicable to a device fitted with a wide variety of electrical units, such as a clock, an alarm clock, a lamp, a television, a radio, a panic alarm, a fan, a voice recorder, a memory display and a calculator. The unit may be connectable to the coupling by a readily disconnectable connection whereby the unit may be replaced by a different unit. The unit may incorporate part of a connector whereby an additional electrical unit with a complementary connector may be fitted so that both units are operable together.

The battery nest may be associated with a switch to isolate the batteries and avoid possible leakage of current. However, this is not essential as the unit will usually have an on/off switch together with any programming and/or adjustment controls. In order to avoid shorting between the arms, at least when they have retracted, their radially outermost sections may be protected by an electrically insulating material such as a cover, or such as lacquer on the radially outermost arm section.

In the case of a unit such as a clock, the unit itself may carry an additional small battery, and in the case of a unit such as a television some of the apparatus, other than a power source, may be carried within the base.

In order to assist, or enable, the base to be supported on the surface of a part incorporating ferromagnetic material, it may incorporate a magnet.

An example of a device incorporating a television and constructed in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a front perspective view showing the device retracted; Figure 2 is a side elevation; Figure 3 is an end elevation; Figure 4 is an underneath plan; Figures 5 and 6 are sections taken on the lines V - V and VI -VI in Figure 2; Figures 5 and 6 are perspective views showing the device in different stages of extension in use; and, Figure 7 is a partial perspective view of a modified device.

The device illustrated in Figures 1 to 8 has an elongate plastics base 10, part lOA of which provides a nest 11 with terminals for two pairs of cylindrical batteries 12 and is fitted with a removable cover 13 to form a battery housing. The cover is provided with a central groove 14, and corresponding internal rib 15, which effectively divides the battery housing transversely into two parts. Beyond the battery housing, the base accommodates, on its underside a permanent magnet 16. At one end the corners of the base are cut away to accommodate respective pivot blocks 17 which are pivotally connected to the base by means of a transverse axle and the stiffness of the pivotal movement is adjustable by means of screw plugs 18 on the ends of the axle. The blocks 17 carry respective metallic five-section telescopic arms 19.In the retracted and folded position shown in Figures 1 to 7, the arms 19 extend substantially fully along, and overlie, the respective longer edges of the base 10. At their outer ends the radially innermost sections of the arms carry respective bearing blocks 20 between which a cross head 21 is pivotally mounted about a transverse axle. The stiffness of the pivot is adjustable by means of screw plugs 22 like the plugs 18. The cross head 21, carries one end of a bendable cable 22, of the kind which can take a set when bent, the other end of the cable carrying a television unit 23.

The unit 24 is powered from the batteries 12 in the nest via a circuit comprising two conductors in the base 10 leading from respective positive and negative terminals in the nest through the blocks 17 to the lower ends of respective ones of the arms 19, the arms themselves, and conductors leading from the tops of respective ones of the arms 19 and blocks 20 through the crosshead 21 and cable 23 to the unit 24.

As will be appreciated from Figures 1 to 6, when the arms 19 are retracted and folded, the cross head 21 can be pivoted and the cable 23 straightened, so that the cable 23 extends along in the groove 14 between the two parts of the battery housing 10A, 13 and the television unit 24 lies between the arms 19 beyond the end of the battery housing overlying the part lOB of the base 10. The whole device then forms a substantially rectangular block shape fully contained between parallel planes defined by the upper surface of the battery housing cover 13 and the lower surface of the base 10.

However, as shown in Figures 7 and 8, the cross head 21 can be pivoted relatively to the arms 19, and the cable 23 bent to raise the television unit 24 and adjust its attitude for ready watching of its screen. Upward pivoting and extension of the telescopic arms 19, as shown in Figure 8, raises the television unit higher above the base. In fact, Figure 8 shows only one of the telescopic arm sections extended and the extension can be much greater by extending further sections of the arms.

As well as the cable 23 being able to retain a set when bent, there is sufficient frictional resistance to pivotal movement of the arms relatively to the base, and of the cross head 21 relatively to the block 20, by virtue of the screw plugs 18 and 21, that these will take a set when rotated to a chosen position.

Figure 9 shows a modification in which the television unit 24 is replaced by a double unit incorporating a lamp 25 and a digital clock 26, with control buttons 27. The fronts of these can be exposed face upwards when folded down in the Figure 1 configuration.

Claims

CLAIM

1. A portable battery-powered electrical device comprising an elongate base which is arranged to be supported on a surface and incorporates a battery housing containing a battery nest, and an electrical unit which is carried from the base by two telescopically extendable electrically conducting arms, the inner ends of which are pivotally mounted on the base and to the outer ends of which the unit is coupled by an adjustable coupling, the arms forming conductors of an electric circuit interconnecting the battery nest and the unit, and the arrangement being such that the arms may be retracted and folded down so that they extend along the base from one end and towards the other end of the base.

2. A device according to claim 1, in which, in the retracted and folded position, the arms lie on opposite sides of the battery housing.

3. A device according to claim 2, in which, in the retracted and folded position, the arms extend along respective longer edges of the base.

4. A device according to claim 2 or claim 3, in which, when the arms are retracted and folded, the unit is arranged to be accommodated substantially between the arms.

5. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which, in the retracted and folded position, the arms extend substantially fully to the other end of the base.

6. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which, in the retracted and folded position, the arms have a length substantially equal to the length of the device.

7. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which, in the retracted and folded position, the arms lie substantially between parallel planes defined, when base is resting on a horizontal surface, one by the horizontal surface and the other touching the uppermost part of the battery housing.

8. A device according to claim 7, in which, in the retracted and folded position of the arms, the unit and coupling can also lie substantially between the the parallel planes.

9. A device according to claim 7 or claim 8, in which all parts of the device can lie fully between the parallel planes.

10 A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the coupling swivels on an axis extending transversely to the arms.

11. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the coupling incoporates a universally adjustable part, which is capable of retaining the unit in a selected orientation.

12. A device according to claim 11, in which the universally adjustable part is a ball joint.

13. A device according to claim 11, in which the universally adjustable part is a bendable cable.

14. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which, when the arms are retracted and folded, the unit is arranged to fold down onto the base.

15. A device according to claims 13 and 14, in which the battery housing is laterally divided into parts and the unit folds down onto the one end of the base with the cable extending between the battery housing parts.

16. A device according to claim 14 or claim 15, in which those parts of the unit which need to be exposed for use remain exposed when the unit is folded down.

17. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the unit comprises at least one of a clock, an alarm clock, a lamp, a television, a radio, a panic alarm, a fan, a voice recorder, a memory display and a calculator.

18. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the unit is connected to the coupling by a readily disconnectable connection whereby the unit may be replaced by a different unit.

19. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the unit incorporates part of a connector whereby an additional electrical unit with a complementary connector may be fitted so that both units are operable together.

20. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which, when the arms are retracted, their radially outermost sections are protected by electrically insulating material.

21. A device according to claim 20, in which the electrically insulating material is a cover.

22. A device according to claim 20, in which the electrically insulating material is a lacquer on the radially outermost arm section.

23. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the base incorporates a magnet to assist, or enable, the base to be supported by a surface of a part incorporating ferromagnetic material.