1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for making electrical connections to electrical components within electronic door locks. More specifically, the present invention relates to a shaped electrical connector that keys into an electronic door lock and can be configured during manufacture to carry electrical signals to and/or from selected electrical sensors, actuators and/or other components residing on a circuit board within the lock. The circuit board may reside on an surface inside the lock and/or may be embedded inside the lock to provide electrification thereto. Electrical components available for use within the door lock are selected based on the particularly selected configured electrical connector key.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of access-control technology devices are available for use with, on or inside a door. For instance, it is known to use access-control technology in locking devices. Access-control technology in locking devices has increasingly shifted from traditional keying systems and mechanical articulation to digital monitoring and electronic actuation. Various electronically actuated locks and exit devices for doors exist in the art. These electronically actuated locks are generally classified into two categories, namely, those having electronic circuitry housed inside a mortised recess of a door, and those having electronic circuitry housed in an escutcheon-type lock assembly.
A variety of electronic components, such as sensors, actuators and other electronic components, may be provided in electronic door locks. The components may include actuators, such as motors, solenoids, linear drivers, and the like that operate electrically and allow the lock to be remotely locked or unlocked. The electronic door lock will also typically include one or more sensors positioned within the lock to detect and signal the position of various lock components, such as the latchbolt, the deadbolt, the locked or unlocked status of the lock, the position of the door relative to the door frame (door open or closed), and the like. The electronic door lock may also be provided with other kinds of auxiliary electronic components, such as microcontrollers and memory, and the like.
For many electronic door lock designs, the electronic components within the lock are electrically connected to an external control unit located outside the lock, such as a door lock control system, a building security system, an emergency fire control system or monitoring system, and the like. The connection from the inside of the lock to the external control unit is typically made via intricate wiring that connect through a wiring harness to the external control unit. This entails routing wiring from the external electronic circuitry, into the lock, and discretely throughout the lock in a pattern that avoids the mechanical working components of the lock. The routed wiring inside the lock is connected to switches and actuators residing therein for providing an electronically actuated and monitored lock.
Electronic door locks may include different configurations of actuators and sensors that must be provided with matching wiring harnesses to allow connection of each of the specified components—sensors, actuators, and the like—to the external control unit. Often, these configurations are individually assembled, and a matching wiring harness prepared and connected to the internal electronic lock components by hand. Problems arise in making multiple connections between the electronic door lock components and an external control unit. Such problems also encompass the connectors, the wiring harness and the selection of sensors within the lock that are to be made available to the external control unit.
The sensors may be contact switches, magnetically operated reed switches, Hall effect sensors and/or other types of sensors. Usually, such sensors are located to signal the position of mechanical components within the lock and/or the door. The sensors may be used to indicate whether the door lock is in the locked or unlocked state. They may indicate if the latchbolt is extended or retracted, or whether the door on which the lock is installed is open or closed. They may monitor the position of a deadbolt, the rotation of a handle or signal whether the lock has performed other functions.
In addition to the sensors, there may be different actuators within the electronic lock. Many different actuators exist and may include a motor, a linear driver, a solenoid, a solenoid emulator in the form of a stepping motor or stepping motor integrated into a linear actuator, and the like. The most common types of actuators are 12 volt or 24 volt solenoids that may be “fail safe” (if power is lost the door defaults to unlocked) or “fail secure” (defaults to locked).
Solenoid designs are typically intended for use with centralized building control systems where the external control unit is centrally located and is connected to multiple electronic locks with wires. The external control unit sends a simple on or off power signal to lock or unlock each electronic lock by switching it away from its default state when power is applied. When power is removed, the lock returns to its default state. In the “solenoid” type designs, actual solenoids may be used or solenoid emulation may be used in which a motor, linear driver, or other actuator responds to the same type of simple “on power” vs. “off power” control signal.
Motorized electronic lock designs are most commonly used with an external control unit mounted on or immediately adjacent to the door. Typical applications for this type of low power motor actuator electronic lock include hotels, secure buildings, and the like where a card key reader, secure proximity detector, keypad, biometric (fingerprint, iris scan, voice recognition, and the like) is located in the external control unit. The external control unit may be located in one or more additional housings mounted on the door, and may also include batteries to provide power through wired connections to the electronic lock. Wires extend from the sensors in the lock to the external control unit to provide information to the external control unit about the status of the lock. Wires may also carry control signals from the external control unit to actuators in the electronic lock to lock or unlock the door in response to the presentation of security credentials.
Various other electronic door lock designs exist, each provided with a wide variety of available actuators and sensors to meet various needs. Regardless of whether the external control unit is mounted in close proximity to the lock, wiring for all of these different components actuators and sensors must exit the lock housing as is common for motorized and battery powered locks or in a more distant central location as is typical for solenoid locks. The numerous possible variations in lock configuration results in many different wiring harnesses and typically requires each of the sensors to be manually installed and connected. This is labor intensive and expensive as well as making it difficult to keep the many variations in stock for rapid delivery to customers.
Due to constrained real estate in a majority of currently available locks, it has also become difficult and burdensome to provide the necessary wiring into and throughout the lock for the electrical connection between the switches, sensors and actuators in the lock and the electronic circuitry external to the lock. Concerns are also raised when too much electrical wiring resides external to the locking device. Insulated wire harnesses routed through a lockbody are subject to damage from contact with mechanical components.
It is also undesirably burdensome, time consuming, expensive and expends valuable real estate within the lock by requiring the lock casing to be fabricated with a number of holes and slots for accommodating the inserted wiring, as well as to be fabricated with brackets or harnesses inside the lock for securing and positioning the wiring accommodated therein. As such, these conventional mortised recess and escutcheon-type lock assemblies suffer from fabrication difficulties as well as performance limitations in providing accurate wire routing to switches, actuators, and wire harnesses within existing mechanical lock mechanisms having constrained real estate.
In view of the above, there is a need for improved wiring harness and connection systems that reduce the manual interconnection and wiring required for electronic locks having different sensors and actuators. Needs also exist for these improved wiring harness and connection systems to allow digital monitoring and electronic actuation to be implemented in current locking devices that have constrained real estate. This constrained real estate may be due to more compact designs, or even those existing mechanical lock mechanisms having increased and/or improved technological advances residing inside the lock that consume an increased and/or substantial portion of the valuable real estate therein.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds