Battery life extender for portable lighting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9909726-B2
Application number	US-201415103582-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2014
Priority date	Dec 12, 2013
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A battery life extender ( 12 ) for a portable lighting device ( 10 ) employs a reconfigurable mechanism operable to selectively electrically isolate one or more batteries ( 20 ) from a circuit having a parasitic power drain. For example, a lighting device ( 10 ) includes a light generating element ( 14 ), at least one battery ( 20 ), a user operated switch ( 16 ) configured to control delivery of electrical power from the at least one battery ( 20 ) to the light generating element ( 14 ), and a housing assembly ( 18 ) supporting the at least one battery ( 20 ) and the light generating element ( 14 ). The user operated switch ( 16 ) can impart a parasitic power drain. The housing assembly ( 18 ) is reconfigurable to: (a) a first configuration in which the user operated switch ( 16 ) is electrically connected to the at least one battery ( 20 ), and (b) a second configuration in which the at least one battery ( 20 ) is electrically isolated and the at least one battery ( 20 ) is retained by the housing assembly ( 18 ).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A lighting device comprising:
a light generating element;
at least one battery having a first end and a second end, wherein a first terminal is formed at the first end, and a second terminal is formed at the second end;
a user operated switch configured to control delivery of electrical power from the at least one battery to the light generating element; and
a housing assembly including a first contact and a second contact respectively corresponding to the first and second terminals of the at least one battery, wherein the housing assembly supporting the at least one battery and the light generating element;
a deformable subassembly positioned within the housing assembly at the first end of the at least one battery, said deformable subassembly biasing the first terminal of the at least one battery away from contact with the first contact of the housing assembly;
wherein the housing assembly being reconfigurable to:
(a) a first configuration in which the user operated switch is electrically connected to the at least one battery by moving the second contact into engagement with the second terminal of the at least one battery, thereby forcing the first terminal of the at least one battery toward and into contact with the first contact and deforming the deformable subassembly to overcome the bias thereof, and
(b) a second configuration in which the at least one battery is electrically isolated and the at least one battery is retained by the housing assembly by moving the second contact out of engagement with the second terminal of the at least one battery, thereby allowing the deformable subassembly to bias the first contact out of engagement with the first contact such that both the first and second contacts are no longer engaged with the respective first and second terminals.

2. The lighting device of claim 1 , wherein the housing assembly comprises a first housing component and a second housing component coupled with the first component in each of the first and second configurations, the second housing component being repositionable relative to the first housing component to allow selective reconfiguration of the housing assembly to each of the first and second configurations.

3. The lighting device of claim 2 , wherein repositioning the second housing component relative to the first housing component to reconfigure the housing assembly to each of the first and second configurations comprises rotating the second housing component relative to the first housing component.

4. The lighting device of claim 3 ,
wherein the first terminal one of a positive and negative terminal, and the second terminal is the other of the positive and negative terminal,
wherein the first contact is one of a positive electrical contact and a negative electrical contact, and the second contact is the other of the positive electrical contact and the negative electrical contact;
wherein the reconfiguration of the housing from the second configuration to the first configuration results in relative translation between the first and second housing components so as to electrically connect the user operated switch with the at least one battery such that the user operated switch is electrically connected with each of a positive terminal of the at least one battery and a negative terminal of the at least one battery.

5. The lighting device of claim 4 , wherein the relative translation between the first and second housing components results in at least one of:
(a) a housing positive electrical contact electrically connected to the user operated switch is placed into electrical connection with the positive terminal of the at least one battery; and
(b) a housing negative electrical contact electrically connected to the user operated switch is placed into electrical connection with the negative terminal of the at least one battery.

6. The lighting device of claim 4 , wherein the relative translation between the first and second housing components results in:
(a) a housing positive electrical contact electrically connected to the user operated switch is placed into electrical connection with the positive terminal of the at least one battery; and
(b) a housing negative electrical contact electrically connected to the user operated switch is placed into electrical connection with the negative terminal of the at least one battery.

7. The lighting device of claim 6 , wherein the relative translation between the first and second components results in translation of the at least one battery relative to the each of the first and second housing components.

8. The lighting device of claim 7 , further comprising a deformable subassembly that is configured to:
(a) apply a biasing force to position the at least one battery relative to the housing assembly so as to prevent the housing negative electrical contact from being placed into electrical connection with the negative terminal of the at least one battery when the housing assembly is in the second configuration; and
(b) deform when the housing assembly is reconfigured from the second configuration to the first configuration so as to permit the housing negative electrical contact being placed into electrical, connection with the negative terminal of the at least one battery.

9. The lighting device of claim 8 , further comprising a battery cartridge supporting the at least one battery, the battery cartridge including a cartridge positive contact in electrical connection with the positive terminal of the at least one battery and a cartridge negative contact in electrical connection with the negative terminal of the at least one battery, and wherein the relative translation between the first and second housing components results in the housing positive contact being brought into contact with the cartridge positive contact and the housing negative contact being brought into contact with the cartridge negative contact.

10. The lighting device of claim 9 , wherein each of the cartridge positive and negative contacts are disposed on a side of the battery cartridge that is substantially parallel to the relative translation between the first and second housing components.

11. The lighting device of claim 6 , further comprising a battery cartridge supporting the at least one battery, the battery cartridge including a cartridge positive contact in electrical connection with the positive terminal of the at least one battery and a cartridge negative contact in electrical connection with the negative terminal of the at least one battery, and wherein the relative translation between the first and second housing components results in the housing positive contact being brought into contact with the cartridge positive contact and the housing negative contact being brought into contact with the cartridge negative contact.

12. The lighting device of claim 3 , wherein:
the housing assembly is configured such that the second housing component is rotatable relative to the first housing component about a rotational axis;
the housing assembly comprises at least one housing electrical contact electrically connected with the user operated switch and radially offset from the rotational axis;
the at least one housing electrical contact is electrically isolated from the at least one battery when the housing assembly is in the second configuration; and
the at least one housing electrical contact is electrically connected with the at least one battery when the housing assembly is in the first configuration.

13. The lighting device of claim 1 , comprising an indicator that is viewable by a user of the lighting device when the housing assembly is in

Assignees

• Coleman Co

Inventors

• Law Matthew G
• Meether Stuart L
• Trefz Thomas G
• Elliott Mark
• Brockel Michael D
• Chen Chelor
• Zhang Yuhua
• Glazier Ricky J

Classifications

• F21V5/04

  of lens shape · CPC title

• F21Y2115/10

  Light-emitting diodes [LED] · CPC title

• H01M10/425

  Structural combination with electronic components, e.g. electronic circuits integrated to the outside of the casing (printed circuits H05K1/00) · CPC title

• H01M10/44

  Methods for charging or discharging (circuits for charging H02J7/00) · CPC title

• F21V23/0428

  the switch being part of, or disposed on the lamp head portion thereof · CPC title