Adapter for station protector

An adapter for mounting a station protector, which has a base and an upright wall having an opening therein, to a cover which is not shaped to grasp the station protector under ordinary conditions. The adapter has exterior surfaces so dimensioned as to be removably grasped by the cover.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The field of the invention is network interface device retrofit kits for 
application to station protection devices which have already been 
installed. 
2. Background of the Invention 
A station interface and protector apparatus for use on a telephone line 
pair is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,514, issued Nov. 25, 1986, the 
contents of said patent being incorporated herein by reference. Included 
in the station interface and protector apparatus described in U.S. Pat. 
No. 4,624,514 (hereafter TII Device), is a base portion 64 and a cover 20. 
A device performing a similar function is the AT&T 2100 series customer 
service closure (hereafter AT&T Device), which has a mounting base and a 
cover which snaps onto the mounting base. In contrast, in the TII Device, 
cover 20 is provided with a flared nylon nut which is adapted to receive 
ground terminal 46. 
Both devices described above have been purchased by telephone companies and 
installed in the field. 
A relatively recent development is the telephone network interface device; 
examples may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,488,008; 4,647,725; and 
4,749,359, said three patents being incorporated herein by reference. FCC 
and state PUC requirements make it desirable to retrofit existing station 
protector installations, such as the AT&T Device and TII Device, by 
converting them into network interface devices. Since a telephone company 
may not know which existing station protector apparatus is installed at a 
particular location, the telephone company would have to purchase 
quantities of differing retrofit network devices to attach to the base 
portions of the AT&T Device and the TII Device. While this procedure would 
be preferable to scrapping the existing station protector bases, still, at 
least two different retrofit network interface devices are seemingly 
needed, since the AT&T cover snaps on, the TII cover, instead, screws on, 
and each cover has a markedly different shape from the other. 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Due to the situation described in the Background of the Invention, it would 
be desirable to have a retrofit network interface device which is usable 
on both the pre-installed TII Device base and AT&T Device base. A unitary 
retrofit network interface device is accomplished by use of an adapter, to 
allow the exterior of the TII base to somewhat mimic the exterior surface 
of the AT&T base, so that a cover can be designed which will accept both 
the pre-existing AT&T base and the pre-existing TII base with an adapter 
placed thereon. 
The TII device is a station protector comprising a base and a wall mounted 
perpendicularly to the base at one end of the base. The wall has an 
opening which should not be blocked by the adapter. The adapter is 
designed to mount the TII device to a cover which is not ordinarily shaped 
to grasp the TII device. The adapter comprises a first plate, a second 
plate having an opening therein, said second plate mounted to the first 
plate; and a first mounting means for mounting the first and second plates 
to the base and wall, the second plate opening facing the wall opening. In 
the preferred embodiment, the first mounting means comprises a plurality 
of clips. A cover comprising a network interface device is also provided.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Reference is now had to FIGS. 1 and 2, which show two views of adapter 10. 
Adapter 10, preferably made from a rather stiff plastic, includes first 
plate 11 and second plate 12 mounted on one end of first plate 11. Tabs 
13, 14 on first plate 11 are used in sliding the adapter into the cover. 
Clips 15 on first plate 11 and clips 16 on second plate 12 are used in 
affixing the adapter to the TII device, as will be shown below. 
FIG. 3 is a view of the prior art TII device, which consists of base 17 and 
wall 18. FIG. 4 shows the TII device with adapter 10 having been placed 
thereon, adapter 10 being held onto the TII device by means of clips 15, 
16. Grommet 35 in wall 18 of the TII device provides a potential opening 
through which wires may be strung. Therefore, second plate 12 of adapter 
10 contains a rectangular opening, so that grommet 35 will not be blocked. 
FIGS. 5, 6 show the TII device and the adapter (in FIG. 5) and AT&T device 
38 (in FIG. 6) being slidably inserted into cover 22. Note the underside 
of cover 22 is provided with surfaces 19, 20, which form a groove 
therebetween, into which tabs 13, 14 may be slidably inserted. The AT&T 
device will also slide into the channel formed by surfaces 19, 20. 
FIG. 7 shows cover 22 having the TII device and adapter inserted therein. 
Note AT&T device 38 could also have been inserted. 
Cover 22 has lid 23, which may be opened by unfastening it from projection 
21. Revealed are modular terminal sets 26, 29, modular jacks 27, 28, and 
jack plugs inserted therein. Grommets 31, 32 allow access for wires 
connected to the terminals. 
By removing screw 24, one may remove plate 25 to reveal a second 
compartment and second set of terminals between plate 25 and floor 30. 
Floor 30 has four holes therein to allow wires to communicate between the 
second set of terminals and the station protector. Screw 24 is attached to 
threads embedded in floor 30. 
As a safety feature, the TII device cannot be removed from the adapter 
while the adapter remains within the cover.