Station for the accommodation of a chargeable cordless telephone

A station for accommodation of a chargeable, cordless telephone is provided with a hollow for receiving the cordless telephone. The cordless telephone contains a cassette provided with chargeable batteries which serve to supply the current and which are charged by a corresponding charging system of the station when the telephone is inserted into the hollow. For the accommodation of a separate cassette which also contains chargeable batteries, the station is provided with a further recess in which the charging system also has access to the batteries. A separate cassette can be accommodated in the further recess of the station and kept connected to the charging system in an uninterrupted fashion, independently of use intervals and charging intervals of the cordless telephone. Thus the separate cassette is at all times available for rapid exchange with the cassette contained in the cordless telephone.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The invention relates to a stationary station serving as a base component 
for a location-independent, cordless telephone. The station has a 
trough-like hollow which is matched to the shape of the telephone. The 
cordless telephone contains a cassette provided with chargeable batteries 
which serve for feed purposes and which are charged by a corresponding 
system at the station when the telephone is inserted into the hollow. 
Here the base component represents a station which can be connected to the 
telephone network and to a current supply. The cordless telephone and the 
base component are connected by means of modulatable, electromagnetic 
waves. The free mobility and ease of use of the cordless telephone is 
basically dependent upon a range of communication with respect to the base 
component. 
For the wireless connection, both devices are each equipped with a 
transmitting and receiving device which in the base component is fed by 
the network terminal, and in the cordless telephone is fed by the 
chargeable batteries. 
As a system for charging of the batteries, the base component contains a 
charging device and charging contacts which are accessible in the hollow 
and which can be contacted with contact surfaces of the battery containing 
cassette. 
If the cordless telephone is inserted into the hollow of the base component 
during each of the conversation-free intervals, with normal frequency of 
use these intervals should be sufficient to maintain the batteries charged 
and ready for use. 
However, for optimum use of a cordless telephone, a more extensive 
independence of the base component can be required. For example, it can be 
required that one should be reachable by telephone for several hours each 
day, for example at arbitrary, non-predeterminable locations at a given 
site. Also, one should be able to establish connections at any time from 
these locations. For this purpose it would be desirable to carry the 
cordless telephone in one's pocket. 
In this case the time available for the charging of the batteries can 
sometimes be too short, since the telephone cannot be inserted into the 
base component for charging of the batteries during each of the speech 
intervals. Thus, in the event of insufficient battery charging, the 
telephone will become inoperable. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the invention is to improve the independence of the cordless 
telephone from the base component with respect to shortening the necessary 
duration of action of the charging device upon the cordless telephone 
accommodated in the hollow of the base component. 
This object is realized in accordance with the invention since in the 
station there is provided a further trough-like recess which serves to 
accommodate and to charge a separate cassette which corresponds to the 
contours of the cassette arranged in the cordless telephone. 
A separate cassette can now be contained at any time in the recess of the 
station, independently of the cordless telephone, and can be exposed to 
the action of the charging device. In order to maintain the operability of 
the cordless telephone it is sufficient to periodically change the 
cassette. The battery cassette contained in the additional recess of the 
base component represents a reserve cassette. 
In accordance with an advantageous further development of the invention, 
the recess for the reserve cassette can be formed as part of the hollow 
for the cordless telephone on the base surface thereof. In this case the 
reserve cassette is only accessible in its recess when the cordless 
telephone is not inserted into the hollow. When the cordless telephone and 
the reserve cassette are accommodated in the hollow and recess of the base 
component, the batteries in both the cassettes are exposed to the 
influence of the charging device. 
In accordance with another advantageous further development of the 
invention, the base component can be provided with an elastic rib which is 
assigned to the charging contacts provided in the hollow and whose nose 
engages into a peripheral partition of the cordless telephone inserted 
into the hollow of the base component and keeps the telephone, with the 
contact surfaces of the battery cassette, pressed against the charging 
contacts in the hollow of the base component.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The base component 1 for the cordless telephone 6 is provided with 
connection cords 2, 3 for connection to the telephone network and an 
energy supply, and represents a complete telephone station. The upper 
housing surface of the base component is equipped with a sound grid or 
mesh 4 for the input and output of acoustic signals, with display and 
actuating elements 5, and with a hollow 7 whose shape is adapted to that 
of the cordless telephone. 
The cordless telephone 6 likewise represents a complete telephone in the 
form of a hand-held transceiver, can be connected to the base component 
via electromagnetic waves, and contains, among other things, a cassette 8 
which accommodates chargeable batteries which serve for feed purposes. 
This cassette 8 possesses externally accessible contact surfaces which, 
when the telephone 6 is inserted into the hollow 7, correspond to 
corresponding charging contacts 9, 10 which are provided on the base 
component 1. 
The base component 1 also accommodates an elastic rib 11 which engages, by 
means of a nose 12, into a peripheral partition 13 at the edge of the 
cordless telephone 6 accommodated in the hollow 7 of the base component 1. 
In this way the telephone is pressed in the longitudinal direction against 
the charging contacts 9, 10 of the base component, and is safeguarded 
against unintentional detachment from the hollow, at right-angles to its 
longitudinal direction. 
As part of the hollow 7 provided for the cordless telephone, an additional 
recess 14 is arranged in the base component 1. This additional recess is 
matched to the shape of the cassette 8 and a further, separate cassette 15 
which contains chargeable batteries and corresponds to the shape of the 
cassette 8 is inserted therein. Here the contact surfaces of this cassette 
15 correspond to charging contacts 16, 17 of the base component which are 
provided in the recess 14. 
Although various minor changes and modifications might be proposed by those 
skilled in the art, it will be understood that we wish to include within 
the claims of the patent warranted hereon all such changes and 
modifications as reasonably come within our contribution to the art.