Patent Publication Number: US-7914339-B2

Title: Audio signal switcher

Description:
This is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 11/964,049, entitled audio signal switcher, filed on Dec. 26, 2007 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,744,428. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to an audio signal switcher, particularly to an audio signal switcher with a USB cable. 
     2. Related Art 
     Nowadays, it is common for electronic devices with an audio playing function to be configured with an earphone input connector. It is also common for electronic devices with a storage function to be configured with a USB interface. Thus, if an electronic device includes both an audio playing function and a USB interface, the user of the electronic device may have to carry earphones and USB cables. Both of these cables must be long enough to facilitate users sizes and desires. However, if the length of the cables is too long, the cables may become somewhat cumbersome and tend to tangle. Furthermore, it is troublesome for a user to carry many long cables. 
     Accordingly, it would be advantageous if the electronic device uses shorter cables with multiple uses. A USB cable can be used to transmit data between the electronic device and the storage device, and can also be used as an extension to the earphone cable. Thus the earphones and USB cables can be shorter. Shorter cables facilitate ease of use, a neat appearance when packaged, and easy carrying. 
     SUMMARY 
     An audio signal switcher includes a jack switcher and a plug switcher. The jack switcher includes an audio jack and a first USB port. The first USB port includes a first data pin, a second data pin, a power pin, and a ground pin. The audio jack includes a left track segment, a right track segment, and a ground segment, which are electrically isolated coupled to at least three pins of the first USB port. The plug switcher includes an audio plug and a second USB port. The second USB port also includes a data pin, a second data pin, a power pin, and a ground pin. The audio plug also includes a left track segment, a right track segment, and a ground segment, which are electrically isolated coupled to at least three pins of the second USB port according to a connection between the audio jack and the first USB port. The plug switcher can be connected to the jack switcher by a USB cable. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The components of the drawings are not necessarily drawn to measuring scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the audio signal switcher. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. 
         FIG. 1  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher according to a first embodiment, the audio signal switcher being connected with a USB cable. 
         FIG. 2  is an inner electrical connection diagram of a jack switcher of the audio signal switcher of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is an inner electrical connection diagram of a plug switcher of the audio signal switcher of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of a jack switcher according to a second embodiment. 
         FIG. 5  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher according to a third embodiment, the audio signal switcher being connected with a USB cable. 
         FIG. 6  is an inner electrical connection diagram of a jack switcher of the audio signal switcher of  FIG. 5 . 
         FIG. 7  is an inner electrical connection diagram of a jack switcher of the audio signal switcher of  FIG. 5 . 
         FIG. 8  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher according to a fourth embodiment, the audio signal switcher being connected with a USB cable. 
         FIG. 9  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher according to a fifth embodiment, the audio signal switcher being connected with a USB cable. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher with a USB cable according to a first embodiment. The audio signal switcher includes a jack switcher  3  and a plug switcher  4  provided for connecting USB connectors at respective end of a USB cable  5 . The USB connectors at respective end of the USB cable  5  are referred to as a first USB connector  1  and a second USB connector  2 . 
     The jack switcher  3  includes an audio jack  31  and a first USB port  32 . The audio jack  31  is a standard 3.5 mm audio jack, which is used for connecting with audio output devices such as an earphone. An inner structure of the jack switcher  3  will be described below with reference to  FIG. 2 . 
     The plug switcher  4  includes an audio plug  41  and a second USB port  42 . The audio plug  41  is a standard 3.5 mm audio plug, which is used for connecting with an audio jack of an MP3 player, a computer or any other electronic device. An inner structure of the plug switcher  4  will be described below with reference to  FIG. 3 . 
       FIG. 2  is an inner electrical connection diagram of the jack switcher  3 . The audio jack  31  is used for receiving a standard audio plug and includes three electrical parts: a left track segment “a”, a right track segment “b”, and a ground segment “c”, each of which is electrically isolated from others. The first USB port  32  including a first data pin (Data+), a second data pin (Data−), a power pin (VCC), and a ground pin (GND). The left track segment “a”, the right track segment “b”, and the ground segment “c” are coupled to at least three pins of the first USB port  32 . In  FIG. 2 , the left track segment “a” and the right track segment “b” are coupled to the first data pin (Data+) and the second data pin (Data−), respectively. The ground segment “c” is coupled to the power pin (VCC) and the ground pin (GND) of the first USB port  32 . The ground segment “c” also can be electrically isolated coupled to the power pin (VCC) or the ground pin (GND) of the first USB port  32 . (as shown in  FIG. 4 ) 
       FIG. 3  is an inner electrical connection diagram of the plug switcher  4 . The audio plug  41  includes three electrical parts: a left track segment “A”, a right track input segment “B” and a ground segment “C”, each of which is electrically isolated from the others. The second USB port  42  includes a first data pin (Data+), a second data pin (Data−), a power pin (VCC), and a ground pin (GND). The left track segment “A”, the right track segment “B”, and the ground segment “C” are electrically isolated coupled to at least three pins of the second USB port  42 . In  FIG. 3 , the left track segment “A” and the right track segment “B” are coupled to the first data pin (Data+) and the second data pin (Data−) of the second USB port  42 , respectively. The ground segment “C” is coupled to the power pin (VCC) and the ground pin (GND) of the second USB port  42 . 
     The electrical connections inside of the jack switcher  3  and the plug switcher  4  are not limited to the means introduced in  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3 . For example, alternatively, the left track segment “a” of the audio jack  42  can be connected to the second data pin (Data−) of the first USB port  32 , and the right track segment “b” can be connected to the first data pin (Data−) of the first USB port  32 . Correspondingly, the left track segment “A” of the audio plug  41  can be connected to the second data pin (Data−) of the second USB port  42 , and the right track segment “B” can be connected to the first data pin (Data+) of the second USB port  42 . In addition, any one pin of the first USB port  32  can be idle without connecting with any segment of the audio jack  31  while the other three pins of the USB port  32  are correspondingly coupled to the left track segment “a”, the right track segment “b” and the ground segment “c” of the audio jack  31 . Correspondingly, the pin of second USB port  32  respecting to the idle pin of the first USB port  32  should be idle, and the other pins are correspondingly coupled to the left track segment “A”, the right track segment “B” and the ground segment “C” of the audio plug  41 . 
     Three applications of the audio signal switcher are described below. 
     In the first application, the audio plug  41  of the plug switcher  4  is inserted into the audio jack of an MP3 or another electronic device. The second USB port  42  is a standard female connector and the second connector  2  is a standard male connector. The second USB port  42  is coupled to the second connector  2 . The first USB port  32  is a standard male connector and the first connector  1  is a standard female connector. The first USB port  32  is coupled to the first connector  1 . The audio jack  31  receives an audio plug of an audio output device such as an earphone. The audio signal from the MP3 or other electronic device is transmitted via the audio plug  41 , the second USB port  42 , the USB cable  5 , the first USB port  32 , and the second audio jack  31  before being outputted by the audio output device. 
     In the second application, the second USB port  42  is a standard male connector and the second connector  2  is a standard female connector. The first USB port  32  is a standard female connector and the first connector  1  is a standard male connector. 
     In the third application the MP3 or another electronic device is assumed to include a USB port. The second USB connector  2  is directly coupled with the USB port of the MP3 or other electronic devices, and the first USB connector  1  is coupled with the first USB port  32 . The audio signal outputted by the MP3 or other electronic devices is transmitted via the USB cable  5  and the second connector  2  to the audio output device. 
       FIG. 4  shows a schematic diagram of a jack switcher of a second embodiment. In the second embodiment, a jack switcher  3 ′ including two parallel audio jacks  311  and  312  is introduced. The two audio jacks  311 ′ and  312 ′ are both connected to a first USB port  32 ′ and are provided for receiving two audio plugs of audio output devices, so that the audio signals from the MP3 or another electronic device can be outputted by the audio output device simultaneously. Similarly, in other cases, the jack switcher  3 ′ can also be configured with more than two parallel audio jacks, such that the audio signals can be outputted by more than two audio output devices simultaneously. 
       FIG. 5  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher with a USB cable according to a third embodiment. Similar to the first embodiment, the audio signal switcher includes a jack switcher  7  and a plug switcher  8  provided for connecting USB connectors at respective end of a USB cable  5 . The jack switcher  7  includes an audio jack  71  and a first USB port  72 . The plug switcher  8  includes an audio plug  81  and a second USB port  82 . 
       FIG. 6  shows an inner electrical connection diagram of the jack switcher  7  according to the third embodiment. In this embodiment, the audio jack  71  is a standard RCA socket. Correspondingly, the left track segment is a left port  712 , the right track segment is a right port  713 , the ground segment is divided into a left ground ring  711  and a right ground ring  714 , the left ground ring  711  is around the left port  712 , and the right ground ring  714  is around the right port  713 . The left ground ring  711  and the right ground ring  714  are connected together to couple to a ground pin (GND) of the first USB port  72 . 
       FIG. 7  shows an inner electrical connection diagram of the plug switcher  8  according to the third embodiment. In this embodiment, the audio plug  81  is a standard RCA plug. Correspondingly, the left track segment is a left pin  812 , the right track segment is a right pin  813 , the ground segment is divided into a left ground ring  811  and a right ground ring  814 , the left ground ring  811  is around the left pin  812 , and the right ground ring  814  is around the right pin  813 . The left ground ring  811  and the right ground ring  814  are connected together to couple to a ground pin (GND) of the second USB port  72 . 
     As shown in the  FIG. 5 , similar to the first application introduced above, the audio signal outputted from a RCA jack of the electronic device is transmitted via the plug switcher  8 , the USB cable  5 , and the jack switcher  7  in turn before outputted by the audio output device. 
       FIG. 8  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher with a USB cable according to a fourth embodiment. The audio signal switcher includes the jack switcher  3  and the plug switcher  8 . An earphone with a standard 3.5 mm audio plug can receive the audio signal outputted by an RCA jack of the electronic device. 
       FIG. 9  shows a schematic diagram of an audio signal switcher with a USB cable according to a fifth embodiment. The audio signal switcher includes the plug switcher  4  and the jack switcher  7 . So, the audio signal outputted by a standard 3.5 mm audio jack of the electronic device can be received by a stereo video with an RCA plug. 
     In addition, as shown in the  FIG. 6 , if an electronic device is assumed to include a USB port to output audio signals, the first USB port  72  can be coupled to the USB port of the electronic device, and the audio signals can be received by an RCA plug from the audio plug  81 . 
     It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being preferred or exemplary embodiments of the invention.