Flashing Jewel Pendant

Abstract

This pendant includes a printed circuit board housed between front and back casing sections. The front, generally cup-shaped section is made of light-transmissive material, and has its open end releasably secured in an annular skirt that surrounds the opaque back section of the casing. The circuit board is disc-shaped, and has on one side a plane surface confronting the front casing section, and on its opposite side a plurality of circuit components which face the back casing section. One of these components is a manually operable switch having a slidable operating button that projects through a slot in the back casing section. Two hearing aid-type batteries are releasably mounted in openings in the circuit board and cause a light, which projects into a central opening in the board, to flash on and off when the switch is closed.

Description

This invention relates to jewelry, and more particularly to a novel pendant containing a flashing light source for intermittently illuminating the pendant.

Heretofore various forms of illuminated jewelry have been proposed. For example, tie clasps, earrings, pins, etc. have been designed to contain one or more lamps adapted to be illuminated either from an external power source or a self-contained power source, such as a conventional battery.

A major disadvantage of such known prior jewelry is that it has been necessary to employ rather large circuit components for providing the illumination, together with either external wires, brackets, or battery supports, and in some instances, manually-operated switches for supplying power to the light source in the piece of jewelry. Consequently, most illuminable jewelry heretofore proposed has been rather large and bulky, and has required at least some external visible power supply, or supporting structure therefor, which usually detracts from the aesthetic appearance of the jewelry.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide an improved piece of illuminable jewelry having a self-contained light unit which is substantially more compact than prior such units.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved piece of jewelry containing a small light and flashing means therefor which is automatic in operation, yet reliable.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved piece of illuminable jewelry containing a novel, compact flashing circuit which fits substantially completely within the jewelry casing to eliminate need for any external wires or power supply mounting brackets of the type heretofore required.

Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a pin or pendant made in accordance with one embodiment of this invention, a portion of the translucent face of the piece being cut away to show part of its interior;

FIG. 2 is a rear view of this piece;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of this pendant taken along the line 3--3 in FIG. 4 looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of this pendant as seen when looking toward the bottom thereof in FIG. 3, portions of the pendant casing being broken away and shown in section for purposes of illustration; and

FIG. 5 is a wiring diagram illustrating schematically one manner in which the flashing unit in the pendant may be wired for operation.

Referring now to the drawing by numerals of reference, and first to FIGS. 1 to 4, 10 denotes a casing having a generally cup-shaped front section 11, and a complementary back section 12 which has an integral, peripheral flange or skirt 13, which surrounds and is adapted to receive section 11 around its open end. These sections are secured releasably and sealingly to one another by an integral, circumferential bead flange 15, which surrounds the open end of section 11, and which is seated releasably beneath a circumferential shoulder 16, that is formed on the inside of the skirt 13 of the back section 12. A pivotal pin 17 and latch 18 therefor are soldered or brazed on the back of section 12 for securing the pendant to a garment.

The front section 11 is made from a preferably colored, translucent plastic material, which is slightly flexible so that the bead 15 thereon can readily be snapped under or disengaged from beneath the shoulder 16. The back section 12 and its flange 13 may be made from any suitable opaque material.

Mounted within casing 10 is a printed, disc-shaped circuit board 21. This board is of the two clad variety, etched to specifications in the usual manner. It contains a central opening 22 for housing a small light bulb 20, and two angularly offset openings 23 and 24 for housing circular batteries 25 and 26, respectively. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, these batteries are seated on a thin, arcuate, electrically conductive plate 27, which is soldered or otherwise secured to the underside of board 21 to extend between the openings 23 and 24. Soldered to the upper side of board 21 adjacent openings 23 and 24, respectively, are two spring-brass plates 28 and 29, having integral clip or contact portions 30 and 31, which overlie the batteries 25 and 26, respectively, to hold them releasably in place. A small scallop or arcuate recess 33 is also formed in board 21 in communication with the opening 24 to permit a small tool to be inserted beneath battery 26 when it is desired to remove the latter from contact 31.

Mounted on board 21 opposite the battery openings 23 and 24 are two transistors 35 and 36, which are of the PNP and NPN variety, respectively. Mounted in spaced relation on the board adjacent these transistors are a resistor 37 and a capacitor or condenser 38. Mounted also on the board 21 between its outer edge and condenser 38, is a conventional switch 40 having a manually-operable, slidable operating button 41, which projects through a registering slot 43 in the backwall 12 of the casing.

A pair of short jumpers 45 extend through spaced openings in the board 21 and are soldered in place electrically to connect the sides of the circuit board to each other. Additional small openings in the board 21 are provided for accommodating the lead wires of the various electrical elements, which are connected as illustrated in FIG. 5.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the closing of switch 40 completes a series circuit from the positive side of battery 25, 26, through switch 40, resistor 37, condenser 38 and lamp 20 to ground, or the negative side of the battery. At this time the transistors 35 and 36 are in their non-conductive modes, and resistor 37 has a high resistance to current flow, on the order of 1 megohm, so that most of the voltage in the circuit is dropped across the resistor, thus preventing illumination of bulb 20. After switch 40 is closed, however, the positive charge on condenser 38 builds up slowly until it applies to base of transistor 36 a charge sufficient to switch this transistor to its conducting mode, thereby dropping the base of transistor 35 negative with respect to the positive charge then being applied to its emitter through switch 40. This switches transistor 35 to its conductive mode so the current flows from the battery, through switch 40, the emitter-collector circuit of transistor 35, and the lamp 20 to ground, thereby energizing lamp 20. At this time, however, the positive charge on condenser 38 is also discharging through resistor 37 and the emitter-collector circuit of transistor 35 and bulb 20 to ground, so that as soon as the charge on the condenser falls below a predetermined value, transistor 36 is switched back to its blocking or non-conductive mode, thereby switching off transistor 35 and bulb 20. With transistor 35 in essentially open-circuit or blocking condition, the battery voltage is again dropped substantially completely across the resistor 37, so that the charge on the condenser 38 once again begins to build up slowly until it reaches a value sufficient to trigger transistor 36, and then transistor 35, once again to illuminate bulb 20. Thus, bulb 20 is intermittently turned on and off.

This intermittent energization and deenergization of bulb 20 continues as long as the switch 40 remains closed. By increasing the value of resistor 37 the interval of time it takes for the condenser 38 to recharge will be increased, thus decreasing the flashing rate of bulb 20. The flashing will, of course, cease, whenever the switch 40 is reopened by pushing button 41 back to the position illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the instant invention provides a novel piece of costume jewelry, which contains a unique automatic flashing circuit, and which is substantially more compact than prior such jewelry. By using a printed circuit board and components of the type described the overall weight and size of a jewelry item is reduced materially, for, in addition to functioning as satisfactory housings for batteries 25 and 26, the openings 23 and 24, and the associated recess 33, help materially to reduce the overall thickness and weight of the flasher unit. The conductive plate or battery support 27 at the bottom of the circuit board 21 performs the dual function of connecting the two batteries 25 and 26 together, and serving as a support for the batteries so that they can be slipped down into the openings 23 and 24 in the board, thereby to help reduce the overall thickness of the flashing unit.

The parameters of the time delay circuit, as determined by the series-connected resistor 37 and capacitor 38 (e.g. 2.5 mfd.) may be selected to provide the desired rate at which the bulb 20 is to be flashed.

Preferably the circuit board should be mass-produced to cut costs and time.

In practice the board 21 may be attached, for example to the casing section 11, by hot gluing the copper side (the lower side in FIG. 4) of the board to the inside face of section 11.

The exact shape of the casing, and particularly its light transmissive section 11 is a matter of choice. Section 11 may be in the shape of a shallow dome, with its overall configuration being either round, square, triangular, heart shaped, etc. The configuration of the printed circuit board 21, then, could also be changed to conform to the shape of the casing.

While the invention has been described, then, in connection with one embodiment thereof, it will be understood that it is capable of further modification; and this application is intended to cover any embodiments thereof that come within the disclosure or the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. An article of jewelry, comprising

a casing having a back section, and a translucent front section removably secured to the back section to form therebetween a chamber,

a printed circuit board enclosed within said chamber and having therethrough a plurality of openings,

a light bulb mounted in one of said openings to illuminate said front section when energized,

a battery removably mounted in another of said openings and in use fixedly secured therein and enclosed completely within said chamber,

a manually-operable switch mounted in one of said sections and projecting through an opening therein to be operated from the exterior of said casing,

a resistor and a capacitor mounted within said casing in series circuit with said battery and with said bulb, thereby to charge said capacitor when said switch is closed,

a solid state switch mounted within said casing in parallel with said capacitor between said resistor and said manually-operable switch and said bulb, and

triggering means connecting said capacitor with said solid state switch for intermittently conducting a charge from said capacitor to said solid state switch when the charge on said capacitor reaches a predetermined value thereby to switch said solid state switch to its conductive state, thereby intermittently to energize said bulb and discharge said capacitor as long as said manually-operable switch is closed and said battery contains the

2. An article of jewelry as claimed in claim 1, wherein said solid state switch is a transistor, and said triggering means is a second transistor connected in series with said solid state switch.