LED light tube assembly with replaceable circuit board

Abstract

 An LED light tube assembly includes a tube assembly (1) having therein first contacts (311) and second contacts (321); and a head assembly (2) mounted to one end of the tube assembly (1) and having at least two snaps (22) each with a first leg (221) and second leg (222) extending toward each other to detachably and electrically connect to the first contacts (311) and the second contacts (321) so that detachment of the at least two snaps (22) facilitates separation of the head assembly (2) from the tube assembly (1).

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The invention relates to an LED light tube assembly and, more particularly, to an LED light tube having a circuit board movably received in the light tube and at least two snaps electrically connected between contacts of the light tube and the circuit board. Therefore, when the circuit board is required to change for a new one, the at least two snaps facilitates detachment of the circuit board from the light tube.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), in the early days, generally are used as indicators for such as desktop computer indicators and house-ware indicators. Nowadays, due to the dramatic progress made in the technology and the related process, LEDs are now having advantages of low power consumption, long lifespan and low voltage. As such, LEDs have been widely used in our daily lighting instrument. For example, street lamps and televisions are now adopting LEDs as the source of light to light up the streets or the screens.

[0003] When compared with conventional light source, it is not difficult to find out that:

1. LEDs have high energy conversion efficiency under low illumination. With this feature, LEDs are very suitable for back-light source such as cell phones and/or TVs.

2. Strong structure: Because LEDs are integrally formed with a solid element, high impact endurance is expected.

3. Compact: As the size of LEDs is small, users may assemble whatever they like and make the best of it. For example, commercially available bulletins made by thousands of hundreds of LEDs are everywhere around the country for advertisement purpose.

4. long lifespan: Although the cost for each of the LEDs is higher than that of the conventional lighting element, with good heat sink assembly and appropriate application environment, the LEDs generally have much longer lifespan.

5. short reaction time: LEDs' reaction speed can reach up to 1 us with high flashing frequency.

[0004] With all the advantages, LEDs are becoming more and more important in nowadays houseware, especially in the lighting instrument. While in application, the flashing of the LEDs is controlled by a circuit board provided in the LED assembly and the circuit board has much higher damage rate than other elements in the assembly. Therefore, whenever there is a malfunction in the circuit board, the repairman will have to disassemble the entire LED assembly to repair or replace the entire circuit board. After the repair or replacement is finished, the repairman then has to put back all the elements and manage to secure each of the elements in the assembly, which is quite labor intensive and time consuming.

[0005] In order to avoid such a waste of time and energy, modifications or alterations are necessary to fix the problem caused by the replacement of the circuit board.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a LED light tube assembly with easily replaceable circuit board.

[0007] To accomplish the aforementioned objective, it is to be noted that the LED light tube assembly of the preferred embodiment of the present invention has a tube assembly, a head assembly and a circuit board. The tube assembly is composed of a cover and an aluminum extrusion heat dissipating cover together with the cover to integrally form the tube assembly. The head assembly is composed of a connector, snaps and a head. The circuit board includes a first circuit board with multiple LEDs mounted thereon and a second circuit board with control circuit thereon.

[0008] It is noted that, removal of the head assembly from the tube assembly facilitates the replacement of the circuit. Especially when the circuit board is composed of a first circuit board and a second circuit board having thereon the control circuit to the LEDs, replacement of the circuit board can be done by only replacing the second circuit board.

[0009] Another notice is that due to the provision of the snaps, detachment of the head assembly from the tube assembly is readily finished.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] 

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the LED light tube assembly of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing elements of the LED light tube assembly of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a partially cross-sectioned view showing the connection of the head assembly to the circuit board;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the application of the replacement of the circuit board with the features of the LED light tube assembly of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] In order to describe details of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, description of the structure and the application are made with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is learned that after the description, any variation, modification or the like to the structure of the embodiments of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is easily made available to any person skilled in the art. Thus, the following description is only for illustrative purpose only and does not, in any way, try to limit the scope of the present invention.

[0012] With reference to Figs. 1 and 2, the LED light tube assembly of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is composed of a tube assembly 1, a head assembly 2 and a circuit board 3.

[0013] The tube assembly 1 is composed of a cover 11 and an aluminum extrusion heat dissipating cover 12 detachably connected to the cover 11. The cover 11 preferably is annular and made of a transparent material to allow light to be emitted therethrough. The heat dissipating cover 12 is preferably annular in shape to mate with the cover 11 such that after the cover 11 and the heat dissipating cover 12 are connected to one another, a receiving space (not numbered) is defined therebetween. In addition, a seat 13 with a shape corresponding to the annular shape of the heat dissipating cover 12 is provided to be slidably received in an open end of the heat dissipating cover 12 and has multiple slits 131 defined in one end thereof.

[0014] The head assembly 2 includes multiple snaps 22, a head 23 and a connector 24. Each of the snaps 22 has two distal ends respectively bent toward each other to form a first leg 221 and a second end 222. The head 23 has a shape to cover both ends of the tube assembly 1 after the cover 11 and the heat dissipating cover 12 are combined. The connector 24 is formed to mate with one end of the seat 13 of the tube assembly 1 and has connecting pins 21 extending outward therefrom.

[0015] The circuit board 3 is composed of a first circuit board 31 and a second circuit board 32. The first circuit board 31 has multiple contacts 311 formed on one end thereof and multiple LEDs 312 provided thereon. The second circuit board 32 has multiple second contacts 321 formed on one end thereof and control circuit (not shown) provided thereof. Because the formation of control circuit and the layout of such control circuit are known in the art, detailed description thereof is omitted for brevity. Of course, additional circuits, e.g., shock-proof circuit to prevent electrical shock, luminosity sensing circuit to provide a further advantage of the present invention to have a capability to illuminate in accordance with environmental requirements may also be added to the second circuit board 32.

[0016] With reference to Fig. 3 and still taking Fig. 2 for reference, it is noted that when the LED tube assembly of the present invention is put together, the seat 13 is inserted into the lower half of the tube assembly 1, that is, the heat dissipating cover 12. The first circuit board 31 is stacked on top of the second circuit board 32 with a separation sandwiched therebetween and the first contacts 311 corresponding to the second contacts 321. The first legs 221 of each of the snaps 22 extend through corresponding slits 131 of the seat 13 to engage with first contacts 311 of the first circuit board 31 and the second legs 222 of each of the snaps 22 extend through corresponding slits 131 of the seat 13 to engage with second contacts 321 of the second circuit board 32. Then, the connector 24 is securely connected to the seat 13 with the snaps 22 sandwiched therebetween. While the snaps 22 are sandwiched between the connector 24 and the seat 13, the connecting pins 21 extending outward from one side of the connector 24 are electrically connected to the snaps 22. Finally, the head 23 is securely mounted to the open end of the tube assembly 1 to secure the aforementioned combination.

[0017] With reference to Fig. 4, when the control circuit of the LED light tube assembly of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is defected, the user may easily detach the head assembly 2 to allow the first legs 221 and the second legs 222 of the snaps 22 to detach from engagement with the first contact 311 of the first circuit board 31 and the second contact 321 of the second circuit board 32. Then the user may have easy access to the defected second circuit board 32 and replace it with a new one. After which, the user may repeat the aforementioned process to put elements together to complete the assembly process as well as the replacement of the control circuit, i.e., the second circuit board 32.

[0018] While the invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.

Claims

1. An LED light tube assembly comprising:

a tube assembly having therein first contacts and second contacts; and

a head assembly mounted to one end of the tube assembly and having at least two snaps each with a first leg and second leg extending toward each other to detachably and electrically connect to the first contacts and the second contacts so that detachment of the at least two snaps facilitates separation of the head assembly from the tube assembly.

2. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tube assembly is composed of a cover and an aluminum extrusion heat dissipating cover.

3. The assembly as claimed in claim 2 further comprising a first circuit board with the first contacts formed thereon and a second circuit board with the second contacts formed thereon.

4. The assembly as claimed in claim 3, wherein the head assembly has a connector with connecting pins extending outward therefrom and electrically connecting with the at least two snaps.

5. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tube assembly further comprises a seat through which the first legs and the second legs of the at least two snaps extend to electrically connect to the first contacts and the second contacts.

6. The assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein the tube assembly further comprises a seat through which the first legs and the second legs of the at least two snaps extend to electrically connect to the first contacts and the second contacts.

Drawing