The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 29, 2012
Filed:
Oct. 21, 2010
Matthew Petrick, Oak Park, IL (US);
John Jaqua, LaPorte, IN (US);
John Poremba, Elmhurst, IL (US);
Peter Hefner, Deerfield, IL (US);
Mark Anthony Kinsley, Elmhurst, IL (US);
Matthew Petrick, Oak Park, IL (US);
John Jaqua, LaPorte, IN (US);
John Poremba, Elmhurst, IL (US);
Peter Hefner, Deerfield, IL (US);
Mark Anthony Kinsley, Elmhurst, IL (US);
Bretford Manufacturing, Inc., Franklin Park, IL (US);
Abstract
A system for maintaining a large number of Handheld Electronic Devices (HEDs) includes a drawer having a divider structure configured to define compartments that are sized to hold the HEDs while the HEDs are stored in the drawer. A 20 port USB hub is provided in the drawer so that 20 HEDs may be connected to the USB hub while stored in the drawer. The USB hub allows the HEDs to be charged at a low rate while being synchronized with a computer and at a high rate when not being synchronized. The USB hub is designed using a tree structure of available USB hub chips to enable a larger number of USB ports. A microcontroller is provided to control the manner in which the computer is allowed to recognize the HEDs connected to the USB ports.