CONNECTOR RECEPTACLE INTERFACING CIRCUIT AND METHOD OF OPERATION

摘要

A device is equipped with an electrical connector in the form of a receptacle that is subject to liquid intrusion. The device detects the insertion of a mating connector and optionally detects the presence of liquid in the receptacle by applying a low power, pulsed sense signal to a terminal pin of the receptacle while the terminal pin is decoupled from a circuit part to which the terminal pin is normally coupled and concurrently sensing a voltage coupled from the terminal pin and comparing the voltage to at least a predetermined lower voltage bound and optionally a predetermined upper voltage bound and based on the results of those comparison deduces the presence of a mating connector or optionally the presence of liquid in the receptacle.

主权项

1. A device comprising:
an electrical connector including a plurality of terminal pins including a ground terminal pin and a handshaking signal terminal pin; circuitry coupled to the ground terminal pin and the handshaking signal terminal pin, wherein the circuitry is configured to apply a sensing signal to the ground terminal pin and output a handshaking signal to the handshaking signal terminal pin, and the circuitry is further configured to sense a voltage level coupled from the ground terminal pin that is produced in response to the sensing signal and to output of the handshaking signal after sensing that the voltage level coupled from the ground terminal pin is below a first predetermined threshold.