Compact mounting of chip card reader at front of computer device bay area

摘要

The read head portion of a chip card reader is compactly mounted on the rear side of a front device bay faceplate in a computer in a manner permitting a peripheral device, representatively a hard disk drive, to be mounted in the device bay immediately behind the read head. To permit this installation of both the card read head and the peripheral device at the same computer drive bay, the read head is installed on the rear side of the faceplate at an acute angle relative thereto, with the card entry opening in the read head being aligned with a card insertion slot formed in the faceplate and being inclined at the read head installation angle. The electronics associated with the read head are also compactly mounted on the rear side of the faceplate. The angling of the read head relative to the device bay faceplate substantially reduces the rearward projection thereof toward the associated drive bay to an extent permitting the read head to be disposed entirely forwardly of the disk drive within the drive bay.