The present invention relates to a housing for a circuit board assembly, particularly to a housing for accommodating a circuit board assembly comprising a sensor in an air conditioning unit for monitoring surrounding conditions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

An air conditioning system is generally employed to maintain surrounding temperature within a certain desirable range for creating a comfortable indoor environment during warm or cold weather. Such system is usually provided with multiple sensors to monitor surrounding environmental conditions and also operation conditions of the system. One of them is temperature sensor that is commonly installed at different location in the air conditioning system for ambient temperature measurements which are important for operation control as well as fault detection.

A temperature sensor is generally installed in proximity to a return air inlet of an air conditioning unit to measure indoor air temperature, in particular the temperature sensor is mounted on a circuit board which is accommodated in a housing provided at the return air inlet of the air conditioning unit. The housing is generally provided with an opening for enabling the ambient air to come in contact with the temperature sensor. As the circuit board assembly comprises other electronic components besides the temperature sensor, such housing configuration may render other components being exposed to the incoming air via the opening. The air could easily bring in foreign materials to intrude the other components and cause corrosion. Besides, air circulation inside the housing could be poor due to lack of air passages. Hence, the air tends to be trapped inside the housing, creating a stagnant condition therein which could affect accuracy of the temperature sensor. There have been a number of housing configuration available over the prior art aiming to improve detection accuracy of the temperature sensor as well as to protect other electronic components from being corroded at a faster pace. For example, JP5855132B2 discloses a housing for accommodating an assembly of a printed circuit board including a temperature sensor in a remote control device. The temperature sensor comes with a soldering portion fixed on the printed circuit board, a temperature sensing unit and a wire connecting the soldering portion to the temperature sensing unit. The housing is provided with a ventilation hole to allow ambient air to enter towards the temperature sensing unit. Further, a partition is provided to separate the printed circuit board assembly from the temperature sensing unit in order to avoid the assembly being exposed to any foreign materials brought by the ambient air. Nevertheless, such configuration involves complicated assembly process especially when fixing the temperature sensing unit to its predetermined position. The temperature sensing unit has to be inserted through an opening on the printed circuit board and fixed to a notch portion provided by the partition. Furthermore, the wire needs to be bent when passing through the opening in order to keep the temperature sensing unit stably fixed in a position.

Accordingly, it can be seen that there exists a need to have a housing for accommodating a circuit board assembly comprising a sensor which overcomes the aforesaid problems and shortcomings. The present invention shall provide a housing that is applicable to be employed in an air conditioning unit for improving detection accuracy of a sensor as well as protecting internal components from deterioration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a housing for a circuit board assembly that separates a sensor from other electronic components in an air conditioning unit to avoid the electronic components from having direct contact with ambient air and dust thereby protecting them against corrosion. Another objective of the present invention is to provide a housing for a circuit board assembly that allows smooth air flow around a sensor in an air conditioning unit for improving detection accuracy of the sensor.

It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a housing for a circuit board assembly which involves simplified and convenient assembly process, thereby reducing production cost.

Accordingly, these objectives may be achieved by following the teachings of the present invention. The present invention relates to a housing for accommodating an assembly of a circuit board of an air conditioning unit, the housing comprising a partition member for partially dividing the interior of the housing into at least a first compartment and a second compartment. The portion of the circuit board comprising a sensor is accommodated in the second compartment and other electronic components on the circuit board are accommodated in the first compartment in such a way that the sensor on the circuit board is separated from the other electronic components. Further, the second compartment accommodating the sensor is provided with at least an opening for allowing air to flow therethrough. In particular, the sensor is a temperature sensor.

It is preferred that the partition member comprises a cutout portion for allowing the circuit board to extend therethrough so that the portion of the circuit board comprising the sensor is accommodated in the second compartment.

Further, it is preferred that the housing further comprises an open front side which is disposed at a position substantially opposite to the position of the opening for allowing the sensor to be in contact with air flowing therethrough. In another preferred embodiment, the housing preferably comprises a closed front side having at least an opening to be disposed substantially opposite to the opening for allowing air flowing therethrough. It is further preferred that the housing is disposed inside a casing of the air conditioning unit. The casing comprises at least an opening adjacent to the front side of the housing (100) for allowing air flowing therethrough.

In addition, the present invention describes an air conditioning unit comprising an aforedescribed housing for accommodating an assembly of a circuit board.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The features of the invention will be more readily understood and appreciated from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a front view of a housing for accommodating an assembly of a circuit board of an air conditioning unit according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 illustrates a cross-sectional schematic view of a housing for accommodating an assembly of a circuit board of an air conditioning unit according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

While the present invention is described herein by way of example using embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments of drawing or drawings described, and are not intended to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated in certain figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiments outlined in any way. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claim. As used throughout this description, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e. meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense, (i.e. meaning must). Further, the words "a" or "an" mean "at least one” and the word “plurality” means “more than one” unless otherwise mentioned. Furthermore, the terminology and phraseology used herein is solely used for descriptive purposes and should not be construed as limiting in scope. Language such as "including," "comprising," "having," "containing," or "involving," and variations thereof, is intended to be broad and encompass the subject matter listed thereafter, equivalents, and additional subject matter not recited, and is not intended to exclude other components, integers or steps. Any discussion of documents, acts, devices, articles and the like is included in the specification solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention.

The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein reference numerals used in the accompanying drawings correspond to the like elements throughout the description. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

Referring to the drawings shown in Figures 1-2, the invention will now be described in more detail.

The present invention relates to a housing (100) for an assembly of a circuit board (110) which can be incorporated into an air conditioning unit for the purpose of enhancing the detection performance of a sensor and providing protection for other electronic components against corrosion. The assembly of the circuit board (110) preferably comprises a sensor (120) which is preferably, but not limited to, a temperature sensor. Others including pressure sensor, humidity sensor and air flow detecting sensor are also applicable as the sensor (120) for detecting ambient conditions and also for acquiring operating parameters of the air conditioning unit. Further, the air conditioning unit is preferably an indoor unit of the type adapted to be wall-mounted.

Figure 1 presents a front view of the housing (100) for accommodating the assembly of the circuit board (110) of the air conditioning unit according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in Figure 1, the housing (100) preferably comprises a top wall, a bottom wall, two elongate side walls and a rear wall to form a hollow receptacle housing having the front side opened. In another embodiment which is not shown in the figure, the housing (100) may further comprise a front wall having at least an opening to form a substantially enclosed housing. The housing (100) is adapted to accommodate and protect the circuit board (110) assembly against any undesired mechanical impact.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the housing (100) comprises a partition member (130) which partially divides the interior of the housing (100) to form at least a first compartment (101) and a second compartment (102), preferably, an upper compartment and a lower compartment. The compartments are not necessary to be equally spaced apart. Further, the present invention is not limited to only one partition member (130) as the housing (100) may be provided with multiple partition members (130) to form a plurality of compartments.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a portion of the circuit board (110) comprising the sensor (120) is accommodated in the second compartment (102) of the housing (100) while the remaining portion of the circuit board (110) comprising other electronic components is accommodated in the first compartment (101) so that the sensor (120) on the circuit board (110) is separated from the other electronic components. As illustrated in Figure 1, the sensor (120) is preferably mounted on one end of the circuit board (110) while the other electronic components are mounted on the center or adjacent to the other end of the circuit board (110). However, it is not limited to such arrangement. The arrangement of the sensor (120) and the electronic components on the circuit board (110) could be further modified based on the configuration of the compartments (101, 102) in the housing (100). For instance, if the housing (100) is provided with three compartments, the sensor (120) can be mounted on the center of the circuit board (110) which is accommodated in the middle compartment, while the other electronic components can be mounted adjacent to the center of the circuit board (110) that can be accommodated in another two compartments. Further, the electronic components may include an infrared ray sensor, a plurality of light-emitting diode (LED), a tact switch and other components which are configured to perform certain functions relating or affecting the air conditioning operation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the partition member (130) further comprises a cutout portion (132) for allowing the circuit board (110) to extend therethrough so that the portion of the circuit board (110) comprising the sensor (120) is accommodated in the second compartment (102). As the sensor (120) needs to constantly have contact with the ambient air, the other electronic components are arranged in the first compartment (101) so to be partitioned from the sensor (120) on the circuit board (110). The partition member (130) is provided as a barrier to avoid the other electronic components from being exposed to the ambient air which may carry foreign substances like dirt, dust and moisture that could cause corrosion of metallic materials in those electronic components. Also, the partition member (130) could prevent the heat generated from those electronic components from being emitted to the surrounding environment of the sensor (120), thereby minimizing its influence on detection accuracy of the sensor (120). In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second compartment (102) accommodating the sensor (120) is provided with at least an opening (140) for allowing air to flow through. With reference to Figure 1, the opening (140) is preferably disposed substantially behind the sensor (120) so to provide a passage for air to flow through the confined space of the second compartment (102) and to allow air freely circulating in and out of the second compartment (102), thereby enabling the sensor (120) to detect the ambient air temperature.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the housing (100) has an open front side which is disposed substantially opposite to the opening (140) for allowing the sensor (120) to be in contact with air flowing therethrough as illustrated in Figure 1. The open front side of the housing (100) is preferably covered by a casing which is provided with at least an opening, thereby forming an enclosed space within the first compartment (101) and at the same time enabling the second compartment (102) to be opened to airflow via the opening. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the housing (100) is provided with a closed front side to form a substantially enclosed configuration, in which the closed front side of the housing (100) is preferably provided with at least an opening. The opening on the closed front side of the housing (100) is preferably disposed substantially opposite to the opening (140) within the second compartment (102) so as to allow ambient air flowing therethrough, enabling the sensor (120) to be constantly in contact with the flowing air and sense thereof.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the housing (100) is disposed adjacent to an electric control box of the air conditioning unit which comprises a main control circuit board. Preferably, the circuit board (110) assembly accommodated in the housing (100) is electrically connected to the main control circuit board. Furthermore, the circuit board (110) may be preferably detachably connected to the main control circuit board so to ease maintenance and replacement process in case the circuit board (110) broken or damaged. In another embodiment of the present invention, the housing (100) may be used to accommodate the main control circuit board assembly including a sensor (120). Figure 2 shows a cross-sectional schematic view showing a housing (100) for accommodating an assembly of a circuit board (110) of an air conditioning unit according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, where the circuit board (110) assembly includes an infrared ray sensor (111), at least one light-emitting diode (LED) (112), a tact switch (113), and a sensor (120), preferably a temperature sensor. The housing preferably has at least a first compartment (101 ) to accommodate the infrared ray sensor (111), the LED (112) and the tact switch (113), and a second compartment to accommodate the sensor (120). The circuit board (110) assembly may have other relevant electronic components with different types of arrangements if necessary.

With reference to Figure 2, the housing (100) is disposed inside a casing (200) of the air conditioning unit which comprises at least an opening (201). The opening (201) of the casing (200) is disposed adjacent to the front side of the housing (100) which is either fully or partially opened, in order to allow the ambient air flowing therethrough so the air may come into contact with the sensor (120). The second compartment (102) of the housing (100) preferably comprises at least one opening (140) disposed substantially behind the sensor (120) to allow the air flowing in and out of the second compartment (102) so to avoid stagnant condition formed by the air trapped within the second compartment (102). The two openings (201, 140) disposed around the sensor (120) enable the smooth flow of ambient air into and out from the second compartment (102) and thus providing a more accurate sensing of ambient air by the sensor (120).

The above-mentioned housing (100) overcomes the existing issues and provides a number of advantages over the existing housing. The housing (100) of the present invention provides a partition member (130) for separating a sensor (120) and other electronic components on the circuit board (110) to be accommodated in different compartments, thereby allowing ambient air to come into contact with the sensor (120) while preventing the air from reaching the other electronic components. Further, the compartment accommodating the sensor (120) comprises at least one opening disposed in front and behind the sensor (120) respectively for allowing air to flow in and out smoothly so to be in contact with the sensor (120), thereby ensuring the detection accuracy of the sensor (120). The opening may be more than one according to the actual requirements. Also, the housing (100) provides a simplified assembly process where the sensor (120) is directly soldered on the circuit board (110) which helps to reduce production cost.

The exemplary implementation described above is illustrated with specific shapes, dimensions, and other characteristics, but the scope of the invention also includes various other shapes, dimensions, arrangements and characteristics. For example, the shape of the housing (100) could be modified to adapt to any appropriate particular combination of various parts in an air conditioning unit.

Various modifications to these embodiments are apparent to those skilled in the art from the description and the accompanying drawings. The principles associated with the various embodiments described herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the description is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown along with the accompanying drawings but is to be providing broadest scope of consistent with the principles and the novel features disclosed or suggested herein. Accordingly, the invention is anticipated to hold on to all other such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the present invention and appended claim.