1. A spring holding cone for holding a spring end of a spiral torsion spring having a plurality of spring turns and a torque transfer leg projecting in a radial direction from the torsion spring, the spring holding cone comprising:
an outside surface for supporting the spring end of the torsion spring at its inside diameter, the outside surface having a circumference, and
fixing means for fixing the spring end to the spring holding cone in a torque resistant way,
the fixing means comprising
a flank, the flank
protruding from the outside surface,
extending over less than 180\xb0 of the circumference of the outside surface, thus leaving a flank-free area of the outside surface, and
being arranged and intended for engaging between spring turns of the spring end of the torsion spring,
a securing element extending above the flank-free area of the outside surface,
the securing element having at least one recess for holding the torque transfer leg of the spring end,
the recess being limited in at least one circumferential direction around the outside surface by a stopping face for the torque transfer leg, and
a locking element which is detachably attached to the securing element so that it closes the recess in the circumferential direction opposite to the stopping face.
2. The spring holding cone of claim 1, wherein the outside surface and the stopping face are formed by one same part of the spring holding cone.
3. The spring holding cone of claim 1, wherein the locking element is a locking pin which is fitted into a bore within the securing element.
4. The spring holding cone of claim 1, wherein the flank extends over less than 100\xb0 of the circumference of the outside surface and is arranged and intended to engage between the first and the second spring turn of the spring end of the torsion spring.
5. A spring holding cone for holding a spring end of a spiral torsion spring having a plurality of spring turns and a torque transfer leg projecting in a radial direction from the torsion spring, the spring holding cone comprising:
an outside surface for supporting the spring end of the torsion spring at its inside diameter, the outside surface having a circumference, and
fixing means for fixing the spring end to the spring holding cone in a torque resistant way,
the fixing means comprising a flank, the flank protruding from the outside surface, extending over less than 180\xb0 of the circumference of the outside surface, thus leaving a flank-free area of the outside surface, and being arranged for engaging between spring turns of the spring end of the torsion spring,
a securing element extending above the flank-free area of the outside surface, the securing element having two recesses for holding the torque transfer leg of the spring end, the recesses pointing away from one another and each limited in one circumferential direction around the outside surface by a stopping face for the torque transfer leg.
6. A spring holding cone for holding a spring end of a spiral torsion spring having a plurality of spring turns and a torque transfer leg projecting in a radial direction from the torsion spring, the spring holding cone comprising:
an outside surface for supporting the spring end of the torsion spring at its inside diameter, the outside surface having a circumference, and
fixing means for fixing the suring end to the spring holding cone in a torque resistant way.
the fixing means comprising a flank, the flank protruding from the outside surface, extending over less than 180\xb0 of the circumference of the outside surface, thus leaving a flank-free area of the outside surface, and being arranged and intended for engaging between spring turns of the spring end of the torsion spring,
a securing element extending above the flank-free area of the outside surface, the securing element being located diametrically opposite to the flank with regard to the circumference of the outside surface and defining a recess for holding the torque transfer leg of the spring end, and
the recess being limited in at least one circumferential direction around the outside surface by a stopping face for the torque transfer leg.
7. The spring holding cone of claims 1, 5 or 6, wherein the outside surface has a frusto-conical shape.
8. The spring holding cone of claims 1, 5 or 6, wherein the outside surface is roughened.
9. The spring holding cone of claims 1, 5 or 6, further comprising at least one pair of coaxial fastening holes extending through an end wall of the spring holding cone.
10. The spring holding cone of claims 1, 5 or 6, further comprising an inside surface provided to be supported on a supporting tube for supporting the torsion spring at its inside diameter.
11. A spring arrangement comprising
a sectional door spring having a spring end,
the spring end comprising a plurality of spring turns and a torque transfer leg projecting in a radial direction from the torsion spring,
and
a spring holding cone,
the spring holding cone comprising:
an outside surface supporting the spring end of the torsion spring at its inside diameter, the outside surface having a circumference, and
fixing means fixing the spring end to the spring holding cone in a torque resistant way,
the fixing means comprising
a flank, the flank
protruding from the outside surface,
extending over less than 180\xb0 of the circumference of the outside surface, thus leaving a flank-free area of the outside surface, and
engaging between spring turns of the spring end of the torsion spring,
a securing element extending above the flank-free area of the outside surface,
the securing element having two recesses for holding the torque transfer leg of the spring end, the recesses pointing in opposed directions,
\u2003the recesses being limited in at least one circumferential direction around the outside surface by a stopping face for the torque transfer leg.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
Having thus described our invention, the following sets forth what we now claim:
1. A method for measuring the quality of a stream of data packets received by a media player, the media player having a first component that receives the data packets, and a second component that receives the data packets from the first component and renders the data contained therein, comprising;
intercepting a set of useful data packets of a given stream as each useful data packet of the set exits the first component and before such useful data packet enters the second component; and
capturing a first stream quality metric from the intercepted useful data packets.
2. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the first stream quality metric is a statistic computed from the intercepted useful data packets.
3. The method as described in claim 2 wherein the first stream quality metric is actual playback bandwidth.
4. The method as described in claim 2 wherein the first stream quality metric is useful packet rate.
5. The method as described in claim 1 further including the step of generating a second stream quality metric from a media player callback function.
6. The method as described in claim 5 wherein the second stream quality metric is selected from a set of metrics that include: startup time, startup time components, and interruption and rebuffer statistics.
7. The method as described in claim 1 further including the step of outputting the stream quality metric.
8. Apparatus for use in monitoring stream performance in a streaming media player having a first component that receives the data packets, and a second component that receives the data packets from the first component and renders the data contained therein, comprising:
code for intercepting each useful packet of a given stream as the useful packet exits the first component and before the useful packet enters the second component; and
code for capturing a given metric from the intercepted useful packets, wherein the given metric is a statistic computed from the intercepted useful data packets.
9. The apparatus as described in claim 8 further including code for reading a test configuration, wherein each test configuration includes at least one test suite.
10. The apparatus as described in claim 9 wherein each test suite includes a set of parameters selected from a set that includes: a start time, and at least one test.
11. The apparatus as described in claim 10 wherein the test includes a set of parameters selected from a set that includes: a URL, a maximum startup time, a maximum stream time, and a maximum play time.
12. The apparatus as described in claim 9 further including code for scheduling the test suite.
13. The apparatus as described in claim 8 further including code for outputting the given stream quality metric.
14. Apparatus, comprising:
a core;
a renderer; and
a first set of code located intermediate the core and the renderer for generating a first metric as a stream of useful data packets are passed between the core and the renderer, wherein the first metric is a statistic computed from the intercepted useful data packets.
15. The apparatus as described in claim 14 further including a second set of code for receiving a test suite identifying at least one stream quality test, for scheduling the test suite, and for outputting the first metric captured by the first set of code.
16. The apparatus as described in claim 14 wherein the first set of code generates a second metric using a player callback function.
17. The apparatus as described in claim 14 wherein each useful data packet has a given set of properties, wherein the properties are that the packet has not been thinned by a server, that the packet was not lost in an unrecoverable manner during transport, and that the packet arrived at the player in time to be useful for rendering.
18. A stream monitoring system, comprising:
a first sub-system for provisioning a given stream quality test;
a set of monitoring agents positioned at given network locations for executing the given stream quality test, each of the monitoring agents associated with a streaming media player having a core and a renderer, each agent comprising:
code for intercepting each useful packet of a given stream as the useful packet exits the core and before the useful packet enters the renderer;
code for capturing a given stream quality metric from the intercepted packets; and
code for outputting data associated with the given stream quality metric;
a second sub-system for collecting the data from the set of monitoring agents.
19. A stream monitoring method, comprising:
delivering a media stream to each of a set of agents, each agent having a core and a renderer;
at each agent, intercepting useful packets of the stream as those packets cross an interface between the core and the renderer;
capturing a given stream quality metric from the intercepted useful packets; and
collecting data from each of the agents.
20. The stream monitoring method as described in claim 19 further including the step of:
enabling a view of the collected data.