Vehicle-based smart cooler
First Claim
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1. A cooler for a vehicle comprising:
- an electric cooling unit;
a plurality of sensors;
a wireless node to communicatively couple to the vehicle; and
a cooling control unit to;
monitor a charge margin of the vehicle, the charge margin being a difference between a current power bus voltage of the vehicle and voltage at which a battery of the vehicle cannot provide a starter current; and
in response to the charge margin being below a threshold, activate a power management technique.
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Abstract
Example apparatus and methods are disclosed for a vehicle-based smart cooler. An example disclosed cooler includes an electric cooling unit, a plurality of sensors, a wireless node, and a cooling control unit. The example wireless node communicatively couples to the vehicle. The example cooling control unit monitors a charge margin of the vehicle and, in response to the charge margin being below a threshold, activates a power management technique.
13 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A cooler for a vehicle comprising:
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an electric cooling unit; a plurality of sensors; a wireless node to communicatively couple to the vehicle; and a cooling control unit to; monitor a charge margin of the vehicle, the charge margin being a difference between a current power bus voltage of the vehicle and voltage at which a battery of the vehicle cannot provide a starter current; and in response to the charge margin being below a threshold, activate a power management technique. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A cooler for a vehicle comprising:
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an electric cooling unit; a plurality of sensors; a wireless node to communicatively couple to the vehicle; and a cooling control unit to; monitor a charge margin of the vehicle; and in response to the charge margin being below a threshold, request the vehicle to increase a number of revolutions per minute of an engine of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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11. A cooler for a vehicle comprising:
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an electric cooling unit; a plurality of sensors; a wireless node to communicatively couple to the vehicle; and a cooling control unit to; monitor a charge margin of the vehicle; and responsive to the charge margin being below a threshold, repeatedly turn the electric cooling unit off for a first time period and on for a second time period, the first time period longer than the second time period.
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12. A cooler for a vehicle comprising:
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an electric cooling unit; a plurality of sensors; a wireless node to communicatively couple to the vehicle; and a cooling control unit to; monitor a charge margin of the vehicle; and in response to the charge margin being below a threshold, activate a power management technique, wherein the cooling control unit is to receive a temperature set point from the vehicle; determine a temperature difference between an ambient temperature around the cooler and the temperature set point; determine, based on the temperature difference, whether the cooling unit has a capacity to cool the interior of the cooler to the temperature set point; and in response to determining that the cooling unit does not have the capacity to cool the interior of the cooler to the temperature set point, send an error warning message to the vehicle.
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Specification