Testing and display of electrical system impedance
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automated method is provided for testing an electrical circuit using a system tester. Load leads and sense leads of the tester are connectable to any two points of an electrical circuit, such as in a vehicle system, for displaying in real time the impedance between the tested circuit points. A controller is responsive to various sensed signals to calculate impedance, admittance or conductance, and related parameters, such as available cranking current, and provide results for read out or display. A load may be connected across the circuit points under test, the sensed signals derived from a current sense amplifier, a DC voltage amplifier, a ripple amplifier, and an AC amplifier.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1-7. -7. (canceled)
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8. A method for testing a vehicle system circuit comprising the steps of:
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taking a first measurement of the value of impedance between two separated points of the vehicle system circuit;
storing the measured impedance value in a controller as a reference value in response to a user entered input;
taking a second measurement of the value of impedance in the vehicle system circuit;
offsetting the second measured impedance value by the value loaded in the controller to obtain a difference impedance value; and
displaying impedance, conductance, or admittance representative of the difference impedance value. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for testing a vehicle system circuit comprising the steps of:
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storing an impedance reference value in a tester controller;
measuring the value of impedance between two separated points of the vehicle system circuit;
determining whether to modify the measured value of impedance for display; and
in response to the step of determining, displaying the measured value of impedance if the outcome of the determining step is negative, or displaying an impedance value in which the measured value of impedance is offset by the stored impedance reference value if the outcome of the determining step is positive. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An automated method for testing an electrical circuit of a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) verifying that good lead connections have been made at two separated points of the electrical circuit;
b) calculating impedance between the circuit points;
c) displaying the measured impedance;
d) determining whether additional testing is to be performed;
e) in response to a positive outcome in the determining step storing the measured impedance obtained in the calculating step;
f) repeating steps a) through e) until it is determined that no additional testing is to be performed;
g) comparing all measured values stored in the previous steps with respective threshold values; and
h) display results obtained in the comparing step. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. (canceled)
Specification