Tire condition monitoring apparatus, transmitter, and receiver

• US 20060055524A1
• Filed: 02/28/2005
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pacific Industrial Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Pacific Industrial Company Limited
• Inventors: Okubo, Youichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,253,726 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/445
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0416 allocating a corresponding wheel position on vehicle, e.g. front/left or rear/right
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0442 the transmitted signal comprises further information, e.g. instruction codes, sensor characteristics or identification data
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0464 to avoid signal interference

Abstract

A tire condition monitoring apparatus comprises transmitters and a receiver. Each transmitter is provided in a tire and the receiver is provided in a body frame of a vehicle. The apparatus further comprises initiators each corresponding to one of the transmitters. Based on a trigger signal from the corresponding initiator, each transmitter wirelessly transmits a predetermined determination signal, which includes tire information, two or more times in a fixed time period from the transmission circuit. The determination signal from the transmission circuit is received by the reception circuit of the receiver and a controller determines whether there is a match between the received determination signals. When there is a match, the position of the tire is located and the tire information is processed as valid information.

Claims

1. A tire condition monitoring apparatus, having a plurality of tire information transmitting devices, each provided in one of tires of a vehicle, wherein each tire information transmitting device wirelessly transmits tire information, wherein the tire condition monitoring apparatus receives the tire information from the tire information transmitting devices and monitors a condition of each tire, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of trigger signal transmitting devices, each of which corresponds to one of the tire information transmitting devices, wherein each trigger signal transmitting device wirelessly transmits a trigger signal to the corresponding tire information transmitting device;

a plurality of determination signal transmitting devices, each of which is provided in one of the tire information transmitting devices, wherein each determination signal transmitting device wirelessly transmits a predetermined determination signal two or more times within a fixed time period based on the trigger signal from the corresponding trigger signal transmitting device, the determination signal including the tire information;

a receiving device which receives the determination signals from the determination signal transmitting devices; and

a determining device which determines whether there is a match between a plurality of determination signals received by the receiving device and, when there is a match, locates a position of the corresponding tire and processes the tire information as valid information.

2. The tire condition monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each determination signal transmitting device wirelessly transmits data of an air pressure of the corresponding tire two or more times.

3. The tire condition monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each determination signal transmitting device encodes and transmits data of an air pressure of the corresponding tire, and the determining device determines whether the encoded air pressure data of the tire is included in a predetermined error range, thereby determining whether there is a match between the determination signals.

4. A tire condition monitoring apparatus, having a plurality of tire information transmitting devices, each provided in one of tires of a vehicle, wherein each tire information transmitting device wirelessly transmits tire information, wherein the tire condition monitoring apparatus receives the tire information from the tire information transmitting devices and monitors a condition of each tire, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of storage devices, each of which is provided in one of the tire information transmitting devices and stores identification information of the corresponding tire;

a plurality of instruction signal transmitting devices, each of which corresponds to one of the tire information transmitting devices and wirelessly transmits an instruction signal to instruct the corresponding tire information transmitting device to transmit an identification signal based on the identification information stored in the corresponding storage device;

a plurality of identification signal transmitting devices, each of which is provided in one of the tire information transmitting devices and wirelessly transmits the identification signal with the tire information based on the instruction signal from the corresponding instruction signal transmitting device;

a receiving device which receives the identification signal from the identification signal transmitting device; and

a determining device which determines whether there is a match between the identification signal received by the receiving device and the identification signal instructed to one of the instruction signal transmitting devices and, when there is a match, locates a position of the corresponding tire and processes the tire information as valid information.

5. The tire condition monitoring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the determining device determines that an abnormality occurs in the apparatus when the number of mismatches of the identification signals reaches a predetermined number of times under a predetermined condition.

6. A transmitter used for a tire condition monitoring apparatus, the transmitter having a tire information transmitting device provided in a rim of one of tires of a vehicle to wirelessly transmit tire information, wherein the tire condition monitoring apparatus receives the tire information from the tire information transmitting device and monitors a condition of the tire, the transmitter comprising:

a trigger signal transmitting device which corresponds to the tire information transmitting device and wirelessly transmits a trigger signal to the tire information transmitting device; and

a determination signal transmitting device which is provided in the tire information transmitting device and wirelessly transmits a predetermined determination signal two or more times within a fixed time period based on the trigger signal from the trigger signal transmitting device, the determination signal including the tire information.