ELECTRONIC COMPASS SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A rearview mirror assembly for a vehicle, comprising:
- a mirror mounting structure configured to mounting to a vehicle and having a mirror housing;
a mirror mounted in said mirror housing;
a circuit board carried by said mirror mounting structure;
a magnetic sensor circuit mounted on said circuit board for sensing at least two components of the Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector, and for generating output signals representing the at least two sensed components, wherein said magnetic sensor circuit includes three magnetic field sensing elements contained in a common integrated package having a plurality of leads extending therefrom for mounting to said circuit board; and
a processing circuit coupled to said magnetic sensor circuit for receiving the output signals from said magnetic sensor circuit, computing a heading of the vehicle as a function of the sensed components, and generating a heading signal representing the computed heading.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic compass system includes a magnetic sensor circuit having at least two sensing elements for sensing perpendicular components of the Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector. A processing circuit is coupled to the sensor circuit to filter, process, and compute a heading. The processing circuit may determine whether too much noise is present in the output signals received from said magnetic sensor circuit as a function of the relative strength of the Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector. The magnetic sensor circuit may include three magnetic field sensing elements contained in a common integrated package having a plurality of leads extending therefrom for mounting to a circuit board. The sensing elements need not be perpendicular to each other or parallel or perpendicular with the circuit board. The electronic compass system is particularly well suited for implementation in a vehicle rearview mirror assembly.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A rearview mirror assembly for a vehicle, comprising:
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a mirror mounting structure configured to mounting to a vehicle and having a mirror housing;
a mirror mounted in said mirror housing;
a circuit board carried by said mirror mounting structure;
a magnetic sensor circuit mounted on said circuit board for sensing at least two components of the Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector, and for generating output signals representing the at least two sensed components, wherein said magnetic sensor circuit includes three magnetic field sensing elements contained in a common integrated package having a plurality of leads extending therefrom for mounting to said circuit board; and
a processing circuit coupled to said magnetic sensor circuit for receiving the output signals from said magnetic sensor circuit, computing a heading of the vehicle as a function of the sensed components, and generating a heading signal representing the computed heading. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An electronic compass subassembly for a vehicle, comprising:
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a circuit board including a connector for connecting an electrical component; and
a processing circuit mounted on said circuit board and electrically coupled to said connector for communicating with the electrical component, wherein said processing circuit is coupled to a magnetic sensor circuit for receiving output signals representing at least two components of the Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector, computing a heading of the vehicle as a function of the sensed components, and generating a heading signal representing the computed heading, wherein said processing circuit is configured to communicate using at least two different signal formats associated with different types of electronic components, and wherein a particular signal format used by said processing circuit to communicate with the electrical component connected to said connector is selectable. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of mounting magnetic sensing elements on a circuit board, the method comprising:
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mounting a first magnetic sensing element on a first portion of the circuit board;
mounting a second magnetic sensing element on a second portion of the circuit board;
bending the second portion of the circuit board to reorient the second magnetic sensing element relative to the first magnetic sensing element; and
securing the second portion of the circuit board relative to the first portion of the circuit board to retain the reoriented positions of the first and second magnetic sensing elements. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification