TIRE PRESSURE MONITOR SIGNAL PROCESSING

• US 20080082227A1
• Filed: 10/02/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lear Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lear Corporation
• Inventors: Ghabra, Riad, Nantz, John, Cotton, Kevin, Kovac, Zoran
• Granted Patent: US 8,374,744 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0408 transmitting the signals by non-mechanical means from the wheel or tyre to a vehicle body mounted receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0433 Radio signals

Abstract

System for processing tire pressure monitor (TPM) signals. The system include capabilities to support amplitude shift key (ASK) modulation of TPM data signals transmitted from TPMs included within one or more tires of a vehicle. The system may include a receiver and controller to process the TPM signals.

Claims

1. A tire pressure monitoring system having capabilities for processing amplitude shift key (ASK) tire pressure monitor (TPM) data signals, the system comprising:

a receiver configured to receive the ASK TPM data signals from one or more TPMs configured to monitor operating conditions of a tire; and

a controller in communication with the receiver and configured to process partial TPM data packets according to a gap processing methodology, the partial TPM data packets resulting from an inability of the receiver due to compensate for residual amplitude modulation (AM) in the TPM data signal due to rotation of the tire.

2. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the gap processing methodology includes processing portions of the partial TPM data packet occurring before and after the gap.

3. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the gap processing methodology includes determining information associated with the gap as a function of subsequently received TPM data packets.

4. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the gap processing methodology includes determining information associated with the gap as a function of an RSSI signal associated with the TPM signal.

5. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 4 wherein the gap processing methodology includes processing the RSSI signal in response to conditions associated with formation of the gap in the partial TPM data packet.

6. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the gap processing methodology includes buffering signals associated with the receiver so as to compensate for RC delays introducing the gap in the partial TPM data signal.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the buffering includes buffering the TPM data signal prior to input to a data slicer.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the buffering includes delaying processing of a data slicer with respect to the TPM data signal so as to synchronize the TPM data signal with a slicer reference signal.

9. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the gap processing methodology includes ignoring non-RSSI signals and determining the TPM data packets as a function of RSSI signals.

10. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the gap processing methodology includes the controller converting the RSSI signals to digital signals.

11. A tire pressure monitoring system having capabilities for processing amplitude shift key (ASK) tire pressure monitor (TPM) data signals, the system comprising:

a receiver having a TPM data signal module, slicer reference module, RSSI module, and data slicer module, the TPM data signal module configured to receive the ASK TPM data signals for output to the slicer reference module, the RSSI module, and the data slicer module, the slicer reference module configured to average the TPM data signal for output as a slicer reference signal to the data slicer, the data slicer configured to generate a data slicer signal as a function of the slicer reference and the TPM data signal, and the RSSI module configured to output an RSSI signal as a function of the TPM signal, wherein the slicer reference module includes RC components to facilitate averaging the TPM data signals whereby the RC components cause gaps to form in the data slicer signal due to an inability of the slicer reference module to process sudden changes in the TPM data signal; and

a controller in communication with the receiver and configured to process partial TPM data packets included in the data slicer signal as a function of the RSSI signal.

12. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 11 wherein the controller executes a gap processing methodology in order to process the partial TPM data packets.

13. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 12 wherein the gap processing methodology includes processing portions of the partial TPM data packet occurring before and after the gap and processing the RSSI signal occurring during the gap.

14. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 12 wherein the gap processing methodology includes determining information associated with the gap as a function of the RSSI signal.

15. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 14 wherein the gap processing methodology includes processing the RSSI signal in response to conditions associated with formation of the gap in the partial TPM data packet.

16. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 12 wherein the gap processing methodology includes ignoring non-RSSI signals and determining the TPM data packets as a function of RSSI signals.

17. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 12 wherein the gap processing methodology includes the controller converting the RSSI signals to digital signals.

18. A tire pressure monitoring system having capabilities for processing amplitude shift key (ASK) tire pressure monitor (TPM) data signals, the system comprising:

a receiver configured to receive the ASK TPM data signals from one or more TPMs and to convert the ASK TPM data signals to an RSSI signal; and

a controller in communication with the receiver and configured to recover TPM data packets included with the TPM data signals from the RSSI signal.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the controller is configured to convert the RSSI signal to a digital signal and to recover the TPM data packets from the digital signal.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the recovered TPM data packets are recovered without gaps.