Method for Repairing Vehicle Electronics of a Motor Vehicle

• US 20080114508A1
• Filed: 11/05/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Dr Ing hc F Porsche AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Original Assignee: Dr Ing hc F Porsche AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Inventors: Zurhorst, Christian, Marx, Dieter, Chodura, Hartmut
• Application Number:
  US11/935,015
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114508A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0083 Setting, resetting, calibration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/035 Bringing the control units into a predefined state, e.g. giving priority to particular actuators

Abstract

A method is provided for repairing vehicle electronics containing a plurality of control units on which software and a configuration code describing the configuration of the vehicle electronics in terms of hardware and software is stored. Before a defective control unit is replaced, it is checked whether the configuration of the vehicle electronics changes due to the replacement unit. If the configuration of the vehicle electronics does not change, the defective control unit is replaced. After the defective control unit has been replaced, it is checked whether the new control unit has to be programmed. If the new control unit does not have to be programmed, the actual state is read out from all the control units and it is checked whether the actual state corresponds to the configuration code of the vehicle electronics. If the actual state corresponds to the configuration code, the repair is ended.

Claims

1. A method for repairing vehicle electronics of a motor vehicle, the vehicle electronics containing a plurality of control units storing software and a configuration code of the vehicle electronics describing a configuration of the vehicle electronics in terms of hardware and software being stored in at least one of the control units, the control units including a main control unit and at least two additional control units, which comprises the steps of:

before replacing at least one defective control unit with a new control unit, checking if the configuration of the vehicle electronics changes due to a replacement of the defective control unit with the new control unit;

if, during the checking as to whether the configuration of the vehicle electronics changes due to the replacement of the defective control unit, it is determined that the configuration of the vehicle electronics does not change, replacing the defective control unit in terms of hardware with the new control unit;

after the defective control unit has been replaced in terms of hardware by the new control unit, checking whether the new control unit has to be programmed in terms of software, if it is determined that the new control unit does not have to be programmed in terms of the software, reading out an actual state from all of the control units and checking whether the actual state corresponds to the configuration code of the vehicle electronics; and

if, during the checking as to whether the actual state of the control units corresponds to the configuration code of the vehicle electronics, it is determined that the actual state corresponds to the configuration code, ending the repair.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein if, during the checking as to whether the configuration of the vehicle electronics changes due to the replacement of the defective control unit, it is determined that the configuration of the vehicle electronics changes, before the defective control unit is replaced in terms of hardware, the configuration code which newly results from the new control unit is loaded into the vehicle electronics and stored therein.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein if it is determined that after the defective control unit has been replaced in terms of hardware by the new control unit, that the new control unit has to be programmed in terms of software, the configuration code is read out of the vehicle electronics and it is checked using the configuration code whether the configuration of the vehicle electronics changes as a result of the programming, if the configuration does not change the new control unit is programmed, and if the configuration changes a fault message is output.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein that whenever the configuration code is read out from the vehicle electronics, the configuration code is read out from the main control unit and from each of the additional control units and a comparison is subsequently made as to whether the configuration code stored in the main control unit corresponds to the configuration codes stored in the additional control units, the repair of the vehicle electronics is continued if a correspondence is determined here.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein if it is determined that the configuration code stored in the main control unit differs from the configuration code stored in at least one of the additional control units it is checked whether more than two different configuration codes are present, wherein if more than two different configuration codes are present, a fault message is output, and if not more than two different configuration codes are present, the configuration code which is present in a majority is used and the repair of the vehicle electronics is continued.

6. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises that if during the checking as to whether the actual state of the control units corresponds to the configuration code of the vehicle electronics it is determined that the actual state does not corresponding to the configuration code, outputting a fault message.

7. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises ending the repair by logging the repair.