Tire Pressure Monitoring System and Method for the Allocation of Tire Modules in a Tire Pressure Monitoring System

• US 20090021363A1
• Filed: 03/23/2006
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Erler, Wolfgang, Bachon, Jens, Sager, Peter, Bos, Marco, Neumann, Markus, Hartmann, Ralf, Heise, Andreas, Kammann, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 8,400,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/447
• 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 23/0444 Antenna structures, control or arrangements thereof, e.g. for directional antennas, diversity antenna, antenna multiplexing or antennas integrated in fenders
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/045 Means for detecting electromagnetic field changes being not part of the signal transmission per se, e.g. strength, direction, propagation or masking

Abstract

Disclosed is a tire pressure monitoring system for motor vehicles, including a central unit (2, 7) with at least one trigger module (4), which is integrated into the central unit or connects through control lines (3) to the central unit, and with at least one tire module (6) arranged in a vehicle wheel (5), with the tire module being in communication with the central unit and the trigger module by means of wireless transmission technology, and with the tire pressure monitoring system including fewer trigger modules than tire modules.

Claims

1-17. -17. (canceled)

18. A tire pressure monitoring system for a motor vehicle, the system comprising:

a central unit (2, 7) with at least one trigger module (4), which is integrated into the central unit or connects through control lines (3) to the central unit; and

at least one tire module (6) arranged in a vehicle wheel (5), with the tire module in wireless communication with the central unit and the trigger module, wherein the tire pressure monitoring system includes fewer trigger modules than tire modules.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein there is one tire module (6) per vehicle wheel (5).

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each tire module includes at least one device for sensing a trigger field strength received from the trigger module(s) (4), and the tire module transmits the sensed trigger field strength to the central unit (2, 7).

21. The system of claim 19, wherein each tire module includes at least one device for changing a trigger field strength in order to be able to trigger the tire modules (6) with at least two different trigger field strengths.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one tire module (6) comprises a device for sensing the direction of rotation of the tire.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one trigger module transmits data with a frequency in the range of roughly 20 to roughly 300 kilohertz, to a tire module, while the at least one tire module transmits data to the central unit with a frequency in the range of roughly 1 megahertz up to roughly 5 gigahertz.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one tire module (6) includes a writable data memory, in which characteristic tire data can be stored.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one trigger module (4) includes an oscillatory circuit, which is commutable via a switch (S), from a transmitting arrangement, composed of a capacitor (C) and a transmitting coil (L_transmit), to a non-transmitting arrangement, composed of the capacitor (C) and a non-transmitting coil (L_nt).

26. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one tie module (6 carries a universal identification number, by means of which it can be triggered by the trigger module(s) (4) in a wheel position allocation process, and with the at least one tire module includes a data memory, in which after the allocation of the tire module to a wheel position, an individual identification number is stored, by means of which the tire module is triggered by the trigger module(s) in the future.

27. A method for allocating of tire modules in a tire pressure monitoring system in motor vehicles, with the tire pressure monitoring system including a central unit (2, 7) with at least one trigger module (4), which is integrated into the central unit or connects through control lines (3) to the central unit, and respectively one tire module (6) per vehicle wheel (5), the method comprising:

having a tire module wirelessly communicate with a central unit and a trigger module, wherein the trigger module is in communication with more than one tire module in a wireless fashion; and

allocating a tire module.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the tire modules are allocated based on a field strength analysis of the trigger field strength received by the tire modules.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the tire modules are allocated based on a change of the transmitting field strength of the trigger modules.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the tire modules are allocated by means of a direction-of-rotation detection.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the tire modules are triggered by the trigger module(s) with a universal identification number.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the central unit executes an order to the trigger module(s) to transmit a universal identification number.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein an individual identification number is assigned to each tire module after the allocation to a wheel position.

34. The method of claim 27, wherein the allocation of the tire modules to the wheel positions is performed by evaluation of steering angle information and/or wheel speed information.