THROUGH-STACK COMMUNICATION METHOD FOR FUEL CELL MONITORING CIRCUITS
First Claim
1. A system for monitoring fuel cells in a fuel cell group, said system comprising:
- at least one sensor circuit for monitoring a condition of the fuel cells in the fuel cell group;
a tone generator for applying a frequency signal to the cell group if the sensor detects the condition; and
a tone decoder for detecting the frequency signal from the cell group generated by the tone generator.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for monitoring fuel cells in a fuel cell group. The system includes a sensor circuit, such as a voltage sensor circuit, that monitors a condition of the fuel cells. If the sensor circuit detects a low performing cell, then it sends a signal to a tone generator that generates a frequency signal that switches a load into and out of the cell group. A voltage sensor detects the voltage of the cell group including the frequency signal, and sends the detected voltage signal to a tone decoder that decodes the frequency signal to determine that the fuel cells are low performing.
7 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for monitoring fuel cells in a fuel cell group, said system comprising:
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at least one sensor circuit for monitoring a condition of the fuel cells in the fuel cell group; a tone generator for applying a frequency signal to the cell group if the sensor detects the condition; and a tone decoder for detecting the frequency signal from the cell group generated by the tone generator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for monitoring fuel cells in a fuel cell group, said system comprising:
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a sensor circuit for monitoring the voltage of one or more of the fuel cells in the fuel cell group; a tone generator for generating a tone signal if a voltage of the fuel cells detected by the sensor circuit falls below a predetermined threshold; a switch receiving the tone signal from the tone generator and switching on and off in response to the frequency of the tone signal; a load coupled to the switch and being coupled across and being disconnected from the fuel cell group as the switch opens and closes to provide a frequency signal in the cell group; a voltage sensor for measuring the voltage across the fuel cell group and providing a sensor signal including a cell group voltage and the frequency signal; and a tone decoder for decoding the frequency signal from the sensor signal. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A system for monitoring fuel cells in a fuel cell group, said fuel cell group being part of a fuel cell stack, said system comprising:
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a sensor circuit for monitoring the voltage of one or more of the fuel cells in the fuel cell group; a tone generator for generating a tone signal if the voltage of the fuel cells detected by the sensor circuit falls below a predetermined threshold; a switch receiving the tone signal from the tone generator and switching on and off in response to the frequency of the tone signal; a load coupled to the switch and being coupled across and being disconnected from the fuel cell group as the switch opens and closes to provide a frequency signal on the cell group; a low pass filter for preventing the frequency signal from being detected by the sensor circuit; a voltage sensor for measuring the voltage across the fuel cell group and providing a sensor signal including a cell group voltage and the frequency signal; a filter for filtering out the cell group voltage from the sensor signal; and a tone decoder receiving and decoding the frequency signal from the filter. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification