BATTERY MONITOR SYSTEM ATTACHED TO A VEHICLE WIRING HARNESS
First Claim
1. A battery monitoring system for electrically engaging a wiring harness of a vehicle, said wiring harness electrically coupled to a terminal of said battery via a power supply line and including a plurality of parallel circuits for supplying electrical power to locations of said vehicle, said battery monitoring system comprising:
- a connector adapted to electrically engage a parallel circuit of said wiring harness;
a sensor set operative to generate sensor data indicative of at least one operational characteristic of said battery, said sensor set including a temperature sensor configured to detect an ambient temperature at a location remote from said battery, said sensor data including data indicative of said ambient temperature; and
a processing unit coupled to receive said sensor data from said sensor set and operative to analyze said sensor data to generate battery health information indicative of a condition of said battery.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer system that installs in the proximity of the vehicle'"'"'s operator by attaching to the vehicle'"'"'s wiring harness (e.g., via a power outlet in the vehicle cabin). The device, gathers data relating to the operational state of the vehicle'"'"'s battery, calculates various health information of the battery from the gathered data, and provides the health and operational state of the battery to the vehicle'"'"'s operator. To facilitate battery health calculations, the device receives input from a temperature sensor that is remote to the battery, such as a temperature sensor in the device'"'"'s housing or in the vehicle cabin. The temperature reading can be used to approximate the temperature of the battery. The computer system can also support non-battery related functions, such as navigation, theft deterrence, etc. Algorithms utilizing battery health data over multiple load cycles to determine the health of a battery are also disclosed.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A battery monitoring system for electrically engaging a wiring harness of a vehicle, said wiring harness electrically coupled to a terminal of said battery via a power supply line and including a plurality of parallel circuits for supplying electrical power to locations of said vehicle, said battery monitoring system comprising:
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a connector adapted to electrically engage a parallel circuit of said wiring harness; a sensor set operative to generate sensor data indicative of at least one operational characteristic of said battery, said sensor set including a temperature sensor configured to detect an ambient temperature at a location remote from said battery, said sensor data including data indicative of said ambient temperature; and a processing unit coupled to receive said sensor data from said sensor set and operative to analyze said sensor data to generate battery health information indicative of a condition of said battery. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A battery monitoring system for electrically engaging a wiring harness of a vehicle, said wiring harness being electrically coupled to a terminal of said battery via a power supply line and including a plurality of parallel power lines for supplying electrical power to respective circuits of said vehicle, said battery monitoring system comprising:
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means for electrically engaging a parallel power line of said wiring harness; a sensor set operative to generate sensor data indicative of at least one operational characteristic of said battery, said sensor set including means for detecting an ambient temperature at a location remote from said battery, said sensor data including data indicative of said ambient temperature; and a processing unit coupled to receive said sensor data from said sensor set and operative to analyze said sensor data to generate battery health information indicative of a condition of said battery. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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26. A method for monitoring the health of a battery via a wiring harness of a vehicle, said method comprising:
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electrically engaging said wiring harness; measuring a first value of a health parameter of said battery during a first battery loading cycle; storing said first value as part of a history of said health parameter; measuring a second value of said health parameter during a second battery loading cycle; comparing said second value and at least a portion of said history of said health parameter; and generating an alarm if said step of comparing said second value and said history of said health parameter indicates that said battery might fail. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification