Electronic hub odometer
First Claim
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1. An electronic hub odometer comprising:
- a housing adapted to be mounted for rotation with a vehicle wheel;
a magnet mounted in fixed position relative to said housing and rotatable therewith;
magnetic sensor means responsive to said magnet to detect a revolution of said wheel and produce a revolution signal indicative thereof;
clock means to generate clocking signals;
data means responsive to said revolution and clocking signals to produce data indicative of distance of travel of said wheel for a series of pre-established time intervals;
memory means to store said data;
transmitter means selectively actuable to transmit said data in electromagnetic waveform from said memory means for remote readout; and
mounting means pivotally suspended within said housing to mount said magnetic sensor means, said clock means, said data means, said memory means and said transmitter means.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic hub odometer employs a permanent magnet and a magnetic reed switch for recording the number of revolutions of a vehicle wheel to which the odometer is mounted. A programmable integrated circuit electrically communicates with a clock crystal and the magnetic reed switch to automatically produce data relative to the time, distance and rate of travel of the associated vehicle. The data is stored in a random access memory integrated circuit. An infrared light emitting diode is employed for transmitting the data from the odometer to a remote unit. Information is also transmitted to the odometer from a remote unit via a photo-optical detector.
133 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An electronic hub odometer comprising:
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a housing adapted to be mounted for rotation with a vehicle wheel; a magnet mounted in fixed position relative to said housing and rotatable therewith; magnetic sensor means responsive to said magnet to detect a revolution of said wheel and produce a revolution signal indicative thereof; clock means to generate clocking signals; data means responsive to said revolution and clocking signals to produce data indicative of distance of travel of said wheel for a series of pre-established time intervals; memory means to store said data; transmitter means selectively actuable to transmit said data in electromagnetic waveform from said memory means for remote readout; and mounting means pivotally suspended within said housing to mount said magnetic sensor means, said clock means, said data means, said memory means and said transmitter means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An electric hub odometer adapted for operation in response to the rotation of an associated wheel of a vehicle comprising:
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wheel sensor means to detect a revolution of the vehicle wheel and produce a revolution signal indicative thereof; clock means to generate clocking signals; trip commencement means responsive to said revolution signal and said clocking signals to automatically determine the commencement of a trip of the vehicle; trip termination means to automatically determine the termination of a trip of the vehicle; data means responsive to said wheel sensor means, said clock means, and said trip commencement means to produce data indicative of the time and distance of a said vehicle trip and to produce data indicative of the rate of travel of said vehicle wheel for a sequence of pre-established time intervals immediately preceding the termination of a said trip; memory means to store at least a portion of said data; and transmitter means selectively actuable to transmit said stored data from said memory means for remote readout of said stored data. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A method for monitoring the operation of a wheeled vehicle for determining vehicle usage comprising:
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(a) generating clocking signals; (b) counting the revolutions of a vehicle wheel; (c) employing the clocking signals and revolution counts to generate vehicle operation data; (d) automatically determining the commencement of a trip of said vehicle by employing selected portions of the operation data; (e) automatically determining the termination of a trip of said vehicle by employing selected portions of the operation data; (f) recording operation data in machine readable form in the vicinity of the vehicle wheel for the time interval between the determined commencement and termination of a vehicle trip; (g) automatically recording data indicative of the rate of travel of said vehicle for a series of time intervals immediately preceding the termination of a said trip; and (h) selectively transmitting said recorded data from the vicinity of said wheel to a remote recorder for remote readout. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification