Circuit system for preventing measuring device from being erroneously operated

• US 5,128,973 A
• Filed: 10/23/1990
• Issued: 07/07/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Stanley Electric Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Stanley Electric Company Limited
• Inventors: Oki, Yoji, Kamiyama, Hideyuki, Sasaki, Masahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Heyman, John S.
• Application Number:
  US07/601,512
• Time in Patent Office: 623 Days
• Field of Search: 377/28, 377/20, 307/290, 307/517, 307/522
• US Class Current: 377/28
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 5/1252 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference specially adapted for transmission systems H04B15/00, H04L25/08

Abstract

A circuit system for preventing a measuring device such as an engine speed measuring device or the like from being erroneously operated includes as essential components a filter circuit, a Schmitt trigger circuit, an oscillating circuit, a counting circuit, a pulse monitoring circuit and an adding circuit. A combination of the filter circuit and the Schmitt trigger circuit serve to properly shape a wave form of each of a series of pulse-shaped sensor detection signals. The oscillating circuit generates a series of pulses each having a reference frequency. The pulse monitoring circuit monitors a wave-form shaping output pulse by counting the number of a series of output pulses each having a reference frequency for a predetermined period of time with the edge of the wave-form shaping output pulse as a trigger. In addition, the pulse monitoring circuit serves to discriminate whether a bound is caused in the wave-form shaping output signal or not and then deliver a processing signal to a processing circuit at the next stage. The circuit system has a diverging point which is located between the Schmitt circuit and the counting circuit so that a series of pulse-shaped sensor detecting signals are transmitted to the pulse monitoring circuit via the diverging point.

Claims

1. A circuit system for preventing a measuring device from being erroneously operated, wherein said circuit comprises:

a waveform shaping circuit for generated output pulses properly shaped into a predetermined wave shape responsive to sensor detection signals derived from a sensor for sensing the occurrence of signals normally spaced apart by a time interval T;

an oscillating circuit for generating a series of output pulses at a predetermined reference frequency;

a counting circuit for counting oscillating circuit output pulses responsive to an output pulse from said waveform shaping circuit employed as a trigger input to said counting circuit;

a pulse monitoring circuit for monitoring the time interval between output pulses from said waveform shaping circuit by counting said oscillator circuit output pulses responsive to each output pulse from said waveform shaping circuit employed as a trigger input to said pulse monitoring circuit;

an adding circuit coupled to said counting circuit;

said pulse monitoring circuit controlling said adding circuit to accumulate counts successively developed in said counting circuit when the count of oscillator pulses accumulated by said pulse monitoring circuit is less than a predetermined count C and for resetting the adding circuit in preparation to receive the next count from said counting circuit, wherein said count C represents the number of oscillator output pulses generated during time interval T.

2. The circuit system of claim 1 wherein said waveform shaping circuit comprises a filter circuit and a Schmitt trigger circuit.

3. The circuit system according to claim 2, wherein the circuit system has a diverging point which is located between the Schmitt trigger circuit and the counting circuit so that said wave-shaped sensor detection signals are transmitted to the pulse monitoring circuit via said diverging point.

4. The circuit system according to claim 3, wherein said output pulses generated by said oscillating circuit are transmitted to the adding circuit under control of the pulse monitoring circuit, the diverging point and the counting circuit enabling the results derived from an adding operation in the adding circuit are delivered to a processing circuit.

5. The circuit system according to claim 2 wherein said pulse monitoring circuit comprises means for counting the number of said output pulses each having a reference frequency for a predetermined period of time upon the occurrence of each wave form shaping output pulse generated by said filter circuit and said Schmitt trigger circuit.

6. The circuit system of claim 5 wherein said pulse monitoring circuit includes means for adjusting the counting period of the pulse monitoring circuit counting means.

7. The circuit system of claim 5 wherein the output pulses from said oscillator circuit are simultaneously applied to and counted by said counting circuit and said pulse monitoring circuit counting means;

and

the output of said waveform shaping circuit is simultaneously applied to said counting circuit and the counting means of said pulse monitoring circuit for triggering.

8. The circuit system of claim 5 wherein said pulse monitoring circuit controls said adder circuit to contain the count in the counting circuit when the pulse monitoring circuit accumulates a count greater than C upon receipt of the next trigger input to the pulse monitoring circuit.