Monitoring apparatus
First Claim
1. Monitoring apparatus comprising:
- a) an operator controllable switch;
b) a first control means for controlling electrical circuits having a first and a second state, being connected to said switch and arranged such that said first control means will toggle between the first and the second state whenever said switch is closed for a first time interval of a predetermined length; and
c) a second control means for controlling electrical circuits having a first and a second state, being connected to said switch and arranged such that said second control means will toggle between the first and the second state whenever said switch is closed momentarily; and
d) first circuit means for logic control having a first and second state, being connected to said first control means and being controlled thereby such that said first circuit means will have the same state as said first control means, ande) counting means for counting the changes of state of said second control means, said counting means being connected to said second control means and arranged such that the count will increment upward by one upon each change of state of said second control means to a predetermined maximum count and will reset to zero and begin a new count on the next subsequent change of state; and
f) multiplexer means having multiple inputs and a single output for selecting one of the inputs as an output, having as inputs a first class and a second class of voltage inputs with the number of each class of inputs being equal to the maximum count of said counter means; and
g) said multiplexer means inputs, said multiplexer means, said first circuit means and said counter means being connected and arranged such that when said first circuit means is in the first state the multiplexer means output will be selected from among the first class of multiplexer means input voltages, and when said first circuit means is in the second state the multiplexer means output will be selected from among the second class of multiplexer means input voltages, and such that the individual multiplexer output of the selected class of inputs will determined by the count of said counting means.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A monitoring apparatus, which reads a number of internal combustion engine temperatures and engine revolutions per minute, displays either a current or a peak reading of one of these parameters using a digital readout. Transducers convert the various physical parameters to analog voltages. A digital potentiometer, comparator and logic circuitry are used to step the potentiometer output to a greater value only to equal the highest input voltage. This stores the peak voltage for that parameter in analog form. Each parameter has this equipment, which results in all of the parameters having the peak value tracked simultaneously. A multiplexer selects one of the parameters, either peak or current. This selected parameter is then converted by an analog to digital converter to a set of four binary coded decimal numbers. These numbers are then displayed on a liquid crystal display. A unique control arrangement allows a single spring loaded switch to either toggle the readout between the peak or current values, when it is held closed for four seconds, or to step the multiplexer through the various parameters when it is closed momentarily.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. Monitoring apparatus comprising:
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a) an operator controllable switch; b) a first control means for controlling electrical circuits having a first and a second state, being connected to said switch and arranged such that said first control means will toggle between the first and the second state whenever said switch is closed for a first time interval of a predetermined length; and c) a second control means for controlling electrical circuits having a first and a second state, being connected to said switch and arranged such that said second control means will toggle between the first and the second state whenever said switch is closed momentarily; and d) first circuit means for logic control having a first and second state, being connected to said first control means and being controlled thereby such that said first circuit means will have the same state as said first control means, and e) counting means for counting the changes of state of said second control means, said counting means being connected to said second control means and arranged such that the count will increment upward by one upon each change of state of said second control means to a predetermined maximum count and will reset to zero and begin a new count on the next subsequent change of state; and f) multiplexer means having multiple inputs and a single output for selecting one of the inputs as an output, having as inputs a first class and a second class of voltage inputs with the number of each class of inputs being equal to the maximum count of said counter means; and g) said multiplexer means inputs, said multiplexer means, said first circuit means and said counter means being connected and arranged such that when said first circuit means is in the first state the multiplexer means output will be selected from among the first class of multiplexer means input voltages, and when said first circuit means is in the second state the multiplexer means output will be selected from among the second class of multiplexer means input voltages, and such that the individual multiplexer output of the selected class of inputs will determined by the count of said counting means.
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2. Monitoring apparatus comprising:
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a) an operator controllable switch; b) a first control means for controlling electrical circuits having a first and a second state, being connected to said switch and arranged such that said first control means will toggle between the first and the second state whenever said switch is closed for a first time interval of a predetermined length; and c) a second control means for controlling electrical circuits having a first and a second state, being connected to said switch and arranged such that said second control means will toggle between the first and the second state whenever said switch is closed momentarily; and d) counting means for counting the changes of state of said second control means, said counting means being connected to said second control means and arranged such that the count will increment upward by one upon each change of state of said second control means to a predetermined maximum count and will reset to zero and begin a new count on the next subsequent change of state; and e) a plurality of transducer means for converting engine parameters to direct current output voltages; and f) a plurality of analog voltage storage means for storing the maximum output voltages of each of the transducer means with the quantity of analog voltage storage means being equal in number to the number of transducer means; and g) multiplexer means having multiple inputs and a single output for selecting one of the inputs as an output, having as inputs the transducer means output voltages and the analog voltage storage means maximum output voltages; and h) said multiplexer means inputs, said multiplexer means and said first circuit control means being connected and arranged such that when said first circuit control means is in the first state the multiplexer means output will be selected from among the class of multiplexer means input voltages consisting of the transducer means output voltages, and when said first circuit control means is in the second state the multiplexer means output will be selected from among the class of multiplexer means input voltages consisting of the storage means maximum output voltages; and i) said counting means predetermined maximum count being equal to the number of transducer means, and with said counting means, said inputs to said multiplexer means, said multiplexer means and said first and second circuit control means being connected and arranged such that said counting means will select as the multiplexer means output a predetermined input which shall correspond to the counting means count, and such that the input selected by said counting means will also be from the class of inputs selected by the first circuit control means; and j) an analog to digital converter arranged to convert the multiplexer output voltage to digital numbers; and k) display means for displaying the analog to digital converter number. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification