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Fault tolerant multipoint control and data collection system

  • US 5,687,391 A
  • Filed: 06/30/1995
  • Issued: 11/11/1997
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/11/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A multipoint control and data collection system comprising:

  • a plurality of parallel data buses forming a cable, each data bus being connected to carry data collected by the multipoint control and data collection system, and not connected to carry an address signal for controlling the system;

    a control bus included in the cable, the control bus being connected to carry the address signal for controlling the multipoint control and data collection system, and not connected to carry data collected by the system;

    a central controller including;

    a plurality of bus interface circuits corresponding to the plurality of parallel data buses, each bus interface circuit being connected to the corresponding data bus for receiving the data over the corresponding data bus,a control interface circuit connected to the control bus, the control interface circuit being adapted to send the address signal over the control bus, the address signal specifying a sensor interface address and a selected one of the plurality of data buses; and

    a plurality of sensor interfaces having corresponding sensor interface addresses, each sensor interface being connected to more than one of the data buses, each sensor interface including a sensor connection point adapted for connection to a sensor and each sensor interface including an address recognition circuit connected to the control bus, the address recognition circuit of each sensor interface being responsive to the address signal on the control bus to connect the sensor connection point to the selected one of the plurality of data buses specified in the address signal when the corresponding sensor interface address of the sensor interface is included in the address signal, and the address recognition circuit of each sensor interface ignoring the data carried on the data buses.

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