Failure detection and communication system for electrically driven vehicles
First Claim
1. A control means for an electrically driven vehicle comprising:
- two or more modules interconnected by a serial bus, said serial bus including one or more data lines, wherein one or more modules of said two or more modules includes means to shift a DC bias voltage on a data line of said serial bus, and one or more of said two or more modules includes means to alter the operating state of said two or more modules between an enabled and disabled condition while maintaining data communication between the two or more modules,wherein the means for altering the operational state of said modules corresponds to a kill means which monitors the DC bias voltage on said data line of said serial bus and disables functions of that module when the detected DC bias voltage is outside a set voltage range and wherein a user control switch is provided on a remote control module which can clamp the bias voltage on the serial bus below the lowest value of the set voltage range.
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Accused Products
Abstract
To effect failure detection and communication between the modules in a modular control system for an electrically driven vehicle in which modules are interconnected by a serial data bus, one line of the serial bus may be biased high or low by modules of the system when a fault is detected. This is detected by a kill system of the modules to which disable safety related functions of each module are applicable. Modules other than the remote control module can include wake up circuitry which supplies power to the modules at start up, or deactivated modules, when the data line is biased high. The modules preferably operate as finite state machines with each module storing in its memory network variables required for the operation of that module. The network variables include the state of other modules, external demand signals, and measured variables of the system.
96 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A control means for an electrically driven vehicle comprising:
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two or more modules interconnected by a serial bus, said serial bus including one or more data lines, wherein one or more modules of said two or more modules includes means to shift a DC bias voltage on a data line of said serial bus, and one or more of said two or more modules includes means to alter the operating state of said two or more modules between an enabled and disabled condition while maintaining data communication between the two or more modules, wherein the means for altering the operational state of said modules corresponds to a kill means which monitors the DC bias voltage on said data line of said serial bus and disables functions of that module when the detected DC bias voltage is outside a set voltage range and wherein a user control switch is provided on a remote control module which can clamp the bias voltage on the serial bus below the lowest value of the set voltage range. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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- 12. A module for use in a modular control means for an electrically driven vehicle, the modules of said modular control means being interconnected by a serial bus, wherein the module includes kill means to disable functions of the module upon detecting that a DC bias level on a data line of the serial bus is outside a set range, wherein the module includes means to bias the data line of the serial bus outside the set range upon detection of a fault.
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19. A module for use in a modular control means for an electrically driven vehicle, the modules of said modular control means being interconnected by a serial bus, wherein the module includes kill means to disable functions of the module upon detecting that a DC bias level on a data line of the serial bus is outside a set range wherein the module is remote control module which is provided with a user controlled switch which can clamp the bias voltage on the data line of the serial bus below the lowest value of the set voltage range.
Specification