Electrical test system for vehicle manufacturing quality assurance
First Claim
1. An electrical test system for a vehicle, comprising:
- at least one portable tester;
a translator in communication with the tester, the translator being connectable to a test receptacle in the vehicle for communicating data between the tester and the vehicle;
a computer in radiofrequency (RF) communication with the tester for communicating data representative of the vehicle between the computer and the tester; and
plural RF transceivers positioned for communicating with the tester, some of the RF transceivers comprising repeater transceivers and at least one of the RF transceivers comprising a central transceiver, the repeater transceivers communicating with the tester and with the central transceiver via RF.
21 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for testing the electrical components of vehicles during manufacturing includes a hand held tester to which a translator unit can be detachably engaged and with which the tester is in RF communication. The translator unit can be detached from the tester and plugged into a test receptacle under a vehicle'"'"'s dashboard to communicate with the vehicle by translating computer formatted data from the tester to vehicle bus-formatted data, and vice-versa. Then, the vehicle'"'"'s VIN is scanned into the tester or manually input into the tester, and the tester transmits the VIN via an RF link in the assembly plant to a computer in the plant. Based on the VIN, the computer determines the electric equipment that the vehicle has, and the computer transmits this information back to the tester. The tester then determines which tests to execute, and the tester causes the translator unit to undertake these tests. The translator transmits the test results back to the tester which in turn transmits the results to the computer. A portable current module can be provided that monitors the current drawn from the vehicle'"'"'s battery during the testing and for communicating this data to the tester via RF link.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. An electrical test system for a vehicle, comprising:
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at least one portable tester; a translator in communication with the tester, the translator being connectable to a test receptacle in the vehicle for communicating data between the tester and the vehicle; a computer in radiofrequency (RF) communication with the tester for communicating data representative of the vehicle between the computer and the tester; and plural RF transceivers positioned for communicating with the tester, some of the RF transceivers comprising repeater transceivers and at least one of the RF transceivers comprising a central transceiver, the repeater transceivers communicating with the tester and with the central transceiver via RF. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system for assuring the quality of a vehicle'"'"'s electrical system without requiring a dedicated segment for electrical testing on a vehicle assembly line, comprising:
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at least one portable tester for generating test protocols based on a vehicle identification number (VIN); a system computer in wireless communication with the tester for receiving the VIN from the tester and for transmitting salescode data to the tester, the tester generating the test protocols in response to the salescode data; and a plurality of RF transceivers positioned to establish communication with the tester, wherein some of the RF transceivers comprise repeater transceivers and at least one of the RF transceivers comprises a central transceiver, the repeater transceivers communicating with the tester and with the central transceiver via RF. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A vehicular wiring system test system, comprising:
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at least one portable tester for communicating test protocols to the wiring system; a computer in wireless communication with the tester for communicating data to the tester to facilitate the tester generating test protocols to test the wiring system; and a plurality of RF transceivers positioned to establish communication with the tester, some of the RF transceivers comprising repeater transceivers and at least one of the RF transceivers comprising a central transceiver, the repeater transceivers communicating with the tester and with the central transceiver via RF. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification