Power supply device for vehicle

• US 5,936,317 A
• Filed: 04/04/1997
• Issued: 08/10/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Autonetworks Technologies, Ltd. (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Harness System Technologies Research, Ltd. (Sumitomo Corporation), Sumitomo Electric Industries Limited (Sumitomo Corporation), Sumitomo Wiring Systems Limited (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Inventors: Sasanouchi, Nobuyuki, Yamagishi, Hiroshi, Tokunaga, Masahiro, Matsumaru, Akio, Kido, Motonori, Toyama, Hideaki
• Primary Examiner(s): PALADINI, ALBERT WILLIAM
• Application Number:
  US08/832,974
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 307/10.1, 307/9.1, 307/10.6, 307/10.7, 307/10.8, 307/31, 307/38-40, 307/125, 307/126, 307/127, 307/130, 307/131, 307/140, 307/141.4, 361/62-66, 361/70, 361/93-94, 361/102, 361/114, 361/170, 361/187, 701/1, 701/29, 701/36, 315/77, 315/82, 315/83, 315/84, 174/106 R, 320/134, 320/136
• US Class Current: 307/10.7
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/46 for ICE-powered road vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0031 using battery or load disconnect circuits H02J9/002 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/005 using a power saving mode for copiers G03G15/5004

Abstract

A power supply unit is provided between a car-carried battery and load units, such as a light control unit. The power supply unit is connected to the load units through a multi-signal line. The power supply unit calculates a consumption current consumed by the load unit using an operating state of the load unit which is received through the multi-signal line from the load control unit associated with the load unit. The power supply unit compares the calculated consumption current with a supplying current supplied form the battery. If the supplying current is excessively large, the power supply unit interrupts the supply of current from the battery to the load unit. Therefore, the power supply device can detect a phenomenon, for example, a rare short of an extremely short shorting time.

Claims

1. A battery-to-load circuit for a motor vehicle that supplies power from a battery to load, the battery-to-load circuit comprising:

a power supplying line connected between the battery and the load, said power supplying line having a power wire, a detecting layer made of metal, and an insulating layer being inserted between said power wire and said detecting layer, said detecting layer being maintained at a fixed voltage by means of external resistors; and

detecting means connected to said detecting layer of said power supplying line for detecting whether a short-circuit occurs in the battery-to-load circuit on the basis of a voltage variation of the detecting layer.

2. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 1, wherein said detecting layer is maintained at a fixed voltage by resistor means connected to the ends of said detecting layer that are closer to a power supply side and a load side.

3. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 1, wherein a shielding layer is provided between said power wire and said detecting layer.

4. A battery-to-load circuit for a motor vehicle that supplies power from a battery to a load, the battery-to-load circuit comprising:

a circuit breaker connecting the battery and the load, said load comprising auxiliary devices, and

a resistor connected in parallel across said circuit breaker, said resistor also connecting the battery and the load.

5. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 4, wherein states of switches associated with said auxiliary devices are detected by monitoring a voltage at a point downstream of said circuit breaker in relation to the battery, and said circuit breaker is turned on and off on the basis of a detected state of each said switch.

6. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 4, wherein a voltage at a point downstream of said circuit breaker in relation to said battery is monitored while periodically turning off said circuit breaker within such a time period as not to influence the operation of each said auxiliary device.

7. A battery-to-load circuit for a motor vehicle that supplies power from a battery to a load, in which the battery-to-load circuit:

constantly monitors operating states of load units connected to the battery;

calculates currents to be consumed by said load units on the basis of the operating states monitored;

detects a supplied current from the battery to said load units;

compares the calculated consumption current of said load units with the current supplied from the battery to said load units; and

interrupts the supply of electric power from the battery to the associated load unit when the supplied current is either excessively larger or smaller than the calculated consumption current.

8. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 7, wherein the comparison of the calculated consumption current of each said load unit with the current supplied from the battery to each said load unit is performed after a preset time elapses from detection of an operating state of each said load unit.

9. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 7, further comprising a memory for storing the consumption current values of said load units, wherein a sum of a preset margin and the detected supplied current from the battery to said load units is stored into said memory, and each of those sum current values is read out of said memory and compared with the current supplied from the battery.

10. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 7, wherein said load units comprise at least one of a group including a wiper unit, a power window unit, a door lock unit, and a light unit.

11. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 7, further comprising a power supply unit connected to said load units by a multi-signal line, said power supply unit calculating said consumption currents using operating state output from said load units through said multi-signal line.

12. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 11, wherein the comparison of the calculated consumption current of each said load unit with the current supplied from the battery to each said load unit is performed after a preset time elapses from detection of an operating state of each said load unit.

13. The battery-to-load circuit according to claim 11, further comprising a memory for storing the consumption current values of said load units, wherein a sum of a preset margin and the detected supplied current from the battery to said load units is stored into said memory, and each of those sum current values is read out of said memory and compared with the current supplied from the battery.

14. A room lamp device for a motor vehicle wherein a room lamp may be placed in a mode selected from one of three modes, said room lamp device connecting a battery and a door switch, said door switch being either turned on or off with the opening and closing of a motor vehicle door, said three modes comprising a light-on mode in which the room lamp is always in an on state, a light-off mode in which the room lamp is always in an off state, and a temporary light-on mode in which the room lamp is either in the on state or the off state, said room lamp device comprising:

a lamp switch inserted between the door switch and the battery;

which places said room lamp in a selected mode dependent upon said door switch being turned on or off; and

a controller which turns off the room lamp when said lamp switch is set in the light-on mode for a preset time.

15. The room lamp device according to claim 14, wherein said controller turns off the room lamp when said door switch is set at a position where the room lamp is lit on for a preset time period.