Method and apparatus for switching several electric circuits

• US 6,713,896 B1
• Filed: 08/10/2001
• Issued: 03/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TRW Automotive Electronics & Components GmbH & Co. KG
• Original Assignee: TRW Automotive Electronics & Components GmbH & Co. KG
• Inventors: Probst, Uwe, Wiegand, Boris, Pfeiffer, Jochen, Burtscher, Hans
• Primary Examiner(s): Sircus, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): DeBeradinis, Robert L
• Application Number:
  US09/913,140
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• Field of Search: 307/113, 307/115, 307/10.8, 307/9.1, 307/112, 200/6.B, 200/11.R
• US Class Current: 307/112
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 19/62 Contacts actuated by radial cams
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 19/63 Contacts actuated by axial cams H01H19/6355 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2009/0083 using redundant components, e.g. two pressure tubes for pressure switch
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2300/04 Programmable interface between a set of switches and a set of functions, e.g. for reconfiguration of a control panel
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 25/06 Operating part movable both angularly and rectilinearly, the rectilinear movement being along the axis of angular movement
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 9/547 Combinations of mechanical switches and static switches, the latter being controlled by the former

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for switching several electric circuits in a vehicle, wherein several positions of an actuating element are binarily coded, the binary codification is fed to a logic and the logic controls the switching of the electric circuits, and also a corresponding switch with an actuating element and a switching device for attaining several switching modes, depending upon the position of the actuating element, wherein the switching device is constructed of several switching elements with two switching modes each, so that there results a binary codification of the switching modes of all switching elements, depending upon the position of the actuating element in order to switch the electric circuits by means of a logic.

Claims

1. A method for switching electric circuits, comprising:

binarily encoding a plurality of positions of an actuating element, at least one of said plurality of positions of the actuating element having a redundant encoding;

transmitting the binary encoding and redundant encoding to a logic unit; and

switching the electric circuits based upon an output of the logic unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the binary codification to a logic unit includes transmitting the binary codification to said logic unit via a bus system.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

controlling additional electrical functions based upon additional outputs of the logic unit.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

verifying that the binary codification corresponds to a valid position of the actuating element.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the verifying includes:

comparing the binary codification against a subset of binary combinations, said subset including the binary combinations that correspond to positions of the actuating element, the number of combinations comprising said subset being less than 2ⁿ where n is the number of binary bits.

6. A switch for selectively switching a plurality of associated electric circuits, the switch comprising:

an actuating element having a plurality of selectable positions;

a plurality of binary switching elements, each binary switching element defining a binary bit value based on the position of the actuating element;

a binary codification defined by the binary bit values of the plurality of switching elements;

a logic unit adapted to receive the binary codification and selectively switch the plurality of associated electric circuits based on the binary codification;

a redundancy binary switching element defining a redundancy binary value; and

a logical “

OR”

element in communication with the logic unit and defining a relationship between the binary codification and the redundancy binary value to protect at least one switch Position independent of the binary bit values of the plurality of binary switching elements.

7. The switch as set forth in claim 6, wherein the plurality of binary switching elements further include a plurality of low-power micro-switches.

8. The switch as set forth in claim 6, wherein the actuating element further includes:

a knob;

a shaft operatively connected with the knob; and

a profile disk, operatively connected with the shaft, the profile disk being cooperative with the plurality of binary switching elements to select the binary bit values defined by the binary switching elements.

9. The switch as set forth in claim 8, wherein the actuating element further includes:

a twist-proof and longitudinally displaceable operative connection between the shaft and the profile disk.

10. The switch as set forth in claim 6, wherein the logic unit further includes:

one of an electronic controller and an on-board computer.

11. A vehicle lighting controller for selectively applying electrical power to a plurality of lighting systems of a vehicle, said plurality of lighting systems including a driving lights system, the vehicle lighting controller comprising:

an actuating element having a plurality of manually selectable positions;

a plurality of low-power binary switches communicating with the actuating element to define an ordered combination of bits corresponding to the actuating element position;

an electronic controller that receives the ordered combination of bits and effectuates application of electrical power to selected lighting systems based on the ordered combination of bits;

at least one redundancy element that acquires a fault value conditional upon one of an electrical short and an electrical ground short occurring in the vehicle lighting controller; and

a safety element that effectuates application of electrical sower to the driving lights system conditional upon the at least one redundancy element acquiring the fault value independent of a logical condition of said ordered combination of bits.

12. The vehicle lighting controller as set forth in claim 11, wherein the at least one redundancy element further includes a low power binary switch.

13. The vehicle lighting controller as set forth in claim 11, wherein the electronic controller further includes an on-board computer.

14. The vehicle lighting controller as set forth in claim 11, wherein the actuating element further includes:

a knob;

a shaft connected with the knob; and

a profile disk operatively connected with the shaft and having a plurality of selectable orientations relative to the switches, the orientations corresponding to the plurality of manually selectable positions of the actuating element, the profile disk further having a surface profile that selectively operates the plurality of low-power switches to effectuate definition of the ordered combination of bits.

15. The vehicle lighting controller as set forth in claim 14, wherein the actuating element further includes:

a housing inside which the shaft is mounted in a swivelable and axially translatable fashion.

16. The vehicle lighting controller as set forth in claim 15, wherein the plurality of manually selectable positions of the actuating element include:

a plurality of manually selectable positions of the shaft, wherein each of the plurality of shaft positions is defined by a swivel position and an axial translation position.

17. A method for switching a plurality of lighting circuits of a vehicle comprising:

binary-coding a plurality of positions of an activation element;

delivering the binary coding to a logic device, the logic device controlling the switching of the circuits; and

,

predominantly protecting at least one position of the activation element and as a result of a malfunction is detected.

18. The method according to claim 17 wherein the coding is read out from the logic device via a bus system.

19. The method according to claim 18 wherein the logic device is embodied as a central logic device for controlling further electrical functions and their respective circuits.

20. A light switch for a vehicle comprising:

an activation element and a switching device for bringing about a plurality of switched states as a function of the position of the activation element the switching device including a plurality of switching elements with two switched states each so that a binary coding of the switched states of all the switching elements results as a function of the position of the activation element in order to switch the circuits by means of a logic device, the switching device having at least one further switching element for at least one position of the activation element in order to protect at least one position independently of the switched states of the other switching elements.

21. The switch according to claim 20 wherein the switching elements include low power microswitches.

22. The switch according to claim 21 wherein the activation element includes as a rotary knob which is connected via an axle to a profiled disk for activating the switching element.

23. The switch according to claim 22 wherein the profiled disk is mounted on the axle so as to be fixed in terms of rotation and capable of displacement in the longitudinal direction so that the rotary knob can be pulled out and pushed its axis of rotation in order to activate further switching elements.