Testing and display of electrical system impedance
First Claim
1. A method for testing a vehicle system circuit comprising the following steps performed by a tester:
- storing an impedance reference value in the tester;
measuring the value of impedance between two separated points of the vehicle system circuit;
determining whether to modify the measured value of impedance for display; and
in response to the step of determining, displaying the measured value of impedance if the outcome of the determining step is negative, and displaying an impedance value in which the measured value of impedance is offset by the stored impedance reference value if the outcome of the determining step is positive.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An automated method is provided for testing an electrical circuit using a system tester. Load leads and sense leads of the tester are connectable to any two points of an electrical circuit, such as in a vehicle system, for displaying in real time the impedance between the tested circuit points. A controller is responsive to various sensed signals to calculate impedance, admittance or conductance, and related parameters, such as available cranking current, and provide results for read out or display. A load may be connected across the circuit points under test, the sensed signals derived from a current sense amplifier, a DC voltage amplifier, a ripple amplifier, and an AC amplifier.
-
Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A method for testing a vehicle system circuit comprising the following steps performed by a tester:
-
storing an impedance reference value in the tester; measuring the value of impedance between two separated points of the vehicle system circuit; determining whether to modify the measured value of impedance for display; and in response to the step of determining, displaying the measured value of impedance if the outcome of the determining step is negative, and displaying an impedance value in which the measured value of impedance is offset by the stored impedance reference value if the outcome of the determining step is positive. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. An automated method for using a tester to test an electrical circuit of a vehicle, wherein the tester includes at least two measurement leads, the method comprising the following steps performed by the tester:
-
a) verifying that good lead connections have been made at two separated points of the electrical circuit; b) measuring impedance between the circuit points; c) displaying the measured impedance; d) providing a prompt including information to move at least one measurement lead to a different preset location of the electrical circuit for performing additional testing, wherein the tester stores data related to different preset locations of the electrical circuit for which additional testing should be performed; e) storing the measured impedance obtained in the measuring step; f) repeating steps a) through e) until it is determined that no additional testing is to be performed; g) comparing all measured values stored in the previous steps with respective threshold values for different locations of measurements; and h) display results obtained in the comparing step. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
Specification