OBD II-compliant diagnostic PC tablet and method of use

• US 8,630,765 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2006
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innova Electronics Corporation (Innova Telematics Solutions)
• Original Assignee: Innova Electronics Corporation (Innova Telematics Solutions)
• Inventors: Chen, Ieon
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Application Number:
  US11/601,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20080119981A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,615 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/2, 701/29, 701/31, 701/33, 701/33.2, 701/32.7, 701/31.4, 340/438, 340/441
• US Class Current: 701/33.2
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31337 Failure information database
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32232 Inspection and correction, repair station are separate, transmit correction data
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/37095 Digital handheld device with data interface
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0267 Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2205/02 using a vehicle scan tool
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means

Abstract

An OBD II-compliant diagnostic PC tablet and method are provided. The tablet enables the simultaneous display of diagnostic data from multiple systems. Further, the tablet enables retrieval of potential solutions in response to the diagnostic data. The tablet may be used to retrieve the diagnostic data from a given vehicle system. The tablet features a display screen, an input node, and a processor. The tablet may communicate with one or more remote databases obtaining diagnostic summaries therefrom. Thus, the computer receives the diagnostic data vehicle system, derives diagnostic information therefrom, and can use external databases to derive potential diagnostic solutions therefrom.

Claims

1. A diagnostic method comprising:

receiving in a hand held device sensed diagnostic data from a vehicle, the diagnostic data being representative of a vehicle system status;

transmitting an upload signal including information representative of the diagnostic data to at least one remote database to produce to diagnostic summary, the diagnostic summary including a plurality of selectable top level information results, each top level information result being associated with a plurality of bottom level information links, each bottom level information link being associated with remotely located bottom level data including at least one of data functionally related to the diagnostic data and reference materials associated with the diagnostic data, the plurality of bottom level information links being accessible in response to selection of the respective top level information result, the bottom level data being accessible in the hand held device in response to selection of the respective bottom level information link;

formatting the diagnostic summary for display at the hand held device in accordance with formatting instructions provided by a user;

displaying the diagnostic summary for review in the hand held device;

selecting a first one of the plurality of top level information results of the diagnostic summary;

displaying the bottom level information links associated with the one of the plurality of top level information results;

selecting one of the plurality of bottom level information links;

downloading the bottom level data associated with the selected first one of the top level information results; and

displaying the bottom level data associated with the selected first one of the top level information results for review in the hand held device simultaneously with display of the diagnostic summary.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the bottom level data includes at least one of system specifications, manufacturer information, and system descriptions.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the bottom level data includes a technical service bulletin to produce a TSB result.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the TSB result includes at least one of diagnostic procedures, repair procedures, known problems, notifications about parts, warranty information, and service manual updates.

5. The method of claim 2 further including the step of communicating diagnostic instructions to the vehicle system in response to the diagnostic information and the selected result(s).

6. The method of claim 1 limber comprising the step of

transmitting a download signal to the hand held device from the at least one remote database, the download signal being representative of the diagnostic summary.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference materials associated with the diagnostic data includes warranty information.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes supplemental vehicle system data.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of processing the diagnostic data in the hand held device to obtain diagnostic information correlated to the vehicle system status.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving in the hand held device sensed diagnostic data from the vehicle includes receiving data from a vehicle onboard computer.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

selecting a second one of the plurality of top level information results of the diagnostic summary; and

displaying the bottom level data associated with the second one of the top level information results simultaneously with the display of the bottom level data associated with the first one of the top level information results;

wherein the bottom level data associated with first one of the information results is representative of the data related to a first vehicle system, and the bottom level data associated with the second one of the information results is representative of data related to a second vehicle system.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of formatting the bottom level data associated, with the selected first one of the top level information results In accordance with formatting instructions provided by the user.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising, the step of receiving formatting instructions from the user, the formatting instructions pertaining to the layout of information displayed on the hand held device.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the formatting instructions include displaying information on the hand held device in a split screen format.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of resizing the display of the diagnostic summary to accommodate simultaneous display with the bottom level data associated with the selected first one of the top level information results.

7. A method of diagnosing vehicle conditions comprising:

linking a handheld device to is vehicle system;

receiving in the handheld device diagnostic data from the vehicle system, the diagnostic data being representative of a vehicle system status;

displaying the vehicle diagnostic data on the handheld device;

receiving at the handheld device diagnostic information from a plurality of diagnostic resource databases, the diagnostic information including a diagnostic summary comprising a plurality of selectable top level inhumation results, each top level information result being associated with a plurality of bottom level information links, each bottom level information link being associated with remotely located bottom level data including at least one of data functionally related to the diagnostic data and reference materials associated with the diagnostic data, the plurality of bottom level information links being accessible in response to selection of the respective top level information result, the bottom level data being accessible in response to selection of the associated bottom level information link;

formatting the diagnostic summary for display at the hand held device in accordance with formatting instructions provided by a user;

displaying in the handheld device the diagnostic summary;

selecting a first one of the top level information results of the diagnostic summary;

displaying bottom level information links associated with the first one of the top level information results;

selecting a first one of the bottom level information link associated with the first one of the top level information results;

downloading the bottom level data associated with the selected first one of the bottom level information links to the hand held device; and

displaying the downloaded bottom level data associated with the selected first one of the bottom level information links in the hand held device simultaneously with the display of the diagnostic summary.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 wherein at least one of the diagnostic resource databases is disposed internal to the handheld device.

9. The method as recited in claim 7 wherein each of the diagnostic resource databases is disposed external to the handheld device.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 wherein each of the diagnostic resource databases is linked to the handheld device via the worldwide web.

11. The method as recited in claim 7 wherein the vehicle diagnostic data and the diagnostic information are displayed simultaneously on the handhold device.

12. The method as recited in claim 7 wherein the vehicle diagnostic data and the diagnostic information are displayed alternately on the handheld device.

13. The method as recited in claim 7 further comprising the step of receiving and displaying in the hand held device real time diagnostic data from the vehicle system.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising the step of displaying in the hand held device the real time diagnostic data from the vehicle system and diagnostic data previously received from the vehicle system substantially simultaneously.

15. The method as recited in claim 14 further comprising the step of communicating instructions for remedying a vehicle condition to the vehicle system.

21. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of receiving in the handheld device sensed a diagnostic data from the vehicle includes receiving data from a vehicle onboard computer.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising the steps of:

selecting a second one of the plurality of top level information results of the diagnostic summary;

displaying bottom level information links associated with the second one of the top level information results;

selecting a second one of the bottom level information links associated with the second on of the top level information results;

downloading bottom level data associated with the selected second one of the bottom level information links to the handheld device; and

displaying the downloaded bottom level data associated with the second one of the bottom level information links in the handheld device simultaneously with the display of the diagnostic summary;

wherein the bottom level data associated with the first one of the bottom level information links is representative of data related to a first vehicle system, and the bottom level data associated with the second one of the information links is representative of data related to a second vehicle system.