Power distribution apparatus for a motor vehicle

• US 20020084786A1
• Filed: 12/20/2001
• Published: 07/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Egami, Tsuneyuki
• Granted Patent: US 6,700,386 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/503
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 11/00 Arrangement of monitoring devices for devices provided for in groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q9/00
• 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 1/14 Balancing the load in a network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/46 for ICE-powered road vehicles

Abstract

If there is an error in the feeding system and the error condition allows the motor vehicle to run, the power to electric load systems having a low priority is cut off. If the error condition does not allow the motor vehicle to run, the power to all electric loads is cut off. If there is an error in an electric load system having a high priority, the power to all electric loads is cut off. If there is an error in an electric load system having a low priority, the power to this electric load is cut off.

Claims

1. A power distribution apparatus for a motor vehicle having a plurality of electric loads, a power supply for supplying a power to said electric loads, and distribution control means for independently controlling distribution of said power to said electric loads, said distribution control means further including:

storing means for storing priorities of said electric loads for classifying said electric loads into a plurality of groups;

detection means for detecting an error in a power feeding system including said power supply and said distribution control means and detecting a condition that it is possible to partially distribute said power to said electric loads in the presence of said error; and

control means for distributing said power to a portion of said groups of said electric loads having said priority which is relatively high and cutting off said power to remains of said groups of said electric loads having said priority which is relatively low when said detection means detects said condition.

2. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said storing means further stores class data for classifying said electric loads into an essential group and a non-essential group, said detection means further detects, in the presence of said error, a second condition that said error will make it impossible to run said motor vehicle and a third condition that said error allows said motor vehicle to run, and said control means cuts off said power to at least said essential group of said electric loads on the basis of said class data when said detection means detects said second condition and distributes said power to said essential group of said electric loads and cuts off said power to at least a portion of said non-essential group of electric loads on the basis of said class data when said detection means detects said third condition.

3. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said detection means further detects a present ability of feeding said power from said power feeding system, and said third condition is detected by detecting whether a total of powers required by said electric loads exceeds said present ability of said power.

4. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

second detection means for detecting whether there is an electric load error in said electric loads and detecting said priority of said electric load having said electric load error; and

second control means for cutting off said power to at least one of said groups of said electric loads having a high priority when said detected priority is higher than a reference and distributing said power to said groups of said electric loads having high priorities and cutting off said power to said detected electric load when said second detection means detects said electric load error and said detected priority is not higher than said reference.

5. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein, at start up of said motor vehicle, said detection means detects said error and, in the presence of said error, detects said second condition and said third condition, and said control means cuts off said power to at least said essential group of said electric loads and alarms the operator on the basis of said class data when said detection means detects said second condition and distributes said power to said essential group of said electric loads and cuts off said power to at least a portion of said non-essential group of electric loads and alarms the operator on the basis of said class data when said detection means detects said third condition.

6. A power distribution apparatus for a motor vehicle having a plurality of electric loads, a power supply for supplying a power to said electric loads, and distribution control means for independently controlling distribution of said power to said electric loads, said distribution control means further including:

storing means for storing priorities of said electric loads for classifying said electric loads into a plurality of groups;

detection means for detecting whether there is an error in said electric loads and, in the presence of said error, detecting said priority of said electric load having said error; and

control means for cutting off said power to at least one of said groups of said electric loads having said priority higher than a reference when said detected priority is higher than said reference and distributing said power to said groups of said electric loads having said priorities higher than said reference and cutting off said power to said detected electric load when said detection means detects said error and said detected priority is not higher than said reference.

7. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said storing means stores class data for classifying said electric loads into an essential group and a non-essential group, said detection means further detects, in the presence of said error, whether said electric load having said error belongs to said essential group or non-essential group on the basis of said class data, and said control means cuts off said power to at least all of said electric loads in said essential group when said electric load having said error belongs to said essential group and cuts off said power to said power to said electric load having said error when said electric load having said error belongs to said non-essential group.

8. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said control means further cuts off said power to one of said electric load having said priority which is lower than said detected priority and having relation data indicating a relation with said detected electric load when said detected priority is not higher than said reference.

9. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 6, further comprising:

second detection means for detecting a power feeding error in a power feeding system including said power supply and said distribution control means, and detecting a condition that it is possible to partially distribute said power to said electric loads in the presence of said power feeding error; and

second control means for distributing said power to a portion of said groups of said electric loads having a higher priority and cutting off said power to remains of said groups of said electric loads having a lower priority when said second detection means detects said condition.

10. The power distribution apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein, at start up of said motor vehicle, said detection means further detects, in the presence of said error, whether one of said electric loads having said error belongs to said essential group or non-essential group on the basis of said class data, and said control means cuts off said power to at least all of said electric loads in said essential group and alarms the operator on the basis of said class data when said electric load having said error belonging to said essential group and cuts off said power to said power to said electric load having said error and alarms the operator on the basis of said class data when said electric load having said error belongs to said non-essential group.

11. A power distribution apparatus for a motor vehicle having a plurality of electric loads, a power supply for supplying a power to said electric loads, and distribution control means for independently controlling distribution of said power to said electric loads, said distribution control means further including:

storing means for storing priorities of said electric loads for classifying said electric loads into a plurality of groups;

first detection means for detecting an error in a power feeding system including said power supply and said distribution control means, and detecting a condition that it is possible to partially distribute said power to said electric loads in the presence of said error;

second detection means for detecting a degree of said error; and

control means for successively distributing said power to one of said groups of said electric loads in order of said priority on the basis of said detected degree.