Method and System for Retrieving Diagnostic Information

• US 20100138701A1
• Filed: 12/03/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitchell Repair Information Company, LLC (Snap-On Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Snap-On Incorporated
• Inventors: Costantino, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,315,760 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/49
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata

Abstract

A system, method, and apparatus for retrieving trouble codes from an equipment under diagnosis and retrieving only relevant diagnostic information relative to the returned codes from one or more remote diagnostic libraries. An electronic diagnostic library contains diagnostic vehicle information tagged with trouble code identification ID'"'"'s at a first location, and a diagnostic tool at a second location requests only relevant diagnostic information from the electronic library that is tagged with trouble code identification ID'"'"'s corresponding to the retrieved trouble codes and information identifying the equipment under diagnosis. The diagnostic tool receives the specific diagnostic vehicle information at the first location and may store the specific vehicle information locally prior to displaying an index to the information to a repair technician.

Claims

1. A method for retrieving diagnostic information comprising:

generating an electronic library of diagnostic information tagged with a plurality of trouble code identification ID'"'"'s at a first location;

receiving one or more diagnostic trouble codes from equipment under diagnosis at a second location;

retrieving only specific diagnostic information from the electronic library at the first location corresponding to the trouble codes received from the equipment under diagnosis; and

sending, from the electronic library at the first location, only the specific diagnostic information tagged with trouble code identification ID'"'"'s corresponding to the one or more trouble codes.

2. The method set forth in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

displaying an index to the retrieved specific diagnostic information on a display screen at the second location.

3. The method set forth in claim 1, wherein the specific diagnostic information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of wiring diagrams, images of equipment components, suggested diagnostic testing steps, equipment component removal and installation instructions, and component specification data.

4. The method set forth in claim 1, wherein the electronic library is stored in a third electronic storage medium at the first location and is accessible via the Internet;

wherein a computing device connected to the Internet at the second location receives the trouble code information from a first electronic storage medium within the equipment under diagnosis via a code retrieval device and requests the specific diagnostic information from the electronic library at the first location via the Internet; and

wherein the computing device stores the received specific diagnostic information in a second electronic storage medium, the second electronic storage medium being contained within the computing device.

5. The method set forth in claim 4, wherein the computing device also retrieves year, make, and model information or unique equipment identification number (EIN) information from the first electronic storage medium within the equipment under diagnosis, and sends the year, make, and model information or EIN information along with the retrieved trouble codes to the electronic library at the first location.

6. The method set forth in claim 1, wherein the equipment under diagnosis is a motor vehicle or a portion of a motor vehicle, and the electronic library of tagged diagnostic information is motor vehicle diagnostic information.

7. A system for retrieving specific diagnostic information comprising:

a first computing system at a first location, the first computing system including an electronic library of diagnostic information tagged with trouble code identification ID'"'"'s stored in a first electronic medium;

a second computing system at a second location, the second computing system including a first interface for retrieving diagnostic trouble codes from a second electronic storage medium within an equipment under diagnosis, the second computing system also having a second interface for connecting with the first computing system and having a display for providing information to a user of the second computing system;

wherein the second computing system is configured to, upon retrieval of the diagnostic trouble codes, request specific diagnostic information from the electronic library at the first location tagged with the trouble code identification ID'"'"'s corresponding to the trouble codes received from the equipment under diagnosis, store the specific diagnostic information, and populate the display to the user with an index to the retrieved specific diagnostic information.

8. The system set forth in claim 7, wherein the specific diagnostic information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of wiring diagrams, images of equipment components, suggested diagnostic testing steps, equipment component removal and installation instructions, and component specification data.

9. The system set forth in claim 7, wherein the electronic library and the second computing device are connected to the Internet, and the second computing system requests the specific diagnostic information from the electronic library at the first location via the Internet.

10. The system set forth in claim 9, wherein the second computing device also retrieves year, make, and model information or unique equipment identification number (EIN) information from the second electronic storage medium within the equipment under diagnosis, and sends the year, make, and model information or EIN information along with the retrieved trouble codes to the electronic library at the first location.

11. The system set forth in claim 9, wherein the equipment under diagnosis is a motor vehicle or a portion of a motor vehicle, and the electronic library of tagged diagnostic information is motor vehicle diagnostic information.

12. A computing device for retrieving and storing only specific diagnostic information comprising:

a computing device at a first location having a first electronic storage medium, the computing system including a first interface for retrieving diagnostic trouble codes from a second electronic storage medium within an equipment under diagnosis, and having a second interface for connecting with a remote computing system at a second location via a network connection, the computing device including a display for providing information to a user of the second computing system;

wherein the computing system is configured to, upon retrieval of the diagnostic trouble codes from the equipment under diagnosis, request only specific diagnostic information from an electronic library at the first location that is tagged with trouble code identification ID'"'"'s corresponding to the trouble codes received from the equipment under diagnosis, store the specific diagnostic information in the first electronic storage medium, and populate the display to the user with an index to the retrieved specific diagnostic information.

13. The computing device set forth in claim 12, wherein the specific diagnostic information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of wiring diagrams, images of equipment components, suggested diagnostic testing steps, equipment component removal and installation instructions, and component specification data.

14. The computing device set forth in claim 12, wherein the computing device and remote computing system are connected to the Internet, and the computing device at the first location requests the specific diagnostic information from the electronic library at the second location via the Internet.

15. The computing device set forth in claim 14, wherein the computing device also retrieves year, make, and model information or unique equipment identification number (EIN) information from the second electronic storage medium within the equipment under diagnosis, and sends the year, make, and model information or EIN information along with the retrieved trouble codes to the electronic library at the second location.

16. The computing device set forth in claim 12, wherein the equipment under diagnosis is a motor vehicle or a portion of a motor vehicle, and the electronic library of tagged diagnostic information is motor vehicle diagnostic information.

19. The computer program product set forth in claim 16, wherein the computing program product also retrieves year, make, and model information or unique equipment identification number (EIN) information from the first electronic storage medium within the equipment under diagnosis, and sends the year, make, and model information or EIN identification information along with the retrieved trouble codes to the remote electronic library.

17. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for retrieving specific diagnostic information, said method comprising:

retrieving one or more diagnostic trouble codes from an equipment under diagnosis;

requesting only specific diagnostic information corresponding to the trouble codes received from the first electronic storage medium from a remote electronic library containing a library of diagnostic information tagged with trouble code identification ID'"'"'s;

receiving only the specific diagnostic information from the remote electronic library;

storing the specific diagnostic information in a local data store; and

populating a display to a user with an index to the retrieved specific diagnostic information.

18. The computer program product set forth in claim 17, wherein the specific diagnostic information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of wiring diagrams, images of equipment components, suggested diagnostic testing steps, equipment component removal and installation instructions, and component specification data.