Method for testing electrical wiring buck of vehicle
First Claim
1. A method for testing an electrical system of a pre-production vehicle wiring buck, comprising the steps of:
- engaging a portable tester with a test receptacle of the wiring buck;
transmitting, at the portable tester, a vehicle identification number (VIN) associated with the wiring buck via a radiofrequency (RF) link to a remote computer;
transmitting, from the remote computer via RF link to the tester, test information in response to receipt of the VIN;
establishing test protocols for the wiring buck at the tester in response to receipt of the test information; and
testing the wiring buck in accordance with the test protocols.
21 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for testing the electrical components of vehicles and vehicle electrical system prototypes, referred to as "wiring bucks", includes a hand held tester to which a translator unit can be detachably engaged and with which the tester is in RF communication. The translator unit can be detached from the tester and plugged into a test receptacle under a vehicle'"'"'s/wiring buck'"'"'s dashboard to communicate with the vehicle/wiring buck by translating computer formatted data from the tester to vehicle bus-formatted data, and vice-versa. Then, the vehicle'"'"'s/wiring buck'"'"'s VIN or identification is scanned into the tester or manually input into the tester, and the tester transmits the VIN via an RF link in the assembly plant to a computer in the plant. Based on the VIN, the computer determines the electric equipment that the vehicle/wiring buck has, and the computer transmits this information back to the tester. The tester then determines which tests to execute, and the tester causes the translator unit to undertake these tests. The translator transmits the test results back to the tester which in turn transmits the results to the computer. A portable current module can be provided that monitors the current drawn from the vehicle'"'"'s/wiring buck'"'"'s battery during the testing and for communicating this data to the tester via RF link.
84 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for testing an electrical system of a pre-production vehicle wiring buck, comprising the steps of:
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engaging a portable tester with a test receptacle of the wiring buck; transmitting, at the portable tester, a vehicle identification number (VIN) associated with the wiring buck via a radiofrequency (RF) link to a remote computer; transmitting, from the remote computer via RF link to the tester, test information in response to receipt of the VIN; establishing test protocols for the wiring buck at the tester in response to receipt of the test information; and testing the wiring buck in accordance with the test protocols. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for testing electrical components of a vehicle wiring buck in substantially any location within or immediately adjacent to a building;
- comprising the steps of;
obtaining a vehicle identification number (VIN) associated with the wiring buck by scanning the VIN using a bar code reader of a wiring buck tester; transmitting the VIN via a primary RF link from the tester to a computer; in response to receiving the VIN, transmitting salescode data from the computer to the tester; correlating the salescode data to a test protocol at the tester; and executing the test protocol at the tester to test the electrical components of the wiring buck. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
- comprising the steps of;
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13. A method for testing an electrical system of a wiring buck in substantially any location within or immediately adjacent to a vehicle plant, comprising the steps of:
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transmitting, at a portable tester, a vehicle identification number (VIN) associated with the wiring buck to a remote computer; transmitting, via radiofrequency (RF) link, salescode data from the remote computer to the tester in response to receipt of the VIN; correlating the salescode data to test protocols at the tester; and testing the electrical system with the tester in accordance with the test protocols. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for testing an electrical system of a pre-production vehicle wiring buck, comprising the steps of:
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establishing communication by radio frequency (RF) link between a portable tester and a computer; establishing communication by RF link between the portable tester and a translator; engaging the translator with a test receptacle of the electrical system; scanning a vehicle identification number (VIN) into the tester; transmitting via RF link the VIN from the tester to the computer; transmitting vehicle sales code data from the computer to the tester in response to receipt of the VIN; correlating the salescode data to test protocols at the tester; and testing the wiring buck from the tester via the translator in accordance with the test protocols. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification