AU2006100545B9 - Motorhome safety warning system - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patent Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECFICATION INNOVATION PATENT MOTORHOME SAFETY WARNING SYSTEM The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me Specifications Background: Currently motor cars, trucks, and buses, which roll off the production line of the factory floor as the final assembled product have a number of warning systems to alert the driver as soon as the engine is started. These warnings include mainly letting the driver know if any of the doors are open or ajar. This is usually done by a warning buzzer or a visual indicator or both. However, in case of a motorised home(commonly known as a motorhome), the home builder usually first buys the truck or the van chassis from a vehicle manufacturer. The chassis usually has the front part of the vehicle with an open cockpit and only two doors. In such a situation the two existing doors (driver and passenger) may come with a dashboard mounted warning system to indicate to the driver if they are open while the engine is running. The motorhome builder usually uses the bare chassis or the tray top in the case of small vans) to build the so called motorhome (house) on it. Once the motorhome is complete it usually comprises a house door, a big boot at the rear end (storage area) which has at least 2 or 3 big doors opening outwards. Also along the side of the home are several other compartments such as a generator compartment with generally a door, the house battery compartment with a door, the gas bottle compartment with a door, the toilet waste holding tank compartment with a door etc. Furthermore, the modern motorhomes consist of an electrically or manually operated side step under the main door which usually protrudes around one foot when extended in some cases. Most luxury motorhomes have hand operated or electrically operated(remotely) large 1 to 2 meter high antenna on top of the roof as well as several ventilation lids opening upward( usually one for the bathroom and one for the lounge area). None of these items are meant to be open when driving the home. The current problem for the motorhome builder is to incorporate all these potentially dangerous items in to a single warning system at the completion of the home. Apart from all these impending dangers, the most significant new threat (which has never been an issue for the vehicle manufactures) is the fact that the motorhome has a 240 volts live wiring system whenever the motorhome is parked and powered by an external power supply. Most motorhomes stay in a Caravan Park overnight. The Caravan Park supplies an external 240 volt live cord (usually 30 Amp) to be plugged in to the home. During overnight stays, these homes usually use an external mains 240V power system to run microwaves, electric kettles, televisions etc, or they may power the home using a very silent generator, or the third option is to power the 240V line via an inverter which makes no noise at all. Either way whenever the home is powered with a 240V supply, one should not start moving the vehicle, particularly if the external cord is connected to get the power. If the external cord is dragged along the ground, and if it breaks or splits open, it would leave a live 240V wire behind.

Invention(claim): This invention will be known as the Motor Home Safety Warning System which shall be referred to as the system) allows the motorhome builder to use a single control box (dash mounted warning system as an aftermarket do it yourself product) to indicate any such dangers discussed on the previous page namely: Any of the boot doors open Toilet holding tank door open Gas bottle compartment door open House battery compartment door open Winding antenna on the roof is up Pull in pull out house step is out Main house door/any other door is open 240Volt main supply cable is plugged in to the motorhome or the inverter/generator is running on 240Volt line(live) Application details: The control box will be mounted somewhere visible to the driver and displays the current status via a series of colored lights. The front of the control box is illustrated in figure 1. These small colored indicator lights are numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 to represent various items discussed on the previous page, usually doors that may open and close including the windup antenna, and the side step below the main door. The back of the control box is illustrated in figure 2, which has a series of out put wires dual wires suitable to be fed in to a standard reed magnetic switch mounted on each door to identify if the door is in a closed position). These wires are numbered as 14, 15,16,17,18,19, and 20 corresponding to the front panel indicator lights 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7 respectively.

In figure 3, the front door step has a pair of reed magnets indicated as 26 on the step itself( the secondary magnet of the pair) and 25 on the body of the motorhome the primary magnet). The wire 14 (figure 2) off the back of the control box is connected to the base(primary) magnet of the reed switch(25) which will identify the position of 26's proximity in order to warn via the control panel's corresponding color indicator light(1) and a buzzer as well.

If the indicator light 2 is to be used in order to warn the position of the antenna on the roof, the output 15 off the back of the control box would be connected to the base magnet 34 on the roof floor, which is directly underneath 35 34, 35 makes a pair of reed magnets, in this case) The pair of reed magnets 27,28 can be connected to the control box via out put 16 in figure2. This will have a dedicated warning light 3 on the control box. This way the system will warn if the storage door is open.

In figure3 a pair of reed magnets 38,39 can be connected to line 17 (figure 2),in order to monitor the sky lid which acts exactly as any of the storage compartment doors.

The pair of reed magnets 36,37 in figure 3 is used to monitor the position of the home main door and can be connected to line 18 at the back of the control box (fig2), which corresponds to the warning light 5 on the control panel (fig. 1) Similar applications hold for other storage doors as well. The control box in this illustration has only 7 indicator lights( 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) with corresponding out put lines14,15,16,17,18,19. (This is only an example, the number of lines that can be manufactured in to the box has no limit.) Furthermore, one can connect more than one reed magnet switch to one out put line in figure 2. For example the out put line 18 in figure 2 can be connected to several of the storage door magnets as a single loop, in this case the system will allocate a single warning light 5 for all the items in the loop.

No. 22 indicates the external power point in a Caravan Park which connects the power cord 21 to the motorhome via the 240V power inlet point 33 on the motorhome. The 240V power plug 13 in figure 2 is plugged to any internal live power points inside the home This way the control box warns of its presence via an indicator light 11 in figurel. At this stage the system will not warn the driver in any way (audio or the red blinking indicator light 9) until the driver attempts to start the vehicle. No 12 in figure 2 is the system's activation point via 12 volt DC input. This is connected to the vehicles ignition system. As soon as the vehicle ignition is on, the front panel indication light 8 which (usually blue) indicates that the system is active and the indicator light 9 (figl) (red and blinking) warns the driver of the danger. At this point the driver of the vehicle can see which of the indicator lights 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7 are lit up (or if the 11 indicating main 240V is live in the home). According to the indicators, one has to close all relevant storage doors or the step or antenna) When reed magnets are in the closed position, as well as the 240Volt live wire is withdrawn in case of the generator or inverter, it must be shut down).

One can see only indication lights 8 and 10 and the audible beep has stopped, where 10 is a green light indicating the driver to go. Further more at the back of the unit is a small slide switch (40) which allows the driver to switch off the buzzer and continue driving the vehicle, if he or she wishes to do so. This is allowed due to the fact that the driver sees the need to have the antenna up for the passenger to watch television or to travel with the generator operating or some other reason to do so.

However the control panel continues to indicate the fact that this item is 4 still in the open position via the relevant indicator light as well as the red blinking indicator light 9.

Claims (3)

1. A Motorhome safety warning system comprising an electronic control box to be installed as an after market product for Motorhomes (powered using red and black wires via the vehicle's ignition system when the ignition is on) is used to identify the presence of the 240V live power(due to internal generator, inverter, or externally supplied power via a 240Volt(mains) power cord when parked overnight in a caravan park) whenever the ignition is on.

2. A Motorhome safety warning system according to claim 1 wherein the internal electronic circuitry of the system(when powered via the vehicle's ignition switch) identifies the above mentioned live 240V power and the presence of the external mains power cord connection to the motorhome by warning the driver with an acoustic signal as well as an optical signal.

3. A Motorhome safety warning system according to either claim 1 or claim 2 substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Dr Dananjaya Madurasinghe 28 March 2007