JPS6228524Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] This invention is electrically detected by the attached transmitter, and in case of an unacceptable deviation from the normal value, the indicator panel belonging to the state quantity and the alarm panel provided together with the The present invention relates to a device for monitoring various state quantities of a motor vehicle, such as engine temperature, rotational speed, lubricant or fuel amount, etc., which are optically indicated by an indicating instrument or element comprising:

It is already known to monitor state variables of a motor vehicle using warning lights. In this manner, normal battery charging, headlamp operation, and engine oil pressure in nearly all automobiles are monitored. Such monitoring is often also carried out on rear window heaters, handbrakes, warning flashers and other devices. As a rule, the lamps associated with the state variables to be monitored are provided on another indicating device forming a tachometer or speed measuring device, or directly on a switchboard, for example adjacent to an operating switch. When a predetermined limit value is reached or the device is activated, the warning lamp illuminates for a certain period of time or, if necessary, intermittently. A significant disadvantage of such warning lamps is that they have a relatively small lamp surface. Therefore, drivers often overlook the lights and therefore the warnings. Several minutes therefore elapse between the illumination and the warning to the driver, during which serious damage or destruction of the engine or other equipment of the motor vehicle can be avoided. Furthermore, when a warning lamp suddenly lights up, the driver cannot immediately judge whether this is a necessary warning to stop the vehicle, or whether to continue driving without significant damage to the vehicle or traffic safety restrictions. Can not.

It is necessary to eliminate such drawbacks by the present invention. Therefore, the problem of the present invention is to provide unmistakable warnings and related data regarding at least necessary state quantities for the driver, such as oil pressure, oil level, brake fluid pressure position, etc., through the weights of these warnings. An object of the present invention is to provide a device for monitoring various state quantities of an automobile, which are transmitted by the vehicle. Furthermore, it is necessary to manufacture the device simply and at low cost.

According to the present invention, such problems are solved by the apparatus described at the beginning as follows. That is, the transmitter is connected to the indicating instrument via a logic circuit which weights or evaluates the importance of one or more transmitter signals and which selects the plurality of illumination possibilities of the indicating instrument. The area is activated for continuous and/or intermittent illumination depending on the evaluation.

By activating an illuminable warning area of relatively large dimensions at least in important state variables, the driver's attention is immediately aroused. Furthermore, due to the different illumination of the warning and indication areas, the weight of the data is predetermined in almost any desired manner.

In a preferred embodiment, data of high weight, for example a fall in the oil pressure below a predetermined tolerance value or an engine speed limit value exceeded, result in an intermittent illumination of the alarm area and the indication area belonging to the data. The intermittent illumination of the warning and indication areas on the one hand arouses the driver's attention particularly quickly and, on the other hand, indicates to the driver the importance of the data. For data of medium weight, the indication areas belonging to these data are preferably illuminated intermittently, and the alarm areas are illuminated for a certain period of time. For light weight data, for example, if the fuel amount drops below a predetermined value or the window wash water level drops to a predetermined minimum level, the indicator area belonging to the data is illuminated for a certain period of time and the alarm area is activated. Preferably, it is not illuminated. As an alternative to this kind of lighting scheme, which is in fact particularly advantageous, other lighting combinations can also be provided.

When classifying data into three or more weight levels,
Similar to the lighting system described above, the driver is only alerted to the light weight data by means of the indication area. Since this can be disadvantageous in some cases, it is avoided according to another idea of the invention in the following way: when the change in the state quantity to be indicated occurs, the alarm area is illuminated and the reception switch is activated. After the activation, the indicator area that belongs to the state variable change is illuminated, if appropriate together with the alarm area.

Such a solution arouses the driver's attention directly after the occurrence of the alarm, and does not depend on data weights. A further advantage of this type of warning is that the driver has a warning warning even before he is informed of the state variable reaching an unacceptable value. Therefore, it is possible to avoid disadvantageous traffic behavior caused by the driver reacting in a panic without receiving a warning warning. Furthermore, such a device according to the invention can be used to distinguish relatively fine divisions of weight stages by introducing a large number of lighting combinations, or by selecting a lighting combination that clearly distinguishes a relatively large number of stages between individual weight stages. This ensures that the effectiveness of the warning is not negatively affected. Furthermore, in the case of data of intermediate weight, the lighting combination can be selected in such a way that the indication areas belonging to these data are illuminated intermittently, while the alarm areas are not illuminated.
In this way, the illumination combination described above differs from the combination described above for intermediate weights for high weight data.

Preferably, the reception switch is activated automatically or manually by the driver after a predetermined period of time. The advantage of manual operation is that the driver himself can determine the point in time for data transmission, taking into account the traffic situation, via the state variable at which the non-permissible value has been reached.

The assignment of the indication area to the alarm area can also be effected in various ways. In a preferred embodiment, the alarm area is arranged in the center of the indicator element, and the individual indicator areas are arranged around the alarm area. In addition, the instruction areas may be combined into one instruction block and this block may be placed above or below the alarm area, or the alarm area may be configured in the form of a frame surrounding the instruction block. Of course, an indicator area can also be provided on the switchboard, and an alarm area can be arranged adjacent to the steering device. In this case, the effectiveness of the warning is not impaired in the slightest.

In a further embodiment of the device according to the invention, a coupling circuit is provided between the state variable-influenced switch and the indicator system, which has an indicator area and an alarm area. This coupling circuit corresponds to the operating state of the motor vehicle which defines a predetermined state quantity, and is designed to be able to instruct a change in the predetermined state quantity only in the predetermined operating state. This ensures that the predetermined state variables are only monitored within the limits given by the respective operating state. Monitoring of oil pressure will be described below in connection with the above. As is known, if there is no failure in the engine, the oil pressure of the engine will not drop to a minimum value during operation. However, since the oil pressure drops below a minimum value when the engine is stationary, a false alarm may occur when the engine is stopped. This can be prevented by a coupling circuit which associates the hydraulic pressure with the operating state "engine running". With this arrangement, the hydraulic switch is connected to the alarm system only after a predetermined engine speed has been achieved. In addition, it is desirable to enter an alert state in relation to the amount of fuel when the ignition is activated. For this purpose, the state quantity "fuel amount" corresponds to the operating state "ignition activation".

It is furthermore expedient that the changes occurring in the predetermined state variables are indicated and transmitted to a memory device capable of controlling the indicating system. The advantage of such a device is that once an alarm has appeared, and subsequently when the vehicle is stopped and then restarted, if no corrective measures are taken during these periods, the alarm will appear again, and it will not disappear even when the vehicle is stopped. This is particularly important in the case of lighting monitoring, because, unlike other vehicle systems, these monitoring systems are rarely used in general,
It is possible to forget to repair the lighting device during the appearance of a one-off observation which disappears after the vehicle has stopped.
Erasing of the memory device is accomplished by a manually operable erase key provided in the erase circuit of the memory device. The erase key is provided in a location in the vehicle that is not easily accessible by hand. Such a location may be, for example, under the driver's seat, under the hood, or in a space in the trunk. This type of erase key arrangement can be used to perform necessary repair work or to force the driver to perform repair work himself.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS The apparatus of FIG. 1 is used for monitoring ten state quantities of various weights. The state quantities and their weights are as follows.

State quantity Weight Oil pressure (2) Engine speed (3) Brake fluid pressure (4) Brake lining (5) Oil level (6) Load monitoring (7) Engine temperature (8) Cooling water amount (9) Fuel amount (10) External lamp (11) The three different weights differ in the following way: in the case of a warning lamp in the weight, warning area 1 is illuminated intermittently;
In this case, the alarm area 1 is illuminated for a certain period of time. Also, in case of a specific alarm in weight, alarm area 1
and each state quantity of the instruction areas 2 and 3 belonging to the weight are intermittently illuminated. Further, in the case of a weight, the alarm area 1 is illuminated for a certain period of time, and each state quantity in the instruction areas 4 to 7 belonging to the weight is intermittently illuminated. In addition, in the case of a weight, warning area 1 is not illuminated, and instruction areas 8 to 1 belonging to the weight are not illuminated.
Each state quantity of 1 is illuminated for a certain period of time. The correspondence between the individual indication areas 2 to 11 and the state quantities is shown in the above table, with the number of the corresponding indication area shown in parentheses behind each state quantity.

The alarm area 1 and the indication areas 2-11 can be activated or shut off using switches 12-21 which are influenced by state variables. At that time, switch 1
2 belongs to the instruction area 2, the switch 13 belongs to the instruction area 3, the switch 14 belongs to the instruction area 4, and each switch in turn belongs to the instruction area up to the switch 21, and is connected or disconnected.

Each switch 12 to 21 is connected to a positive potential at one terminal, and connected to an AND gate 22 or 23 to 31 at the other terminal. Belongs to a given operating state. In the above table, the state quantities "oil pressure" and "engine speed" belong to the operating state of the vehicle "engine in operation", and the other state quantities belong to the operating state "ignition operation".

The output sides of the AND gates 22-31 are connected to the input sides of another AND gate 32 or 33-41, respectively. The second input sides of AND gates 32 to 41 are connected in parallel with each other and to the output side of flip-flop 42. This flip-flop is set by pressing the receive key 43. Each output side of the AND gates 32-41 is connected to each gate of the instruction areas 2-11.

A pulse generator 44 is provided to achieve intermittent illumination of the alarm area 1 and the indication areas 2-7, the output side of which is connected to the AND gates 22, 23, 34-37.
is connected to the third input side of the. The control of alarm region 1 takes place on the one hand via an OR gate 45 (the input side of which is connected to the output sides of AND gates 22, 23) and on the other hand via an OR gate 46 (whose input side is connected to the output sides of AND gates 24-27). (connected to the output side) and also via the OR gate 47 (the input side of which is connected to the output side of the AND gates 28-31).
The output side of the OR gate 47 is a flip-flop 48.
connected to the set input side of the The output side of the flip-flop 48 is connected to the alarm area 1. Erasing of flip-flop 48 is effected from AND gates 38-41 via OR gate 49.

To explain the operation of the device of the invention, it is assumed that the ignition is activated, the engine rotates at a predetermined minimum speed, and the conductors 50, 51 are connected to a positive potential. If the oil pressure drops below a predetermined minimum value,
Switch 12 closes, positive potential becomes AND gate 2
2, the first input of which is also applied to a positive potential as described above. and gate 22
Depending on the frequency of the pulses sent out by the pulse generator 44, positive and negative potentials or zero potential are applied alternately to the third input of the AND gate 22, so that the AND gate 22 sends out an intermittent signal. This signal reaches the warning area 1 via the OR gate 45, which is illuminated intermittently and eventually transmits a warning warning to the driver. When the driver presses the receive key 43, the flip-flop 42 switches from its basic position;
A positive potential appears at the output of the flip-flop 42 connected to the AND gates 32, 33 and the other AND gates. For that reason, and gate 32
allows the intermittent signal coming from the AND gate 22 to pass, and the indication area 2 is intermittent illuminated together with the alarm area 1.

For example, when the brake fluid pressure drops below a predetermined standard, switch 15 closes, thereby causing AND gate 25 to send a positive potential signal to OR gate 46 and AND gate 35. For this purpose, the warning area 1 is illuminated for a certain period of time to transmit a warning warning to the driver. After pressing the accept key 43, the flip-flop 42 switches from its basic position and the indication area 5 is illuminated intermittently.

Switch 2 when a malfunction occurs in the operation of the outside lamp.
1 is activated, and the AND gate 31 sends out a signal of positive potential. This signal reaches AND gate 41 and on the other hand flip-flop 48, which switches from its basic position and the alarm area is illuminated for a certain period of time. When the driver presses the reception key 43 based on this warning, the AND gate 41 sends the input signal to the flip-flop 52 used as a memory, and the flip-flop 52 switches from the basic position to the instruction area 11.
to illuminate. At the same time, the output signal of the AND gate 41 causes the flip-flop 48 to switch to the OR gate 49.
, and the alarm area 1 is cut off. The flip-flop 52 is the flip-flop 42,4
8, in other words, the flip-flop 52 is directly connected to the car battery without going through the on-board power switch, and it remains in this position even after the car is stopped. As a result, the instruction area 11 is immediately illuminated again after restarting the motor vehicle, instructing the driver to take the necessary measures. This flip-flop is erased via the erase key 53. This erase key is provided in a location inside the vehicle that is difficult to easily touch.

In the case of the pointing device shown in FIG. 1, pointing areas 2 to 1
1 are grouped into an instruction block, and the alarm area 1 is placed on the instruction block. A further embodiment of the indicator device is shown in FIG. 2, in which the alarm area 1 is arranged centrally and the individual indicator areas are arranged around the alarm area.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a monitoring device according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows a schematic plan view of another embodiment of the indicating device. 1...Alarm area, 2-11...Instruction area, 12
~21... Switch, 42, 48, 52... Flip-flop, 43... Receipt key, 44... Pulse generator, 45, 46, 47, 49... OR gate, 53... Erase key.

Claims (1)

[Claim for Utility Model Registration] Electrically detected by the associated transmitter, in the case of an unacceptable deviation from the normal value, it consists of an indication area belonging to the state quantity and an alarm area provided together with it. In a device for monitoring various state quantities of a vehicle that are optically indicated by an indicating instrument, the transmitters 12 to 21 are connected to the indicating instruments 1 to 11 via logic circuits, and one or more logic circuits are connected to each other. The importance of each transmitter signal is weighted or evaluated, and the plurality of illuminating areas 1; 2 to 11 of the indicating instrument are illuminated continuously and/or intermittently according to the evaluation. A device for monitoring various state quantities of an automobile, which operates to