WO1998034799A1 - Systeme avertisseur de la pression des pneus - Google Patents

Systeme avertisseur de la pression des pneus Download PDF

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Publication number
WO1998034799A1
WO1998034799A1 PCT/GB1998/000358 GB9800358W WO9834799A1 WO 1998034799 A1 WO1998034799 A1 WO 1998034799A1 GB 9800358 W GB9800358 W GB 9800358W WO 9834799 A1 WO9834799 A1 WO 9834799A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
sensor
tyre
pressure
transmitter
signal
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/GB1998/000358
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
David Caradoc Owens
Original Assignee
Xpertech Limited
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Xpertech Limited filed Critical Xpertech Limited
Priority to EP98903139A priority Critical patent/EP0958154A1/fr
Priority to CA002280521A priority patent/CA2280521A1/fr
Publication of WO1998034799A1 publication Critical patent/WO1998034799A1/fr

Links

Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60C—VEHICLE TYRES; TYRE INFLATION; TYRE CHANGING; CONNECTING VALVES TO INFLATABLE ELASTIC BODIES IN GENERAL; DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS RELATED TO TYRES
    • B60C23/00—Devices for measuring, signalling, controlling, or distributing tyre pressure or temperature, specially adapted for mounting on vehicles; Arrangement of tyre inflating devices on vehicles, e.g. of pumps or of tanks; Tyre cooling arrangements
    • B60C23/02—Signalling devices actuated by tyre pressure
    • B60C23/04—Signalling devices actuated by tyre pressure mounted on the wheel or tyre
    • B60C23/0408—Signalling devices actuated by tyre pressure mounted on the wheel or tyre transmitting the signals by non-mechanical means from the wheel or tyre to a vehicle body mounted receiver

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a tyre pressure warning system of the type which can be used on vehicles to advise the driver if the pressure in any of the tyres on the wheels of the vehicle changes from a predetermined value by more than a given amount. Typically, it will be used to warn the driver of deflation of the tyre.
  • the present invention is an improvement on a system known as TireMate which has been sold in the United States.
  • TireMate which has been sold in the United States.
  • This consists of a pressure sensor/transmitter, which replaces the dust cap on the outer end of a tyre valve.
  • the sensor/transmitter is a mechanical pressure sensor. It is preset with a reference pressure, the ideal pressure for the tyre on which it is to be mounted, and a triggering pressure. If the pressure in the tyre falls to the triggering pressure the sensor/transmitter transmits only its identity to a control unit which then indicates to the driver that a fault has occurred on that. Thus, when the pressure in the tyre becomes too low the driver will be warned of this and will have the option of doing something about it. The sensor/transmitter unit transmits continuously until the battery powering it is discharged.
  • sensor/transmitter units have to be preset with desired and triggering pressures. This is normally done at manufacture and means that units cannot easily be switched to other vehicles with tyres that run at different pressures .
  • a preferred embodiment of the invention provides a system in which the sensor/transmitter only transmits an over or under pressure signal to the data processing and display unit when the pressure in the tyre differs from the desired pressure by more than a predetermined amount.
  • a sensor/transmitter device is provided to replace a standard dust cap.
  • a thermistor is provided and is exposed to the gas filling the tyre and thus is sensitive to temperature changes in the gas.
  • a software driven microprocessor receives a signal from the thermistor and is thus able to take account of temperature changes in determining whether or not there has been any increase or decrease in the real pressure in the tyre.
  • Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a system embodying the invention
  • Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a sensor embodying the invention.
  • Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of a further embodiment of the invention for use on vehicles with detachable trailers.
  • FIG 1 there are shown four sensor units 2 each coupled to a respective transmitter 4. These units are included in a unit which screws onto a tyre valve and replaces its dust cap. On a four-wheel vehicle the system would be as shown in Figure 1 with four sensor/transmitter units, one attached to the dust cap on each wheel. It can however be used on two wheel vehicles or vehicles with more than four tyres or wheels.
  • the pressure transducers used in the sensor/transmitter units are electronic sensors under microprocessor control. They are controlled to transmit to a control unit an identification code when they are installed on a tyre. They are also controlled to measure and record the pressure they first encounter when they are installed on a tyre. This is stored in memory and is used for comparison with the tyre pressure during use to determine wether the tyre pressure has changed by more than a predetermined amount . Preferably this change is monitored as a percentage of the first encountered pressure, e.g. 15%.
  • the transducers used preferably have a range from 0.5 to 10 bar and this enables the same sensor/transmitter units to be used on a wide range of vehicles .
  • a data processing unit 6 is provided in the cab of the vehicle in a position where it can be viewed by the driver.
  • This data processing unit is coupled to a receiver 8 which receives signals transmitted by the transmitters 4. It is also coupled to a display 10 which is used to display tyre deflation/inflation warning information to the driver.
  • the display 10 is preferably an alphanumeric display of, for example, the liquid crystal type. Thus it can provide instructions and information to the user.
  • the sensors are coupled to the microprocessor which monitors the output signal from its respective sensor and, if the signal alters in such a way as to indicate that the pressure in the respective tyre has changed from the first encountered pressure by more than the predetermined amount, the processor controls the transmitter to transmit a warning signal to the data processing unit 6 which receives it by means of receiver 8.
  • This warning signal comprises an identification signal identifying the sensor.
  • the identification signal is a 16-bit coded signal which enables over 65,000 different sensor identification codes to be used. This makes the chance of a signal from a sensor with a corresponding ID on another vehicle being sent to the data processing unit 6 very remote. Previous systems such as the TireMate system included the possibility of only 14 individual settings for sensor identification codes.
  • the sensor/transmitter units are arranged to transmit every 24 hours an OK signal to the data processing unit 6 if no fault condition is detected within a 24 hour period.
  • the purpose of this signal is to ensure that the data processing unit has information indicating that all sensor/transmitter units on a vehicle are working. Thus, if a fault develops on a unit or its battery runs out of power, no OK signal will be sent to the data processing unit 6 and this can then indicate to the driver via the display 10 that there is a problem with the sensor/transmitter unit on a particular wheel of the vehicle.
  • the sensor/transmitter is preferably arranged to detect faults with the sensor and to transmit to the control unit a sensor fault signal to the driver indicating that a problem has occurred with a particular sensor .
  • the sensor units are designed to determine the pressure of the tyres on which they are installed, store this pressure in memory and, subsequently, trigger a fault condition transmission when the pressure change within the tyre is, for example, plus or minus 15% from the pressure originally measured and stored. Thus, there is no requirement for triggering of fault condition signals at predetermined pressures.
  • the sensor/transmitter in this embodiment sends the fault signal repeatedly over a period of 30 seconds. The transmission is then terminated to save the battery life of the sensor. Thereafter, the alarm transmission is repeated every 15 minutes for a 30 second period. To rectify a fault the sensor/transmitter unit is removed from the tyre by unscrewing the dust cap . Exposure of the transducer to atmospheric pressure causes the sensor to reset and causes the fault transmission to cease. These timings can of course be varied as desired.
  • Figure 2 Another embodiment of a sensor/transmitter unit is shown in Figure 2.
  • the senor comprises a sensor unit 2 (preferably an electronic sensor) which is responsive to the tyre pressure and a thermistor 12 (temperature dependent resistor) which changes resistance as the temperature in the tyre changes.
  • the processor 14 monitors the signal from the sensor 2 and from the thermistor 12. From this, it is able to determine what temperature increase or decrease in the tyre has occurred and thus is able to compensate the signal from the sensor for this temperature increase/decrease. This avoids the sending of a spurious fault condition signal when pressure increases or decreases purely because of a large change in temperature. It ensures that fault transmissions only occur when there is some other cause for an increase/decrease in pressure.
  • the data processing and display unit is used to record the identities of sensor/transmitter units installed on a vehicle. This information is stored in memory.
  • the control unit prompts a person installing the sensor/transmitter units to install the units on each tyre in turn. Prompting is done via the display 10 where an indication of the tyre on which the next unit to be installed is made.
  • the initial exposure to the tyre pressure causes it to transmit its identification code to the control unit.
  • the control unit is able to record the identification code for the unit installed on each tyre.
  • the data processing unit validates any transmission received by ensuring that it is repeated several times in the same format. This it does during the transmission period of 30 seconds from a fault condition being detected and transmission of that commencing. This is done to exclude spurious transmissions and to ensure that the identity code received relates to a sensor which has previously been recorded as being installed on the particular vehicle.
  • tractor and trailer units are used, particularly in the road haulage industry. Trailers may be disconnected from tractors for a considerable period of time and may in fact be reconnected to different tractors. If a tyre deflation should take place whilst a trailer is disconnected, the tractor unit with the standard data processing and display unit will not be in the proximity and, thus, details of the failure will not be stored.
  • a separate data transceiver unit is provided on a trailer. This is illustrated in Figure 3.
  • a data transceiver unit 16 is provided mounted on a trailer and is coupled to a receiver 18. This receives signals from sensors/transmitters mounted on the wheels of the trailer.
  • a separate power supply is included in the data transceiver unit 16 and this is preferably a rechargeable battery which is recharged when the transceiver is connected to the power supply of a tractor.
  • a connector 20 is used to couple the data processing unit to the data transceiver when the tractor unit is coupled to the trailer for power supply. On initial coupling, all data stored by the data transceiver is down loaded to the tractor unit. This comprises the identities and locations of the sensors mounted on the trailer, whether or not any fault condition has occurred on any of these, and details of whether the OK signals required every 24 hours have been received.
  • the connection 20 between the data transceiver 16 and the data processing unit 6 need not be a hard-wired connection.
  • the data transceiver could be provided with a transmitter 22 which, when a tractor is linked to the trailer, could be organised to transmit all the relevant information to a receiver 24 on the data processing unit 6. Thereafter, signals from the trailer sensor transmitters could be received either by the data transceiver 16 or by the data processing unit 6. Using this arrangement enables tractors and trailers to be interchanged without having to reprogramme the tyre pressure warning system.

Abstract

L'invention concerne un système de surveillance de la pression des pneus d'un véhicule, qui présente une pluralité d'unités capteur/émetteur (2, 4), une pour chaque pneu du véhicule. Chaque unité capteur/émetteur (2, 4) possède un transducteur de pression (2) et un processeur (14). Ce processeur (14) compare un signal de pression courant provenant du transducteur à un signal de pression stocké dans sa mémoire et qui correspond à la première pression relevée lors de l'installation du transducteur. Le processeur (14) comprend des moyens destinés à transmettre un signal d'anomalie lorsque le signal de pression courant diffère du signal de pression stocké en mémoire d'une valeur supérieure à une grandeur déterminée. Une unité de surveillance (6) reçoit les signaux d'anomalie provenant des transducteurs et comprend des moyens (24) permettant d'indiquer une anomalie.
PCT/GB1998/000358 1997-02-05 1998-02-05 Systeme avertisseur de la pression des pneus WO1998034799A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP98903139A EP0958154A1 (fr) 1997-02-05 1998-02-05 Systeme avertisseur de la pression des pneus
CA002280521A CA2280521A1 (fr) 1997-02-05 1998-02-05 Systeme avertisseur de la pression des pneus

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GBGB9702295.8A GB9702295D0 (en) 1997-02-05 1997-02-05 Tyre pressure warning system
GB9702295.8 1997-02-05

Related Child Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US09/106,548 Continuation US6164007A (en) 1994-02-22 1998-06-29 Fish hook

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO1998034799A1 true WO1998034799A1 (fr) 1998-08-13

Family

ID=10807092

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/GB1998/000358 WO1998034799A1 (fr) 1997-02-05 1998-02-05 Systeme avertisseur de la pression des pneus

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0958154A1 (fr)
CA (1) CA2280521A1 (fr)
GB (1) GB9702295D0 (fr)
WO (1) WO1998034799A1 (fr)

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2386952A (en) * 2002-03-27 2003-10-01 Mitutoyo Corp Tyre pressure gauge and measuring system having wireless data transmission
EP1162088A3 (fr) * 2000-06-09 2003-10-15 Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha Appareil de détection de la pression de pneumatiques pour véhicule motorisé
GB2415048A (en) * 2004-06-07 2005-12-14 Lear Corp Trailer tyre pressure monitoring
GB2447731A (en) * 2007-03-20 2008-09-24 Ford Global Tech Llc Wireless Vehicle Communication
CN100445112C (zh) * 2002-07-24 2008-12-24 株式会社电装 用于寄存轮胎气压检测器装置的标识的方法和系统
EP2272689A3 (fr) * 2000-07-26 2011-03-09 Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC Système électronique de gestion de pneus

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE4303591A1 (de) * 1993-02-08 1994-08-11 Rainer Achterholt Ventilkappe mit einer Einrichtung zur Erzeugung eines Druckanzeigesignals für einen mit einem Ventil ausgerüsteten Fahrzeugreifen
WO1994020317A1 (fr) * 1993-03-11 1994-09-15 Schrader Automotive Inc. Systeme de surveillance a distance de pression de pneu utilisant une identification codee des pneus et une transmission par frequence radioelectrique, et permettant un reetalonnage lors de l'inversion ou du remplacement de pneus
WO1996006747A2 (fr) * 1994-08-31 1996-03-07 Otter Controls Limited Systeme de surveillance de l'etat de pneumatiques
DE19522486A1 (de) * 1995-06-21 1997-01-09 Duerrwaechter E Dr Doduco Verfahren zum Betreiben einer Einrichtung zum Überwachen und drahtlosen Signalisieren einer Druckänderung in Luftreifen an Fahrzeugen

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE4303591A1 (de) * 1993-02-08 1994-08-11 Rainer Achterholt Ventilkappe mit einer Einrichtung zur Erzeugung eines Druckanzeigesignals für einen mit einem Ventil ausgerüsteten Fahrzeugreifen
WO1994020317A1 (fr) * 1993-03-11 1994-09-15 Schrader Automotive Inc. Systeme de surveillance a distance de pression de pneu utilisant une identification codee des pneus et une transmission par frequence radioelectrique, et permettant un reetalonnage lors de l'inversion ou du remplacement de pneus
WO1996006747A2 (fr) * 1994-08-31 1996-03-07 Otter Controls Limited Systeme de surveillance de l'etat de pneumatiques
DE19522486A1 (de) * 1995-06-21 1997-01-09 Duerrwaechter E Dr Doduco Verfahren zum Betreiben einer Einrichtung zum Überwachen und drahtlosen Signalisieren einer Druckänderung in Luftreifen an Fahrzeugen

Cited By (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP1162088A3 (fr) * 2000-06-09 2003-10-15 Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha Appareil de détection de la pression de pneumatiques pour véhicule motorisé
EP2272689A3 (fr) * 2000-07-26 2011-03-09 Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC Système électronique de gestion de pneus
GB2386952A (en) * 2002-03-27 2003-10-01 Mitutoyo Corp Tyre pressure gauge and measuring system having wireless data transmission
GB2386952B (en) * 2002-03-27 2005-09-07 Mitutoyo Corp Pressure gauge and pressure measuring system
CN100445112C (zh) * 2002-07-24 2008-12-24 株式会社电装 用于寄存轮胎气压检测器装置的标识的方法和系统
GB2415048A (en) * 2004-06-07 2005-12-14 Lear Corp Trailer tyre pressure monitoring
GB2447731A (en) * 2007-03-20 2008-09-24 Ford Global Tech Llc Wireless Vehicle Communication

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CA2280521A1 (fr) 1998-08-13
EP0958154A1 (fr) 1999-11-24
GB9702295D0 (en) 1997-03-26

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