US 11,536,762 B2Granted

System for detecting circuit anomalies in trailer wiring

AssigneeGrote Industries, Inc.

InventorsSankalp Pampattiwar, Yogesh Kubal, Shengjie Tang, Cesar Perez-Bolivar

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Abstract

A system for detecting anomalies in electrical wiring in a truck trailer. The system measures and compares current drawn from the truck tractor with the current drawn by a circuit at a particular trailer component or other location in the trailer wiring. If the two current measurements differ in excess of a predetermined threshold, the system can report a wiring anomaly. The location of the anomaly can then be determined by performing the operation for different trailer components thus testing multiple different branches of the trailer power distribution circuit, and using the results of these tests to determine that an anomaly is present, and possibly the location of the issue. The system may then send a notification to a remote computing device, to the truck tractor, or any combination thereof.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system for detecting anomalies in electrical wiring in a truck trailer, comprising:

a master current measuring circuit configured to measure a master current indicating current received from a truck tractor, the master current measuring circuit electrically connected upstream from a power distribution circuit of the trailer;
one or more slave current measuring circuits electrically connected to the power distribution circuit downstream from the master current measuring circuit and upstream from one or more trailer components electrically connected to the power distribution circuit, wherein the slave current measuring circuits are:
a) linked to the master current measuring circuit via an internal communications link;
b) electrically connected to individual trailer components of the one or more trailer components;
and
c) configured to measure a slave current indicating current passing through the slave current measuring circuit;
d) configured to selectively disconnect power to one or more trailer components electrically connected to the power distributions circuit downstream from the slave current measuring circuit;
wherein the master current measuring circuit is configured to:
command the one or more slave current measuring circuits to separately measure the slave current;
measure the master current when power is disconnected from the one or more trailer components to establish a baseline leakage current for the power distribution circuit;
and
generate a notification of a circuit anomaly when a difference between the master current level and the slave current of one or more individual slaves is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

9 more elements

A method of detecting anomalies in electrical wiring in a truck trailer, comprising:

deactivating one or more trailer components electrically connected to a power distribution circuit in a truck trailer, wherein the one or more trailer components are controlled by one or more slave current measuring circuits, and wherein the slave current measuring circuits are responsive to a master current measuring circuit via an internal communications link;
using the one or more slave current measuring circuit to measure one or more slave current values indicating current passing through the power distribution circuit at the one or more slave current measuring circuits;
measuring a master current indicating the current passing into the power distribution circuit using a master current measuring circuit;
measuring current passing through a master shunt resistor connected in in series upstream from the power distribution circuit, wherein the current passing through the master shunt resistor is measured using a master microcontroller with a first input electrically connected to a first end of the master shunt resistor, and a second input electrically connected to a second end of the master shunt resistor;
comparing the one or more slave current values to the master current using the master current measuring circuit;
and
generating a circuit anomaly notification when a difference between at least one of the slave current values and the master current is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/695,957Filed 26 Nov 2019 · us provisional application
Priority: 29 Nov 2018
Published: US 2020/0174055 A14 Jun 2020
Granted: 27 Dec 2022
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification26 codes

G01R 31/007
On road vehicles, e.g. automobiles or trucks: using microprocessors or computers
B60Q 11/005
Arrangement of monitoring devices for devices provided for in groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q9/00: for lighting devices, e.g. indicating if lamps are…
B60Q 11/007
For lighting devices, e.g. indicating if lamps are burning or not: the lighting devices indicating change of drive direction
B60R 16/03
Electric constitutive elements: for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for