Automotive strobe light system
AssigneeNjs Devices LLC
InventorNeil James Swanson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An aftermarket Automotive Strobe Light System is disclosed that uses a vehicle's existing emergency flashers and activation button that are on all production vehicles. The existing flashers are activated as strobe lights using the existing emergency flasher button in a pre-programmed sequence using distributed strobe light control modules installed locally at existing flasher lamps and powered solely by the pulsed flasher signal. An auxiliary wire is also provided to power additional strobe lights if desired. Installing a set of unique strobe lights and activation switch are not necessary, eliminating the concern of modifying new vehicles.
Claims16
An aftermarket automotive strobe light system for a vehicle having factory corner flasher lamps and a factory emergency flasher activation button that produces a pulsed emergency flasher signal, the system comprising:
- a plurality of independent strobe light control modules, each strobe light control module configured to be installed proximate to a respective factory corner flasher lamp and electrically coupled only in-line with a factory emergency flasher conductor and a ground conductor that normally power the respective factory corner flasher lamp;
- each strobe light control module including a pulse-to-direct-current power circuit configured to derive operating power solely from the pulsed emergency flasher signal and to maintain module operation during OFF intervals of the pulsed emergency flasher signal, and a controller configured to monitor the pulsed emergency flasher signal at the respective lamp location;
- wherein each strobe light control module is configured to detect a user-performed activation sequence generated exclusively by successive actuations, including at least one OFF-then-ON actuation, of the factory emergency flasher activation button and identifiable by a predetermined pulse count of pulses of the pulsed emergency flasher signal, and, in response to detection of the activation sequence, to locally interrupt and replace the pulsed emergency flasher signal with a higher-frequency strobe waveform delivered to the respective factory corner flasher lamp and to one or more auxiliary strobe-only lamps electrically coupled to the respective strobe light control module while the factory emergency flasher activation button remains activated;
- whereby high-visibility strobe operation is provided to the factory corner flasher lamps and the one or more auxiliary strobe-only lamps using the factory emergency flasher activation button without accessing a vehicle communication bus or a centralized vehicle control module.
A method of adding high-visibility strobe capability to a vehicle using one or more strobe light control modules without installing additional dashboard switches or accessing a vehicle communication bus, the method comprising:
- installing a strobe light control module in-line with each factory corner flasher lamp circuit using only an existing factory emergency flasher conductor and a ground;
- powering each strobe light control module solely from a pulsed factory emergency flasher signal;
- monitoring, at each strobe light control module, the pulsed emergency flasher signal for a user-performed pulse-count activation sequence generated by successive actuations, including at least one OFF-then-ON actuation, of a factory emergency flasher activation button;
- and
- upon detecting the activation sequence, locally interrupting and replacing the pulsed emergency flasher signal with a higher-frequency strobe waveform delivered to the respective factory corner flasher lamp and to one or more auxiliary strobe-only lamps for a duration that the factory emergency flasher activation button remains activated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.