Diagnostic system for a strobe lamp and its operating circuit
AssigneeStar Headlight & Lantern Co., Inc.
InventorStephen T. Vukosic
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In order to diagnose a strobe lamp system in a manner to isolate failure (burn out) of the strobe lamp from failures in its operating circuits, particularly the DC-DC converter which provides operating voltage to the lamp, a microcontroller, which produces sequences of signals corresponding to sequences of flashes from the lamp, is programmed so that the sequences of signals are not produced in the absence of output voltage from the DC-DC converter. The microcontroller is connected via a circuit including an LED to the circuit which converts the signals into trigger pulses for the strobe lamp. The failure of the strobe lamp to flash while the LED flashes isolates failures to the DC-DC converter, whereas flashing of the LED alone isolates failure to the lamp.
Claims11
A diagnostic system for a strobe lamp which flashes when pulsed and voltage is applied thereto from an operating circuit, said system comprising means for detecting when said operating circuit provides said voltage to said lamp, means for transmitting trigger pulses for flashing said lamp when said detecting means detects the provision of said voltage, and means for displaying the transmission of said trigger pulses to said lamp irrespective of whether of said lamp is operational thereby isolating failures to said lamp or said operating circuit, respectively, when said trigger pulses are displayed and said lamp does not flash and when said trigger pulses are not displayed and said lamp does not flash.
A diagnostic system for a strobe lamp comprising:
- a controller for controlling the operation of said lamp;
- a capacitor;
- a converter for converting a first voltage to a second voltage sufficient for charging said capacitor to a voltage for operating said lamp;
- a trigger circuit operating responsive to signals from said controller to trigger operation of said lamp by said charged capacitor;
- a detector circuit for detecting the second voltage of said converter and providing signals representative of the detected voltage to said controller;
- and
- a light source which receives the signals sent to said trigger circuit from said controller and operates responsive to said signals, in which said controller disables said signals to said trigger circuit when said signals from said detector circuit indicate that said converter is providing none or less than said second voltage.
A method for diagnosing failure of a strobe lamp which flashes when pulsed and voltage is applied thereto from an operating circuit, said method comprising the steps of:
- detecting when said operating circuit provides voltage to said lamp;
- transmitting trigger pulses for flashing said lamp when said voltage is detected;
- and
- displaying the transmission of said trigger pulses to said lamp to indicate operation of said operating circuit irrespective of whether said lamp is operational, in which when transmission of said trigger pulses are displayed and said lamp is not flashing, failure of said lamp is indicated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.