US 2006/0085692 A1Published application

Bus fault detection and isolation

AssigneeLockheed Martin Corporation

InventorsRichard Berbaum, Edward Bestle

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Abstract

A bus fault detection and isolation system and method is disclosed that can operate non-intrusively to detect and isolate faults in a bus, such as a dual redundant MIL STD 1553 bus. The system and method of the present invention can be configured to operate within a bus controller using existing system commands and variables defined for testing. No additional equipment may be needed to utilize the bus fault detection and isolation system and method, so no additional failure points are introduced and the bus is in an unmodified state while fault detection and isolation takes place. Further, the bus fault detection and isolation system and method of the present invention may use accumulator variables to detect an intermittent fault which may then be isolated later even if the fault condition is no longer present on the bus.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer system for non-intrusive MIL STD 1553 bus fault detection and isolation, said computer system comprising:

a processor;
and
a memory including software instructions adapted to cause the computer system to perform the steps of:
defining a first bus variable for a first bus in a redundant bus pair, the first bus variable including a built-in-test flag for each remote terminal connected to the first bus;
defining a second bus variable for a second bus in the redundant bus pair, the second bus variable including a built-in-test flag for each remote terminal connected to the second bus;
determining whether a fault has occurred on the first bus or the second bus based on a comparison of the first and second bus variables;
determining one or more bus coupler test variables corresponding to each bus coupler connected to the first bus or the second bus;
evaluating the bus coupler test variable for a bus coupler disposed at a physical end of the first bus and the second bus;
grouping the bus coupler test variables into logical segments and determining if a fault has occurred within a segment of the first bus or the second bus;
comparing the bus coupler test variables corresponding to the first bus with the bus coupler variables corresponding to the second bus in order to isolate a fault to a connection between a remote terminal and a first or second bus;
and
comparing the built-in-test flags for each remote terminal for each of the first and second buses in order to isolate a fault to a connection between a remote terminal and a data bus coupler.

9 more elements

A bus fault isolation method comprising:

defining a first bus variable for a first bus in a redundant bus pair, the first bus variable including a built-in-test flag for each remote terminal connected to the first bus;
defining a second bus variable for a second bus in the redundant bus pair, the second bus variable including a built-in-test flag for each remote terminal connected to the second bus;
determining whether a fault has occurred on the first bus or the second bus based on a comparison of the first and second bus variables;
determining one or more bus coupler test variables corresponding to each bus coupler connected to the first bus or the second bus;
evaluating the bus coupler test variable for a bus coupler at a physical end of the first bus and the second bus;
grouping the bus coupler test variables into logical segments and determining if a fault has occurred within a segment of the first bus or the second bus;
comparing the bus coupler test variables corresponding to the first bus with the bus coupler variables corresponding to the second bus in order to isolate a fault to a connection between a remote terminal and a first or second bus;
and
comparing the built-in-test flags for each remote terminal for each of the first and second buses in order to isolate a fault to a connection between a remote terminal and a data bus coupler.

6 more elements

A computer program product for bus fault detection and isolation, said computer program product comprising:

software instructions for enabling the computer to perform predetermined operations;
and
a computer readable medium bearing the software instructions;
the predetermined operations including the steps of:
defining a first bus variable for a first bus in a redundant bus pair, the first bus variable including a built-in-test flag for each remote terminal connected to the first bus;
defining a second bus variable for a second bus in the redundant bus pair, the second bus variable including a built-in-test flag for each remote terminal connected to the second bus;
determining whether a fault has occurred on the first bus or the second bus based on a comparison of the first and second bus variables;
determining one or more bus coupler test variables corresponding to each bus coupler connected to the first bus or the second bus;
evaluating the bus coupler test variable for a bus coupler at a physical end of the first bus and the second bus;
grouping the bus coupler test variables into logical segments and determining if a fault has occurred within a segment of the first bus or the second bus;
comparing the bus coupler test variables corresponding to the first bus with the bus coupler variables corresponding to the second bus in order to isolate a fault to a connection between a remote terminal and a first or second bus;
and
comparing the built-in-test flags for each remote terminal for each of the first and second buses in order to isolate a fault to a connection between a remote terminal and a data bus coupler.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.