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US 2006/0187078 A1Published application
Towed vehicle lighting module
AssigneeInternational Truck Intellectual Property Company, LLC
InventorsJoseph Bell, Matthew Gumbel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Control of an accessory lighting array for temporary installation on a towed vehicle through the controller area network of a towing vehicle is effected through access to the controller area network over a bus extension, and connection of an accessory controller to the bus extension for decoding network status messages for operation.
Claims8
A lighting system for installation on a towed vehicle for control from a towing vehicle, the lighting system comprising:
- an array of lamps for the towed vehicle;
- a serial network having a network bus with an access point installed on the towing vehicle;
- a network bus extension attached to the network bus at the access point;
- means for generating vehicle lamp status signals on the network bus;
- a controller connected to the network bus extension and responsive to the vehicle lamp status signals for turning selected lamps of the array of lamps on and off.
2 more elements
An auxiliary lighting system comprising:
- an array of lamps for temporary installation on a vehicle;
- a connector for attachment to an access point on the serial network for a vehicle;
- a cable extensible from the connector;
- and
- a network compatable controller for the array of lamps connected to the cable for receiving signals thereon and to the array of lamps for controlling the on/off status thereof, the controller area network compatable controller being programmed to respond to status signals on the controller area network relating to lamp status.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.