Electronic control system used in security system for cargo trailers

A method of determining whether to provide a user with access to a cargo security system, comprising the steps of:

• entering an administrator password for verification by a program in a computing device;
• sending a request command from the program to an electronic control unit to verify the administrator password, and if confirmed the access password is returned to the program;
• opening the computing device program license file and confirming that the provided access password is included;
• attempting to find a data pair match:
• obtaining a serial number from the electronic control unit;
• comparing the access password and the serial number from the electronic control unit with data pairs stored in the license file;
• establishing communication between the computing device and the electronic control unit if a data pair matching has occurred;
• providing administrator privileges to a user;
• and
• indicating an error message if no data pair matching has occurred, whereby communication between the computing device and electronic control unit has failed.

A method of determining whether to provide a user with access to a cargo security system, the method comprising the steps of:

• establishing a communication link with an electronic control unit of the cargo security system;
• receiving input from the user;
• determining whether the user is authorized to access the electronic control unit through utilization of the user input;
• validating that the computing device is authorized to access the electronic control unit if the user is authorized to access the electronic control unit, comprising the steps of:
• storing a first data set in the computing device, the first data set comprising a license file including a serial number and an access password;
• receiving a second data set from the electronic control unit, and
• determining whether the first data set matches the second data set;
• and
• providing the user with access to a predetermined number of electronic control unit functions if both the user and the computing device are authorized to access the system.

A method of determining whether to provide a user with access to a cargo security system, the method comprising the steps of:

• establishing a communication link with an electronic control unit of the cargo security system;
• receiving input from the user;
• determining whether the user is authorized to access the electronic control unit through utilization of the user input;
• validating that the computing device is authorized to access the electronic control unit if the user is authorized to access the electronic control unit, comprising the steps of:
• storing a first data set in the computing device, the first data set comprising a license file including a serial number and an access password;
• receiving a second data set from the electronic control unit, and
• determining whether the first data set matches the second data set;
• providing the user with access to a predetermined number of electronic control unit functions if both the user and the computing device are authorized to access the system;
• receiving a command from the user to place the electronic control unit in a diagnostic mode,
• requesting an administrative password from the user,
• determining whether the user input matches the administrative password, and
• providing the user with access to a second set of functions, including electronic control unit set up and diagnostic functions if the user input matches the administrative password.

A method of determining whether to provide a user with access to a cargo security system, comprising the steps of:

• entering an administrator password for verification by a program in a computing device;
• sending a request command from the program to an electronic control unit to verify the administrator password, and if confirmed the access password is returned to program;
• opening the computing device program license file and confirming that the provided access password is included;
• and
• attempting to find a data pair match, by:
• obtaining a serial number from the electronic control unit;
• comparing the access password and the serial number from the electronic control unit with data pairs stored in the license file;
• establishing communication between the computing device and the electronic control unit if a data pair matching has occurred;
• and
• providing administrator privileges to a user, by including at least one of the following steps of:
• allowing loading and updating of a firmware of the electronic control unit;
• allowing access passwords to be written to and changed in a memory of the electronic control unit and when changed, updating a software license file which includes access passwords;
• allowing the administrator to save the updated license to computer media to be transferred to other computing devices;
• and
• requiring all computing devices to use the updated license file, thereby eliminating the users without the new license.

A security system with configuration data correction, comprising the steps of:

• storing essential configuration data in nonvolatile memory;
• maintaining a duplicate copy of essential configuration data in a different area of the memory;
• loading the first configuration data to a microcontroller memory after each reset;
• inspecting the integrity of the first configuration data to determine if it is corrupted;
• loading the duplicate copy of configuration data to a microcontroller memory;
• examining the integrity of the duplicate configuration data to determine if it is corrupted;
• overwriting the corrupted configuration data if one of the configuration data sets is corrupted with one that is correct;
• and
• using a default value from the program memory if both configuration data sets are corrupted.