US 5,862,500 AGranted

Apparatus and method for recording motor vehicle travel information

AssigneeTera Tech Incorporated

InventorJoel G. Goodwin

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A vehicle trip recording apparatus collects trip data for manipulation by a separate computer. The computer software contains all the required controls and data manipulation programs for the trip recording device. The trip recording device contains only the hardware to collect and save distance pulses, current time and date, to talk with the computer, and a two button command interface. Of the two button command interface, one of the buttons selects between automatic or manual mode. The second button is a push type and performs the start/stop trip function when the first button is in the manual position. When the first button is in the automatic position, the second button preforms the start/stop calibrate function. Once the trip data has been downloaded into the computer, the trip data can be formatted, printed and saved with the separate computer.

An apparatus for collecting vehicle trip data relating to the distance traveled by a motor vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

(a) distance input means for receiving a plurality of distance pulses from a pulse generator associated with the motor vehicle, each distance pulse relating to a distance traveled by the vehicle;
(b) a vehicle status input for receiving a vehicle enabled signal when the vehicle is enabled for travelling and for receiving a vehicle disabled signal when the vehicle is disabled for travelling;
(c) a start/stop switch operative to produce a start/stop signal when activated by an operator;
(d) a mode input switch having a manual mode position and an automatic mode position, the mode input switch being operative to produce a manual mode signal when in the manual position and an automatic mode signal when in the automatic mode position;
(e) data storage means for storing trip data, including a distance traveled by the vehicle;
(f) processor means operatively connected to the start/stop switch, mode input switch, and data storage means, the processor means for receiving distance pulses from the distance input means, for producing manual mode trip data between a first start/stop signal and a second start/stop signal in response to the vehicle enabled signal and the manual mode signal and then for storing the manual mode trip data in the data storage means in response to the second start/stop signal, for producing automatic mode trip data continuously in response to the vehicle enabled signal and the automatic mode signal and then for storing the automatic mode trip data in the data storage means in response to the vehicle disabled signal, and for selectively retrieving trip data from the data storage means;
(g) data interface means associated with the processor means for transferring operational data to the processor means from an external computer and for transferring trip data from the processor means to the external computer;
and
(h) power input means for providing operational power to the vehicle status input, start/stop switch, mode input switch, data storage means, processor means, and data interface means.

6 more elements

Abstract

Claims8