Electrical pulse counters – pulse dividers – or shift registers: c – Applications – Measuring or testing
Patent
1997-07-14
2000-11-07
Wambach, Margaret R.
Electrical pulse counters, pulse dividers, or shift registers: c
Applications
Measuring or testing
377 16, G01C 2100
Patent
active
06144717&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an hubodometer and hourmeter unit for vehicle monitoring. More specifically the present invention refers to such a unit that detects by acoustic waves whether the engine of the vehicle is running.
II. Description of the Related Art
Wheel mounted distance counters (hubodometers) are well known to the transportation community to totalize the distances traveled by vehicles as a function of the number of turns performed by the wheels of the vehicles.
The usefulness of such devices arises from their secure data acquisition means that is not prone to most of the actions that may cause a standard panel odometer to stop working. Such actions, sometimes intentional, may be power failures, flexible shaft breaking, inadequate repair procedures on any of its many system components, and so on, that are not always evident. Another advantage of the wheel mounted hubodometers is allowing data collection without entering the vehicle cabins. However, the dust, water, heat and vibration at the wheel hubs require well designed, strong yet lightweight devices.
Also widely used in the transportation community are time counters (hourmeters), which accumulate the hours and fractions of hours the engines of vehicles have been run. Two basic types of such devices exist. The first type comprises hourmeters that are driven by engine crankshafts to exhibit the working times of the engines as functions of the crankshaft rotations, such hour-indications being accurate only for specified engine speeds. Despite the time inaccuracies of such readings, which make them inadequate for labor logging and accounting, they are quite useful for determining engine maintenance and overhaul intervals, due to the dependence of the readings on the crankshaft turns. The second type of hourmeters comprises devices driven by time machinery, or so-called the true-time hourmeters. Usually these are electro-mechanic or electronic devices powered only during the periods the engines are running. However, both types of hourmeters require physical connections to the engines. Whether the connections are mechanical or electric, they can be suspended, leading to false undercountings.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a unit to simultaneously log engine running or not-running conditions, traveled distances and developed speeds mounted externally to the wheel hub of a vehicle or machine by simple anchoring, without requiring wiring or mechanical gearing, being self-powered by internal batteries, and allowing data exchange to a portable computer. Such an apparatus, being reliable, lightweight, cheap and easy to install and use, would find broad acceptance as a supervisory, management and accounting tool in fleets of vehicles, particularly if non-homogeneous, for agricultural, industrial and construction use. Its most important advantages over more sophisticated panel apparatus are its inherent simplicity that makes it suitable and attractive to be used in hostile environments and on simple machinery, and the standardized utility on different equipment.
To these ends, the present invention provides a unit that is both a wheel-mounted odometer (hubodometer) and a true-time hourmeter featuring an acoustic sensor to indicate whether the engine is running or not running.
The unit may have a display to exhibit the odometer and hourmeter data, or it may have a single light emitting device (LED) in applications where low production cost is a must, or no display at all, because the main way to export data from its memory is through an interface to an external data collector.
Although any attaching means such as bolts and nuts may be used to anchor such a unit to the wheel hub, the easiest and, therefore, preferred means envisaged is adhesive bonding. To make this feasible, lightweightness is a prime matter of concern. Another advantage of this simple anchoring method is in making it easy to elect the device as a standard by allowing fast installation on va
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