Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Of burglary or unauthorized use
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-12
2002-02-26
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2736)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Of burglary or unauthorized use
C340S427000, C340S429000, C340S432000, C340S425500, C340S571000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06351209
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to vehicular security systems. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to security systems for disabling electrical subsystems of a vehicle for preventing unauthorized activation. Moreover, the present invention relates to preventions of joyriding and the theft of automobiles which have resulted in substantial economic loss across this country.
Although a substantial number of anti-theft devices have been devised, “professional” and even amateur thieves are adept at overriding such devices and “hot-wiring” a vehicle for removal.
Attempts have been made to secure a vehicle by providing locks to the hood and doors of the vehicle making the interior of the vehicle difficult to access. Further attempts have been made to secure the interior of a vehicle by redesigning the window opening to prevent against the insertion of wire or door “jimmies” for retracting the door lock. However, individuals intent on removing an automobile normally have little problem gaining access to the interior of the vehicle using an assortment of tools, including simply breaking the driver's side window. Once access to the interior of the vehicle is obtained, the engine compartment can easily be accessed by actuation of the hood unlock lever enabling car thieves to hot-wire the engine.
Key actuated and combination type lock switches have been devised to prevent unauthorized activation of various electrical circuits, such as the ignition circuit, distributor system, power system and the like in motor vehicles to prevent theft. These locks include electrically coded keys, mechanically coded keys, digital entry keypads, electro-optically coded keys and radio frequency (RF) keys. Unfortunately, there are known methods for defeating each of these locking systems by bypassing the locking system such as by hot-wiring the locking system or by illegally capturing and rebroadcasting RF security codes.
Additional security systems have been directed to deactivating the starter solenoid, starter motor and/or the distributor. Electrical energy to the winding of a starter solenoid actuates a plunger which closes a circuit between the vehicle's battery and the starter motor. The starter solenoid simultaneously actuates a shift lifter which forces a pinion gear into meshing engagement with the vehicle's flywheel to thereby mechanically connect the starter motor to the engine during vehicle ignition. The starter motor is contained in a housing typically located beneath the internal combustion engine of a vehicle. The starter motor includes a rotatable armature which engages the vehicle's flywheel. When current is supplied through the starter solenoid, the starter motor causes the armature to rotate, thereby rotating the vehicle flywheel causing the internal combustion engine to “start”. Meanwhile, the distributor controls the firing sequence of the engine spark plugs to enable the engine to continue running.
Several attempts have been made to deactivate or disable each of these engine subsystems to prevent unauthorized movement of a vehicle. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,332 describes an encoder/decoder system for shorting the ignition key switch. U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,807 describes a theft deterrent system which includes a stopper for precluding engagement of the starter motor drive gear to the flywheel. Meanwhile, U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,638 describes a radio frequency transmitter/receiver system which requires activation prior to operating the vehicle's starter motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,164 describes a security module which attaches to a vehicle's starter solenoid. The security module includes an internal switch for interrupting power to the starter solenoid's power terminal. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,773 describes an anti-theft system which is connected in series between a vehicle's battery and the vehicle's starter motor.
Unfortunately, all of the previous attempts to provide automotive security systems suffer from serious drawbacks. For example, many systems which impede activation of the electrical systems of a vehicle, such as the solenoid, starter or distributor, can be overcome by simple removal of the alarm system or by shorting the alarm system. Meanwhile, the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,638 requires an entirely new starter housing which would be difficult and expensive to construct, and would have to be built in numerous configurations to fit within a variety of vehicle engine housings. U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,164 describes a security system which attaches directly to the power terminal of a starter solenoid. To impede removal of the security module from the starter solenoid, additional housings are locked in place over the terminals of the starter solenoid to impede their access by unauthorized persons. Moreover, the systems described within U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,548,164 and 6,026,773 describe security systems which include switches which carry significant power between the battery and the power terminals of a starter solenoid. Unfortunately, the high power through such systems are susceptible to electrical noise, electric spikes and back EMF from the solenoid coil. In addition, heat from the power passing through the security system switch typically gives off significant heat which can damage the electronic components of the security system.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved security system for vehicles.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle security system which is both inexpensive and reliable.
It is still an additional object of the present invention to provide a vehicle security system which can be constructed to reside within the engine compartment of virtually all vehicles.
It is still an additional object of the present invention to provide a vehicle security system which can operate in connection with a variety of coding systems, such as key coding, RF coding, etc.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the aforementioned disadvantages by providing an improved security system for impeding the unauthorized operation of a vehicle. The security system includes a security module which connects to one or more crucial electrical subsystems of the vehicle for disabling engine ignition or engine operation. Electrical subsystems include the vehicle solenoid, the starter motor, the battery and the distributor. The security module is connected in series with an electrical conductive path which connects any of these subsystems to the rest of the vehicle electrical system for selectively interrupting current along these electrically conducting paths for disabling the particular vehicle subsystem.
In a first embodiment of the invention, the security module is connected between the vehicle's ignition switch and the initiate stud of the vehicle's solenoid. In an alternative embodiment, the security module of the present invention is connected in series between the battery and ignition switch. Where the vehicle includes a solenoid and starter motor constructed as one unit, such as is installed in many Ford vehicles, the security module of the present invention is connected in series between a remote solenoid and the starter motor. The interruption of the current in any of these electrical paths will disable a vital subsystem of the vehicle making it virtually impossible to start the vehicle's engine.
In accordance with the present invention, the security module attaches and locks directly to an electrical terminal of the vehicle subsystem which is intended to be disabled. To this end, the security module includes a housing having an opening at the bottom exterior of the housing which opens into a central bore. The bore is sized and configured for receipt of the electrical terminal of the vehicle subsystem for which it is intended to receive. Moreover, the security module includes a locking means for locking the housing to the electrical terminal of the vehicle subsystem so that once ins
Drummond & Duckworth
Hofsass Jeffery
Nguyen Hung
Ultimate Security Systems Corporation
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