Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Combined independent audio systems – Radio
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-18
2003-09-30
Dinh, Tan (Department: 2653)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Combined independent audio systems
Radio
C455S345000, C701S035000, C714S030000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06628573
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus for a vehicle and, for example, to a sound apparatus for a vehicle, which allows an operator to integrally operate players (playback devices) of a cassette tape, CD, MD, and the like at a control panel.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, in an automobile as a representative vehicle, various electronic apparatuses are equipped, and as an example of such sound apparatus for a vehicle, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-31087 previously filed by the present applicant discloses an electronic apparatus in which a center module for systematically controlling a plurality of electronic units such as an air-conditioner control module, car audio control module, and the like diagnoses failures of these electronic units, and displays a message upon detecting any failures.
An example of an electronic apparatus disclosed in an embodiment of the specification of the previous application for the purpose of reducing development cost required for realizing a failure diagnosis function, and improving failure diagnosis precision will be briefly explained below.
That is, in an embodiment of the previous application shown in
FIG. 13
(
FIG. 9
of the previous application), the detection value of a room temperature sensor
151
is input to a center module electronic control unit (ECU)
108
, and the detection value of a room temperature sensor
152
is input to an air-conditioner ECU
121
via an air-conditioner mechanism
122
.
The center module ECU
108
outputs the detection value detected by the room temperature sensor
151
to the air-conditioner ECU
121
, and executes predetermined arithmetic processes using that detection value.
The air-conditioner ECU
121
executes the same arithmetic processes as the predetermined arithmetic processes using the detection value of the room temperature sensor
151
acquired via the center module ECU
108
, and the detection value of the room temperature sensor
152
acquired via the air-conditioner mechanism
122
, and sends these arithmetic process results to the center module ECU
108
.
The center module ECU
108
compares arithmetic process results computed by itself and those acquired from the air-conditioner ECU
121
, and determines that some failure has occurred in the air-conditioner ECU
121
or air-conditioner mechanism
122
if these results do not match.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-32173 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,057 as its corresponding U.S. application propose an abnormality display device in which a plurality of control units for controlling the behaviors of a vehicle such as anti-skid control, engine combustion control, vehicle velocity control, and the like make self diagnosis, and failure information detected by these control unit is sent to a management device which integrally stores and displays the failure information of the respective control units.
According to the former prior art, when any failure has occurred, a passenger can be alerted to it. However, since the state of the failure is not preserved, a service station such as a dealer or the like cannot quickly find the failure that has occurred on the basis of verbal information given by the customer.
By contrast, according to the latter prior art, since the internal memory of the management device integrally stores failure information, a cause of the failure can be easily found upon maintenance by reading out the information stored in the memory.
However, since the memory size is limited, if new failure information is stored in the memory as a result of failure diagnosis which is done by a service person for maintenance, the required failure information may be deleted and, hence, the apparatus cannot fully assist failure diagnosis upon maintenance.
Also, when the memory is added for the purpose of storing only failure-information, a cost reduction is disturbed.
When a given failure has occurred, information required by a service person is not always required by a passenger.
Assume that a given function has failed, and other functions are still operable. In this case, if information that pertains to the failure is always displayed, the convenience impairs. This is particularly the case when an electronic apparatus to be monitored, which does not pose any fatal failure against safe running of a vehicle, e.g., a sound apparatus such as a car stereo system or the like, has failed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present application pays attention to a sound apparatus which is most popular among electronic apparatuses for a vehicle and includes, e.g., a cassette tape playback device, radio receiver, and the like, and has as its object to integrally store failure information that has occurred in various sound playback units which construct the sound apparatus.
In order to achieve the above object, a sound apparatus for a vehicle according to the present invention is characterized by the following arrangement.
That is, a sound apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises a control panel (
10
) provided with operation switches that can operate a display device and a sound playback unit, a sound playback unit (
20
,
30
) which is independent from the control panel and plays back sound information in a predetermined information format and a control unit (
40
) which is independent from the control panel, and controls operation of the sound playback unit in accordance with an operation signal input from the operation switch, is characterized in that the sound playback unit (
20
,
30
) makes self diagnosis of predetermined items therein, and outputs the diagnosis result to the control unit via a communication line, and the control unit makes self diagnosis of predetermined items therein, and stores at least failure information of the diagnosis result thereof and the diagnosis result input from the sound playback unit in a nonvolatile memory (
48
) provided thereto.
Alternatively, as another sound apparatus for a vehicle that can achieve the aforementioned object, a sound apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises a control panel (
10
) provided with operation switches that can operate a display device and a sound playback unit on one surface facing a passenger room, a sound playback unit (
20
,
30
) which is disposed as one component on the other surface of the control panel and plays back sound information pre-stored in a storage medium and a control unit (
40
) which is disposed as one component on the other surface of the control panel, has a radio tuner (
47
) as another sound playback unit, and controls playback operations of the radio tuner and the sound playback unit in accordance with an operation signal input from the operation switch, is characterized in that the sound playback unit makes self diagnosis of predetermined items therein, and outputs the diagnosis result to the control unit via a communication line, and the control unit makes self diagnosis of predetermined items including operation of the radio tuner therein, and stores at least failure information of the diagnosis result thereof and the diagnosis result input from the sound playback unit in a nonvolatile memory (
48
) provided thereto.
With both the sound apparatuses for a vehicle with the above arrangements, failure information that has occurred in each of various sound playback units which construct the sound apparatus for a vehicle can be integrally stored in the control unit which controls these sound playback units.
In a preferred embodiment, if the sound apparatus for a vehicle with either arrangement uses, as the nonvolatile memory, a nonvolatile memory for storing a password which can restrict unauthorized access to the sound apparatus for a vehicle, a cost reduction can be achieved by sharing the nonvolatile memory.
Alternatively, in the arrangement of the other sound apparatus for a vehicle, if a nonvolatile memory for storing frequency information to be received by the radio tuner is used as the nonvolatile memory, a cost reduction can be achieved by sharing the nonvolatile memory.
In either apparatus arrangement, the c
Fujiwara Akihiro
Hasegawa Tsutomu
Mutsura Kiyoshi
Shoji Futoshi
Dinh Tan
Mazda Motor Corporation
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