Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-22
2001-01-16
Nguyen, Tan (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
C701S033000, C702S123000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06175786
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle diagnosing apparatus for diagnosing a vehicle such as a motor vehicle. The diagnosing apparatus is connected to an electronic control unit to be mounted on the vehicle and incorporates or receives data, via the electronic control unit, from various sensors which are mounted on the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method of inspecting a logic of a diagnosing program of this kind of diagnosing apparatus, there is known the following. Namely, a vehicle whose diagnosing has already been finished is diagnosed by means of a diagnosing apparatus which performs diagnosing according to a diagnosing program for an object to be inspected. It is thus checked whether each of the diagnosing items is diagnosed in a predetermined order, and whether the result that is the same as the known result can be obtained. An inspection is thereby made whether the logic of the diagnosing program is normal or not.
In the diagnosing program, the succeeding processing is defined depending on the judging results and, therefore, varies from result to result. Accordingly, in order to inspect the logic of all portions of the diagnosing program in the conventional method, it is necessary to prepare several vehicles so that all kinds of judging results can be obtained for each of the judging items and then subject each of the vehicles to actual diagnosing. In case the judging items are large in number, a large number of vehicles must be diagnosed. This, however, requires a long time in inspection and is practically difficult. Especially, since most of the vehicles are normal, there is little or no chance of checking the processing of a diagnosing apparatus after it has been judged to be “abnormal.” It is thus difficult to inspect to see whether the logic of this portion is normal or not.
If a special electronic control apparatus for inspection is prepared so that all kinds of judging results can be obtained, it will be possible to perform a complete inspection in a short period of time. However, this kind of apparatus prepared exclusively for such an inspection is complicated in construction. Further, the apparatus becomes needless once the inspection is finished. It is therefore not advisable to use this kind of specially prepared apparatus.
The present invention has an object of providing a vehicle diagnosing apparatus in which it is not necessary to prepare a vehicle or an electronic control apparatus as an apparatus to be diagnosed when the logic of the diagnosing program is inspected and in which there is provided a function of inspecting a logic of a diagnosing program surely at a short period of time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention is a vehicle diagnosing apparatus which diagnoses a vehicle by being connected to an electronic control unit mounted on the vehicle and by receiving data from various sensors mounted on the vehicle via the electronic control unit, the apparatus comprising: diagnosing result setting means for arbitrarily setting a judging result of each judging step in a diagnosing program; switching means for switching a performance mode of the diagnosing program between a diagnosing mode for performing the diagnosing program as it is and an inspection mode for inspecting the logic of the diagnosing program by performing the diagnosing program according to the judging result which is set by the diagnosing result setting means for each of the judging steps; and indicating means for indicating, when performing the diagnosing program in the inspection mode, the order of performing the steps which constitute the diagnosing program and a judging result which is set by the diagnosing result setting means.
When the diagnosing program is performed in the inspection mode, the judging result set by the diagnosing result setting means for each of the judging steps is performed as if it were obtained by a judging processing at each of the judging steps. Therefore, the logic of the diagnosing program can be seen from the order of the steps performed at this time. By simply changing the setting of the judging results and the combination of the judging results of each of the judging items, all cases can be coped with and therefore the logic of all portions of the diagnosing programs can be inspected. Further, since the judging results are set, the judging steps are not performed in the inspection mode. Therefore, as compared with the case in which the signals to be transmitted from the electronic control unit are judged, the time for inspection can be shortened.
Preferably, the vehicle diagnosing apparatus further comprises pausing condition setting means for setting a pausing condition which pauses, at a completion of a predetermined step, the diagnosing program under performance in the inspection mode, and the pausing condition is indicated in the indicating means when the diagnosing program is performed in the inspection mode. Then, the order of performing can be sequentially confirmed for each of the sections segmented by pausing. Therefore, it is easier to find out the portions in trouble as compared with the case in which the whole is confirmed when the performance of all the steps has been completed.
When a result is obtained to the effect that the logic is normal by performing the diagnosing program in the inspection mode according to the set judging results, it means that the recognition has been made of all of those steps which are performed in case where the same judging results are obtained by performing the diagnosing program in the diagnosing mode. Therefore, preferably the vehicle diagnosing apparatus further comprises processing time setting means for setting the processing time required to perform each of the steps which constitute the diagnosing program, and computing means which computes the diagnosing time required for performing the diagnosing program in the diagnosing mode, the computing being made by summing the processing time in each of the steps performed when the diagnosing program is performed in the inspection mode. Then, it is useful in determining the tact time which is required in performing the diagnosing of the vehicle as one step in a plurality of steps.
In the embodiment to be described hereinbelow, the judging result setting means, the pausing condition setting means, processing time setting means and switching means are constituted by a keyboard
25
. The computing means is constituted by a central processing unit (CPU). The indicating means is constituted by a display
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.
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patent: 2076188 (1981-04-01), None
Aiba Hiroyuki
Takakura Keiji
Armstrong, Westerman Hattori, McLeland & Naughton
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Nguyen Tan
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