JP2995758B2 - Vehicle controller diagnostic device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vehicle controller diagnostic device, and more particularly, to an electronic device for various control devices of a vehicle using a mobile telephone terminal and a transceiver. The present invention relates to a vehicle controller diagnostic device that diagnoses a control unit (engine controller, automatic transmission (AT) controller, etc.).

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, as shown in FIG.
It has an in-vehicle telephone terminal 51, a transceiver 52 for transmission and reception, and a telephone computer 53 installed between the two and for performing transmission and reception with the outside and other control via the transceiver 52. The telephone computer 53 can communicate with devices related to telephone functions such as audio volume adjustment by an audio amplifier 54, input / output control by a multi-display screen 55, and voice input by a microphone 56. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 54 denotes an antenna.

On the other hand, electronically controlled fuel injectors (EPIs)
When an error occurs in the system, the data of the troubled part is stored in the backup memory, and a self-diagnosis function (self-diagnosis) that flashes the indicator lamp (diagnostic lamp) at the time of inspection to notify the trouble and an input signal Generally, when an abnormality occurs, a signal having a fail-safe function of ignoring the signal and switching to a pre-stored reference signal to control the occurrence of an engine trouble in advance is generally used.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

As described above, in the conventional car telephone system, the CPU of the telephone computer can communicate with devices related to telephone functions such as an audio amplifier.
Electronic control unit (controller) of other vehicle control devices such as I
It is not designed to communicate with For this reason, when a failure occurs in various sensors, circuits, and the like in these control devices during operation, the user contacts a service factory, a dealer, or the like and waits for arrival, or has a car at a service factory or the like. Therefore, it is necessary to wait for the inspection and repair to be completed, which takes a long time. Also,
At the time of this inspection and repair, it is necessary to take out the diagnostic terminals of the controller of the control device and check them individually, which has the disadvantage that the check is troublesome and time-consuming.

[Object of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to improve the disadvantages of the conventional example and, in particular, when a trouble occurs on the road, accurately notify the contents of the trouble without having to take a car to a service factory or a dealer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle controller diagnostic device capable of effectively reducing the time required for inspection and repair.

[Means for solving the problem]

In the present invention, a vehicle-mounted telephone terminal, a transceiver for transmission and reception,
And a switching circuit interposed therebetween. This switching circuit is provided with a main control unit that performs transmission / reception with the outside via a wireless device and other control. Also, a plurality of electronic control units such as an engine controller, an auto air conditioner controller, and an AT controller each having a backup memory for storing predetermined failure information are connected to the switching circuit in advance. And
The main control unit selectively connects each of the electronic control units to the wireless device or the in-vehicle telephone terminal according to input information from the in-vehicle telephone terminal and transmits the failure information via the switching circuit. A configuration having a control function is adopted. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

Here, the same reference numerals are used for the same components as those in the conventional example described above.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes an in-vehicle telephone terminal 51, a transceiver 52 for transmission and reception, and a switching circuit 1 interposed therebetween. The switching circuit 1 is provided with a CPU 2 of a telephone computer 10 as a main control unit for performing transmission / reception with the outside via a wireless device 52 and other controls. In addition, this switching circuit 1 includes:
Engine controller 3, Auto air conditioner controller 4,
A plurality of electronic control units such as the AT controller 5 are connected in advance.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, the switching circuit 1 performs “ON (ON), OFF (OFF)” of a first circuit A connecting the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51 and the wireless device 52. "ON" of the second to fourth circuits B to D connecting the first switch 6 and the engine controller 3, the auto air conditioner controller 4, and the AT controller 5 to the first circuit A through the level converter 11, respectively. , OFF "for the second to fourth switches 7 to 9.

In the CPU 2, a hooking signal from the vehicle telephone terminal 51 and a dial code signal (a signal for calling each controller, for example,
It is determined in advance, such as “9991 to 9993”. ), The controller has a control function of switching ON / OFF each switch of the switching circuit 1 in accordance with the dial code signal to switch and connect each controller to the wireless device 52 or the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51. In this case, a call is made to a plurality of controllers continuously, and a call to all the controllers is made by inputting a dial code to that effect. The control function of the CPU 2 will be further described later.

The AT controller 5 sets the fourth switch 9 to “ON”.
Then, when the fourth circuit D is turned "ON", "failure information" stored in a backup memory (not shown) is output as an analog signal as shown in FIG. It has a function of outputting an “END signal” indicating the end. Other controllers have similar functions.

The level converter 11 has a function of level-converting data transmitted from each controller so that the data becomes audible.

Next, the overall operation of the present embodiment will be described focusing on the control function (switching process) of the CPU 2 shown in FIG. This switching process is performed by the "OFF-HOOK"
When a hooking signal is received during a period from when the CPU 2 receives the signal (call energization start signal) to when the CPU 2 receives the ON-HOOK signal (call energization end signal), it is executed as an interrupt process. .

When making a call from the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51 to the service factory / dealer 30 when a failure occurs, the user picks up the receiver (OFF-HOOK) and calls the service factory / dealer 20. At this time, the CPU 2 turns ON the first switch 6 to connect the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51 and the wireless device 52 to enable communication by OFF-HOOK, and the telephone number of the service factory / dealer 20 is input. And call the other party to make a call,
This state is maintained.

In this case, when the user hooks, an interrupt process is started by the hooking.

After the start of the interrupt processing, the CPU 2 first determines whether or not a telephone number has been input (step S101). And
If no phone number is entered, a timeout
That is, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed (S102). And if not timeout, step S1
Return to 01, if it is a timeout, proceed to step S108,
It is determined whether an ON-HOOK signal has been received from the vehicle telephone terminal 51 or not. Here, if there is no ON-HOOK signal from the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51, the state returns to the state immediately before the interruption, and if the ON-HOOK signal has been received, the ON-HOOK signal is transmitted to the wireless device 52 (S109). And return to the state immediately before the interruption. This allows
The call ends.

On the other hand, if the telephone number is input in step S101, the CPU 2 determines whether the number contents are normal, that is, whether the number matches a predetermined number for calling the controller. (S103). If the content of the number is not normal, the process proceeds to step 108 and the same operation as described above is performed. On the other hand, if the number content is normal, set the switch corresponding to the specified controller number to "ON".
(S104). As a result, the failure information is output from the selected designated controller.

Next, the CPU 2 determines whether an END signal has been received (S105). If the END signal has not been received, it is determined whether or not a timeout has occurred (S106). If the timeout has not occurred, the process returns to step S105. If the timeout has occurred, that is, if the END signal has not been received within a predetermined time, the process proceeds to step S107, where the switch corresponding to the selected controller has been closed. Open the contacts and select “OF
F ", the data output is forcibly terminated.

On the other hand, if the END signal has been received in step S105, the switch corresponding to the designated controller is turned "OFF" as described above, and the data output of the controller ends (S107). Next, the CPU 2 determines whether or not an ON-HOOK signal has been received from the vehicle telephone terminal 51 (S108). If there is no ON-HOOK signal, the process returns to the state immediately before the interruption (without terminating the call). This allows the user to input the next controller number in the same procedure without disconnecting the call.

If a plurality or all of the controllers have been designated, the CPU 2 repeats the processing of steps S104 to S107.

As described above, any controller, eg, AT
If the controller 5 is designated, the failure information is transmitted from the AT controller 5 via the level converter 11 and the fourth switch 9 to the public network 30 from the radio 52, and the service factory / dealer.
Reach 20 phones 21. In this case, when the first switch 6 in the switching circuit 1 is turned “ON” and “OFF”, the notification can be made to the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51 at the same time, and the notification can be made not to be notified.

In the service factory / dealer 20, it is possible for the serviceman to accurately determine the failure content by listening to the audible sound output from the telephone 21.

On the other hand, when collecting information only in the own vehicle at the time of periodic inspection, etc.,
Immediately after the OFF-HOOK, hooking and dialing the controller number will cause each controller to be connected to the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51 in the same manner as described above.
If K is kept, information can be heard from the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal 51.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when a trouble occurs on the road, the service factory / dealer 20 is called by the in-vehicle telephone terminal 51, and after switching to various controllers, troubles are directly transmitted from these controllers. Information can be transmitted to the service factory / dealer 20. As a result, the service factory / dealer 20 can determine the content of the failure even if the failed car is not at hand, prepare a countermeasure part, etc. and go to the user, and remove it if it is a simple factor. The user can be contacted by telephone. In addition, the inspection service can be simplified by calling the user in the same manner and switching the user. Further, when checking and diagnosing various controllers in an actual vehicle, the checking and diagnosis can be easily performed by using the in-vehicle telephone terminal 51 without taking out and checking the diagnostic terminals of each controller.

By replacing the level converter 11 in the above embodiment with a DTMF converter, a DTMF sound having a frequency corresponding to the signal from the controller is generated, the frequency of the DTMF sound is detected, and this is converted into character information. It can also be received by the dedicated receiving device 22 that displays the data.

〔The invention's effect〕

Since the present invention is configured and functions as described above, according to this, after calling a service factory, a dealer, or the like with the vehicle telephone terminal, a plurality of electronic control units are required by the control function of the main control unit. By selectively switching connection to the wireless device via a switching circuit in response to this, it is possible to directly transmit fault information from these controllers to service factories, dealers, and the like. This makes it possible to accurately inform the details of a failure without trouble such as bringing a car to a service factory or a dealer when a trouble occurs on the road. Also, by switching the electronic control unit to the in-vehicle telephone terminal via the switching circuit, failure detection and diagnosis of each controller can be easily performed using the in-vehicle telephone terminal without taking out and checking the diagnostic terminal of each controller. Therefore, it is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent controller diagnostic device for a vehicle that can effectively reduce the time required for inspection and repair.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the internal configuration of the switching circuit of FIG. 1 and the entire communication system, and FIG. CP of the embodiment of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the main control operation of U, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional car telephone system. 1. Switching circuit 2. CP as main control unit
U, 3 ... engine controller, 4 ... automatic air conditioner controller, 5 ... AT controller, 51 ... on-board telephone terminal, 52 ... wireless device.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An in-vehicle telephone terminal, a transmission / reception radio device, and a switching circuit interposed therebetween, wherein the switching circuit performs transmission / reception with the outside via the radio device and other control. A plurality of electronic control units, such as an engine controller, an auto air conditioner controller, and an AT controller, each having a backup memory for storing predetermined failure information, are connected to the switching circuit in advance; A control unit for selectively connecting each of the electronic control units to the wireless device or the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal and transmitting the failure information via the switching circuit according to input information from the vehicle-mounted telephone terminal; A vehicle controller diagnostic device having a function.