Indicator and Method of Indicating Trouble

The present invention relates to an indicator and more particularly to a method of indicating different kinds of troubles.

Recently, numerous electronic components are installed in an automotive vehicle. Among these electronic components, those which are likely to be in trouble must be regularly checked as a safety measure. Conventionally, an indicator 2, mounted within an instrument panel, as shown in FIG. 1 has been used for trouble shooting.

According to this known method, the single indicator 2 is used to indicate the state of each of seven electronic components (or items) to be checked on time sharing basis. Referring to FIG. 2, a period of time T for one cycle is shared and divided into eight segments beginning with a period of time To for displaying initiation of each cyle of the check mode and seven equally divided segments T1 to T7 for indicating the state of seven different items one after another. To is set to 10 seconds and each of T1 to T7 is set to 2 seconds. The initiation of each cycle of the check mode is made by a pulse So which causes the indicator 2 to illuminate for 5 seconds. Upon lapse of five seconds after disappearence of the start indication pulse So, the result of checking of the seven items are displayed one after another with two seconds interval as shown by pulses S1 to S7 in FIG. 2. When the corresponding item (electronic component) works normally, the indicator 2 is illuminated for 0.1 second. When the item checked is in trouble, the indicator 2 is illuminated for 1 second. In the case of FIG. 2, the third and fifth items are in trouble.

With this known indicating method, the items must be counted to confirm which of the electronic components is in trouble. Besides, it takes time to confirm the result of checking all of the items.

The present invention aims at eliminating the above mentioned inconveniences encountered in the known indicator.

One aspect of the present invention is to provide an indicating method convenient for trouble shooting which is free from the above mentioned inconveniences.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of indicating different kinds of troubles derived from different possible causes, comprising:

providing at least one indicator which can be placed into different indicating statuses;

causing said indicator to be placed into one of the different indicating statuses for informing one of the different kinds of troubles; and

causing said indicator to be placed into other one of the different indicating statuses for informing other one of different kinds of troubles .

FIG. 1 is a known indicator discussed above;

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram showing the operation of the known indicator;

Fig 3 is a diagrammatic view of a vehicle's instrument panel with a control panel to which the present invention is applied;

FIG. 4 is a schematic circuit diagram of a control unit as, associated with the control panel;

FIG. 5 shows operation modes of three indicators;

FIG. 6 shows two binary code displays appearing alternately;

FIG. 7 shows operation modes of a second embodiment; and

FIG. 8 diagramatically illustrates the connection between the fault condition signals from the components and the indicators.

First embodiment according to the present invention is described in connection with FIGS. 3 to 6 of the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown an instrument panel 10 of an automotive vehicle that is provided with an electronically-controlled shock absorber system including a control panel 12 installed below the instrument panel 10. The control panel 12 includes a manually operable dial 14 so that the driver can manually select absorber settings "SOFT", "MEDIUM" and "HARD", or select "AUTO" to leave it to a CPU to adjust shock absorber characteristics automatically. In order to inform the setting selected, the control panel 12 has four indicators P1, P2, P3 and Po, each indicator being made of a light emitting diode. As shown in FIG. 3, the indicators P1, P2 and P3 are arranged to indicate "SOFT," "MEDIUM" and "HARD," respectively, and Po is used to indicate "AUTO." The electronically-controlled shock absorber system mentioned here is well known.

Referring to FIG. 4, a schematic circuit diagram shows how the indicators P1, P2, P3 and Po are connected with terminals selected by the dial 14. Each of the indicators P1, P2, P3 and Po is turned 0N to emit light when the dial 14 is set to the corresponding terminal.

In this embodiment, referring also to FIGS. 5 and 8, a plurality of indicators herein shown as three indicators P1, P2 and P3 of the control panel 12 are also used to indicate seven different kinds of fault conditions derived from seven different possible causes. More particularly, seven different electronic components are monitored or checked to indicate which one of seven different electronic components has a fault condition and is in trouble. Referring to FIG. 5, the indicators P1, P2, and P3 are actuated in combination such that the statuses of the indicators indicate which of the indicators is working normally and which has a fault condition. As shown in FIG. 5(a), all of the indicators P1, P2 and P3 are turned OFF and thus they do not emit light. This combination of indicating statuses of three indicators P1, P2 and P3 is used to indicate that all of the electronic components is working normally. Referring to FIG. 5(b), the indicator P1 is turned ON to emit light with the other two indicators P2 and P3 left turned OFF to emit no light. This combination of statuses of the indicators P1, P2 and P3 is used to indicate that a first of the electronic components is in trouble. Referring to FIG. 5(c), the indicator P1 and P3 are turned OFF and P2 is turned ON to emit light. This combination of statuses of indicators is used to indicate that second of the electronic components is in trouble. FIGS. 5(d), 5(e), 5(f), 5(g) and 5(h) indicate the other five different combinations of statuses of indicators used to indicate that the other five different electronic components (third to seventh) have a fault condition, respectively. It will now be appreciated that eight different events are indicated by binary code. The indicators P1, P2 and P3 are controlled by a control unit (not shown) which controls electric current passing through the indicators P1, P2 and P3 after checking electronic component/components. This control unit may be easily designed using a CPU of a vehicle installed control unit. In this embodiment, each of the indicators P1, P2 and P3 is caused to be placed into two indicating statuses, one status where the indicator is turned 0N to emit light, the other status where the indicator is turned OFF to emit no light. Therefore, with the three indicators P1, P2 and P3, eight different events can be indicated by binary code as shown in FIGS. 5(a) to 5(h). In each of these Figures, a white circle denotes that the indicator is turned OFF and emits no light, while a black circle denotes that the indicator is turned ON to emit light.

It will now be appreciated that the trouble shooting can be easily made at a glance. Besides, it can be easily confirmed that all of the electronic components work properly.

Preferrably, if a plurality of electronic components are in trouble at the same time, the corresponding combinations, for example, one shown in FIG. 5(d) and other one shown in FIG. 5(f), are alternately displayed. Assume now that the third and fifth electronic components are in trouble, binary code display as shown in FIG. 6(a) and that shown in FIG. 6(b) appear alternately.

Referring to FIG. 7, a second embodiment is described. In this embodiment, only two indicators P1 and P2 of the control panel 12 is used to display different kinds of troubles with ternary code. Each of the indicator P1 and P2 is placed into three different indicating statuses, one status where the indicator is turned OFF and thus emits no light, second status wherein the indicator is turned ON to emit light, and third status where the indicator flashes. Therefore, with the two indicators P1 and P2, nine different events can be indicated as shown in FIGS. 7(a) to 7(i) using ternary code. Therefore, eight different electronic components can be monitored by corresponding first to eight electronic components to the eight different combinations of statuses of two indicators P1 and P2 as shown in FIGS. 7(b) to 7(i), respectively. In FIGS. 7(a) to 7(i), a shadowed circle denotes flashing state of the indicator.

Although in the first and second embodiments described above, the binary and ternary code are used, the number of indicating statuses of each indicator may be increased more than three. For example, controlling the electric current passing through an indicator makes it possible to control brightness to another level so as to provide the fourth indicating status of the indicator. Another measure to increase the number of indicating status of an indicator is to change the colour of illumination.