Patent Application
20230402859
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of monitoring the proper functioning of batteries, and in particular to a system and a method for monitoring the connection of battery terminals to an electrical system of a motor vehicle, and to a motor vehicle, in particular a truck, comprising such monitoring system.
The system and method according to the disclosure are particularly suitable for being applied to trucks and will be described hereinafter by making specific reference to such application, without intending in any way to limit their possible application to other types of motor vehicles.
As known, modern motor vehicles, such as trucks, are equipped more and more with devices and systems which consume non negligible amounts of electric power.
Hence, it is important for such vehicles to have an adequate electric distribution system which is capable, as a whole, to feed the on-board powerful and greedy electrical consumers in the various operating conditions.
For example, usually the alternator of a motor vehicle provides the electrical supply to all electrical equipment in driving conditions, i.e. when the engine is on.
However, the alternator can get overloaded if many electrical components are used simultaneously and/or intensively, especially for heavy vehicles, such as trucks.
To face this issue, motor vehicles, and in particular trucks, are provided with a redundant power source, constituted for instance by one or more batteries installed on board.
Hence, in such situations, the additional power requirement is compensated by the battery(ies) installed on board.
Although such solution provides beneficial effects to the entire electrical distribution system installed on board, there are still some aspects worth of further improvements.
In fact, if a battery is lost or does not operate correctly, an important consumption of electrical current, not properly and timely supported by such battery, can cause the on-board electrical network to collapse, which is obviously problematic, especially if for example a truck is travelling on the road.
This dangerous condition can happen for example when the terminals of the battery are not properly connected or tightened to the associated power cables of the on-board electrical system.
In particular, while such circumstance is unlikely to occur when a motor vehicle like a truck is manufactured, since at that time the battery terminals are tightened with proper tools that enable to control the tightening torque, and in any case such operations are subject to adequate quality controls by the manufacturer, during lifetime, i.e. at the time of replacing the battery(ies), it is possible that some truck owners replace a battery by themselves without using a proper tightening tool.
As a consequence, this may result in an improper connection of the battery terminals and subsequently in some malfunctioning or even complete failures of the battery during travelling.
The present disclosure is aimed at facing such issues, and in particular at providing a solution capable of at least mitigating the consequences of a poor or improper connection of the terminals of any battery installed onboard of a motor vehicle, and in particular on a truck.
This aim is achieved by a system for monitoring the connection of the terminals of at least one battery which is suitable to be connected and provide auxiliary electrical power to an onboard electrical distribution system of a motor vehicle, the monitoring system comprising:
wherein the electronic control unit is configured, based on said signals received in input:
According to some aspects, the monitoring system according to the present disclosure may comprise one or more of the following features, which may be combined in any technical feasible combination:
This aim is also achieved by a method for monitoring the connection of the terminals of at least one battery which is suitable to be connected and provide auxiliary electrical power to an onboard electrical distribution system of a motor vehicle, the method comprising:
According to some aspects, the method according to the present disclosure may comprise one or more of the following:
Further, the aim of the present disclosure is also achieved by a motor vehicle comprising a system for monitoring the connection of the terminals of at least one battery which is suitable to be connected and provide auxiliary electrical power to an onboard electrical distribution system of the motor vehicle, wherein the monitoring system comprises:
wherein the electronic control unit is configured, based on said signals received in input:
In addition, the aim of the present disclosure is also achieved by a motor vehicle comprising a system for monitoring the connection of the terminals of at least one battery which is suitable to be connected and provide auxiliary electrical power to an onboard electrical distribution system of the motor vehicle, wherein the monitoring system comprises:
wherein the electronic control unit is configured, based on said signals received in input:
Further characteristics and advantages will become apparent from the description of some preferred but not exclusive exemplary aspects of a system and a method according to the present disclosure, illustrated only by way of non-limitative examples with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
It should be noted that in the detailed description that follows, identical or similar components, either from a structural and/or functional point of view, may have the same reference numerals, regardless of whether they are shown in different examples of the present disclosure; it should also be noted that in order to clearly and concisely describe the present disclosure, the drawings may not necessarily be to scale and certain features of the disclosure may be shown in somewhat schematic form.
Further, when the term “adapted” or “arranged” or “configured” or “shaped”, or “set” or any equivalent or similar term is used herein while referring to any component as a whole, or to any part of a component, or to a combination of components, it has to be understood that it means and encompasses correspondingly either the structure, and/or configuration and/or form and/or positioning of the related component or part thereof, or combinations, such term refers to.
In particular, for electronic and/or software means, each of the above listed terms means and encompasses electronic circuits or parts thereof, as well as stored, embedded or running software codes and/or routines, algorithms, or complete programs, suitably designed for achieving the technical result and/or the functional performances for which such means are devised.
As also schematically illustrated in the example of
These loads are schematically represented in
Clearly, as those skilled in the art would readily appreciate, in addition to the alternator 5 and depending on the applications, the onboard electrical distribution system may have various parts, branches and components mutually organized according to network architectures per se known or readily available and will not be described herein in details.
Further, in the example illustrated there are represented two batteries 1, e.g. two 12V batteries, which are cabled, to each other and to the alternator 5 and the loads 7, via cables 4.
Clearly, also the number of batteries 1 used can be any suitable one according to the applications and in order to form a desired onboard battery pack.
Therefore, in the following reference will be made for ease of illustration to the terminals 2 and 3 of the lower battery 1 represented in
The monitoring system 100 according to the disclosure, which is suitable to be mounted on board of the vehicle, comprises at least:
The electronic control unit 10 to which it is referred to above is not necessarily made of one single unit. Rather, it can be made of several units connected with each other, which means that the ECU 10 can be considered as a control system or controller and is not limited to one single box containing some electronic components.
In particular, the sensor 20 is configured to provide in input to the electronic control unit 10 signals SIN indicative of the evolution of the electric power currently generated, i.e. in real time, by the battery(ies) 1.
For instance, such sensor 20 can comprise or be constituted by any suitable current and/or voltage sensor, and can be connected to and monitor all terminals of the batteries 1, for example via cables 9 as schematically represented in
In turn, the electronic control unit 10 can be constituted by or comprise any suitable signal processor-based device, e.g. a processor of a type commercially available, suitably programmed and provided to the extent necessary with circuitry and algorithms in order to perform the innovative functionalities devised for the system 100 according to the present disclosure as hereinafter described.
Although in
Usefully, in the monitoring system 100 according to the present disclosure, the electronic control unit 10 is configured, based on the signals SIN received in input from the sensor 20:
The predetermined reference condition is indicative of a reference boundary or limit condition which, if exceeded, indicates that there is an incorrect connection of any of the terminals of the battery(ies) monitored.
As represented in
In one possible aspect, the electronic control unit 10 is configured to monitor the current outflowing from the battery 1, e.g. its profile or evolution over the time, and to output said alert signal SA only if:
In particular, a negative or positive current peak is considered reached each time a value of the monitored current exceeds a corresponding predefined threshold TH.
For the sake of ease of illustration, in
Conveniently, the or each predefined current peak threshold TH above indicated can be suitably chosen to discard oscillations of the current signal that usually occur due to vibrations, and which oscillations represent just background noise. In this way, it is possible to avoid untimely and erroneous warning signals.
For example, the specific value of the or each predefined current peak threshold can be properly set depending on the specific applications, and in particular in relation with the capacity of the battery(ies) 1 used.
In practice, according to this example, the electronic control unit 10, via the signals provided by the sensor 20, substantially continuously first detects if a negative current peak (one of which is indicated in
Clearly, the vice versa is likewise valid and applicable, namely the electronic control unit 10 substantially continuously first detects if a positive current peak is followed by a negative current peak and then followed again by a new positive current peak, et cetera.
In this way, the alternance in sequence of negative current peaks with corresponding positive current peaks (or vice versa) indicates an actual trend of the profile of the current monitored within the interval of time defined which is significantly different from a regular trend (illustrated by the portion of the curve R in
The shape of the curve deviating from the reference condition represented by the portion R and that in normal condition should instead continue as such, reflects the occurrence of an electrical arcing effect which indicates the presence of a battery terminal incorrectly or badly connected when the alternate sequence is repeated (within the predefined time interval considered) for at least the predetermined number of times.
The time intervals T1 and T2, as well as the number of events repeated, i.e. the occurrence of an alternate sequence between a positive peak followed by a negative peak (or vice versa) can be selected also according to the specific applications. For example, the threshold/trigger could be the occurrence of 10 events in less than 10 seconds.
In particular, the electronic control unit 10 is suitably configured to selectively set the predefined first interval of time and the predefined second interval of time.
The predefined second interval of time T2 is conveniently set to be being longer than the first interval of time T1 in order to properly balance the need of properly identifying a bad connection of a terminal with that of avoiding untimely and incorrect alerts.
For instance, in case of a truck when two batteries 1 are used as depicted in the example of
In an alternative example, the electronic control unit 35 can provide the value for the current peak threshold(s). This value is coded as a parameter in software algorithm and can be modified manually using a specific engineering tool (e.g., On-Board diagnostic tool) to be connected to ECU 35.
According to yet another example, the electronic control unit 10 receives, for example via the connection 6, also signals SVAL indicative of the voltage generated at the terminals the alternator 5.
The voltage generated at the terminals of the alternator 7 can properly vary depending on the applications; for example, for a truck it can range between 26V and 32V.
Conveniently, the electronic control unit 10 is configured to monitor and compare the profile of the voltage at the terminals 2, 3 of the battery 1 (indicated in
Also in this case, the predefined threshold quantity represents the predetermined reference condition indicative of a reference boundary or limit condition for concluding that there is a correct connection of the terminals 2, 3 and can be properly selected based on the applications.
For example, this reference threshold can be expressed as a percentage relative to the voltage generated at the terminals of the alternator 5 taken as reference.
For example, such difference can be defined as the 10% of the reference value; thus, for instance, a predefined number of actual values of the voltage generated at the terminal of a battery 1 at respective instants of time (see representative point VB1, VB2 on the curve B) should not differ of about 10% (or more) from the corresponding reference values of the voltage generated at the terminals of the alternator 5 taken at the same instants of time (see representative point VA1, VA2 on the curve A).
Conveniently, the electronic control unit 10 can be configured to implement one or both the above indicated monitoring and comparing criteria of the described examples, which can be used in alternative or in addition to each other.
For example, the electronic control unit 10 can be configured to check if, within a predefined first interval of time T1, a first negative current peak is followed by a first positive current peak, and thereafter if a plurality of negative and positive current peaks of the monitored current, exceeding the predefined current peak threshold TH, alternate in sequence to each other for a predetermined number of times within the second time interval T2, and also to check if, within a predefined interval of time, the profile of the voltage at the terminals 2, 3 of the battery 1 differs from the profile of the voltage at the terminals of the alternator 5 for the predefined quantity.
Then, the electronic control unit 10 can be set to selectively execute one of the above examples described and then to output the related alert signal SA only if the corresponding predefined reference condition is exceeded, or if desired or selected, to implement both examples and to output the alert signal if both the corresponding predefined reference conditions are exceeded.
In particular, the method 200 comprises at least the following steps:
In one possible aspect, the step 220 comprises monitoring the profile or evolution of the current outflowing from the battery 1.
Accordingly, the step 220 comprises:
If also this second condition is verified, then step 230 is executed by outputting the alert signal SA.
As previously mentioned, a negative or positive current peak is considered reached when a value of the monitored current exceeds a corresponding predefined current peak threshold TH.
Usefully, according to another possible aspect, the step 220 comprises monitoring and comparing the profile of the voltage at the terminals 2, 3 of the battery 1 with the profile of the voltage at the terminals of the alternator 5 of the motor vehicle.
According to this aspect, the step 230 comprises outputting the alert signal SA if, within a predefined interval of time T3, the profile of the voltage at the terminals 2, 3 of the battery 1 differs from the profile of the voltage at the terminals of the alternator 5 for more than a predefined threshold quantity, which can be for example of about 10% as previously indicated.
Hence, it is evident from the foregoing description that the monitoring system 100 and method 200 according to the present disclosure allow achieving the intended aim since they are capable of timely identifying if any terminal of a battery is not properly connected to the onboard electrical distribution system, thus giving the possibility of alerting a driver of such potentially dangerous condition before the badly connected terminal disconnects completely.
These results are achieved according to a solution very easy to be realized and installed at competitive costs, and which can be used in principle with any type of motor vehicles, and in particular of trucks.
The monitoring system 100 and method 200 thus conceived are susceptible of modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the inventive concept as defined in particular by the appended claims. For example, the time interval(s) and predefined threshold or threshold quantity can be properly set and/or modified according to the specific needs, et cetera.
All the details may furthermore be replaced with technically equivalent elements.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22178475.4 | Jun 2022 | EP | regional |
