Patent ID: 9647397
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: G01R,H01R

Claim:
1. An electrical connector comprising: a male terminal housing including a diagnostic male terminal and a plurality of normal male terminals where the diagnostic male terminal has a shorter length than the plurality of normal male terminals; a female terminal housing including a plurality of female terminals where each female terminal accepts an associated male terminal when the female terminal housing and the male terminal housing are joined in an electrical engagement; and detection circuitry that detects whether the diagnostic male terminal becomes disconnected from its associated female terminal, where the detection circuitry includes a controller electrically coupled to the diagnostic male terminal, a resistive element, a control line electrically coupled to diagnostic male terminal and the resistive element, an input line electrically coupled to the control line and the controller and an output line electrically coupled to the resistive element and the controller, and where the associated female terminal is electrically coupled to ground, wherein the controller provides a diagnostic trouble code signal on the output line and monitors the voltage potential on the input line to determine whether the diagnostic male terminal has become disconnected from its associated female terminal.