Patent ID: 9643547
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: B60R

Claim:
1. A switching device for a top-end of an automobile vehicle column comprising: a microcontroller; at least two separate switching functional blocks, each block being directly connected to two signal inputs and two signal outputs of the microcontroller, one signal output or one signal input is only directly connected to a single functional block, wherein each switching functional block contains four switches; and each switch being directly connected to a signal input/output pair of the microcontroller separate from the signal input/output pair of the microcontroller for the other three switches of the same block, wherein the at least two separate switching functional blocks only share either the one signal output or the one signal input of the microcontroller, wherein the microcontroller deduces, from a signal sent by at least one signal output having transited via at least one switching functional block and received at least one signal input, a switching state of at least one switch of the switching functional block, and wherein the microcontroller detects the signal sent by the at least one signal output that is only connected to one of the at least two switching functional blocks, at the at least one signal input that is not connected to the other one of the at least two switching functional blocks, and sends a message comprising an identifier for the block to which the at least one signal output is connected.