Patent ID: 9589394
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: G01R,G07C,H04B

Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of locating a source of a ground offset in a network of electronic devices interconnected by a communication bus, the method comprising: detecting, by a processor device, signal voltages on the communication bus that are indicative of a ground offset condition; saving, in a memory structure associated with the processor device, voltage timestamps for the detected signal voltages, each detected signal voltage having a respective voltage timestamp associated therewith; adding, by the processor device, message timestamps to messages on the communication bus, each message having a respective message timestamp associated therewith; comparing, by the processor device, the message timestamps against the voltage timestamps to identify messages corresponding to the detected signal voltages, wherein a message timestamp close in time to a voltage timestamp indicates a correlation between a detected signal voltage and a particular message, wherein the comparing comprises determining whether a difference in time between a particular message timestamp for the particular message and a corresponding voltage timestamp is less than a threshold time value; identifying, by the processor device, at least one of the electronic devices as a ground offset source, based on the comparing; and generating, by the processor device, an output including a diagnostic trouble code that indicates the at least one of the electronic devices identified as a ground offset source.