Patent ID: 9176179
Filing Date: 2015-11-03
Classification: B60R,G01R

Abstract:
1. A method of diagnosing a reservoir capacitor of a vehicle safety system, the method comprising: loading the reservoir capacitor up to a given voltage value; obtaining a first measure of a discharge rate of the reservoir capacitor when discharging the reservoir capacitor by a first undetermined current; reloading the reservoir capacitor up to the given voltage value; obtaining a second measure of the discharge rate of the reservoir capacitor when discharging said reservoir capacitor by the first undetermined current and by a second fixed current of known value added to said first undetermined current; determining a capacitance value of the reservoir capacitor from the difference between the first measure and the second measure, based on the known value of the second fixed current; comparing the capacitance value of the reservoir capacitor to a threshold; and if the capacitance value is below said threshold, triggering an alarm signal indicating so.