Patent ID: 6604415
Filing Date: 2003-08-12
Classification: B60C

Abstract:
A tire condition monitoring apparatus for monitoring the conditions of a plurality of tires of a vehicle, comprising:a plurality of transmitters, wherein each transmitter is located in one of the tires and transmits data that represents the condition of the corresponding tire by radio waves; a plurality of reception antennas, which are located in the body of the vehicle, wherein each reception antenna corresponds to one of the transmitters and induces a voltage signal upon receiving radio waves from each transmitter; a plurality of level changing means, wherein each level changing means corresponds to one of the reception antennas and lowers the level of an associated voltage signal that is induced by the corresponding reception antenna; coupling means, wherein the coupling means synthesizes voltage signals from the level changing means to form a synthesized voltage signal; and control means for controlling the level changing means, wherein, when one of the transmitters has transmitted radio waves, the control means commands all the level changing means to consecutively execute level lowering procedure at intervals such that only one of the level changing means lowers the level of the associated voltage signal at a time, wherein the control means identifies the level changing means that lowered the level of the associated voltage signal when the level of the synthesized voltage signal was lowest, and wherein the control means determines that the reception antenna that corresponds to the identified level changing means corresponds to the transmitter that has transmitted radio waves.