Patent ID: 7016770
Filing Date: 2006-03-21
Classification: B60R,H04L

Abstract:
1. An output unit for outputting a signal to a transmission channel having a first bus line and a second bus line of a motor vehicle, the output unit comprising: a fault-tolerant coding unit for receiving and converting a sensor signal into outgoing transmission signals TxA and TxB; at least two high-speed driver modules connected antiparallel to one another and downstream from said coding unit for connecting the output unit to the transmission channel and for converting the outgoing transmission signals TxA and TxB into the signal to be emitted; and a comparison unit performing a voltage comparison of the outgoing transmission signals TxA and TxB with incoming receive signals RxA and RxB, said comparison unit connected to said coding unit; said coding unit operating under and programmed with a first coding rule for a normal operating mode if equivalence between voltages of TxA and RxA and/or of TxB and RxB is detected by said comparison unit; said coding unit operating under and programmed with a second coding rule for a special operating mode in an event of inequivalence being detected by said comparison unit between the voltages of TxA and RxA and/or of TxB and RxB, and therefore in an event of one of the bus lines being externally short-circuited to ground or to a vehicle battery; the first and second coding rules for the outgoing transmission signals TxA and TxB provide a first character set of at least n+1 characters if a second character set for the sensor signal has n characters.