Abstract:
The present invention relates to an apparatus for remotely controlling a vehicle cover that extends and retracts the cover automatically. The apparatus for remotely controlling a vehicle cover comprises, a plurality of covers for covering a vehicle, a plurality of wires for guiding the cover to extend and retract from and to a housing, a plurality of reel tables placed on the vehicle to route and secure the wires and the cover; and a control module comprising. The control module comprises at least one motor for extending and retracting the covers by controlling the wires; a means for receiving wireless control signals from a user operated remote control means; and a means for interpreting and implementing the signals.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     This application claims priority benefits of Canadian Patent Application Serial Number 2,502,339 filed Mar. 24, 2005.  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to an apparatus for remotely controlling a vehicle cover that extends and retracts automatically.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     Vehicle is one of the most popular and common methods of transportation today, and is facing to the hash environmental exposures, such as freezing rain, hail, snow, dusts, etc. Even an owner of a vehicle may have a garage at home to park the vehicle inside to protect it from those environmental exposures; it is very difficult to protect the vehicle while parking it outside for shopping, working, etc. In a hash cold weather like snowing and freezing rain, the driver may have to spend much time and effort for clearing the snow or a layer of ice accumulated on the vehicle before driving. If the garage is as mobile as a vehicle, the driver just need to park in the “mobile” garage to avoid such hassle.  
         [0004]     There are a number of car covers that have been invented and become available in the market; however, these car covers available in the markets are not as easy to use. Quite often, it is very hard and time consuming to install the cover by one person. It is also just as hard to uninstall the cover as to install it, and so much trouble to fold the cover and put it away. Thus, it is not suitable to use this type of covers for short time and frequent parking.  
         [0005]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,759 issued Jan. 11, 2000 to Adamek teaches a retractable vehicle cover, trying to address such problems. It comprises a housing enclosure installed on top of a vehicle. The covers and extension cables are retracted inside the housing. There is an urging mechanism inside the housing to retract the covers and cables back. One of the disadvantages is that this implementation is still only half automatic, where the user needs to extend cables and covers manually. To extend the covers properly, it is also required to pull each of the covers evenly so that extension lines on both sides of the cover come out evenly. This is quite difficult to do, however, with one person operating the device. And, further, it is also difficult to retract the cover properly by one person as well even though there is a means for urging the cover to retract back into the housing, since it requires maintaining even retraction on both sides of the cover. Also, because it uses magnet to secure the cover position, with real hash weather like a strong wind, the cover may be blown out and may cause damages to the car and thereby defeats the purpose of having a car cover in the first place.  
         [0006]     The present invention solves these problems of the prior arts, by providing an apparatus for remotely controlling a roof top cover that automatically extends and retracts the cover.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention teaches an apparatus for remotely controlling a vehicle cover that extends and retracts the cover automatically.  
         [0008]     The object of the present invention is to provide a “mobile” garage like solution for protecting a vehicle from hash weather conditions.  
         [0009]     According to one aspect of the invention, it provides an apparatus for remotely controlling a vehicle cover comprising: (i) a plurality of covers for covering a vehicle; (ii) plurality of wires for guiding said cover to extend and retract from and to a housing; (iii) a plurality of reel tables placed on said vehicle to guide and secure said wires and said cover; and (iv) a control module comprising: a plurality of motors for extending and retracting said covers by controlling said wires; a means for receiving a control signals from a user remotely and wirelessly; and a means for interpreting and implementing said signals.  
         [0010]     According to another aspect of the invention, it provides an optional roof top swiping panel. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]     The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0012]      FIG. 1  illustrates a perspective image of an embodiment of the present invention installed on top of the roof of a vehicle;  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  illustrates a side view of an installation example of the embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0014]      FIG. 3  illustrates a partially exploded perspective image of the embodiment of the present invention without an image of a vehicle;  
         [0015]      FIG. 4  illustrates partially exploded perspective image of the embodiment of the present invention with hatch doors;  
         [0016]      FIG. 5  illustrates a schematic view of the embodiment of the present invention while the cover is extended out from the housing;  
         [0017]      FIG. 6  illustrates a schematic view of the embodiment of the present invention while the cover is retracted inside the housing;  
         [0018]      FIG. 7  illustrates an exploded top view of the control module of the embodiment of the present invention with motors and gears for controlling guiding wires while extending the cover;  
         [0019]      FIG. 8  illustrates an exploded top view of the control module of the embodiment of the present invention with motors and gears for controlling guiding wires while retracting the cover;  
         [0020]      FIG. 9  illustrates a perspective view of a housing with a swiping panel;  
         [0021]      FIG. 10  illustrates a perspective view of a housing with a swiping panel in standing position;  
         [0022]      FIG. 11  illustrates a partially sectioned front view of a swiping panel;  
         [0023]      FIG. 12  illustrates a side exploded view of a housing with a swiping panel in resting position;  
         [0024]      FIG. 13  illustrates a side exploded view of a housing with a swiping panel in standing position;  
         [0025]      FIG. 14  illustrates a side exploded view of a housing showing installation instance of heating elements; and  
         [0026]      FIG. 15  illustrates a functional block diagram of the control module of the embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0027]     The present invention teaches an apparatus for remotely controlling a vehicle cover, which automatically extends and retracts the cover.  
         [0028]      FIG. 1  illustrates an instance of the installation of an embodiment of the present invention. A housing  20  of the vehicle cover apparatus is installed on top of the roof of vehicle  10 . The cover  30  is extended out from the housing  20  to cover the vehicle  10 . The optional transparent material  31  is used on the cover  30  around the side windows for viewing. Durable and water resistant material may be used for the cover  30 . The material of the cover  30  may also be manageably soft to be extended and retracted from and to the housing  20 . A woven polyethylene may be used as the cover  30 .  
         [0029]      FIG. 2  illustrates a side view of an installation example of this embodiment of the present invention. A housing  20  of the cover  30  (not shown) is installed on top of the roof of vehicle  10 . The embodiment consists of a plurality of reel tables  22  mounted securely on the vehicle  10  and a plurality of guiding wires  24  routed around the vehicle  10 . Preferably, the guiding wires  24  should not disturb or block the view of a driver of the vehicle  10 . The guiding wires  24  may be transparent in color to prevent disturbing the driver&#39;s view. The topside  25  of the guiding wire  24  is coming out of the housing  20  and looped at the far end of the reel table  22  back as the bottom side  26  of the guiding wire  24  to the housing  20  for displacing the cover  30  (not shown). These guiding wires  24  are routed through reel tables  22 . The cover  30  (not shown) is demoutably and slidably attached to topside  25  of the guiding wire  24  for extending and retracting.  
         [0030]      FIG. 3  illustrates a partially exploded perspective image of this embodiment of the present invention without an image of a vehicle  10 , where the image of the housing  20  is being transparent in order to display the components inside. Inside the housing  20 , there are a control module  40 , a plurality of reel tables  22 , guiding wires  24 , showing topside  25  and bottom side  26  of the guiding wire  24  looped at the far end of the reel table  22 . The guiding wires  24  are coming out from the control module  40  through holes  27 . The holes  27  are just large enough to prevent any mechanical stress to the guiding wires  24 , and are sealed tight to prevent water, dust, ice and snow to enter inside the control module  40 . The guiding wires  24  are guided through reel tables  22  inside the housing  20  to manage the cover  30  (not shown) to extend from and retract to the housing  20  properly. The control module  40  comprises a means for operating the guiding wires  24  for the cover  30  (not shown) to extend out from or retract into the housing  20 . In order to retract the cover  30  (not shown) back inside the housing  20 , the control module  40  causes the topside  25  of the guiding wires  24  to move in an inward direction  52  and the bottom side  26  of the guiding wire  24  to move in an outward direction  51 . To extend the cover  30  out from the housing  20 , the control module  40  causes the topside  25  of the guiding wires  24  to move in an outward direction  51  and the bottom side  26  of the guiding wires  24  to move in an inward direction  52 .  
         [0031]      FIG. 4  illustrates a partially exploded perspective image with hatch doors  36  of this embodiment of the present invention without an image of a vehicle  10 . The hatch doors  36  are to seal the openings of the housing  20  and to ensure the protection of the cover  30  (not shown) and operable parts and devices inside the housing  20  from the environmental exposures. The hatch doors  36  are mounted along four sides of the housing  20  with hinges  35  to ensure operability. Mechanical devices or conventional means may be utilized for opening and closing the hatch doors  36  automatically. For this purpose, relays  37  can be installed at each side of the housing  20  for operating each of the hatch doors  36 . By receiving a command from the remote control, the control module  40  operates the relays  37  for opening and closing of the hatch doors  36 . The sensing switches  38  may also be installed along each side of the housing  20 , for sensing whether each of the hatch doors  36  is closed properly. In this embodiment of the present invention, the sensing switches  38  are mounted in the middle of each side, beneath the roof of the housing  20 ; however, the position of the sensing switch  38  respect to the hatch door  36  may be at the bottom, right or left side of the hatch door  36  as long as the sensing switch  38  is able to sense whether the hatch doors  36  are in closing position properly, and do not block or disturb moving or operating devices and parts, including the cover  30 , reel tables  22 , guiding wires  24 , etc. Alternatively, infrared position sensing device may be used, instead, for the same purpose. The sensing switches  38  are connected to the processor  60  (not shown) inside the control module  40 , so if any of the hatch doors  36  were not closed properly by sensing through the sensing switch  38 , the processor  60  may operate corresponding relays  37  for retry to close the hatch doors  36  accordingly. These hinges  35  may be installed on bottom side of the housing  20 . Or, the hatch doors  36  with hinges  35  may be replaced with sliding doors, sliding inside or outside the housing  20 ; alternatively, flexible and elastic cover may be installed at the opening to replaces the hatch doors  36 , or by lifting up/down the roof top of the housing  20  to work as a cover for the same purpose.  
         [0032]      FIG. 5  illustrates a schematic view of this embodiment of the present invention while the cover  30  is extended out from the housing  20 . The control module  40  resides inside the housing  20 . A plurality of reel tables  22  are placed inside and outside the housing  20  for routing guiding wires  24  to extend and retract the cover  30  properly. To extend out, topside  25  of the guiding wire  24  is moved in an outward direction  51  and the bottom side  26  of the guiding wire  24  is moved in an inward direction  52  from the control module  40  inside the housing  20 . Optionally, the transparent material  31  is also used on the cover, which is located around the side windows of the vehicle  10  (not shown).  
         [0033]      FIG. 6  illustrates a schematic view of this embodiment of the present invention while the cover  30  is retracted inside the housing  20 . To retract the cover  30 , the control module  40  operates topside  25  of the guiding wire  24  in an inward direction  52  to the housing  20  and bottom side  26  of the guiding wire  24  in an outward direction  51 . The cover  30  is folded along the guiding wires  24  routed by the reel tables  22 .  
         [0034]      FIG. 7  illustrates an exploded top view of the control module  40  of this embodiment of the present invention with left motor (or L motor)  41 , right motor (or R motor)  42 , left gears (or L gears)  45 , and right gears (or R gears)  48 . The L motor drives the chain  49 -L to operate the L gears  45 . Topsides  25  of the guiding wires  24  are attached to L shaft  46 , which is driven by the L motor  41 . The R motor  42  drives the chain  49 -R to operate the R gears  48 . Bottom sides  26  of the guiding wires  24  are attached to R shaft  47 , which is driven by the R motor  42 . For extending the cover  30 , the R motor  42  drives the bottom side  26  of the guiding wire  24  in an inward direction  52  and, as the result, moving the topside  25  of the guide wires  24  in an outward direction  51 . While the R motor  42  is running, the L motor  41  is not powered but works as a brake to control the pace of releasing topsides  25  of the guiding wires  24  to match the pace of retracting bottom sides  26  of the guiding wire  24  to make sure sufficient tensions on the guiding wire  24  for proper operation.  
         [0035]     Optionally, a single and more powerful motor with different gear configuration may be used to replace these two motors disclosed herein to operate and drive the guiding wires  24  to achieve the same result.  
         [0036]      FIG. 8  illustrates an exploded top view of the control module  40  of this embodiment of the present invention with the L motor  41  driving the L gear  45  through the chain  49 -L to operate the L shaft  46  for causing topsides  25  of the guiding wires  24  to move in an inward direction  52  to the control module  40 , and causing bottom sides  26  of the guiding wires  24  to move in an outward direction  51  from the control module  40  for retracting the cover  30 . While the L motor  41  is running, the R motor  42  is not powered but works as a brake to control releasing pace of bottom sides  26  of the guiding wires  24  to match the pace of retracting topside  25  of the guiding wire  24  to make sure sufficient tensions on the guiding wire  24  for proper operation.  
         [0037]      FIG. 9  illustrates a swiping panel  70  installed and integrated on top of the housing  20 . Rails  71  are covered by rubber strip  72  for protecting rails  71  from dust, water, ice and snow. A rubber strip  73  is attached on the top of the swiping panel  70  for sealing the gap between the swiping panel  70  and the housing  20 . The rubber strip  73  may be mounted on the housing  20 . Alternatively, it may be mounted on the swiping panel  70 .  
         [0038]      FIG. 10  illustrates a perspective view of the swiping panel  70  being raised in standing position on the housing  20 . A rubber strip  73  is attached to the top of the swiping panel  70  for sealing gap with the roof top while the swiping panel  70  is in resting position. The motor  81  produces driving force through a shaft  83  for propagating power to the gear tables  82  to drive chains  84 , so that the swiping panel  70  move across the roof of the housing  70  along the rails  71  (not shown) in the direction from the front to the back  90 .  
         [0039]      FIG. 11  illustrates a front view of a swiping panel  70 , which consists of two gear table rollers  75  on L shaped hooks  74  on the bottom of the swiping panel  70 . A rubber strip  73  is attached to the top of the swiping panel  70  for sealing gap with the roof top while the swiping panel  70  is in resting position. The L shaped hooks  74  secure the panel  70  to rails  71  (not shown) for extra strength against any external force. A brush  65  is mounted on bottom of the swiping panel  70  to sweep the roof of the housing  20 . Also, there may be small particles that are hard to remove by the force generated by the motor  81  (not shown). In such case, the particles could cause overloading to the motor  81  and extra stress to all the mechanical parts. This brush  65  ensures flexibility and provides sufficient space between the roof top of the housing  20  and the swiping panel  70  to prevent the swiping panel  70  to stack or to ease mechanical stresses to operating device and parts.  
         [0040]      FIG. 12  is a side exploded view of the housing  20  to illustrate the mechanism inside to implement movement of swiping panel  70 , while the cover  30  is retracted inside the housing  20 . There is a complex mechanical arrangement for implementing such operation. A motor  81  provides driving power for the whole operations. A gear table  82  provides capability to switch manipulating between a gear  77  and a gear  78  through propagating power over a chain  84 . The gear  77  interacting with the gear table roller  75  through a chain  85  is used to raise or recline the swiping panel  70 . The gear  78  along with the chain  84  is used to move the raised swiping panel  70  to move back and forth along the rail  71  (not shown). The panel switch  79  not only secures the swiping panel  70  from raising by external force, but also works as a sensor to confirm that the swiping panel  70  is in resting position when it reclines from standing position, and cause the motor  81  to stop when the swiping panel  70  is completely in resting position. The switch  79  releases panel  70  when to raise, and secures the swiping panel  70  when reclined in resting position. Another panel switch  80  is installed at the back end of the housing  20 . The panel switch  80  works as a sensor, when the swiping panel  70  travels along the rails  71  from the front to the back of the housing, the swiping panel  70  touches the panel switch  80 , which causes the motor  81  to reverse the direction of the movement of the swiping panel  70  from the back to the front. The user remotely controls the control module  40  (not shown) to operate the motor  81  and the gear table  82  for swiping top of the housing  20 . In order to ensure availability and reliability of the operation, a heat element  76  is installed under top of housing for melting any thick layer of ice or snow. The heat element  76  will melt a thin layer at the contact of the housing  20  so that panel  70  can swipe out the snow or a layer of ice. By the processor  60  (not shown) monitoring temperature using a sensor, the processor  60  may automatically control the heat element  76 . Alternatively, the user may remotely activate the heat element  76  by a remote control. The user may also crack layer of ice manually by a scraper to ease the operation.  
         [0041]      FIG. 13  illustrates a side exploded view of the housing  20  with the swiping panel  70  in standing position and ready to swipe across the top of the housing  20 . The motor  81  through the gear table  82  drives the gear  77  through the chain  84  for interacting with the gear table roller  75  through the chain  85  to lock the panel  70  in standing position. Interacting with the gear  78  and  77 , the motor  81  drives the panel  70  in a backward direction  90  from the front to the back of the vehicle  10 , so that all snow or ice on top of the housing  20  will be pushed to the back. Once the swiping panel  70  reached and touched to the panel switch  80  on the other end of the housing, the panel switch  80  causes the gear table  82  to reverse the direction of the movement of the swiping panel  70  in forward direction  91  from the back to the front of the vehicle. Alternative to the gear table  82 , the panel switch  80  may cause the rotation of motor  81  to reverse to achieve the same result. This reversing process may be mechanically implemented as described herein; alternatively, the control module  40  (not shown) may interact in this process by sensing the swiping panel being reached to the back end of vehicle through the panel switch  80 , then the control module  40  causes the gear table  82  to reverse the swiping panel moving direction or causes the motor  81  to reverse the direction.  
         [0042]      FIG. 14  illustrates a side exploded view of the housing  20  with heating element  76  for the roof of the housing  20  and heating element  86  installed inside the control module  40  for protecting operating and moving components inside. The heating element  76  is to melt the layer of ice or snow accumulated on the top of roof, in order to ease the swiping panel  70  to sweep out snow or a layer of ice accumulated on the roof top of the housing  20 .  
         [0043]      FIG. 15  illustrates a functional block diagram of the control module  40  of this embodiment of the present invention. The control module  40  functionally comprises a processor  60 , wireless signal receiver  61 , a plurality of temperature sensors, and a plurality of motor and heat element drivers. The sensors and drivers are attached to the processor  60  for coordinating operations. The user uses a remote control device (not shown) capable of generating and transmitting a control signal to the control module  40 . The processor  60  of the control module  40  receives the signal through receiver  61 , and interprets the command. The processor  60  coordinates operation based on the command received from the user, data gathered through the sensors, and executable instructions programmed in order to drive the appropriate drivers. The executable instructions may reside inside the processor  60  or externally accessible by the processor  60 .  
         [0044]     A roof top swiping panel driver  100  is to drive the motor  81  to cause the swiping panel  70  to operate. A left motor driver  101 , and right motor driver  102  are to drive L motor  41  and R motor  42  for extending and retracting the cover  30 . A hatch door relay  1  driver  103 , hatch door relay  2  driver  104 , hatch door relay  3  driver  105  and hatch door relay  4  driver  106  are there to drive relays for manipulating the corresponding hatch doors  36 . Sensing switches  38  are to sense whether the hatch doors  36  in proper closing position. The processor  60  senses through the sensing switches  38  and coordinates the hatch door relay drivers  103 ,  104 ,  105  and  106  to ensure each of the hatch doors  36  are properly closed. Panel switch  1  relay driver  107  and panel switch  2  relay driver  108  drives the panel switch  79  and the panel switch  80 , respectively, to lock and unlock the swiping panel  70  on top of the housing  20 . There are a couple of temperature sensors attached to the processor  60 . The temperature sensor  62  is to monitor the temperature around the control module  40 . Heat element may be installed below the control module  40  to ensure operability of moving/operating parts and devices inside the control module  40 . The other temperature sensor, temperature sensor  63  is to monitor the temperature around the roof top of the housing  20 . The heat element,  76  may be installed beneath the roof of the housing  20  to melt layer of ice accumulated on the roof for the swiping panel  70  to operate properly. The wireless signal communication may be done through radio signal, or optical signal such as infrared. The user operates a wireless remote control means to transmit operational control signal to operate the apparatus. The transmitter of the remote control shall encode operational commands in such a way so that the processor  60  will not be operated mistakenly by receiving noise or by receiving signal from the wrong remote control means.  
         [0045]     The processor  60  controls the heat element  76  for roof top of the housing  20  (not shown) by driving a heat element drive  110 . The processor  60  also controls the heat element  86  for the control module  40  by driving a heat element drive  109 .  
         [0046]     It is to be understood that the embodiments and variations shown and described herein are merely illustrations of the principles of this invention and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.