Patent Publication Number: US-2006007663-A1

Title: Electronic control device for motor vehicles

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      The application claims priority to German Application No. 10 2004 033 369.6, which was filed on Jul. 9, 2004.  
      The invention relates to an electronic control device for motor vehicles, in particular a door control device, which includes a controller arranged on a basic circuit board to control standard functions of a vehicular component, and a first plug connector linked with the controller.  
      Typically, electronic control devices are used in motor vehicles to control actuators of a vehicular component. To improve integrity, electronic control devices have been developed together with a drive motor to form a pre-assembled unit that has a very compact construction. With such electronic control devices it is possible to provide standard functions of a particular vehicular component. In the example of a vehicle door, the standard function could be an electric window lifting function, provided with the aid of an electric motor controlled by a controller of the electronic control device.  
      One disadvantage with these electronic control devices is that a design configuration is chosen based on a limited size of an associated basic circuit board. This is why additional electrical elements, which are required for controlling additional functions of the particular vehicular component, are not accommodated on the basic circuit board due to the lack of space. Moreover, these additional electrical elements, which are required only for certain types of vehicles or certain equipment variants, significantly increase production costs of the electronic control device.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      It is the object of the invention to provide control of additional functions of a vehicular component in a cost-effective way.  
      This is achieved according to the invention by a control device that includes an add-on module with at least one additional circuit board on which electrical elements are arranged to control additional functions of the vehicular component. The add-on module is attached on a first plug connector and includes a second plug connector. Moving the additional elements to a circuit board of the add-on module has the advantage of a standard control device, which controls the standard functions, and can continue to be used with only slight modifications. Thus, established amenities of the standard control device continue to take effect. As the add-on module is only installed when additional functions are actually desired, it is possible to avoid unnecessary costs. The invention also provides the option of utilizing different specific add-on modules depending on the nature and complexity of the additional functions.  
      One particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention utilizes specific connection lines of the first plug connector, which are associated with the standard functions. These specific connection lines are looped through the add-on module to the second plug connector. The control device according to the invention, which is connected to a vehicular bus system through the second plug connector, can thus be addressed with respect to the standard functions in a manner similar to a standard control device.  
      The provision of the additional functions is preferably accomplished in that the first plug connector has at least one connection pin connected to the circuit board of the add-on module. This establishes a serial communication between the controller and add-on module in an easy way.  
      A consistently easy installation results from the fact that the physical format of the second plug connector is identical to the physical format of the first plug connector, i.e. the first and second plug connectors have the same plug format, which so far has been used for connecting a standard control device, and can also be used for the control device according to the invention. In this case, a connection plug and the second plug connector may have additional occupied connection pins for a connection to the add-on module. These additional pins are unoccupied when a standard control device without an add-on module is utilized.  
      According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the add-on module has at least one integrated circuit, which is addressed by a controller as a slave input/output (I/O) unit.  
      These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic representation of a motor unit and a control device according to prior art.  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic representation of a motor unit and a control device according to the invention.  
       FIG. 3  is a schematic, perspective view of a control device according to the invention, without a housing.  
       FIG. 4  is a logic block diagram of a control device according to the invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a motor unit including an electric motor  10  that is part of a system for controlling functions on a door of a motor vehicle. Linked with the electric motor  10  is a standard control device  12  with which standard functions, such as reading-out of switches and controlling window motion with the aid of the electric motor  10 , are realized. The control device  12  is connected to a vehicular bus system, such as an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) or Local Interconnect Network (LIN), for example, (not shown) through a plug connector  14 .  
       FIG. 2  shows a motor unit comprising a control device  16  according to the invention. The control device  16  is composed of a standard part  18 , which is generally equivalent to the control device  12  from  FIG. 1 , and add-on module  20 . The add-on module  20  is attached on a first plug connector  14  of the standard part  18 , and is fastened to a housing of the standard part  18  by means of a screw or clip connection  22 .  
      The basic structure of the control device  16  according to the invention is shown in  FIG. 3 . Arranged on a basic circuit board  24  of the standard part  18  is a controller that activates the electric motor  10  ( FIG. 2 ). Attached on the first plug connector  14  is an add-on module  20  that has an additional circuit board  26  and a second plug connector  28  linked with the additional circuit board  26 .  
      Additional elements (not shown) are arranged on the additional circuit board  26 , which allow control of additional functions, such as an electric locking of the door or an electric adjustment of an outside mirror. The second plug connector  28  has the same physical format as the first plug connector  14 . In other words, the same connection plug, with which the standard control device  12  of  FIG. 1  is connected to the vehicular bus system, matches with the second plug connector  28 . Thus, the control device  16  according to the invention can be connected through the second plug connector  28  to the vehicular bus system just like the connection of the standard control device  12  through the first plug connector  14 .  
       FIG. 4  shows a logic structure of the control device  16  according to the invention. The standard part  18  comprises, inter alia, a serial interface  30  for connecting the electric motor  10 , a memory  32  with program data (for instance a squeeze protection algorithm), and a switch interface  34  for the reading-out of switches. Lines  36  and  38  connect the standard part  18  to the bus system and connect a switch interface  34 , respectively. The lines  36  and  38  are passed to the first plug connector  14  and looped through the add-on module  20  to the second plug connector  28 .  
      In contrast to a standard control device  12  there are one or more additionally occupied connection pins in the first plug connector  14  that allow a serial communication of the standard part  18  with the add-on module  20 . At least one integrated circuit  40  is arranged on the additional circuit board  26  of the add-on module  20 . the integrated circuit  40  is connected to bus line  36  through a node  42  and works as a slave-I/O-unit. The slave-I/O-unit only carries out commands of a controller of the standard part  18 , and does not contain any additional logic. In case the controller asks for switching on of a motor for a door lock, for example, the integrated circuit  40  receives and carries out the command. The logic for calling the command resides exclusively in the controller of the standard part  18  and is defined in particular by the data in the memory  32 , which is adapted to the respective add-on module  20 .  
      In order to ensure that the communication between the controller and the add-on module  20  does not interfere with another serial communication between other control units of the vehicle, it is possible to provide two serial lines between the controller and the add-on module  20 , one internal and one external line.  
      The invention has been described for the example of a door control device. The concept underlying the invention, however, can also be used with control devices for other vehicular components.  
      Although a preferred embodiment of this invention has been disclosed, a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this invention. For that reason, the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention.