Patent ID: 8244426

Claim:
A method for monitoring a main control module and first and second motor control processors operative to control first and second torque actuators of a hybrid powertrain system, the method comprising: implementing a programmable logic device; directly signally connecting a discrete output from the programmable logic device to the main control module and to each of the motor control processors; signally connecting the main control module and the programmable logic device via a first communications bus; signally connecting each of the main control module and the first motor control processor to a serial communications bus; communicating a seed signal from the programmable logic device to the main control module via the first communications bus; determining a key signal in the main control module based upon the seed signal; communicating the key signal to the programmable logic device via the first communications bus; determining a state of the discrete output in the programmable logic device based upon the key signal; directly communicating the state of the discrete output from the programmable logic device to the main control module and to each of the motor control processors via electric cables; and transmitting a signal determined based upon the state of the discrete output from the first motor control processor to the serial communications bus.