Patent ID: 7502673

Claim:
A method for communicating the maintenance status of a vehicle system to a remote location relative to the vehicle, the vehicle having a communications link and a plurality of vehicle systems, the method comprising: initializing a recorder module; receiving a recorder module command from the remote location; directing said recorder module command to the recorder module; determining if said recorder module command is directed to said recorder module; processing the recorder module command, wherein said processing includes checking said recorder module command for a signal commanding set-up of data collection of the maintenance status when said recorder module command is directed to said recorder module, and directing said recorder module command through said recorder module to the communications link as a pass-through command when said recorder module command is not directed to said recorder module; generating a response to the recorder module command, wherein said response includes said collected maintenance status data when said recorder module command is directed to said recorder module; transmitting the response to the remote location; and supplying power to the recorder module after the vehicle is turned off such that any unrecorded data may be preserved.