Patent ID: 7161782

Claim:
An intelligent fuse box ( 1 ) for a vehicle's multiplex power distribution system, comprising: a power source provided with vehicle's power supply bus ( 2 ), the fuse box ( 1 ) being connected with the power supply bus ( 2 ), at least one cable bus ( 11 – 13 ) between the fuse box ( 1 ) and vehicle's functional components/actuators, said at least one cable bus ( 11 – 13 ) being equipped with intelligent nodes ( 14 ) which in turn have outputs for driving the functional components/actuators, each of the at least one cable bus ( 11 – 13 ) further having a power source end connected to an output of the fuse box ( 1 ), the fuse box including outputs ( 3 ) for the vehicle's functional components/actuators and outputs connected to the power source ends of the cable buses ( 11 – 13 ), and further including means serving fuse functions between the outputs of the fuse box and the vehicle's power supply bus ( 2 ), and said fuse box ( 1 ) further includes inputs ( 5 ) for receiving messages controlling the ON/OFF state of solid-state switches ( 4 ), configuration data ( 8 ) including the limits of a normal current window for the outputs of the fuse box, and a microprocessor ( 6 ), the microprocessor ( 6 ) controlling the solid-state switches ( 4 ) based on a program stored in the microprocessor memory ( 7 ) and on the current limits predetermined in the configuration data ( 8 ), the configuration data ( 8 ) contributing under external control for altering the current limits, wherein the configuration data ( 8 ) are reprogrammable via a service interface ( 10 ) for altering the predetermined current limits.