Serial communication safety controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10585828-B2
Application number	US-201715430396-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2017
Priority date	Oct 30, 2015
Publication date	Mar 10, 2020
Grant date	Mar 10, 2020

Abstract

Serial communication verification and safety control is disclosed. A multi-part system such as a battery management system can include distributed or subsidiary components for determining status of various parts of the system with the components in serial or point-to-point communication with a collective main controller. A safety controller can be implemented to passively be coupled to the serial or point-to-point communication between the main controller and the subsidiary units. The safety controller can monitor and verify the communication between the main controller and the subsidiary units and send a safety command or verification indicator in another line of communication separate from the communication bus between the main controller and the subsidiary units.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication apparatus comprising:
a main controller;
a subsidiary unit connected to the main controller through a data bus, wherein the data bus is a serial peripheral interface (SPI), and wherein the main controller is in communication with the subsidiary unit through the data bus using a SPI protocol; and
a safety controller connected to the data bus and configured to:
receive data and/or commands communicated from the main controller to the subsidiary unit through a first master-out-slave-in (MOST) pin of the safety controller;
receive data and/or commands communicated from the subsidiary unit to the main controller through a second MOSI pin of the safety controller;
monitor one or more communications between the main controller and the subsidiary unit through the data bus;
evaluate one or more communications between the main controller and the subsidiary unit through the data bus for evidence of a fault condition; and
output a safety signal that is based at least in part on the results of the evaluating to an output connection separate from the data bus.

2. The communication apparatus of claim 1 further comprising safety action circuitry, wherein the main controller is configured to output a main action signal, and wherein the safety action circuitry is configured to perform a safety action based at least in part on the safety signal output from the safety controller.

3. The communication apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of the subsidiary units, each of which is connected to the main controller through the data bus.

4. The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the safety controller is configured to evaluate communications between the main controller and the subsidiary unit by comparing expected data and/or commands with actual data and/or commands communicated between the main controller and the subsidiary unit through the data bus.

5. A method of detecting fault conditions in a circuit, the method comprising:
receiving, at a first master-out-slave-in (MOSI) pin, data and/or commands communicated from a main controller to at least a first subsidiary unit through a data bus, wherein the data bus is a serial peripheral interface (SPI) port, and wherein the main controller and the first subsidiary unit are in communication using a SPI protocol;
receiving, at a second MOSI pin, data communicated from the first subsidiary unit to the main controller through the data bus;
comparing the received data and/or commands from the main controller to the first subsidiary unit with expected data and/or commands from the main controller to the subsidiary unit;
comparing the received data from the first subsidiary unit to the main controller with expected data from the first subsidiary unit to the main controller; and
outputting a safety signal through a connection separate from the data bus.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
verifying command issuance from the main controller to the first subsidiary unit; and
evaluating data values communicated from the first subsidiary unit to the main controller.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
receiving data and/or commands communicated from the main controller to a second subsidiary unit;
receiving data communicated from the second subsidiary unit to the main controller; comparing the received data and/or commands from the main controller to the second subsidiary unit with expected data and/or commands from the main controller to the second subsidiary unit; comparing data communicated from the second subsidiary unit to the main controller with expected data from the second subsidiary unit to the main controller.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first subsidiary unit is coupled to a battery module, and wherein the data communicated from the subsidiary unit to the main controller comprises battery status data of the battery module.

Assignees

• Faraday & Future Inc

Inventors

• Paryani Anil
• Velev Omourtag Alexandrov

Classifications

• B60L3/12

  Recording operating variables {; Monitoring of operating variables} · CPC title

• G06F13/4282

  on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus (on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247) · CPC title

• Y02T90/16

  Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles · CPC title

• G06F13/404

  with address mapping · CPC title

• B60L3/0092

  with use of redundant elements for safety purposes · CPC title