Motor vehicle having a vehicle communication bus and method for generating bus messages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9485327-B2
Application number	US-201414768187-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2014
Priority date	Feb 15, 2013
Publication date	Nov 1, 2016
Grant date	Nov 1, 2016

Abstract

A motor vehicle has a master bus device that is designed to use a vehicle communication bus of the motor vehicle to exchange messages with slave bus devices. A transmission device of the master bus device cyclically exchanges the messages with the slave bus devices on the basis of a schedule For making efficient use of the vehicle communication bus by the schedule-controlled master bus device, the transmission device is designed to receive a diagnosis request signal via a data input that is different than the bus port of the master bus device and to take the diagnosis request signal as a basis for interrupting the cyclic processing of the schedule and to exchange at least one special message that is different than the messages stipulated in the schedule with at least one of the slave bus devices and then to continue the processing of the schedule.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A master bus device for a motor vehicle that is designed to access a vehicle communication bus of the motor vehicle via a bus port to exchange messages with slave bus devices of the motor vehicle based on a main schedule in the master bus device that stipulates what messages the master bus device exchanges with the slave bus devices, comprising:
a transmission device to
perform cyclic processing of the main schedule to exchange the messages stipulated by the main schedule with the slave bus devices;
receive a diagnosis request signal via a data input that is different from the bus port of the master bus device;
take the diagnosis request signal as a basis for a transmission interruption of the main schedule, to exchange at least one special message that is different from the messages stipulated in the main schedule, the at least one special message being exchanged with at least one slave bus device;
interrupt, after the transmission interruption, the main schedule with a reception interruption to receive at least one diagnosis response from the at least one slave bus device via the vehicle communication bus, the reception interruption being based on a special reception schedule; and
process the main schedule after the transmission interruption and reception interruption.

2. The master bus device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the vehicle communication bus with which the master bus device exchanges the messages is a Local Interconnect Network (LIN) bus and each of the messages and the at least one special message is a LIN message.

3. The master bus device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the main schedule is processed by the master bus device during normal operation of the motor vehicle while a driver uses the motor vehicle, and during the normal operation the main schedule contains substantially only the messages relating to operation of the motor vehicle.

4. The master bus device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
the diagnosis request signal contains data selected from the group consisting of diagnosis request data and configuration data, and
during the transmission interruption, each special message contains at least a portion of the data contained in the diagnosis request signal.

5. The master bus device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein during the transmission interruption, the transmission device transmits the at least one special message by processing a special transmission schedule.

6. The master bus device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein after the transmission interruption and reception interruption, the transmission device continues the cyclic processing of the main schedule at a location in the main schedule at which the processing was interrupted.

7. The master bus device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
the main schedule is processed by the master bus device during normal operation of the motor vehicle while a driver uses the motor vehicle,
the diagnosis request signal contains data selected from the group consisting of diagnosis data and configuration data, and
the main schedule has no time slots reserved for transferring the data contained in the diagnosis request signal.

8. The master bus device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein during the transmission interruption, each special message contains at least a portion of the data contained in the diagnosis request signal.

9. The master bus device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein during the transmission interruption, the transmission device transmits the at least one special message by processing a special transmission schedule.

10. The master bus device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein
a first transmission interruption is followed by a second transmission interruption,
the second transmission interruption is followed by the reception interruption, and
the main schedule is processed between the first and second transmission interruptions.

11. A motor vehicle, comprising:
a vehicle communication bus;
slave bus devices connected to the vehicle communication bus; and
a master bus device, connected to the vehicle communication bus via a bus port to exchange messages with the slave bus devices to
perform cyclic processing of a main schedule in the master bus device that stipulates what messages the master bus device exchanges with the slave bus devices,
receive a diagnosis request signal via a data input that is different from the bus port of the master bus device,
take the diagnosis request signal as a basis for a transmission interruption of the cyclic processing of the main schedule, to exchange at least one special message that is different from the messages stipulated in the main schedule, the at least one special message being exchanged with at least one slave bus device,
interrupt, after the transmission interruption, the main schedule with a reception interruption, to receive a diagnosis response from the at least one slave bus device via the vehicle communication bus based on a special reception schedule, and
process the main schedule after the transmission interruption and reception interruption.

12. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the main schedule is processed by the master bus device during normal operation of the motor vehicle while a driver uses the motor vehicle, and during the normal operation the main schedule contains substantially only the messages relating to operation of the motor vehicle.

13. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 11 , wherein during normal operation of the motor vehicle while a driver uses the motor vehicle, the main schedule has no time slots reserved for transferring maintenance messages.

14. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 11 , wherein each special message contains at least a portion of request data contained in the diagnosis request signal and/or at least a portion of configuration data contained in the diagnosis request signal.

15. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the transmission device transmits the at least one special message during a respective interruption in the main schedule by processing a special transmission schedule.

16. A method for operating a master bus device, connected via a bus port to a vehicle communication bus of a motor vehicle, based on a main schedule in the master bus device that stipulates what messages the master bus device exchanges with slave bus devices of the motor vehicle via the vehicle communication bus, the method comprising:
cyclic processing of the main schedule by a transmission device of the master bus device to produce messages on the vehicle communication bus based on the main schedule;
receiving a diagnosis request signal via a data input that is different from the bus port of the master bus device;
taking the diagnosis request signal as a basis for a transmission interruption of the main schedule and exchanging at least one special message, different from the messages stipulated in the main schedule, the at least one special message being exchanged with at least one slave bus device;
interrupting, after the transmission interruption, the main schedule with a reception interruption to receive at least one diagnosis response from the at least one slave bus device via the vehicle communication bus, the reception interruption being based on a special reception schedule;
processing of the main schedule, after the transmission interruption and reception interruption, including producing the messages on the communication bus stipulated in the main schedule.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the cyclic processing of the main schedule by

Assignees

• Audi Ag

Inventors

• Hasse Andre

Classifications

• H04L67/125

  involving control of end-device applications over a network · CPC title

• H04L12/4015

  by scheduling the transmission of messages at the communication node · CPC title

• H04L2012/40273

  the transportation system being a vehicle · CPC title

• H04L12/40019

  Details regarding a bus master · CPC title

• H04L47/568 Primary

  Calendar queues or timing rings · CPC title