Grote Industries, Inc.

Adam Slade

Cesar Perez-Bolivar

Sankalp Pampattiwar

Yogesh Kubal

Kevin Cornelius

Jiabiao Ruan

Paul Miller

Charles D Polley

Peter Thompson

Michael R Henderson

Andrew Worley

A cable system for a truck trailer with connectors having a main power connection, a ground connection, and one, two, or more communication cable connections. Connectors include at least a power and ground connection for electrically connecting an individual trailer to the cable system. A master control circuit may be included in the trailer nosebox, and the master control circuit configured to send commands to slave control circuits mounted within the connectors. The slave control circuits in the connectors are configured to receive a control command sent by the master control circuit that may include an address, mode identifiers, or other indications of which connectors in the cable system should take action, and what actions should be taken.

Smart cable system for a truck trailer

A communication system for a truck and trailer that may include trailer components electrically connected to a modulation unit. The modulation unit may be configured to encode trailer-related data values representing aspects of the trailer components such as operational status, failure of internal components, component operating parameters, and the like. The communication system may also include one or more light emitters responsive to the modulation unit that may be arranged and configured to direct light away from the trailer and toward one or more sensors electrically connected to demodulation units. The sensors may be responsive to the modulated light emitted by the emitters and the demodulation units may be useful to decode and obtain the trailer-related data values.

Wireless vehicle communication system

A communication system that utilizes a light strip to carry data using the power and ground connections of the light strip. When used in the context of a truck and trailer, the system may include a sensor node configured to obtain status information about trailer components, and a data hub for collecting the information. The data about the trailer components may be transferred from the sensor node to the data hub using the power and/or ground connections of the light strip. The sensor node may communicate using the light strip by changing the current level of the light strip power connection, and these changes in the current level may be used by the data hub as a signal by which the data may be received.

Light strip communication system

A cable system for a truck trailer for reducing the number and/or size of wiring in a commercial trailer cable system from seven to four, three, or two, while also facilitating bidirectional communication with all connected electronic devices in the trailer. The cable system has a ground cable, a power cable, and zero, one or two additional communication cables that may carry analog and/or digital communications between the control circuit and components of the trailer such as turn signal lamps, brake lamps, backup cameras, environmental sensors, and the like. A transformer for increasing the voltage on the power cable is disclosed, allowing the power and ground cables to be smaller without reducing power delivered to the trailer.

Cable system for a truck trailer

A nose box insert for a truck trailer nose box. The insert may include a baseplate and multiple electrical terminals for connecting a receptacle, such as a standard J-560 nose box receptacle, to wiring in a truck trailer. A control circuit may be included to control and detect and/or report outages of multiple trailer components including, but not limited to, LED lamps, trailer braking systems, environmental sensors, or other components. A communication circuit may be included in the control circuit and may be configured to establish at least one communication link with a remote device to allow the nose box insert to wirelessly report information to a remote device indicating operational aspects such as the location of the trailer, the status of the individual trailer components, or other relevant information.

Nose box insert for monitoring and fault detection in a truck trailer

A lighting device, comprising: a circuit board; a receiver coil trace located on the circuit board and configured to receive transmitted power from a transmitting coil trace; a light-emitter located on the circuit board, configured to receive power from the receiver coil trace; and receiver electronics located on the circuit board, configured to receive power from the receiver coil trace and control operation of the light emitter.

Lighting device using wireless power transfer module

A nose box insert for a truck trailer nose box. The insert may include a baseplate and multiple electrical terminals for connecting a receptacle, such as a standard J-560 nose box receptacle, to wiring in a truck trailer. A control circuit may be included to control and detect and/or report outages of multiple trailer components including, but not limited to, LED lamps, trailer braking systems, environmental sensors, or other components. A communication circuit may be included in the control circuit and may be configured to establish at least one communication link with a remote device to allow the nose box insert to wirelessly report information to a remote device indicating operational aspects such as the location of the trailer, to the status of the individual trailer components, or other relevant information.

A device outage detector, comprising: a microcontroller; a plurality of shunt resistors, each connected to at least one of a plurality of vehicle elements; a current sensor configured to measure a plurality of instantaneous currents passing through the plurality of shunt resistors, respectively; and a voltage sensor configured to measure a plurality of instantaneous voltages across the plurality of shunt resistors, respectively, wherein the microcontroller is configured to issue a warning for a given shunt resistor if its corresponding instantaneous current is below the first threshold value and its instantaneous voltage is zero, or if its corresponding instantaneous current is above a second threshold value.

Device outage detector including a current detector and a voltage detector

A thin film sheet that includes a substrate, a first electrical connector, a second electrical connector, and one or more light sources and sensors electrically connected to the first and second electrical connectors within the thin film sheet. The first and second electrical connectors attach to the substrate and transmit power and/or information to and from the light sources and sensors, and the second electrical connector extends parallel to the first electrical connector.

Thin film sheet including power lines, lights, and sensors

A lighting device, including a voltage source; a light engine including one or more lighting elements between a first power line and a second power line; a current detector between the voltage source and the light engine; a switch box between the voltage source and the light engine, connected to the electrical power, to ground, to the first power line, and to the second power line, and configured to switch the light engine between a first configuration in which the first power line is connected to the electrical power and the second power line is connected to ground, and a second configuration in which the second power line is connected to the electrical power and the first power line is connected to ground; a lighting controller configured to generate the switch control signal based on the detected current passing between the voltage source and the light engine.

Growing community of inventors

Madison, IN, United States of America

Adam Slade