Caterpillar Inc.

Bahman Gozloo

Paul C Gottshall

Jeffrey Michael Thate

Morteza Rezaei

William Eugene Hoban, Jr

A controller for a spark plug of an engine is provided. The controller is configured to receive a signal indicative of an operational parameter of the engine. The controller is configured to define a breakdown time duration for the spark plug. Further, the controller is configured to determine an optimum amount of energy required to generate a spark for the spark plug based on the defined breakdown time duration and the operational parameter. The controller is further configured to cause the optimum amount of energy to be supplied to the spark plug to cause the spark to be generated for the spark plug.

Controller for spark plug of engine

A system for communicating over a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus may include a central controller and a plurality of smart devices communicatively coupled with the central controller over the CAN bus and over an identification verification network separate from the CAN bus. Each smart device may be configured to at least one of measure various parameters and control a function based on a command received from the central controller, and then communicate one or more signals indicative of at least one of the measured parameters and the function over the CAN bus to the central controller. Each of the smart devices may include a physical input, a physical output, and at least two nonvolatile memory locations. A first of the at least two memory locations may be configured to store an identifier input signal received at the physical input from at least one of the central controller and an upstream smart device over the identification verification network, the identifier input signal being stored by the smart device as a function instance value for the smart device. The smart device may further include a source address determination module configured to determine a source address for the smart device based on the function instance value and a factory default base address for the smart device, and store the source address in a second of the at least two memory locations.

Identifying and configuring multiple smart devices on a CAN bus

A temperature measurement system is provided to measure temperatures using temperature sensors. The temperature measurement system may include a controller having a plurality of address lines, a sensor configured to provide a plurality of inputs, and a connector configured to accept the inputs from the sensor. The temperature measurement system may also include a first multiplexer coupled with at least one input from the sensor and including a plurality of selector lines, and a second multiplexer coupled with one or more other inputs from the sensor and including a plurality of selector lines. The selector lines of the second multiplexer may be respectively coupled to the address lines of the controller. The temperature measurement system may also include a selector logic device coupled between the selector lines of the first multiplexer and the address lines of the controller such that the at least one input coupled to the first multiplexer corresponds to a variable number of inputs from the one or more other inputs coupled to the second multiplexer.

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Peoria, IL, United States of America

Bahman Gozloo