The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 01, 2005
Filed:
May. 10, 2002
Charles Grant, Dublin, OH (US);
Charles Grant, Dublin, OH (US);
Ranco Incorporated, Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
A diagnostic tool suite is made available to technicians servicing equipment at residential and business locations using a portable device such as a PDA. The PDA runs a main engine that can execute diagnostic modules, with each diagnostic module corresponding to a particular appliance or device that requires troubleshooting, repair, diagnosis, maintenance or installation. The diagnostic modules use a limited number of templates to define possible screen layouts for each screen displayed to the technician. Additionally, the diagnostic module includes a diagnostic flow definition file wherein each record corresponds to a screen displayed to a technician. The main engine uses the template information and the diagnostic flow definition records to fully define a screen to display to a technician. In this way, an extensible, modular, non-specific diagnostic tool suite is available to a technician. To simplify creation of the diagnostic definition files, a graphical user development tool is provided that allows a non-skilled user to select a template definition, to be prompted for definitions of the fields in that template and to create the diagnostic definition file incorporating the user's input.