ELECTRICAL CONTROL APPARATUS FOR LEASED EQUIPMENT

摘要

An electrical control system preferably for vehicles such as a transit vehicle is arranged with a plurality of separate modules each receiving inpu t from a series of inputs and each providing a series of outputs so that the modules combined receive inputs from all of the control, transducer and other input elements of the vehicle and the modules as a whole provide output to all of the controlled elements of the vehicle. The modules communicate between one another via a communication bus and an operational program is installed in each of the modules so that all modules contain programming for the functions of each module. A replacement module is generic and thus can contain any operational program a nd thus can be used for many different designs of the system. As supplied, the module may contain an existing program or no operational program if not yet programmed. On a subsequent power-up after installation of the replacement module, a che ck program is run to determine that a replacement module is in place and to download the operational program from a selected one of the existing modules into the replacement module. This allows service personnel to readily install replacement modules without the necessity for dedication of the modules to specific desi gn schemes. The modules can be programed securely with an expiry date which allows unauthorized operation of the vehicle to be disabled in the event tha t the expiry date passes, for example at the end of a lease.