A VEHICLE LOCATING UNIT WITH IMPROVED POWER MANAGEMENT METHOD

摘要

A VEHICLE LOCATING UNIT (10) WITH IMPROVED POWER MANAGEMENT. A RECEIVER (40) RECEIVES A SIGNAL FROM A NETWORK OF COMMUNICATION SOURCES (16). A SIGNAL STRENGTH MONITORING SUBSYSTEM DETERMINES WHICH OF THE COMMUNICATION SOURCES (16) ARE TRANSMITTING THE STRONGEST SIGNALS. A POWER MANAGEMENT SUBSYSTEM IS RESPONSIVE TO THE SIGNAL STRENGTH MONITORING SUBSYSTEM (42) AND IS CONFIGURED TO ALTERNATIVELY ENTER SLEEP AND WAKE-UP MODES, SYNCHRONIZE THE WAKE-UP MODE TO THE COMMUNICATION SOURCE (16) TRANSMITTING THE STRONGEST SIGNAL, AND TEST THE SIGNAL STRENGTH OF AT LEAST ONE ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATION SOURCE (16) ACCORDING TO A PREDEFINED SEQUENCE.