摘要 |
<p>The present invention measures the energy consumption of battery-powered telephone devices to prevent the inadvertent deep discharge of a vehicle's battery by prolonged use of said devices when the vehicle is unattended. In a preferred embodiment, current to the devices is incrementally measured or estimated from a measurement of other relevant parameters. The incremental measurements of current are accumulated to produce a total current consumption indicative of the total energy consumption. At each update after an incremental measurement, the accumulated total is compared to a pre-established or adaptively determined. When the total energy consumption meets or exceeds the threshold, the power to the battery-powered telephone device is interrupted in order to conserve a sufficient amount of power to start the vehicle and to operate other peripheral systems.</p> |