Kenyon & Kenyon
Automotive onboard load control apparatus and method
 An onboard load control apparatus and a method for detecting a fault of an onboard electrical load with high accuracy are disclosed. The control apparatus comprises an onboard battery mounted on an automotive vehicle, an electrical heater for electrically heating an electrical load such as an electrically-heated catalyst supplied with power from the onboard battery, an auxiliary relay for turning on/off the power to the electrical heater from the onboard battery, and an ECU for controlling the on/off operation of the auxiliary relay. The apparatus further comprises an engine speed detector for detecting the engine speed of the internal combustion engine and a fault judgement unit for judging whether the electrical heater is normal or faulty on the basis of the fluctuation amount of the engine speed of the internal combustion engine detected by the engine speed detector before and after switching the auxiliary relay. A fault of the electrical load is judged by detecting the voltage across the onboard battery while taking the fluctuation amount of the same voltage into consideration. The apparatus further comprises a load condition holder for holding the load condition of a specific load while the engine speed or the battery voltage is detected. 
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
H B G H
H02J B60R G01R H02J
inventional inventional inventional additional
Takashi Kenji Yuichi Takayuki Michio Sigemitu Tadayuki Masaaki Hiroki Toshinari
Kawai Harima Goto Otsuka Furuhashi Iisaka Nagai Tanaka Matuoka Nagai