A heater control system is disclosed. In an embodiment, the heater control system includes a fluid heater that includes a heating element. The heating element controlled by a switch. The heater control system also includes a controller that can operate the switch. The controller is configured to determine whether a temperature associated with the fluid heater is below a predetermined temperature threshold. The controller causes the switch to transition to an operational state when the temperature is below the predetermined temperature threshold allowing current to flow through the at least one heating element.

A vehicle including a system for transferring energy between on-board vehicle components and/or between on-board and external components. The vehicle is configured to heat various components through induction to provide comfort to the rider and/or to transfer energy for charging one or more vehicle components.

An electromagnetic illuminator heater is provided having a heat generating wire and an elongate encasement of thermally transmissive, temperature mitigating, and electrically insulative material. The material encompasses the elongate heating wire. A heater for devices is also provided.

A system and method for monitoring the health of a heater connected to a power supply by first and second power leads which conduct an inlet and outlet current, respectively. The system includes an injection transformer with a number of primary turns that are inductively coupled to the first power lead, a signal generator configured to generate and supply a time-varying injection signal to the primary turns thereby imposing the time-varying injection signal on the inlet current, and a signal reader configured to receive a diagnostic signal from the heater, filter the diagnostic signal to pass a frequency associated with the time-varying injection signal, and produce a heater capacitance signal that is indicative of a capacitance value of the heater, where the heater capacitance signal is indicative of the health of the heater.

A system for controlling a multi-zone resistive heater. The system includes a first zone of the multi-zone resistive heater formed from a material having a negative temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) and configured to receive a first power to generate thermal energy. The system further includes a second zone of the multi-zone resistive heater formed from the material having the negative TCR, separated from the first zone by a gap, and configured to receive a second power to generate the thermal energy.

An electric circuit for driving a current through a load resistance in a first state and isolating the load resistance in a second state includes: a first switch configured to connect a first terminal of the load resistance and a first port of the electric circuit, the first switch having a first electric potential; a second switch configured to connect a second terminal of the load resistance and a second port of the electric circuit, the second switch having a second electric potential, different from the first electric potential; and at least one auxiliary resistance included within a bypass line configured to bypass the load resistance and the second switch. The first switch is configured to switch a current flowing through the first switch, and the second switch is configured to switch a current flowing through the second switch.

A safety method and system consisting of resistance checking for use with high power deicing and defogging systems, including high power deicing and defogging systems for windshields and including quasi-continuous checking with pulse-electro thermal deicing and defogging systems, is disclosed. The resistance checking system may be combined with a proximity detector safety system which operates in conjunction with the resistance based safety system.

A device (100, 200′, 200″, 300, 400) for detecting the contact between a user and a steering wheel (9) of a vehicle, the device (100, 200′, 200″, 300, 400) comprising: an electrically insulating support (10); a first electrically conductive track (101, 201, 301, 401) fastened to the support (10) and comprising a plurality of first peaks (11) alternated with a plurality of first troughs (12) along a direction (D), wherein the first track (101, 201, 301, 401) is distributed over the support so that the surface of the first track (101, 201, 301, 401) adapted to come into contact with a user's hand decreases along said direction (D).

The disclosed exemplary apparatuses, systems and methods may provide a self-heating battery circuit, that comprises: a high voltage battery having terminals, and a parasitic internal resistance (R1) and a parasitic terminal inductance (L1); a resonant circuit connected across the battery terminals suitable to generate high alternating currents about its resonant frequency, fr; an energy superposition unit connected across a capacitance of the resonant circuit, and including a switch (K1), wherein K1 is switched on and off at the resonant frequency, fr, and at a first duty cycle pursuant to a switch control signal, thereby generating a high alternating current through the high voltage battery.

An occupant information sensing device 100 includes a plurality of heater electrodes that are provided at a vehicle steering wheel 104 and insulated and separated from one another and that generate heat by conduction. Power sources provide electrical current for heater electrodes. Electrical circuit elements enable the system to provide occupant biological condition monitoring, gripping detection, and electrical stimulation. The circuits enable common electrical connecting to the heater electrodes to provide multiple functions through the use of filtering and time division multiplexing.