Apparatus for locking and/or unlocking

Abstract

An apparatus for locking and/or unlocking, for an access and/or drive authorization in a motor vehicle of a keyless entry/go functionality, for a wireless remote control of a first device in the motor vehicle and an associated second device designed as an electronic key, an ID-transponder or a chip card, with both devices for the intended operation having transmitters and/or receivers for electromagnetic signals which allows a large operation distance and a long battery lifetime of the second device. The first device transmits a first cyclic repeated signal for the activation and/or authentication of the second device with a first data protocol within a first transmission time interval and with a first cycle time.

Claims

1. An apparatus for locking and/or unlocking, for an access and/or drive authorization in a motor vehicle of a keyless entry/go functionality, for a wireless remote control comprising a first device having a transmitter for an arrangement in the motor vehicle and an associated second device designed as one of an electronic key, an ID-transponder and a chip card, wherein both devices for the intended operation have transmitters and/or receivers for electromagnetic signals, wherein the transmitter of the first device is adopted for transmission of a first cyclic repeated signal for the activation and/or authentication of the second device with a first data protocol within a first transmission time interval and with a first cycle time, and the second device has a cyclic repeated receiving mode for a determined first receiving time interval of the second device, wherein the first receiving time interval of the second device is longer than the first transmission time interval of the first data protocol of the first device, and wherein after receipt of the first data protocol of the first device by the second device during the first receiving time interval, the second device remains in only a receiving mode for a second receiving time interval, such that a second or more cyclic repeated signals of the first device for authentication of the second device with a second data protocol is received completely by the second device.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first device transmits the second or more cyclic repeated signals for authentication of the second device with the second data protocol within a second transmission time interval and with a second cycle time, wherein the first transmission time interval is shorter than the second transmission time interval and the first cycle time is shorter than the second cycle time.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first receiving time interval of the second device is a multiple of the first transmission time interval of the first data protocol.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first receiving time interval of the second device corresponds to the first cycle time of the first device for activation of the second device.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second receiving time interval of the second device in the receiving mode after the receipt of the first data protocol corresponds to the second cycle time of the second or more cyclic repeated signals of the first device.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second or more cyclic repeated signals of the first device is divided in two or more blocks.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frequency of a carrier wave for the first and/or the second signal is in the VHF-range (30 MHz to 300 MHz) and/or UHF-range (300 MHz to 3 GHz).

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frequency of a carrier wave for the first and/or second signal is higher than 100 MHz, and/or in the ISM band from 433.05 MHz to 434.79 MHz and/or in the ISM band from 902 MHz to 928 MHz.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) An embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in the drawings and described with respect to the figures.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a vehicle and an operator of a vehicle for illustrating the application;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a diagram as an example of a timing of the transmitting and receiving signals; and

(4) FIG. 3 shows another diagram as example of a timing with high amount of data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(5) In FIG. 1 a vehicle 1 is shown, in which a first device 2 having a transmitter is arranged.

(6) An operator 3 is carrying a handbag with the second device 4 inside, especially the car key 5. When the operator approaches to the car the operator and the car key 5 are coming into the operation distance 6 between the first device 2 and the second device 4.

(7) In FIG. 2, the first cycling repeated signal (TX short) of the first device (TX car) is shown. In this embodiment the time interval for the first cyclic repeated signal (TX short) of the first device is 0.1 ms.

(8) The first cycle time of the first cycled repeated signal (TX) is shown with 1 ms.

(9) This means, that the first signal of the first device needs a certain power consumption for maintaining the short cycle time with a corresponding high repeating rate. This is no problem, because the first device with the corresponding transmitter is arranged in the vehicle.

(10) The key (or second device) has time controlled activated intervals, in which the second device (car key) is in a receiving mode (RX). It is important to note, that the time scales for the signals (TX) and the receiving mode (RX) are quite different.

(11) So in FIG. 2 is shown, that the second device or the car key 5 respectively has a cycled repeating receiving mode (RX) for a determined first receiving time interval of 1.1 ms, which corresponds to the cycle time of 1 ms of the first data protocol of the first device (TX) to guarantee that at least one complete TX short signal is received. The cycle time of the first cycled repeat receiving mode of the second device is in a much larger time scale, for example 1000 ms as shown in FIG. 2. Having this time relations between the transmitted signal (TX) of the first device and the receiving mode (RX) of the second device it is sure, that there is a high probability, that in each receiving mode (RX) of the second device a first data protocol (TX short) of the first device can be received completely.

(12) In FIG. 3, an example for a timing with a higher amount of data is shown. The first cyclic repeated signal of the first device with a first data protocol (TX short) corresponds to (TX short) according to FIG. 2.

(13) The first receiving mode of the second device (RX) corresponds to the first receiving mode (RX) in FIG. 2.

(14) Now in addition to the first receiving mode (RX) a long receiving mode RX after recognition of a TX short data protocol is shown with dotted lines.

(15) Furthermore a second cycled repeated signal of the first device (TX long) for authentication of a second device with a second data protocol within a second transmission time interval is shown in FIG. 3. This second cycled repeated signal of the first device can be initiated by a random jitter algorithm to vary the transmission timing and to avoid a repeated transmission crashing of different car signals.

(16) Since the long second receiving mode of the second device (long RX) has a time interval of about 500 ms it is clear, that during this time interval the second cyclic repeated signal of the first device with a second data protocol which takes about few ms starting after the last first cycled repeated signal of the first device (TX short) can be received completely during the second receiving mode of the second device.

(17) As can be seen in this embodiment, the power consumption of the second device is reduced to a minimum, because the receiver of the second device can work in slowest cycle time which is acceptable from system design. The power consumption or current consumption is approximately proportional to the receiving cycle time of the second device.

(18) The power consumption or the current consumption can be decreased down to acceptable values for small batteries (e. g. coin cell batteries) without significant reduction of battery lifetime.

(19) A RF homologation to the different rules in different countries is significantly facilitated by the features of the present invention described above. Accordingly the operation distance or receiving range in an apparatus for locking or unlocking according to the present invention can be enlarged by the use of higher frequencies in particular VHF and/or UHF frequencies.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

(20) 1 vehicle 2 first device 3 operator 4 second device 5 car key 6 operation distance