Monitoring and recording system for vehicles

Claim 1

A vehicle mounted system for monitoring and storing values of parameters associated with operation of the vehicle comprising sensor means connected to the vehicle for sensing values of operational parameters of the vehicle, pulse producing means connected to the sensor means for producing pulses representative of the values of operational parameters of the vehicle in response to the sensor means, counter means connected to the pulse producing means for receiving and accumulating pulses from the pulse producing means and providing parallel signals representative of the accumulated pulses, temporary storage register means connected to the counter means for receiving and storing the signals from the counter means and including paralled to series converter means for converting the stored signals from paralled to series signals, sequencer and decoder means connected to the temporary storage register means for reading out the stored series signals in a predetermined sequence upon initiation, input code register means connected to the sequencer and decoder means for receiving and storing parallel signals and including parallel to series converter means for converting the stored parallel signals to a series signals and driver module input means connected to the input code register means for producing parallel signals, the driver module input means comprising a first manually settable counter means for producing parallel signals representative of states and a second manually settable counter means for producing parallel signals representative of amounts of fuel received, data entry means connected to the driver module input means and connected to the sequencer and decoder means for selectively initiating operation of the sequencer and decoder means, and permanent storage means connected to the temporary storage register means for receiving the signals read out from the temporary storage register means, said sequencer and decoder means reading out the stored series signals from the input code register to the permanent storage means, and permanent storage control means connected to the temporary storage register means and to the sequencer and decoder means and to the permanent storage means for starting the sequencer and decoder means and permanent storage means for reading out series signals from the temporary storage register means to the permanent storage means, in response to an overflow of the signals stored in the temporary storage register means.