Kevin P O'Connor

US Patent:

7872470, Jan 18, 2011

Filed:

May 9, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/746352

Inventors:

Thomas L. Booth - Birmingham MI, US
Kevin P. O'Connor - Lake Mills WI, US

Assignee:

STRATTEC Power Access LLC - Troy MI

International Classification:

G01B 7/30
G01P 3/44

US Classification:

3242072, 324165, 324173, 32420725

Abstract:

A drive assembly for a vehicle door is provided. The drive assembly includes a motor having a driving member. The drive assembly further includes a housing having a shaft rotatably received therein. The drive assembly further includes an input member being rotatably received upon the shaft. The input member is operatively associated with the driving member. The drive assembly further includes a rotor fixedly secured to the shaft. The drive assembly further includes first and second Hall effect sensor modules mounted to the housing in a facing spaced relationship with respect to the plurality of teeth of the rotor that generate first and second signals, respectively. The first and second signals have a quadrature relationship with respect to one another and indicate a rotational direction of the rotor when the plurality of teeth are rotating past the first and second Hall effect sensor modules.

US Patent:

20130300403, Nov 14, 2013

Filed:

Jul 18, 2013

Appl. No.:

13/945510

Inventors:

William L. Cousins - Ortonville MI, US
Bradford W. Bur - Clarkston MI, US
Kevin O'Connor - Lake Mills WI, US
Mark Pickhard - Lake Mills WI, US
Steven R. Stuve - Lake Mills WI, US

International Classification:

G01B 7/00

US Classification:

3242072, 32420713

Abstract:

The present invention provides a gear absolute position sensor assembly (GAPS) that senses the current absolute, position of the shift lever of a manual transmission. The sensor assembly provides data to an associated electronic controller such as an engine control module (ECM) regarding the current position of the shift lever, such as an engaged gear. The sensor assembly preferably comprises at least one Hall effect or other type of magnetic field (proximity) sensors in combination with an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which is supplied with data from the sensors, decodes the output of the sensors and provides an output identifying a specific engaged gear or neutral for use by vehicle or engine management electronics. The sensors are mounted proximate the shift linkage at a location where they can sense both rotation and translation.