William W Wittliff, 8014819 Laguna Dr, Fort Myers, FL 33908

2003007, May 1, 2003

Jun 20, 2002

10/174825

William Wittliff - Gobles MI, US

SPX Corporation

G01L003/26

073/116000

A method and apparatus for detecting non-contributing cylinders in a reciprocating engine is provided. An accelerometer is attached to the engine and configured to generate a signal corresponding to cylinders firing in the engine. By comparing waveforms generated by a signal processor, it can be determined if a cylinder is not firing and which cylinder is not firing.

2004005, Mar 25, 2004

Dec 20, 2002

10/324011

Scott Sebastian - Three Rivers MI, US
William Wittliff - Gobles MI, US

G01M019/00

073/118100

A fill-in apparatus for an engine that injects a pseudo cylinder signal when an ignition event is missing from a cylinder. The pseudo cylinder signal is injected if no ignition event occurs at an end of a time period designated for that cylinder. An algorithm can be used to determine an engine period, determine a cylinder time, determine a predictive window, and analyze the cylinder ignition event to see if the fill-in signal is needed.

2004026, Dec 30, 2004

Jun 27, 2003

10/606892

Dale Boysen - Plainwell MI, US
Scott Sebastian - Three Rivers MI, US
William Wittliff - Gobles MI, US
Martin Franz - Portage MI, US

G01M015/00

701/114000

A signal processing apparatus for detecting and displaying the properties of diesel fuel powered compression-ignition engines senses strain pulses in the fuel injection rail structure to perform a variety of testing functions. Among other capabilities, the apparatus permits the user to establish stroboscope timing, to measure engine RPM, to view the relationship between crankshaft position and injection time, and to examine the time-dependent properties of strain pulses on individual fuel injectors in order to evaluate the condition of the diesel engine.

2005024, Oct 27, 2005

Apr 26, 2004

10/831173

Marty Franz - Portage MI, US
William Wittliff - Gobles MI, US

G06F017/00

701001000, 701029000

A method and apparatus for calculating power of an engine by determining a Moment of Inertia for the engine, accelerating the engine from a first RPM value to a second RPM value, determining a time difference between accelerating from the first RPM value to the second RPM value, and calculating the power as a function of the Moment of Inertia, the first RPM value, the second RPM value and the time difference.

2007029, Dec 20, 2007

Jun 14, 2006

11/452240

Olav M. Underdal - Kalamazoo MI, US
Harry M. Gilbert - Portage MI, US
Oleksiy Portyanko - Portage MI, US
Randy L. Mayes - Otsego MI, US
Gregory J. Fountain - Kalamazoo MI, US
William W. Wittliff - Gobles MI, US

G06F 19/00

701 29, 702183

An information object generator gathers and organizes information corresponding to an optimized static diagnostic test procedure from a diverse set of information sources and dynamically produces a static information object organized in a sequence or data structure that corresponds to the optimized diagnostic test procedure. The information object generator defines a vehicle component taxonomy, fault taxonomy, diagnostic taxonomy, repair taxonomy and information taxonomy. The information object generator then imports a diagnostic test sequence and associates relevant information to each test step or diagnostic procedure in the sequence to create an information object that corresponds to the diagnostic test sequence. The information object generator further instantiates the information object for presentation to a user while being guided through the diagnostic test sequence or independent of the diagnostic test sequence.

2007029, Dec 20, 2007

Jun 14, 2006

11/452243

Olav M. Underdal - Kalamazoo MI, US
Harry M. Gilbert - Portage MI, US
Oleksiy Portyanko - Portage MI, US
Randy L. Mayes - Otsego MI, US
Gregory J. Fountain - Kalamazoo MI, US
William W. Wittliff - Gobles MI, US

G06F 19/00

701 29, 340438

A vehicle state tracker tracks the state of a vehicle during a diagnostic test sequence to eliminate redundant steps between diagnostic procedures. The vehicle state tracker maintains a list of preconditions required for each diagnostic procedure, reads a current vehicle state from a memory register and verifies the current setting of the vehicle state corresponding to a specific precondition. If the precondition is required and the current setting is not valid, the state tracker further formats a test preparation step corresponding to the precondition for display to instruct a vehicle technician to satisfy the precondition. Otherwise, if the precondition is not required and the corresponding setting is valid, the state tracker formats an instruction to reverse the corresponding vehicle condition. The state tracker additionally receives feedback indicating when a precondition has been satisfied or the corresponding vehicle condition has been reversed, and updates the vehicle state in memory.

2007029, Dec 20, 2007

Jun 14, 2006

11/452249

Olav M. Underdal - Kalamazoo MI, US
Harry M. Gilbert - Portage MI, US
Oleksiy Portyanko - Portage MI, US
Randy L. Mayes - Otsego MI, US
Gregory J. Fountain - Kalamazoo MI, US
William W. Wittliff - Gobles MI, US

G01M 17/00
G06F 19/00

701 29

A diagnostic test sequence optimizer includes a diagnostic test selector that determines a group of diagnostic test procedures related to a specific symptom and vehicle type from a pool of diagnostic procedures. A failure mode analyzer then selects one or more factors that can affect resolution of a vehicle operational problem and performs a failure mode analysis to quantify a comparative utility of the individual tests, and a factor weighter assigns a weight to each of the factors. A vehicle receiver receives information regarding the history of the test subject vehicle, and a sequence optimizer places the diagnostic test procedures in an optimized sequence in accordance with the comparative utilities of the individual diagnostic procedures, user preferences and a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis compiled by the manufacturer of the vehicle.

2007029, Dec 20, 2007

Jun 14, 2006

11/452250

Olav M. Underdal - Kalamazoo MI, US
Harry M. Gilbert - Portage MI, US
Oleksiy Portyanko - Portage MI, US
Randy L. Mayes - Otsego MI, US
Gregory J. Fountain - Kalamazoo MI, US
William W. Wittliff - Gobles MI, US

G06F 19/00

701 29, 340438

A dynamic diagnostic plan generator arranges diagnostic test procedures related to a vehicle symptom or operational problem in a sequence based on a probabilistic Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). The diagnostic plan generator also tracks a vehicle state, and provides instructions for test preparation steps and instructions for performing the diagnostic test procedures. The plan generator further generates schematic illustrations of the diagnostic test procedures, and creates a diagnostic data structure containing information related to the diagnostic test procedures. In addition, the diagnostic plan generator sends and receives information regarding actual failure mode occurrences, for example, to and from a central database. Furthermore, the diagnostic plan generator facilitates the creation of failure mode tests by an expert diagnostics author.