CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority to French National Patent Application No. 1900882, filed on 30 Jan. 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

1. FIELD

The field is that of tracking the use and maintenance of generator sets, and in particular portable generator sets intended in particular for occasional or temporary use on any type of site and terrain.

The present disclosure thus finds particular use in the field of portable generator sets and more generally mobile systems including means of producing electricity, such as soldering sets or lighting poles. These various systems will hereinafter be known by the term “generator set”.

2. PRIOR ART

Portable generator sets enable users to have a device for furnishing electricity temporarily or continuously, or for furnishing electricity on any type of site or terrain not supplied with electricity in a fixed manner (construction, housing, harbors, etc.). They can be owned by private individuals or professionals, or used on location by rental equipment companies or made available by equipment leasing companies.

Classically, a generator set includes a chassis on which in particular an engine and an alternator are mounted. The engine, typically a thermal engine, drives the alternator in rotation in such a way as to produce the electricity.

The generator sets require regular maintenance, depending on the identified operating times as determined by the manufacturer and mentioned for example in the instruction materials. It is consequently useful to measure the durations of the use, or operation, of a generator set in order to determine when maintenance is necessary.

Hence it is important that the user, or the person responsible for this on the premises of a rental company, knows these durations and defines in good time when maintenance operations are required and performs the required maintenance operations, or sees that they are performed, in good time. This is necessary in order to guarantee the proper function and the reliability of the generator set.

Certain sets, particularly high-capacity sets, are equipped with integrated tracking means (e.g., tracking device) that measure the presence of an electrical current and/or voltage produced by the set, and means for calculating (e.g., calculator) the corresponding operating times and for managing maintenance. On the other hand, portable generator sets generally have such a device.

In fact, these devices are not easily adaptable to portable generator sets, especially by reason of compactness and/or the production cost, since they are sold commercially at relatively low prices.

Users must therefore make their own estimate of the operating times and thus the times when maintenance is needed. This lack of tracking other than manually is a disadvantage of such portable generator sets, since they can consequently result in irregular or insufficient upkeep or maintenance, since for proper operation, the generator sets require regular maintenance and upkeep so that their performance and durability, in particular, are unchanged.

Poor tracking of the upkeep of these portable generator sets, which can also be associated with poor handling (impacts, exposure to extreme temperatures, etc.), can lead to faster deterioration of the generator set and hence to a shorter service life than intended, which is not satisfactory.

Furthermore, in addition to the possibility of deterioration of the generator set, irregular maintenance, that is, maintenance not conforming to manufacturers' recommendations, can lead to risks for the users.

Hence there is a need to improve these portable generator sets.

3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION

One objective of the present disclosure is accordingly to at least partially overcome these disadvantages of the prior art.

This objective, as well as others which may become apparent in the course of the present description, are achieved with the aid of an autonomous device for tracking the usage time of a generator set, capable of furnishing at least one piece of characteristic information for an operating time of said generator set, the device including:at least one first sensor capable of measuring a first parameter representing a state of operation of said generator set;processing means (e.g., a data processor) furnishing said characteristic information for an operating time, as a function of said first parameter;means for internal storage (e.g., memory) of said characteristic information for an operating time;transmission means (e.g., transmitter or communication interface) capable of transmitting said characteristic information for an operating time to a terminal or an external server.

Thus the disclosure proposes a novel and inventive approach making it possible to overcome, at least partially, the disadvantages of the prior art.

In particular, such a device enables a user to have an external tracking tool (such as a telephone, tablet, computer, server, etc.) that can track the operating time of the user's generator sets in an independently determined manner; in other words, in particular for measuring the electrical voltage or intensity produced, and consequently for performing the required maintenance operations, or having them performed, at the right time, it is unnecessary to be connected electrically to the generator set.

Using a sensor that is capable of measuring a parameter that represents an operating status of the generator set in an autonomous device makes it possible, without being electrically connected to it, to detect whether or not the generator set is in operation. What the sensor picks up is not an electrical current, but a physical phenomenon representing the fact that the set is in operation, such as vibrations or temperatures produced by the engine, or an electromagnetic field produced by the alternator. The autonomous device ensures that the operating times detected are added up and can transmit the overall length that it has compiled in such a way that it can be determined whether maintenance is necessary. Tracking the usage times of the generator set and hence tracking the maintenance of the generator set are thus made more reliable in a simple manner.

In addition, because there is no connection to the electricity-producing components (e.g., the alternator or output filter) of the generator set, it becomes possible, easily and inexpensively, to integrate the device with a portable generator set in such a way that, as applicable, it takes the form of an optional element capable of being put in place at any time over the lifetime of the generator set.

In one embodiment, the device includes at least one second sensor capable of measuring a second parameter representing a state of operation of said generator set, said generator set being considered functional by said processing means when the two sensors furnish parameters indicating a potential operation.

Because at least two sensors are used, it is possible to provide extremely accurate characteristic information about an operating time; in particular, this avoids detecting operation incorrectly, particularly when a sole sensor has detected a phenomenon that is similar to something that could be produced by the set, but in reality is from outside it. For example, such a piece of characteristic information cannot be perturbed, vibrated, or otherwise adversely affected by the outdoor environment in which the generator set is located (vibrations caused by transporting the set in a small truck, an electromagnetic field resulting from a high-tension wire, etc.), and consequently the transmission means transmit the characteristic information from an operating time that is reliable.

In this approach, the processing means considers the generator set to be in operation when the two sensors measure the parameters that indicate potential operation, or in other words when the first sensor and the second sensor both pick up a parameter indicating that the generator set is in operation.

In other words, the characteristic information for a state of operation is only delivered if the two sensors measure a parameter indicating that the set is in operation.

In one aspect of at least one embodiment, said sensor or sensors belong to the set including:a magnetic sensor capable of picking up the presence of a magnetic field generated by an alternator of said generator set;a vibration sensor capable of sensing vibrations generated by a engine of said generator set.

These two pieces of information are in fact characteristics of the operation of a generator set and are relatively easy to detect and analyze.

It is understandable that the presence of two sensors, one magnetic and the other for vibration, in a particular embodiment, is of interest, since it enables detecting that the two major elements of the set are in operation, that is, the alternator and the engine. This also makes it possible to effectively reduce the risk of incorrect detection.

In an aspect of at least one embodiment, said first sensor is a magnetic sensor capable of picking up the presence of an electromagnetic field of between 25 and 450 μT.

With this order of magnitude for the measurements of the first sensor, it is possible to dispense with detecting residual fields that are not characteristic of a state of operation of the generator set (for example, a magnetic field from the external environment).

In another aspect of at least one embodiment, said second sensor is a vibration sensor capable of picking up vibrations of between 20 and 200 Hz.

In a particular characteristic of at least one embodiment, the device includes geolocation means.

Such means can for example permit tracking and monitoring of the location and the use of the sets, as well as facilitating maintenance, especially in the context of managing a facility for portable generator sets (for example, a leasing company or a business that owns multiple sets) which may be contending with theft or with finding a set that had gone missing.

In a particular aspect of at least one embodiment, the communication means employ a Bluetooth® Low Energy communications protocol.

This makes it possible to achieve or optimize the autonomy of the device.

In still another aspect of at least one embodiment, the device includes unique means of identification.

This can make it possible to facilitate tracking and as applicable to identify the owner of the set, in the case of theft or loss.

The disclosure also relates to a generator set having or including an autonomous device for tracking usage times in accordance with one of the embodiments cited above.

In one characteristic of at least one embodiment, the autonomous device for tracking the usage time is affixed to the chassis by way of a coupling device or other mechanical fixation means.

In this case, the mechanical fixation means can be irreversible, and in particular adapted to detect whether they have been removed or tampered with (for example such that not all the hours of use are shown).

