Appeal No. 2005-0682 Page 7
Application No. 10/064,682
19 can be increased or decreased for any given braking requirement. The controller 11
also includes an array of light emitting diodes (LED's) 33 mounted upon the front
surface thereof. The LED's 33 provide a visual indication of the controller gain setting to
the vehicle driver. During towed vehicle brake applications, a combination of the LED's
33 are illuminated to display the magnitude of the brake application. The LED's are also
illuminated when the gain is adjusted.
The brake controller 11 includes a brake control signal generator 52 (see Figure
2). The generator 52 senses a change in a towing vehicle parameter and automatically
generates an analog brake control signal which is proportional to the braking force
applied to the towing vehicle. McGrath discloses that various devices can be used for
generating the brake control signal. In the preferred embodiment, a deceleration sensor
comprising a pendulum device 135 (see Figure 3A) which cooperates with a Hall effect
device to generate a voltage proportional to the deceleration of the towing vehicle is
used. McGrath teaches (column 12, lines 10-17) that:
While a pendulum device 135 has been described as the means for
sensing a change in the towing vehicle parameters, it will be appreciated that
other means can be used to generate the automatic brake control signal. For
example, the hydraulic brake fluid pressure can be sensed and used to generate
the control signal. A means for sensing the brake fluid pressure is described in
U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,687, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
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