WIRELESS TRACKING OF POWER TOOLS AND RELATED DEVICES

• Main Authors: Burch, Wade F, Zeiler, Jeffrey M, Reading, Leslie J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 07.06.2018
• Subjects: ALARM SYSTEMS; CALCULATING; COMBINATION OR MULTI-PURPOSE TOOLS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; COMPUTING; CONTROLLING; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; DETAILS OR COMPONENTS OF PORTABLE POWER-DRIVEN TOOLS NOTPARTICULARLY RELATED TO THE OPERATIONS PERFORMED AND NOTOTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; HAND TOOLS; MANIPULATORS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PORTABLE POWER-DRIVEN TOOLS; REGULATING; SIGNALLING; SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; SYSTEMS FOR REGULATING ELECTRIC OR MAGNETIC VARIABLES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TRANSPORTING; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

A power distribution box and method of communicating via the power distribution box are provided. A power input in the power distribution box is coupled to a power output to provide power to external devices. A gateway device supported by the housing of the power distribution box includes a wireless network module for communicating with power tools and a cellular module for communicating via a cellular network with a power tool monitoring system. The gateway may be removable from the power distribution box. A translation controller in the gateway enables communication between the wireless network module and the external network using the cellular module. The translation controller translates messages between the power tools and external network. The messages may include location data or operational data associated with the power tool.