Method for operating a lighting system of a motor vehicle, microcontroller, circuit arrangement, data processing device, computer program product and motor vehicle

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for operating a lighting system (1) of a motor vehicle (2) having an on-board electrical system (3), wherein the lighting system (1) is in communication with the on-board electrical system (3) in order to receive control instructions, wherein the method comprises the step of receiving (S11) on-board electrical system-side control instructions for the lighting system (1) from the on-board electrical system (3) of the motor vehicle (2). The method further comprises the step of converting (S12) the on-board electrical system-side control instructions into lighting system-side control instructions, wherein the on-board electrical system-side control instructions cannot be executed by the lighting system (1) and the lighting system-side control instructions can be executed by the lighting system (1), by a microcontroller (5) of the motor vehicle (4). Also disclosed are the microcontroller (5), a circuit arrangement (7), a data processing device (5), a computer program product and the motor vehicle (2) which are associated with the method.

Description

The invention relates to a method for operating a lighting system of a motor vehicle, which has an on-board power supply, wherein the lighting system is in communication with the on-board power supply in order to receive control instructions, wherein the method comprises receiving on-board power supply side control instructions for the lighting system from the on-board power supply of the motor vehicle.The invention further relates to a microcontroller which is configured to operate a lighting system of a motor vehicle, wherein the microcontroller has an on-board power system interface for receiving on-board power system-side control instructions for the lighting system from an on-board power system of the motor vehicle and a lighting system interface for communicating with the lighting system on the basis of the on-board power system-side control instructions.The invention further relates to a circuit arrangement for a motor vehicle, which comprises the microcontroller and a solid-state lighting headlight, which are operatively connected to one another.The invention further relates to an apparatus for data processing, comprising a processor configured to carry out the method.The invention also relates to a computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute the method.The invention also relates to the motor vehicle which comprises the device for data processing.Currently, lighting systems of motor vehicles are equipped with light sources of different manufacturers, wherein the light sources can be headlights and, in particular, solid-state lighting headlights, for example. For communication between the vehicle electrical system and the lighting system of the motor vehicle, control instructions for the lighting system must be provided on the vehicle electrical system side, which control instructions can be executed on the lighting system side. The lighting systems, in particular their light sources, are offered by various manufacturers and are obtained from these manufacturers, for example, by motor vehicle producers or first equipment manufacturers (OEMs for short). However, the manufacturers of the light sources of the lighting system each use their own hardware configurations and specific software solutions, such as programming languages or command formats, for communicating with components in the on-board power supply system of the motor vehicle, for example in order to make registers of the light sources readable via the on-board power supply system or generally to receive commands for the light source from the on-board power supply system.Not only are the instructions or programming languages to be used dependent on the light source, but the register configuration of the light sources also varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. This has the result that, during the production of a motor vehicle, it must be established from the outset which lighting system which manufacturer will be used in the motor vehicle in order, for example, to be able to provide the control unit of the lighting system, which is connected to the vehicle electrical system, from the factory with corresponding programming for communication with the light sources of precisely this lighting system provided in the motor vehicle. If, for example for reasons of cost or availability, a light source of another manufacturer is used for the lighting system of the motor vehicle at a point in time, pre-produced control units for the on-board power supply system of the motor vehicle must be adapted, if necessary, or new control units must first be produced, programmed and provided. This can lead to high costs or else to delays in the production of the lighting installations and ultimately also in the production of the motor vehicle.It is an object of the invention to provide a method for operating a lighting system of a motor vehicle, a microcontroller, a circuit arrangement for a motor vehicle, a device for data processing, a computer program product and / or a motor vehicle, in particular of the type mentioned at the beginning, which are improved compared to the prior art.The above object is achieved by a method for operating a lighting system of a motor vehicle having the features of independent claim 1, by a microcontroller having the features of independent claim 7, by a circuit arrangement for a motor vehicle having the features of independent claim 10, by a device for data processing having the features of independent claim 13, by a computer program product having the features of independent claim 14, and by a motor vehicle having the features of independent claim 15.Further features and details of the invention are evident from the dependent claims, the description and the drawings. Features and details which are described in connection with the method according to the invention naturally also apply in connection with the microcontroller according to the invention, the circuit arrangement according to the invention, the device according to the invention for data processing, the computer program product according to the invention and the motor vehicle according to the invention and vice versa, so that with regard to the disclosure reference is or can always be made reciprocally to the individual aspects of the invention.According to the invention, the method comprises the step of converting the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side into control instructions on the lighting system side, wherein the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side are not executable, i.e. preferably not executable, by the lighting system and the control instructions on the lighting system side are executable by the lighting system, by a microcontroller of the motor vehicle.The advantage of the solution according to the invention is that, on account of the method converting instructions, the control unit for the lighting system which communicates with the lighting system via the on-board power supply no longer has to be programmed for communication with the specific light source in the vehicle, but rather the method can translate the communication between the on-board power supply and the lighting system, in other words. The components in the on-board power supply system of the motor vehicle, such as the control unit, can communicate with the microcontroller, for example, using fixed standard commands, which then in turn, depending on the lighting system, translates into specific commands, control instructions on the lighting system side.Advantageous embodiments of the invention form part of the dependent claims and are described in the description.In the context of the present invention, "executable control instructions" can be understood to mean that these control instructions are formulated in a programming language or a syntax that can be understood on the vehicle electrical system side, e.g. for a control unit of the motor vehicle, or on the lighting system side, e.g. for a light source of the lighting system, and can be responded to or converted into an action that corresponds to the control instruction. Accordingly, a control instruction may be particularly non-executable when the control instruction is comprehensible to a receiver but is directed to an action that is not implementable to the receiver. For example, if the instruction "read the temperature of the light source from register 45" were comprehensible by the receiver from the syntax point of view, but the receiver, such as the light source, has stored its temperature in its register 30, because this corresponds to its register configuration, the instructed action would not be reactable and thus the control instruction for the receiver would not be comprehensible. Purely by way of example, the present method could provide in this case for a standardized formulation of the vehicle electrical system-side control instruction "reading out the temperature of the light source" to be translated by means of the microcontroller into the lighting-side control instruction "reading out the temperature of the light source from register 30", which can be answered by the specific light source of the lighting system.In embodiments, it is provided that the method comprises the step of selecting, by the microcontroller, a set of lighting-installation-side control instructions, which can be executed by the lighting installation, from a plurality of sets of lighting-installation-side control instructions. Furthermore, some embodiments provide that the method comprises, following the selection of the set of lighting-installation-side control instructions, the step of sending, by the microcontroller, a lighting-installation-side control instruction from the selected set of lighting-installation-side control instructions to the lighting installation on the basis of an on-board-side control instruction which is received from the on-board network at the microcontroller. Usually, the plurality of sets of lighting equipment side control instructions for the microcontroller will comprise two or more sets, preferably between two and five sets, such as three sets. However, if a great many different manufacturers of light sources for the motor vehicle are possible, more than five sets can also be provided, such as 10 sets of control instructions on the lighting system side. The microcontroller should at best have access to so many sets of control instructions on the lighting system side that all possible light sources that are conceivable for the motor vehicle at the time of development can be addressed thereby. It may furthermore be possible to provide further sets of lighting-side control instructions for the microcontroller at the given time, for example via over-the-air updates or recordings by the on-board power supply system. The microcontroller can therefore preferably be programmable.Some embodiments provide that the method comprises the step of selecting an instruction library containing the set of lighting-side control instructions executable for the lighting installation, wherein the selection is performed by the microcontroller from a plurality of instruction libraries each containing a set of lighting-side control instructions, wherein each of the instruction libraries is associated with a lighting installation from a plurality of lighting installations and the instruction library selected by the microcontroller is associated with the lighting installation of the motor vehicle. Such instruction libraries can have complete instruction sets for possible light sources in themselves, which consist of the lighting-side control instructions. By providing them in the form of instruction libraries, handling is simplified and entire instruction libraries can be replaced or supplemented if necessary because a manufacturer of light sources changes their products or new manufacturers are added, whose light sources are to be installed in the motor vehicle in the future. Therefore, it is preferred that the method comprises adding or modifying instruction libraries for the microcontroller. This may again involve programming the microcontroller to modify or add the instruction libraries.Furthermore, the method can comprise the step of the microcontroller detecting the lighting system. Preferably, the detection takes place before the conversion. Thus, the microcontroller can first determine which light source is present in the lighting system and then select a suitable set of lighting system-side control instructions for this light source. The light source present therefore does not have to be defined in advance for the motor vehicle, such as from the factory, but can be detected by the microcontroller, in particular upon a first switching on or also upon each switching on of the microcontroller.In addition, before the detection of the lighting system, the method can comprise the step of carrying out an initialization sequence between the microcontroller and the lighting system. In particular, the initialization sequence can comprise a handshake process between the microcontroller and the lighting system, in particular one or more light sources of the lighting system. The initialization sequence may also include the microcontroller sending a plurality of initialization instructions to the lighting system, each initialization instruction being associated with one of the sets of lighting system-side control instructions. Depending on which initialization instruction generates a corresponding initialization response from the lighting system, the microcontroller can recognize the lighting system and use the appropriate set from the plurality of sets of lighting-system-side control instructions for communication with the lighting system from then on. The initialization sequence can take place once when the microcontroller is first switched on and the result can be permanently stored by the microcontroller. However, it can also be effected periodically, such as for example upon each switching on of the microcontroller. Thus, the set of lighting-side control instructions can be reselected by the microcontroller upon each switch-on if an exchange of the lighting system has been carried out in the meantime, for example after an accident or as a maintenance measure, and the new lighting system of the motor vehicle originates from a different manufacturer than the previous one.Some embodiments of the method provide the step of reading contents of registers of the lighting system by the microcontroller on the basis of the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side, wherein the lighting system preferably has solid-state lighting headlights which can be operated, i.e. in particular operated, by the method, and the registers to be read are assigned to the solid-state lighting headlights. In some embodiments, the step of sending the contents of the registers to the on-board power supply of the motor vehicle by the microcontroller is provided in response to the on-board power supply-side control instructions. Solid state lighting headlights may include so-called SSL (solid state lighting) chips, which may be controlled or even readable by the microcontroller. Especially in the case of these SSL chips, their manufacturers often use specific, manufacturer-dependent protocols for communication with the on-board power supply system of the motor vehicle and register configurations for the light sources which are dedicated to each manufacturer. The registers of the SSL chips may include state information of the respective SSL chip, in particular chip temperature, voltage, operating state, pixel errors and others. A motor vehicle manufacturer no longer has to know in detail how to address any lighting system that could be used in the motor vehicle by means of the method presented in this document, but rather can communicate with the microcontroller via the vehicle electrical system using only one fixed protocol, such as an Ethernet protocol, which microcontroller can in turn select the appropriate lighting system-side control instructions in order to enable communication between the vehicle electrical system and the lighting system. The Ethernet protocol can therefore contain the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side. Software stacks and further protocols, such as Vector AVB (for audio / video transport and / or time synchronization), RTP+RFC or SOME / IP (for service recognition and control communication), can be placed on the Ethernet protocol for the control information on the vehicle electrical system side.The contents of the register can then in turn be received by the microcontroller and sent to the on-board power supply system, such as, for example, to the control unit of the motor vehicle. For this purpose, the microcontroller can use the Ethernet protocol or also other control instructions which can be understood on the vehicle electrical system side. The microcontroller will usually provide only a single communication protocol on the part of the on-board power supply system, i.e. no multiplicity of sets of control instructions on the on-board power supply system side, but only a single set of control instructions on the on-board power supply system side. It may be sufficient if a component on the on-board power supply system side can understand and use only this single set, such as the control unit of the motor vehicle, in order to be able to communicate via the microcontroller with all types of lighting systems whose sets of control instructions on the lighting system side are provided to the microcontroller.In light of the above, the object of the invention is furthermore achieved by the microcontroller which is configured to operate a lighting system of a motor vehicle, wherein the microcontroller has an on-board power system interface for receiving on-board power system-side control instructions for the lighting system from an on-board power system of the motor vehicle and a lighting system interface for communicating with the lighting system on the basis of the on-board power system-side control instructions, and wherein according to the invention the microcontroller is configured to convert the on-board power system-side control instructions into lighting system-side control instructions, wherein the on-board power system-side control instructions are not executable by the lighting system and the lighting system-side control instructions are executable by the lighting system.The advantage of this solution according to the invention is that, on account of the microcontroller converting instructions, the control unit for the lighting system, which communicates with the lighting system via the on-board power supply, no longer has to be programmed for communication with the specific light source in the vehicle, but rather the microcontroller can translate the communication between the on-board power supply and the lighting system, in other words. The components in the on-board power supply system of the motor vehicle, such as the control unit, can communicate with the microcontroller, for example, using fixed standard commands, which then in turn, depending on the lighting system, translates into specific commands, control instructions on the lighting system side.The microcontroller, in some embodiments, is configured to access a memory storing a plurality of instruction libraries each including a set of lighting-side control instructions, each instruction library being associated with a lighting facility of a plurality of lighting facilities. The memory may be integrated into the microcontroller, such as as an integrated memory unit. Some embodiments provide that the memory is provided outside the microcontroller and the microcontroller has an external memory interface to access the memory.Some embodiments provide that the microcontroller is configured to recognize the lighting system of the motor vehicle based on an initialization sequence between the microcontroller and the lighting system and to select the instruction library containing the set of lighting-side control instructions associated with the lighting system of the motor vehicle based on the recognized lighting system. This has the advantage that the microcontroller can initially independently determine which lighting system is present in the motor vehicle and can then select the appropriate set of control instructions.The vehicle electrical system interface can be an Ethernet interface. The lighting system interface uses a protocol that is different from a protocol of the vehicle electrical system interface, so that the microcontroller translates between the protocol of the vehicle electrical system interface and the protocol of the lighting system interface. The microcontroller can be configured in particular to convert general control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side into specific control instructions for the detected lighting system, such as a general register reading instruction on the vehicle electrical system side (e.g. "reading out the temperature of the light source") for the lighting system into a specific register reading instruction which responds in an executable manner to the correct register of the lighting system (e.g. "calling the temperature of the light source from register 45").Preferably, the microcontroller comprises a Quad Serial Peripheral Interface (QSPI) unidirectional interface with up to 33 MHz clock for 100k video. This should be configurable as a single SPI interface for 16 or 25k SSL chips that require less bandwidth than SSL chips with 100k pixels. It is further preferred that the microcontroller has a bidirectional SPI interface with up to 33 MHz clock for high speed access to the control interface and uploading / downloading data from non-volatile memory (NVM for short). It is also preferred that the microcontroller comprises a further bidirectional SPI interface with up to 10 MHz clock for controlling power supply hardware, which is preferably configured to supply the SSL chip. It can also be provided that the microcontroller comprises a high-speed UART interface with up to 25 Mbaud for video transmission to 16k or 25k pixels of SSL chips. In addition, it can be provided that the microcontroller comprises a low-speed UART interface with up to 10 Mbaud for transmitting control and diagnostic data to 16k and 25k pixels of SSL chips and, in the future, 100k pixels of SSL chips. Further, embodiments of the microcontroller provide a 100 Mbit Ethernet controller. Finally, some embodiments of the microcontroller provide multiple, in particular 5 ADC channels for voltages and NTC thermistors.In light of the foregoing, the object of the invention is further achieved by the circuit arrangement for a motor vehicle comprising a microcontroller according to the present invention and a solid state lighting headlamp operatively connected to each other. Thus, on the lighting system side, the communication between microcontroller and solid-state lighting headlight can be made possible.Preferably, the microcontroller and the solid-state illumination headlight are operatively connected via a unidirectional video interface, in particular a unidirectional UART interface or QSPI interface, so that the microcontroller can transmit video data to the solid-state illumination headlight. It is further preferred that the microcontroller is additionally operatively connected to the solid-state illumination headlight via a bidirectional interface, in particular a bidirectional UART interface or a bidirectional SPI interface, so that a data exchange, in particular of control and diagnostic data, is possible between the solid-state illumination headlight and the microcontroller. For example, the lighting-side control instructions may be transmitted to the solid-state lighting headlamp via the bidirectional interface. The bidirectional interface is preferably the bidirectional UART interface when the solid state illumination headlamp comprises a 16 or 25k pixel SSL chip at 100 frames per second. The bidirectional interface is preferably the bidirectional SPI interface when the solid state illumination headlamp comprises a 100k pixel SSL chip at 120 frames per second. The unidirectional interface is preferably the unidirectional UART interface when the solid state illumination headlamp comprises the 16k or 25k pixel SSL chip at 100 frames per second. The unidirectional interface is preferably the unidirectional QSPI interface when the solid state illumination headlamp comprises a 100k pixel SSL chip at 120 frames per second. The aforementioned assignments of interface types and SSL chips are advantageously selected with regard to the expected data sets.In some embodiments, the circuitry includes a DC-DC converter operatively connected to the microcontroller and the solid state lighting headlamp. The DC-DC converter may be a 2-channel DC-DC converter. The DC-DC converter may supply DC voltage for the logic and the LEDs to the solid-state lighting headlamp. Furthermore, the DC-DC converter can be connected to the microcontroller via a bidirectional connection, such as an SPI interface, for the transmission of control and diagnostic data. Thus, the microcontroller can control the voltage supply for the solid-state lighting headlight via the DC-DC converter and receive feedback information about the voltage supply. The DC-DC converter may be or form part of the above-mentioned power supply hardware.Some embodiments of the circuit arrangement provide that the microcontroller and the solid-state lighting headlight form a common component. Thus, a highly integrated circuit arrangement can be provided, which combines microcontroller and solid-state illumination headlights, in particular the SSL chip of the solid-state illumination headlight, in a common component. In particular, the component may comprise a printed circuit board carrying both the microcontroller and the SSL chip. It is particularly preferred that the component is designed as a light source module, wherein the light source module preferably comprises the microcontroller, the SSL chip, the DC-DC converter for the SSL chip, a further voltage converter, which can provide one or more operating voltages for the microcontroller, an Ethernet connection for the microcontroller and optionally a memory for the SSL chip. The further voltage converter may be power-fed by a motor vehicle battery, such as via a 12-volt connection of the further voltage converter. The further voltage converter can provide in particular 3.3 V and 1.25 V for the microcontroller as operating voltages. The memory chip may be operatively connected to the SSL chip via a bidirectional SPI or I2C interface. The memory chip may be an EEPROM memory chip or a NOR flash memory chip. If the SSL chip is the 100k pixel SSL chip at 120 frames per second, it is preferred that the memory chip is the NOR flash memory chip attached to the SSL chip via the bidirectional SPI interface. If the SSL chip is the 16k pixel SSL chip at 100 frames per second, it is preferred that the memory chip is the EEPROM memory chip that is coupled to the SSL chip via the bidirectional I2C interface. The memory chip is optional in that it may be omitted in embodiments in which the SSL chip does not need to be initialized because its calibration data is input to the microcontroller, which is provided in some embodiments.However, the microcontroller, the SSL chip and further components of the circuit arrangement, such as those mentioned above, may also be arranged on separate circuit boards, but may be communicatively connected to one another, such as via electrical lines.Further, the object is to provide a data processing apparatus improved over the prior art, achieved by the apparatus according to claim 13, as described below.According to the invention, the data processing device comprises a processor configured to perform the method described above. As a result, it is configured to achieve the advantages of the method. The data processing apparatus may be embodied as the microcontroller described above. However, the device for data processing can also have more, fewer or different aspects than the microcontroller described above. The device for data processing can be configured to operate the lighting system of the motor vehicle, in particular in cooperation with a control unit of the motor vehicle. The device for data processing can also be the control unit of the motor vehicle or can be integrated therein. In particular, it can be configured to receive, generate or also transmit control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side. It can be configured to communicate with the lighting system based on the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side. The data processing device may include the memory. The memory may store a program having instructions to the data processing device so that the data processing device may execute the method.Further, the object is to provide a computer program product improved over the prior art, achieved by the computer program product according to claim 14, comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a processor, cause the latter to execute the method described above, as described below.The computer program product may be an electronic or optical data storage device, such as a memory chip, a magnetic memory or an optical memory. The motor vehicle may have the computer program product. Instructions stored on the computer program product can cause the processor to operate the lighting system of the motor vehicle in such a way that the advantages explained in connection with the method are achieved. The computer program product can be part of the apparatus for data processing. The computer program product can be, in particular, part of the microcontroller. The computer program product may be firmware for the microcontroller. The computer program product may alternatively be software for the microcontroller.Furthermore, the object of the invention is to provide a motor vehicle, in particular of the type mentioned at the beginning, which is improved compared to the prior art, by the motor vehicle according to claim 15, as described below.According to the invention, the motor vehicle has the above device for data processing. As a result, it is configured to carry out the method described above and to achieve the advantages thereof for the motor vehicle. A preferred motor vehicle is a tyred motor vehicle. It may be a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine or an electric motor. In principle, the invention may be relevant in particular for all motor vehicles in which a plurality of different light sources could be used in lighting systems, which each use different communication protocols and with which it is to be communicated from the on-board power supply of the motor vehicle, for example by the control unit of the motor vehicle, which may be connected to the on-board power supply.The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following shows: FIG. 1 shows a method according to the invention in a first embodiment; FIG. 2 shows the method according to the invention in a second embodiment; FIG. 3 shows a circuit arrangement according to the invention, which comprises a microcontroller according to the invention, which embodies a device for data processing according to the invention; and FIG. 4 shows a motor vehicle according to the invention in a schematic plan view.FIG. 1 shows a method according to the invention in a first embodiment. The method serves for operating a lighting system 1 of a motor vehicle 2 which has an on-board power supply system 3, wherein the lighting system 1 is in communication with the on-board power supply system 3 in order to receive control instructions. The motor vehicle 2 and components thereof, such as the lighting system 1 and the on-board power supply system 3, are illustrated in a schematic plan view in FIG. 4.A first step S 11 of the first embodiment from FIG. 1 is receiving control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side for the lighting system 1 from the vehicle electrical system 3 of the motor vehicle 2. it is fundamentally known to receive control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side, for example on an SSL chip 4 of the lighting system 1, as illustrated in FIG. 3. A second step S 12 of the method is, however, the conversion of the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side into control instructions on the lighting system side, wherein the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side cannot be executed by the lighting system 1 and the control instructions on the lighting system side can be executed by the lighting system 1, by a microcontroller 5 of the motor vehicle 2.This means that the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system no longer have to be executable for the lighting system 1 to be operated in each case, but rather the microcontroller 5 receives the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system and converts them into the control instructions on the lighting system. The need to know in advance with which lighting system 1 is to be communicated via vehicle electrical system 3 is thus dispensed with for motor vehicle manufacturers, because microcontroller 5 carries out the conversion of standardized control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side into control instructions specific to lighting system 1 installed in motor vehicle 2. This simplifies the production of motor vehicles 2, can save costs and reduce the production time. In addition, it increases the flexibility in the selection of lighting installations 1, because, for example, if the lighting installation 1 or individual SSL chips 4 have to be replaced, it is not necessary to resort to exactly the lighting installation 1 or the SSL chip 4 which were originally installed in the motor vehicle 2. Rather, it is sufficient to program the on-board power supply 3 for communication with the microcontroller 5, which then converts the on-board power supply-side control instructions into the specific lighting-supply-side control instructions.FIG. 2 shows the method according to the invention in a second embodiment. In a first step S 21, an initialization sequence is carried out between the microcontroller 5 and the lighting system 1. In a step S 22, the lighting system 1 is identified by the microcontroller 5. based on the execution of the initialization sequence, the microcontroller 5 identifies which type of lighting system 1 is installed in the motor vehicle 2, for example on the basis of the manufacturer or the precise type designation of the SSL chip 4, which can be output by the SSL chip 4 in the initialization sequence.A step S 23 comprises first the receiving from step S 11 and then the conversion from step S 12 of the vehicle electrical system-side control instructions into lighting system-side control instructions, wherein the vehicle electrical system-side control instructions are not executable by the lighting system 1 and the lighting system-side control instructions are executable by the lighting system 1, by the 5 microcontroller of the motor vehicle 2. steps S 21 and S 12 are not separately illustrated in step S 23. By way of example only, the control instructions here are register read instructions. A control unit 6 of the motor vehicle 2, which is shown in FIG. 4, sends the register read instructions for reading out the temperature of an SSL chip 4 of the lighting system 1 via the on-board power supply system 3 using a protocol which has control instructions executable for the microcontroller 5, but which cannot be executed for the lighting system 1. This is exemplified by the Ethernet protocol, which is extended by software stacks as generally mentioned in the part of the description.The conversion in step S 23 comprises, in a substep S 233, selecting a set of lighting-installation-side control instructions, which can be executed by the lighting installation 1, from a plurality of sets of lighting-installation-side control instructions by the microcontroller 5, and, in a substep S 232 sending, by the microcontroller 5, a lighting-installation-side control instruction from the selected set of lighting-installation-side control instructions to the lighting installation 1 based on an on-board-side control instruction which is received from the on-board network 3 at the microcontroller 5. In this case, the selection of the set of lighting-installation-side control instructions comprises selecting an instruction library which contains the set of lighting-side control instructions which can be executed for the lighting installation 1, wherein the selection is carried out by the microcontroller from a multiplicity of instruction libraries which each contain a set of lighting-side control instructions, wherein each of the instruction libraries is assigned to a lighting installation 1 from a multiplicity of lighting installations 1 and the instruction library selected by the microcontroller 5 is assigned to the lighting installation 1 of the motor vehicle 2.In other words, this means that microcontroller 5 for recognized lighting system 1 of motor vehicle 2 accesses an associated set of lighting system-side control instructions, which is stored in a corresponding instruction library. For each lighting system 1 that could be used in the motor vehicle 2, a command library can be provided for use by the microcontroller 5, for example in a memory (not shown) of the microcontroller 5. Thus, lighting-installation-side control instructions executable for lighting installation 1 are generated from the vehicle-electrical-system-side control instructions originally not executable for lighting installation 1. The microcontroller 5 thus represents an interface (also called an API) between the on-board power supply system 3 and the lighting system 1.In a step S 24, contents of registers of the lighting system 1 are then read out by the microcontroller 5 on the basis of the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side, wherein the lighting system 1 has solid-state lighting headlights 4, which are each embodied by the SSL chip 4 and are to be operated by the method, and the registers to be read out are assigned to the solid-state lighting headlights 4. Finally, a step S 25 follows of the microcontroller 5 sending the contents of the registers to the on-board power supply 3 of the motor vehicle 2 in response to the on-board power supply-side control instructions.In the present example, microcontroller 5 thus accesses lighting system 1 in such a way that the desired temperature is read out from the appropriate register of installed lighting system 1 and transmitted to vehicle electrical system 3. On the vehicle electrical system side, it does not need to know which protocols or "speech" the installed lighting system 1 uses for communication or which register configuration the installed lighting system 1 also has. The microcontroller 5 has this knowledge, which can convert the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side correspondingly into the control instructions on the lighting system side and can send the feedback from the lighting system 1 for components of the vehicle electrical system 3, such as the control unit 6, for the vehicle electrical system 3, in an comprehensible manner into the vehicle electrical system 3.FIG. 3 shows a circuit arrangement 7 according to the invention, which comprises a microcontroller 5 according to the invention, which embodies a device for data processing 5 according to the invention. The circuit arrangement 7 comprises a microcontroller 5. the microcontroller 5 has an on-board power supply interface 8 for receiving on-board power supply-side control instructions for the lighting system 1 from the on-board power supply 3 of the motor vehicle 2. The microcontroller 5 is thus configured to receive control instructions for the lighting system 1 on the vehicle electrical system side from the vehicle electrical system 3 of the motor vehicle 2. Furthermore, the microcontroller 5 has a lighting system interface 9 for communicating with the lighting system 1 on the basis of the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side.Microcontroller 5 is further configured to convert the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side into control instructions on the lighting system side, wherein the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side cannot be executed by lighting system 1 and the control instructions on the lighting system side can be executed by lighting system 1. This corresponds to the method in the embodiment from FIG. 1. Furthermore, the microcontroller 5 is also configured to execute the method in the embodiment according to FIG. 2. For this purpose, the microcontroller 5 includes a processor (not shown). Thus, the microcontroller 5 embodies a data processing device 5 according to the invention comprising a processor configured to execute a method according to the invention. The microcontroller 5 operates on the basis of a computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by the processor, cause the latter to carry out the method according to the invention.The vehicle electrical system interface 8 of the microcontroller 5 is, for example, a bidirectional RMI / IMI interface which is coupled to an Ethernet connection 10 which can be connected to the vehicle electrical system 3 and is designed as a 100BASE-T1 connection. The lighting equipment interface 9 is formed of a unidirectional video interface 11 and a bidirectional SPI (control and diagnostic) interface 12. Bi-directionality is illustrated in Figure 3 by lines with an arrow at each end. The unidirectional video interface 11 is here a QSPI interface, but in embodiments not shown may also be a UART interface, as discussed in the general part of the application. Furthermore, the circuit arrangement 7 comprises a solid-state lighting headlight 4 which is connected to the microcontroller 5. Here, the solid-state lighting headlight 4 is the SSL chip 4, which is connected to the microcontroller 5 via the lighting system interface 9 of the microcontroller 5. The SSL chip 4 here has, by way of example, 120 k pixels which can be operated at 120 frames per second. For up to 120k pixels at 120 frames per second, at least 116 Mbps data rate is required. Accordingly, the data to be received from the on-board power supply 3 via the Ethernet connection 10 must be compressed, or the pixels must be limited to a maximum of 97500 pieces, which corresponds to 94 Mbps data rate. In other embodiments, the SSL chip 4 may include 16k or 25k pixels operable at 100 frames per second. For this purpose, the UART interfaces are respectively sufficient as the unidirectional interface 11 and the bidirectional interface 12 between the microcontroller 5 and the SSL chip 4.The circuit arrangement 4 further comprises a DC-DC converter 13 which is operatively connected to the microcontroller 5 and the solid-state lighting headlight 4. This is, for example, a 2-channel DC-DC converter 13, and the DC-DC converter 13 is connected to the microcontroller 5 via a further bidirectional SPI interface 14. The DC-DC converter is also connected to the SSL chip 4 via a first and a second unidirectional voltage interface 15 a, 15 bto supply the control logic or LEDs of the SSL chip 4 with voltage, in each case via a separate channel.Furthermore, in the embodiment shown, the circuit arrangement 7 comprises a voltage supply 16 for the microcontroller 5. the voltage supply 16 is configured to provide supply voltages, such as approximately 3.3 V and 1.25 V here, to the microcontroller 5 via a first supply line 17 aand a second supply line 17 b, respectively. The voltage supply 16 itself can have a mains connection 18, by means of which the voltage supply 16 can be fed by means of a 12V battery, such as, for example, via a vehicle battery (not shown) of the motor vehicle 2. the voltage supply 16 is here a second DC-DC converter, which is configured to convert 12V on-board power supply voltage into 3.3V and 1.25V voltage for the microcontroller 5.In addition, the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 has a memory chip 19. The memory chip 19 may include calibration data and / or initialization data for the solid state lighting headlamp 4. The memory chip 19 is connected to the SSL chip 4 via a bidirectional SPl memory interface 20 for read and write operations. The memory chip 19 may be an EEPROM memory or a NOR flash memory. This is a NOR flash memory. This is sufficiently fast to carry out an initialization and calibration of the SSL chip 4, which is for example a 100 k pixel SSL chip 4 which can emit light at a frequency of 120 frames per second into an environment of the motor vehicle 2. If, on the other hand, as in embodiments not shown, it is a 16k or 25k pixel SSL chip 4 which can emit light only at 100 frames per second, the EEPROM memory as memory chip 19 can be sufficiently fast. The memory chip 19 can be omitted in embodiments not shown in which the microcontroller 5 contains the calibration for the SSL chip 4 and the SSL chip 4 does not require any initialization.In FIG. 3, the SSL chip 4, the DC-DC converter 13 and the memory chip 19 exemplarily form the lighting apparatus 1, as illustrated by the dashed line. In some embodiments, not shown, however, the lighting system may also comprise only the memory chip 19 and the SSL chip 4 or even only the SSL chip 4 if the memory chip 19 and / or the DC-DC converter 13 are not provided or are integrated in the SSL chip 4.The microcontroller 5 in the circuit arrangement 7 is configured to access a memory (in the microcontroller 5, not shown) in which a plurality of instruction libraries are stored, each containing a set of lighting-side control instructions, each instruction library being assigned to a lighting installation 1 from a plurality of lighting installations 1. During operation, the microcontroller 5 in FIG. 3 thus uses the instruction library of the lighting system 1 provided in FIG. 3. For this purpose, the microcontroller 5 is configured to recognize the lighting system 1 of the motor vehicle 2 based on an initialization sequence between the microcontroller 5 and the lighting system 1 and to select the instruction library based on the recognized lighting system 1, which contains the set of lighting-side control instructions that is assigned to the lighting system 1 of the motor vehicle 2. The SSL chip 4 of FIG. 3 is configured to access the memory chip 19 to provide initialization data to the microcontroller 5 during the detection of the lighting system 1.FIG. 4 finally shows a motor vehicle 2 according to the invention in a schematic plan view. The motor vehicle 2 has four tires 21 a- d. The motor vehicle 2 comprises a microcontroller 5 as a device for data processing 5 in each of the two circuit arrangements 7 shown, which are each constructed as shown in FIG. 3. Each of the circuit arrangements 7 thus has a lighting system 1, which provides headlights of the motor vehicle 2 in each case. The on-board power supply system 3 is connected to the microcontroller 5 in each of the circuit arrangements 7, specifically via a separate connection to each of the two circuit arrangements 7. the microcontroller 5 of each circuit arrangement 7 is in turn connected to the SSL chips 4 (not shown in FIG. 4 ) of the respective circuit arrangement 7. In other words, a microcontroller 5 is respectively connected between the SSL chip 4 of the respective circuit arrangement 7 and the on-board power supply 3. The circuit arrangement 7 is formed as a common component of solid-state lighting headlights 4 and microcontrollers 5, which are arranged, for example, on a common circuit board, which, as indicated in FIG. 3, is indicated by the continuous border of the circuit arrangement 7. Connected to the on-board power supply system 3 is the control unit 6 of the motor vehicle 2, which is programmed to communicate with the microcontroller 5, namely via the Ethernet interface 10, which is illustrated in FIG. 3.List of reference characters1 Lighting system 2 Motor vehicle 3 On-board power supply 4 SSL chip / solid-state lighting headlights 5 Microcontroller / device for data processing 6 Control unit 7 Circuit arrangement 8 On-board power supply interface 9 Lighting system interface 10 Ethernet connection 11 Unidirectional video interface 12 Bidirectional SPI interface 13 Direct voltage converter 14 Further bidirectional SPI interface 15 a, b Unidirectional voltage interface 16 Voltage supply 17 a, b Supply line 18 Power supply connection 19 Memory chip 20 Bidirectional SPI memory interface 21 a- d Reifen

Claims

Method for operating a lighting system (1) of a motor vehicle (2) which has an on-board power supply system (3), wherein the lighting system (1) is in communication with the on-board power supply system (3) in order to receive control instructions, wherein the method comprises the following step: - receiving (S11), from the on-board power supply system-side control instructions for the lighting system (1) from the on-board power supply system (3) of the motor vehicle (2), characterized in that the method comprises the following step: - converting (S12) the on-board power supply system-side control instructions into control instructions on the lighting system-side, wherein the on-board power supply system-side control instructions cannot be executed by the lighting system (1) and the lighting system-side control instructions can be executed by the lighting system (1), by a microcontroller (5) of the motor vehicle (4).Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: - selecting (S231), by the microcontroller (5), a set of lighting-installation-side control instructions, which can be executed by the lighting installation (1), from a multiplicity of sets of lighting-installation-side control instructions, and - transmitting (S232), by the microcontroller (5), a lighting-installation-side control instruction from the selected set of lighting-installation-side control instructions to the lighting installation (1) on the basis of an on-board-side control instruction which is received from the on-board network (3) at the microcontroller (5).The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the selecting (S231) the set of lighting equipment-side control instructions comprises: - selecting an instruction library containing the set of lighting-side control instructions executable for the lighting equipment (1), wherein the selecting is performed by the microcontroller (5) from a plurality of instruction libraries each containing a set of lighting-side control instructions, wherein each of the instruction libraries is associated with a lighting equipment (1) from a plurality of lighting equipments (1) and the instruction library selected by the microcontroller (5) is associated with the lighting equipment (1) of the motor vehicle (2).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the method comprises the following step before the conversion: - the microcontroller (5) detects (S22) the lighting system (1).Method according to claim 4, characterised in that the method comprises the following step before the detection (S22): - carrying out (S21) an initialization sequence between the microcontroller (5) and the lighting installation (1).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: - reading (S24) contents of registers of the lighting system (1) by the microcontroller (5) on the basis of the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side, wherein the lighting system (1) has solid-state lighting headlights (4) which are to be operated by the method, and the registers to be read out are assigned to the solid-state lighting headlights (4); and - sending (S25) the contents of the registers to the vehicle electrical system (3) of the motor vehicle (2) by the microcontroller (5) as a reaction to the control instructions on the vehicle electrical system side.Microcontroller (5) which is configured to operate a lighting system (1) of a motor vehicle (2), wherein the microcontroller (5) has: - an on-board power system interface (8) for receiving on-board power system-side control instructions for the lighting system (1) from an on-board power system (3) of the motor vehicle (2); and - a lighting system interface (9) for communicating with the lighting system (1) on the basis of the on-board power system-side control instructions, characterized in that the microcontroller (5) is configured to convert the on-board power system-side control instructions into lighting system-side control instructions, wherein the on-board power system-side control instructions are not executable by the lighting system (1) and the lighting system-side control instructions are executable by the lighting system (1).Microcontroller (5) according to claim 7, characterized in that the microcontroller (5) is configured to access a memory in which a plurality of instruction libraries is stored, each containing a set of lighting-side control instructions, each instruction library being associated with a lighting installation (1) of a plurality of lighting installations (1).Microcontroller (5) according to claim 8, characterized in that the microcontroller (5) is configured to recognize the lighting system (1) of the motor vehicle (2) based on an initialization sequence between the microcontroller (5) and the lighting system (1) and to select the instruction library based on the recognized lighting system (1) which contains the set of lighting-side control instructions assigned to the lighting system (1) of the motor vehicle (2).Circuit arrangement (7) for a motor vehicle (2), which comprises a microcontroller (5) according to one of Claims 7 to 9 and a solid-state lighting headlight (4) which are operatively connected to one another.Circuit arrangement (7) according to Claim 10, wherein the circuit arrangement (7) has a DC-DC converter (23) which is operatively connected to the microcontroller (5) and the solid-state lighting headlight (4).Circuit arrangement (7) according to Claim 10 or 11, wherein the microcontroller (5) and the solid-state lighting headlight (4) form a common component.Data processing device (5) comprising a processor configured to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 6.A computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 6.Motor vehicle (2) comprising a data processing device (5) according to claim 13.

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