Fuel cell system and fuel consumption system

Abstract

A fuel cell system and a fuel consumption system verify the location of a filling failure at a time that a fuel gas filling process suffers from such a filling failure. Either one of encoded data indicating an infrared radiation signal related to the fuel gas filling process, which is sent from a vehicle to an external hydrogen station, and a drive signal, which comprises a train of binary pulses converted from the encoded data, is recorded in a recording unit of the vehicle.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A fuel cell system comprising:
 a fuel cell;   a fuel storage unit for storing a fuel gas that is supplied to the fuel cell;   a storage internal state detector for detecting an internal state of the fuel storage unit;   a transmitter for sending a signal related to a fuel gas filling process to an external fuel supply source when the external fuel supply source fills the fuel storage unit with the fuel gas; and   a controller having an information processor, which is supplied with a detected value detected by the storage internal state detector, and which processes information sent to the external fuel supply source based on the detected value, and a drive signal generator for converting data processed by the information processor into a drive signal for the transmitter,   wherein the controller has a recording unit in which there is recorded at least one of the data processed by the information processor and the drive signal generated by the drive signal generator.   
     
     
         2 . The fuel cell system according to  claim 1 , wherein the controller records at least one of the data and the drive signal in the recording unit if the information processor detects a filling failure based on the detected value. 
     
     
         3 . A fuel cell system comprising:
 a fuel cell;   a fuel storage unit for storing a fuel gas that is supplied to the fuel cell;   a storage internal state detector for detecting an internal state of the fuel storage unit;   a transmitter for sending a signal related to a fuel gas filling process to an external fuel supply source when the external fuel supply source fills the fuel storage unit with the fuel gas;   a filling controller having an information processor, which is supplied with a detected value detected by the storage internal state detector, and which processes information sent to the external fuel supply source based on the detected value, and a drive signal generator for converting data processed by the information processor into a drive signal for the transmitter; and   a recording controller in which there is recorded at least one of the data processed by the information processor of the filling controller, and the drive signal generated by the drive signal generator of the filling controller.   
     
     
         4 . The fuel cell system according to  claim 3 , wherein the recording controller includes a time grasping function, and records the data and the drive signal in relation to time. 
     
     
         5 . The fuel cell system according to  claim 1 , wherein the external fuel supply source includes:
 a fuel supply apparatus for supplying the fuel gas to the fuel storage unit, the fuel supply apparatus having a supply-side receiver for receiving the signal related to the fuel gas filling process sent from the transmitter on the side of the fuel storage unit; and   a fuel-supply-side transmitter combined with the fuel supply apparatus, for emitting, to an exterior, a signal related to the fuel gas filling process when the fuel gas is supplied to the fuel storage unit;   wherein the fuel cell system further comprises:   a receiver for receiving the signal sent from the fuelsupply-side transmitter; and   the controller records the signal received by the receiver in the recording unit.   
     
     
         6 . The fuel cell system according to  claim 3 , wherein the external fuel supply source includes:
 a fuel supply apparatus for supplying the fuel gas to the fuel storage unit, the fuel supply apparatus having a supply-side receiver for receiving the signal related to the fuel gas filling process sent from the transmitter on the side of the fuel storage unit; and   a fuel-supply-side transmitter combined with the fuel supply apparatus, for emitting, to an exterior, a signal related to the fuel gas filling process when the fuel gas is supplied to the fuel storage unit;   wherein the fuel cell system further comprises:   a receiver for receiving the signal sent from the fuelsupply-side transmitter; and   the recording controller records the signal received by the receiver.   
     
     
         7 . A fuel consumption system comprising:
 a fuel consumption apparatus;   a fuel storage unit for storing a fuel gas that is supplied to the fuel consumption apparatus;   a storage internal state detector for detecting an internal state of the fuel storage unit;   a transmitter for sending a signal related to a fuel gas filling process to an external fuel supply source when the external fuel supply source fills the fuel storage unit with the fuel gas; and   a controller having an information processor, which is supplied with a detected value detected by the storage internal state detector, and which processes information sent to the external fuel supply source based on the detected value, and a drive signal generator for converting data processed by the information processor into a drive signal for the transmitter,   wherein the controller has a recording unit in which there is recorded at least one of the data processed by the information processor and the drive signal generated by the drive signal generator.