Device for checking the correct connection of hydraulic lines

1 . A control device for checking a correct connection of hydraulic lines, wherein the connection is achieved using male quick-release couplings and female quick-release couplings, the control device comprising:

a female coupling and a male coupling configured for being inserted into said female coupling, said male coupling being at least in part made of a ferromagnetic material and said female coupling comprising a winding configured as a coil or solenoid winding having an electrical inductance; and

an electronic control unit configured for supplying current to said winding and for detecting variations of an inductance value as a position of said male coupling changes relative to said winding of said female coupling,

wherein said electronic control unit comprises a memory unit, in which a target inductance value corresponding to the position of the male coupling in a condition of successful connection is stored in advance, and

wherein said electronic control unit is adapted to make a comparison between the detected inductance value and the target inductance value corresponding to the position of the male coupling in the condition of successful connection, emitting a successful connection signal when the detected inductance value equals the target inductance value.

2 . The control device according to claim 1 , wherein said target inductance value is identified as a percentage limit from a minimum value, corresponding to the condition of successful connection.

3 . The control device according to claim 2 , wherein, given X as an axial direction of coupling of the male and the female couplings, the inductance value varies as the position of the male coupling varies along the axial direction X.

4 . The control device according to claim 1 , wherein said electronic control unit is configured to emit the successful connection signal and a different signal corresponding to a condition of disconnection.

5 . The control device according to claim 1 , further comprising a visual indicator configured to emit a visual signal when the visual indicator receives the successful connection signal emitted by the electronic control unit, and to emit a different visual signal when the visual indicator receives a signal corresponding to a condition of non-connection.

6 . The control device according to claim 1 , wherein said electronic control unit comprises an RLC circuit, a microcontroller and, integrated in said microcontroller, an analogue-to-digital converter, the inductance value of the winding, which is variable as a function of the position of the male coupling with respect to the winding which equips the female coupling, being read as a voltage value stored by the RLC circuit in a given period of time and being discretized by the analogue-to-digital converter, so as to define a signal range variable between a maximum value corresponding to a condition of not connected coupling and a minimum value corresponding to the condition of successful connection.

7 . The control device according to claim 1 , wherein said electronic control unit ( 5 ) further comprises at least one Bluetooth, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), or WiFi electronic communication element.

8 . The control device according to claim 6 , wherein said microcontroller of said electronic control unit is configured to repeatedly read the inductance value returned by the RLC circuit and to output a signal corresponding to the successful connection condition only when the detected inductance value matches the target value in a plurality of readings.