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US 4,485,784 AGranted
An engine ignition control circuit having a failsafe for a crank angle sensor
AssigneesNew Nippon Electric Co., Ltd., Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMasahiko Fujii, Yoshiaki Hirosawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An engine ignition control circuit includes a crank angle sensor and two reference position sensors. The engine ignition control circuit also includes an ignition timing control unit generating primary ignition signals and a replacement ignition signal generator device. The control circuit further includes a crank angle monitoring circuit which detects the failure of the crank angle sensor and generates a malfunction signal. The malfunction signal controls a data selector which outputs either the primary ignition signals or the replacement ignition signals to drivers and ignition coils for the engine.
Claims10
An engine ignition control circuit, operatively connected to an engine crank by a crank angle rotor and to an ignition coil, comprising:
- a crank angle sensor positioned across from the crank angle rotor, sensing and angle of the engine crank and generating crank angle signals therefrom;
- reference position detection means for generating reference position signals in dependence upon a position of the engine crank;
- ignition timing control means, operatively connected to said crank angle sensor and said reference position detection means, for generating primary ignition signals in dependence upon the crank angle signals and the reference position signals;
- replacement ignition signals generation means, operatively connected to said reference position detection means, for generating replacement ignition signals, in dependence upon the reference position signals, as back-up for the primary ignition signals when the crank angle signals fail;
- crank angle signal monitoring means, operatively connected to said crank angle sensor and said reference position detection means, for generating a malfunction detection signal when the crank angle signals fail;
- and
- data selector means, operatively connected to said ignitiion timing control means, said replacement ignition signal generation means, said crank angle signal monitoring means and the ignition coil, for selecting and passing therethrough as ignition control signals and the primary ignition signals or the replacement ignition signals in dependence upon the malfunction detection signal, thereby replacing the primary ignition signals with the replacement ignition signals when the crank angle signals fail.
4 more elements
An engine ignition control circuit operatively connected to an engine crank and an ignition coil comprising:
- a crank angle sensor positioned next to the engine crank, sensing the angle of the engine crank and generating crank angle signals therefrom;
- reference position detection means for generating reference position signals in dependence upon the position of the engine crank;
- ignition timing control means, operatively connected to said crank angle sensor and said reference position detection means, for generating primary ignition signals in dependence upon the crank angle signals and the reference position signals;
- and
- means, operatively connected to said crank angle sensor, said reference position detection means, said ignition timing control means and the ignition coil, for generating and outputting primary ignition signals, for detecting the failure of the crank angle sensor and for generating and outputting replacement ignition signals when the crank angle sensor fails, the primary ignition signals or the replacement ignition signals being ignition control signals.
2 more elements
An engine ignition control circuit, operatively connected to an engine crank by a crank angle rotor and to an ignition coil, comprising:
- a crank angle sensor positioned across from the crank angle rotor, sensing an angle of the engine crank and generating crank angle signals therefrom;
- reference position detection means for generating reference position signals in dependence upon a position of the engine crank;
- ignition timing control means, operatively connected to said crank angle sensor and said reference position detection means, for generating primary ignition signals in dependence upon the crank angle signals and the reference position signal;
- replacement ignition signal generation means, operatively connected to said reference position detection means, for generating replacement ignition signals in dependence upon the reference position signals;
- crank angle signal monitoring means, operatively connected to said crank angle sensor and said reference position detection means, for generating a malfunction detection signal in dependence upon the crank angle signals and the reference position signals, said crank angle signal monitoring means comprising:
- an OR gate operatively connected to said reference position detection means;
- a first AND gate operatively connected to said crank angle sensor;
- a counter, operatively connected to said OR gate and said first AND gate, having outputs;
- a NAND gate operatively connected to the outputs of said counter and said first AND gate;
- a delay circuit operatively connected to one of the outputs of said counter;
- an inverter operatively connected to said delay circuit;
- a second AND gate operatively connected to said delay circuit and said OR gate;
- a third AND gate operatively connected to said delay circuit and said OR gate;
- and
- a flip-flop operatively connected to said second AND gate and said third AND gate;
- and
- data selector means, operatively connecte said ignition timing control means, said replacement ignition signal generation means, said flip-flop of said crank angle signal monitoring means and the ignition coil, for selecting and passing therethrough as ignition control signals the primary ignition signals or the replacement igntion signals in dependence upon the malfunction detection signal.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.