Electrical sensing system for a vehicle shifter

A shifting system for a vehicle comprising:

• a shifter including a shift lever adapted for installation in a vehicle operator's compartment to be moveable by an operator between gear positions for operating a vehicle transmission;
• a programmable vehicle control component;
• and
• a circuit including at least one sensing device operably associated with the shift lever, the at least one sensing device being configured to output signals related to movement of the shift lever and adapted to cooperate with the vehicle control component for the purpose of determining one of velocity and acceleration of the shift lever as the shift lever is moved toward a selected one of the gear positions and to transmit signals to solenoids of an associated transmission based at least in part upon said one of said velocity and acceleration.

A method for providing a selected shifting characteristic for a motor vehicle, said method comprising:

• providing a shifter system adapted to be installed in vehicles having different constructions, said shifter system including a shift selector lever movable to define positions, velocity and accelerations of said shift selector lever, said shifter system including a programmable controller operatively connected with said shift selector lever moveable between gear positions, wherein the controller is capable of determining at least one of the positions, velocity and acceleration of the shift selector lever;
• providing a plurality of shift control programs, at least a first one of which changes transmission gears according to a first shift profile, and at least a second shift control program that changes transmission gears according to a second shift profile to provide gear changes having desired ride conditions;
• and
• selecting one of said first and said second shift control programs according to a desired shift characteristic and actuating said selected one of said shift control programs to control gear changes according to the shift profile of the selected shift control program.

A shifter system for shifting a transmission on a vehicle comprising:

• a shifter having a manually-operated shift lever adapted for mounting within a vehicle's operator compartment and movable between at least first and second gear positions and at least one control position between the first and second gear positions;
• an electrical sensing device on the shifter for sensing a position of the shift lever including the at least one control position that is between the first and second gear positions, said sensing device generating an electrical output signal indicating a position of said shift lever between the first and second gear positions when said sensing device detects the presence of said shift lever at the at least one control position;
• and
• a controller operably connected to the electrical sensing device and programmed to control shifting based, at least in part, upon the electrical output signal corresponding to the at least one control position, the controller configured to shift an associated transmission according to a selected shift based on a signal from the electrical sensing device indicating that the shift lever is between the first and second positions without use of mechanical linkage interconnecting the shift lever with the transmission such that said shifter system can be reprogrammed and installed into various of vehicles.