The Bendix Corporation

Douglas R Verner

Roman O Marchak

An electronic control unit for regulating the air/fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The electronic control unit has an open loop calibration for regulating air/fuel ratio that is corrected with a closed loop signal developed by an integral controller. The integral controller bases the closed loop correction signal on a signal from an exhaust gas composition sensor located in the engine exhaust manifold. Various conditions of the system are sensed by a closed loop sensor condition detector to provide information on whether the sensor is up to operating temperature and is operative. If the exhaust gas sensor is functioning and the operating system parameters indicate the system operation should move to closed loop control, the loop is closed by the condition detector. Included in the condition detector circuit is a timer whose cycle is RPM dependent. The timer will time out if the sensor has not indicated an operational capability in one timing cycle or a set number of RPM counts and will generate a signal indicating a sensor failure. After closing the loop, the detector circuit will check for a sensor transition on a periodic basis related to the authority of the integral controller and provide a signal to open the closed loop if the transition does not occur. A rich burst generator is provided to perturbate the loop periodically to produce a rich transition of the sensor if it is operable. A latching failure indicator circuit is additionally included in the system to energize a visual indicator and alert an operator if the failure condition occurs.

Growing community of inventors

Orchard Lake, MI, United States of America

Douglas R Verner