Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Automotive Engineering Co., Ltd.

Hiroastu Tokuda

Shigeki Morinaga

Hideo Nakamura

Seiji Suda

Masumi Imai

Izumi Watanabe

Yutaka Nishimura

Sanshiro Obara

Toshio Furuhashi

Akihiko Konno

Masao Takato

Minoru Tashahashi

The bobbin (21) of the heating resistor (1) is made by zirconia or glass fiber. On the surface of the bobbin, a platinum film (31) or a platinum wire (23) are formed. At both ends of the heating resistor, the heating resistor is supported by a pair of supporting conductors (25).

Hot wire air flow meter

A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes a plurality of sensors for producing signals indicative of operating conditions of the engine, an input/output unit adapted to receive sensed signals and to deliver control signals to actuators which control an energy conversion function of the engine and a central-processor unit coupled with the input/output unit and adapted to execute an arithmetic operation for producing data to be sent to the input/output unit. The input/output unit includes a first register file having a plurality of registers for storing constants and data produced by the central processor unit and a second register file having a plurality of registers for storing signals indicative of conditions of the engine as of a selected instant in time during which the engine is operative. A comparator is provided to compare the contents of the selected one of registers of the first register file with the content of the selected one of registers of the second register file, and the resultant output is applied to the actuators. The first register file further includes a register storing a prescribed constant with which selected ones of the registers of the second register file are compared by the comparator in response to the contents of prescribed ones of the second register file causing the comparator to produce an output.

Control apparatus for an internal combustion engine

An apparatus for electronically controlling an internal combustion engine of automobiles, in which a processor comprising a CPU, a RAM and a ROM is determined to be in the state of its normal operation when the processor delivers a predetermined pulse train in response to an interrupt signal having a predetermined period and supplied to the processor, and in which a backup circuit is actuated by a discriminant signal indicating the abnormal operation of the processor so that the operation of controlling the internal combustion engine, normally performed by the processor, is performed by the backup circuit.

Apparatus for electronically controlling internal combustion engine

An electronic control apparatus for an internal combustion engine having engine parameter data sensors, an input/output unit, actuators and a data processing unit carries out a prescribed scenario for starting the engine. The starting sequence begins with the operation of a starting subsystem having a switch the state of which controls the operation of the starter motor. The starter motor is caused to be engaged and a set of initialization procedures are carried out by the data processing unit and input/output unit in dependence upon the state of the switch in the starting subsystem. These initializing procedures include engine operation control calculations as well as system preset steps. During this time, prescribed interrupts which would otherwise be delivered to the data processing unit from the input/output unit are inhibited. However, once the engine has been started, the interrupt inhibit is removed and the system operates under normal conditions.

Technique for controlling the starting operation of an electronic engine

In an electronic engine control apparatus in which ignition timing and fuel injection quantity are calculated from the negative pressure in an intake manifold of the engine or from a flow rate of suction air and the rotational speed of the engine, a reference register group is constituted of register for storing the result of the calculation while an instantaneous register group is made up of registers for storing the instantaneous states of actuators. One of the registers of the instantaneous register group is selected according to a stage timing signal, so that the contents of the two registers selected are compared with each other for producing control pulses for driving actuators such as an ignition coil or fuel injector. The reference register group contains a register desigated a CYL register and the instantaneous register group contains a register designated a CYL counter for dividing reference pulses from an angular position sensor in accordance with the number of engine cylinders, so that the engine control apparatus may be employed in various engines of different cylinder numbers such as a 4, 6, 8 or 12 cylinder engine.

Electronic engine control apparatus

An electronic control apparatus includes a digital processor which receives data from sensors indicating conditions of the engine and supplies output control data for operating various actuators which control the engine operation. The interfacing of data between the sensors, the digital processor and the actuators is effected through a set of registers and a controlled incrementing device. The set of registers includes a plurality of reference registers which store engine control data supplied from the digital processor. Another set of registers store respective sets of codes the values of which are sequentially and selectively incremented in accordance with a prescribed timing signal pattern during the rotation of the engine crankshaft. The data in these respective registers are compared with one another and upon the contents of a register, the contents of which are incremented by the timing signal pattern reaching the value stored in the reference register the data contained in which is supplied from the digital processor, an output is supplied to operate a respective engine actuator. Since the data supplied by the digital processor may vary at any time depending upon operating conditions, which are supplied by the digital processor, are not fixed but are subject to variation. If, at the time the digital processor is modifying or changing, namely updating, the data contained in a reference register, the value in a corresponding one of the second set of registers becomes equal to the old data with which it has been compared, no output signal is permitted to be supplied to an engine actuator until after the new data supplied by the digital processor has been input to the appropriate reference register. This preventing or inhibiting action enables the system to control the engine actuators in an extremely accurate manner, as the reference data upon which actuator control signals are ultimately based is always permitted to be dynamically updated so that the engine is always controlled on the basis of current engine conditions.

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Katsuta, Japan

Hiroastu Tokuda