Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Masami Itou

Shuuichi Buma

Kaoru Ohashi

Toshio Onuma

Masahiro Ueda

Noriyuki Nakashima

Hideki Kabune

Yoshiyuki Morita

Yoshinori Ishiguro

Kohji Kamiya

Kiyoshi Miyake

Shigeyoshi Nomura

Provided is a suspension controller which has a plurality of control sections in a control mechanism and which has the order of priority among the suspension controls when two or more different suspension controls are simultaneously instructed from the control sections, so as to optimally control the suspension characteristic according to both the road condition and the running condition of the vehicle. The suspension controller of the invention includes a preference mechanism or logic for preferentially altering the suspension characteristic to a harder state in order to reduce the vibration of the vehicle body and to prevent an abrupt change of the vehicle attitude, thus providing good control, high stability and riding comfort.

Suspension controller

A suspension control system which provides a vehicle height signal representative of a vehicle height, a vehicle height data signal responsive to said vehicle height signal, and a first determination signal representative of a suspension characteristic alteration if a difference between a maximum and minimum value of said vehicle height data signal within a predetermined suspension characteristic alteration determination time interval exceeds a first value thereof, and which alters said suspension characteristic in response to said first determination signal. A suspension system which has a similar operation as said suspension system except that it provides a second determination signal representative of suspension characteristic restoration instead of a first determination signal if a difference between a maximum and minimum value of said vehicle height data signal within a first time interval of restoring determination is less than a second reference value thereof for a predetermined number of consecutive times, and which alters vehicle height.

Suspension control system

A vehicle height sensor includes switching circuits which are turned on and off in accordance with height of a vehicle. The vehicle height sensor is driven when a drive signal is outputted to the sensor. A preset voltage is fed to terminals of the respective switching circuits via resistors. Voltages at the terminals are outputted as vehicle height data having bits corresponding to the respective switching circuits. When the output of the drive signal is suspended, the vehicle height data are read as vehicle height sensor malfunction detecting data. The malfunction detecting data are compared to preset reference data. The vehicle height sensor is judged to be wrong when the malfunction detecting data differ from the preset reference data.

Vehicle height detecting system

A suspension controller of a vehicle having a suspension between a body and a wheel, includes: a vehicle height detection means for detecting a vehicle height at a front wheel and for generating a vehicle height signal according to the detected height; a determination means for receiving the vehicle height signal, and for generating height data responsive to the vehicle height signal, for determining whether the difference between the maximum and the minimum value of the height data during a predetermined period is greater than a reference value, the period being determined within a cycle time of sprung mass vibration, and for generating a suspension control signal, and a suspension characteristic alteration means for altering characteristics of the suspension in response to the suspension control signal.

A suspension controller for a vehicle is provided to effectively absorb vibrations such as resonant vibration of the mass of the wheel when the wheel is not on the ground, namely, 'resonant vibration of unsprung mass'. The suspension controller includes: a vehicle height detection means at a front wheel; a vehicle height determination means for comparing the vehicle height with a predetermined reference value; a cycle time determination means for detecting the cycle time of the vehicle height signal and for comparing the detected cycle time with a predetermined reference value; a control means for generating a suspension characteristic alteration signal based upon the vehicle height determination result and the cycle time determination result; and a suspension characteristic alteration means for altering a suspension characteristic of the vehicle in response to the suspension characteristic alteration signal.

A suspension controller for providing improved ride comfort and stable drivability with the suspension characteristic altered responsive to the condition of a road surface and a running vehicle speed. The suspension controller includes a vehicle height detection mechanism for providing a vehicle height signal indicative of a distance between a body and a wheel of a vehicle; a vehicle speed detection mechanism for providing a vehicle speed signal; a vehicle height determination mechanism for providing a soft signal commanding alteration of the suspension characteristic to soft in case the detected vehicle height exceeds a predetermined value; a vehicle speed determination mechanism for providing both soft and hard signals in response to the detected vehicle speed; a preference mechanism for providing a preference for a signal from the vehicle height determination mechanism over that from the vehicle speed determination mechanism to a suspension characteristic alteration mechanism so that the suspension characteristic is properly altered.

A suspension controller is provided to effectively absorb a sporadic shock by appropriately altering a suspension characteristic. Especially, when a sporadic shock is detected, which is caused by riding-through a dip or riding-over a bump of the front wheels, the suspension controller of the invention can alter the rear suspension characteristic before the rear wheels ride through the dip or over the bump. The suspension controller of the invention particularly includes restoration means for restoring the altered suspension characteristic when a predetermined delay time interval has elapsed from a time point at which a vehicle height data was determined to be out of a predetermined range by determination means, and for starting the recount of the predetermined delay time interval if the vehicle height data is again determined to be out of the predetermined range by the determination means before the predetermined delay time interval elapses from the first determination.

A suspension controller for improving the riding comfort, particularly for preventing bumping of bound stoppers or rebound stoppers against the vehicle body includes: a vehicle height detection means for detecting a vehicle height at a front wheel and for generating a vehicle height signal according to the distance; a conversion means for converting the detected vehicle height signal into a corresponding converted height signal, wherein the converted height signal increases more sharply than the actual vehicle height signal when the actual vehicle height signal is greater then a preset value and decreases sharply when the vehicle height signal is less than another preset value; a control means for generating a suspension characteristic alteration signal depending on the converted height signal; and a suspension characteristic alteration means for altering characteristics of suspensions of the vehicle in response to the suspension characteristic alteration signal.

A diesel engine fuel control apparatus is disclosed wherein a control unit for controlling the amount of the supply of fuel by a key switch which selectively connects a start position terminal, a normal position terminal and an interruption position terminal to a power supply, includes a control lever position sensing switching means for controlling a fuel injection pump and switchover means which are connected to at least the start position terminal and the normal position terminal, respectively, to control the energization of an actuator of a pump control lever, and a normally closed switching means which is turned off when an exhaust brake is applied is connected between said normal position terminal and one of said switching means.

Growing community of inventors

Toyota, Japan

Masami Itou