Cummins Engine Company, Inc.

Todd E Greenwood

Thomas J Milvert

John V Shutty

Danny R Baker

James C Dager

Mitchell P Vogan

Rick Stoughton

Merrick C Stoughton

An apparatus is disclosed including an internal combustion engine, a number of sensors configured to detect operating parameters of the engine, and art engine control system responsive to the sensors to regulate engine operation. The control system includes a controller operatively coupled to a nonvolatile memory and has an interface capable of receiving operator input to customize aspects of a diagnostic data collection routine embedded in the control system. The routine responds to this input to selectively establish a data collection trigger, the nature of the information to be stored in the nonvolatile memory in response to this trigger, and the rate of storage of this information in the memory. The trigger may be externally generated with an operator-controlled triggering device coupled to the control system or internally generated as a function of one or more of the operating parameters.

Embedded datalogger for an engine control system

A system and method for engine parameter trending in which the engine control module (ECM) periodically stores to non-volatile memory various engine operating parameters over the life of the engine. The system is configurable such that a variable number of samples of a variable number of engine parameters can be stored. In addition to storing each engine parameter, each write to non-volatile memory is also time stamped. This data is used to track the health of the engine over its life cycle. Such data can be useful in providing decreased down time due to increased troubleshooting ability. The system includes a variable number of calibratable predetermined trigger points available so that the data is always logged under the same operating conditions. All triggers must be satisfied for a specified time in order to ensure consistent engine operating conditions when each data set is taken. When all of the predetermined input trigger thresholds have been met for a calibratable predetermined length of time and a predetermined time interval has been reached, the designated parameters are stored in non-volatile memory for extraction and use by a service tool. If the trigger preconditions are not satisfied, the ECM will wait a percentage of the data-logging time increment in order for the preconditions to all be satisfied before writing the monitored parameters to non-volatile memory. If the preconditions are not met after that additional time period, the ECM will evaluate the individual conditions and write to non-volatile memory whichever monitored parameters are valid, given which preconditions have been met.

System and method for engine parameter trending

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Columbus, IN, United States of America

Todd E Greenwood