The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 12, 1989
Filed:
May. 19, 1988
Marek T Wlodarczyk, Birmingham, MI (US);
Dah-Lain Tang, Canton, MI (US);
General Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI (US);
Abstract
A fiber optic detector head senses a light reflective or transmissive pattern on an encoder disk rotated by an engine shaft. The pattern results in four different light levels which are translated by a detector into an electrical pulse train having four different voltages including a reference or background voltage. One light level is reserved for an index mark, another level for cylinder position marks and still another level for finer measurement of position and speed between the cylinder marks. Patterns encoded into the single pulse train are decoded by a microprocessor to provide specific engine cylinder position information as well as engine speed information.