Device for controlling a vehicle charging system
First Claim
1. In a device for controlling a vehicle charging system including a generator driven by an engine, a voltage regulator for controlling said generator to bring an AC output of the generator into agreement with a prescribed value based on a reference voltage, and a storage battery chargeable by a DC output from a rectifier, the improvement comprising sensor means for detecting engine information, an engine control microcomputor responsive to an information signal from said sensor for effecting an arithmetic operation on the information signal to issue a control signal for providing optimum operating conditions of the engine, a charging system control microcomputer for reading an output signal from said engine control microcomputer and signals indicative of conditions at a plurality of positions in said charging system, for effecting prescribed arithmetic operations on the signals thus read to effect optimum control to optimize said reference voltage used for controlling said AC output.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle charging control system includes a charging control microcomputer for performing arithmetic operations upon input engine or charging system parameters to derive the most proper operating voltage for the charging system. The voltage regulator includes a comparator which receives its reference voltage from the charging control microcomputer. An engine control microcomputer which controls, for example, the air/fuel ratio also outputs data to the charging control microcomputer for use thereby in controlling the reference voltage. The charging control microcomputer may perform diagnostics on the charging system and output the results thereof to a suitable indicator.
37 Citations
8 Claims
- 1. In a device for controlling a vehicle charging system including a generator driven by an engine, a voltage regulator for controlling said generator to bring an AC output of the generator into agreement with a prescribed value based on a reference voltage, and a storage battery chargeable by a DC output from a rectifier, the improvement comprising sensor means for detecting engine information, an engine control microcomputor responsive to an information signal from said sensor for effecting an arithmetic operation on the information signal to issue a control signal for providing optimum operating conditions of the engine, a charging system control microcomputer for reading an output signal from said engine control microcomputer and signals indicative of conditions at a plurality of positions in said charging system, for effecting prescribed arithmetic operations on the signals thus read to effect optimum control to optimize said reference voltage used for controlling said AC output.
Specification