Distributorless ignition system with dwell control
First Claim
1. In a marine craft distributorless ignition system with an engine having a plurality of cylinders and a plurality of ignition coils, each cylinder being coupled to an ignition coil and drive means coupled to said ignition coils for initiating for each cylinder in a firing order a dwell period in response to a first control signal to pull current through said cylinder'"'"'s coil creating a field, said drive means collapsing said field in response to a second control signal to generate a spark firing said cylinder, a controller for controlling the timing of firing of said cylinder comprising:
- means for sensing when each of said cylinders reaches top dead center to provide a signal representative thereof;
means responsive to said sensing means for determining the speed of said engine;
means responsive to said determined engine speed for determining advance;
a battery for providing power to said systems;
means responsive to the voltage of said battery for determining a dwell time;
means responsive to said sensing means for determining the interval between a first cylinder reaching top dead center and a preceding cylinder reaching top dead center; and
firing time determining means being responsive to said interval and said advance for determining a delay time until said spark should be generated to fire said subsequent cylinder and being responsive to said delay time to spark and said dwell time for determining a delay time until said dwell period should be initiated.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A distributorless ignition system is shown having a timing controller that is responsive to one cylinder of the engine reaching top dead center for predicting the times at which one or more subsequent cylinders in the firing order should enter dwell and fire based upon the current engine speed, current battery voltage and the time interval between one cylinder reaching top dead center and the preceding cylinder reaching top dead center. At low operating speeds the controller plans for the firing of a cylinder utilizing triple precision calculations. At midrange speeds and high speeds, however, the controller utilizes double precision calculatons. At very high speeds, the controller of the present invention plans the firing of two or more cylinders at the same time forcing the cylinders into overlapping dwell. Knock is reduced while optimizing the amount of power obtained from each cylinder by utilizing various knock algorithms depending upon the current speed of the engine when the potential knock is detected.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. In a marine craft distributorless ignition system with an engine having a plurality of cylinders and a plurality of ignition coils, each cylinder being coupled to an ignition coil and drive means coupled to said ignition coils for initiating for each cylinder in a firing order a dwell period in response to a first control signal to pull current through said cylinder'"'"'s coil creating a field, said drive means collapsing said field in response to a second control signal to generate a spark firing said cylinder, a controller for controlling the timing of firing of said cylinder comprising:
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means for sensing when each of said cylinders reaches top dead center to provide a signal representative thereof; means responsive to said sensing means for determining the speed of said engine; means responsive to said determined engine speed for determining advance; a battery for providing power to said systems; means responsive to the voltage of said battery for determining a dwell time; means responsive to said sensing means for determining the interval between a first cylinder reaching top dead center and a preceding cylinder reaching top dead center; and firing time determining means being responsive to said interval and said advance for determining a delay time until said spark should be generated to fire said subsequent cylinder and being responsive to said delay time to spark and said dwell time for determining a delay time until said dwell period should be initiated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. In a marine craft distributorless ignition system with an engine having a plurality of cylinders and a plurality of ignition coils, each cylinder being coupled to an ignition coil and drive means coupled to said ignition coils for initiating for each cylinder in a firing order a dwell period in response to a first control signal to pull current through said cylinder'"'"'s coil creating a field, said drive means collapsing said field in response to a second control signal to generate a spark firing said cylinder, a controller for controlling the timing of firing of said cylinders comprising:
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means for sensing when each of said cylinders reaches top dead center to provide a signal representative thereof; means responsive to a first cylinder reaching top dead center for determining the time at which a cylinder subsequent in said firing order to said first cylinder should fire; means for setting up said cylinder to fire at said determined time; means for determining if a cylinder is in dwell; means for forcing said subsequent cylinder to fire prior to said determined time if said subsequent cylinder is in dwell when said subsequent cylinder is sensed to have reached top dead center; and overlapping dwell determining means for determining whether a subsequent cylinder should already be in dwell when said firing time is determined, said firing time determining means being responsive to said overlapping dwell determining means for determining the firing time of a plurality of cylinders subsequent in said firing order to said first cylinder in response to said first cylinder reaching top dead center to provide overlapping dwell periods for said plurality of cylinders. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. In a distributorless ignition system with an engine having a plurality of cylinders and a plurality of ignition coils, each cylinder being coupled to an ignition coil and drive means coupled to said ignition coils for initiating for each cylinder in a firing order a dwell period in response to a first control signal to pull current through said cylinder'"'"'s coil creating a field, said drive means collapsing said field in response to a second control signal to generate a spark firing said cylinder, a controller for controlling the timing of firing of said cylinders comprising:
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means for sensing when each of said cylinders reaches top dead center to provide a signal representative thereof; means responsive to said sensing means for determining the speed of said engine; means responsive to said first cylinder reaching top dead center for determining the time at which a cylinder subsequent in said firing order to said first cylinder should fire, said firing time determining means including means responsive to said engine speed for determining advance; means responsive to engine vibration for providing a signal representing potential engine knock; means for determining a lock engine speed at which said knock signal is first provided; means for determining whether an engine speed is within a fixed range of said lock speed; means responsive to said knock signal for reducing said advance by a predetermined amount, said advance reducing means being responsive to a series of knock signals occurring at speeds within a range of said lock speed to reduce said advance by successively greater multiples of said predetermined amount for each of said succeeding knock signals in said series for which a knock adjustment may be made; and means for setting up said cylinder to fire at said determined time. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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Specification