Apparatus and method for generating and displaying fuel flow information in a GPS-equipped vehicle
First Claim
1. A self-contained fuel flow measuring module for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said module comprising:
- a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data, said transducer and circuits being co-located on a common mounting structure and co-contained within a common housing of the common mounting structure, and the common mounting structure being mountable on a vehicular engine.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Fuel flow information is generated in an engine compartment and transmitted for display on the fuel page(s) of a GPS signal receiver located in view of a vehicle operator. A fuel transducer coupled to a pre-programmed micro-controller are provided as an integrated single unit in the engine compartment of the vehicle (e.g., an aircraft). The integrated transducer/micro-controller unit outputs RS232 fuel flow signals to the GPS signal receiver without requiring any extra panel space. Since the transducer/micro-controller is already pre-programmed to compensate for the proportionality or “K” factor, no further calibration or compensation programming is needed at installation time (or when one composite transducer/computer unit is substituted for another). Separate transducer/micro-controller power supply and grounding connections suppress common mode noise. A blinking LED power/fuel flow visual display on the unit in the engine compartment helps trouble shoot power and/or transducer problems.
-
Citations
43 Claims
-
1. A self-contained fuel flow measuring module for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said module comprising:
a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data, said transducer and circuits being co-located on a common mounting structure and co-contained within a common housing of the common mounting structure, and the common mounting structure being mountable on a vehicular engine. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
8. A fuel flow measuring module for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said module comprising:
-
a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data, said transducer and circuits being co-located on a common mounting structure; wherein; said fuel flow transducer is associated with a predetermined calibration constant K, proportional to a number of transducer pulses output for a predetermined quantity of fuel flow therethrough; and said data processing circuits have been pre-configured to compensate for said predetermined calibration constant K thus automatically producing calibrated fuel flow output data from said module.
-
-
9. A fuel flow measuring module for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said module comprising:
-
a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data, said transducer and circuits being co-located on a common mounting structure; wherein said common mounting structure comprises a common housing affixed to an engine top mounting bracket so that the transducer and circuits are co-contained within the common housing and the engine top mounting bracket, and the engine top mounting bracket is mountable on a vehicular engine. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A fuel flow measuring module for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said module comprising:
-
a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data, said transducer and circuits being co-located on a common mounting structure; wherein said common mounting structure comprises a common housing affixed to an engine top mounting bracket; an LED modulated at a fuel flow related rate by said data processing circuits is viewable via an aperture in said housing; and wherein said housing has apertures in opposite sides for passing input and output fuel lines and has electrical connection wires passing through a side of the housing that is orthogonal to the sides having fuel line apertures.
-
-
16. A fuel flow measuring module for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said module comprising:
-
a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data, said transducer and circuits being co-located on a common mounting structure; wherein said data processing circuits comprise; a fuel flow rate calculation period timer register; a fuel flow transducer pulse counter register; a controller programmed (a) to calculate calibrated fuel flow rate data based on the contents of said timer and counter registers, and (b) to generate and output RS232 digital data characters in a predetermined serial format for inputting said calibrated fuel flow rate data to a GPS receiver. - View Dependent Claims (17)
-
-
18. An engine fuel flow computer adapted to generate fuel flow data for display on a GPS receiver having fuel display capability, said engine fuel flow computer comprising:
-
a fuel flow transducer adapted to sense incremental fuel flow to an engine and to output a corresponding signal; and digital signal processing circuits co-located and interconnected with said fuel flow transducer to calculate fuel flow rate to the engine and to output GPS display-controlling signals, said fuel flow computer being pre-calibrated by having a proportionality K factor for said fuel flow transducer pre-programmed into said digital signal processing circuits. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A fuel flow display system for displaying fuel flow information to an operator of a vehicle, said system comprising:
-
a fuel flow computer disposed in an engine compartment including, (a) a fuel flow transducer disposed in said engine compartment and adapted to sense fuel flow to an engine of the vehicle and to output a corresponding representative signal, and (b) digital signal processing circuits, also disposed in said engine compartment, adapted to (i) receive the signal output from said fuel flow transducer and, in response thereto, calculate the rate of fuel flow to the engine, and (ii) output display-controlling signals representing fuel flow information, said fuel flow computer being pre-calibrated by having a transducer K factor of proportionality pre-programmed into said digital processing circuits; and a GPS signal receiver having fuel display capability disposed outside the engine compartment in view of a vehicle operator and connected to receive said output display-controlling signals from said digital circuits to display fuel flow information. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
-
-
29. A fuel flow measuring method for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said method comprising:
-
co-locating a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data on a common mounting structure in a self-contained compartment so that the transducer and the circuits are co-contained within a common housing of the common mounting structure, the common mounting structure being mountable to a vehicular engine; and transmitting said fuel flow output data outside the compartment. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
-
-
35. A fuel flow measuring method for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said method comprising:
-
co-locating a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data on a common mounting structure in an engine compartment; and transmitting said fuel flow output data outside the engine compartment; wherein said fuel flow transducer is associated with a predetermined calibration constant K, proportional to a number of transducer pulses output for a predetermined quantity of fuel flow therethrough, and further comprising; pre-configuring said data processing circuits to compensate for said predetermined calibration constant K thus automatically producing calibrated fuel flow output data.
-
-
36. A fuel flow measuring method for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said method comprising:
-
co-locating a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data on a common mounting structure in an engine compartment; and transmitting said fuel flow output data outside the engine compartment; wherein the common mounting structure includes a common housing and an engine top mounting bracket, and said co-located transducer and data processing circuits are disposed in the common housing affixed to the engine top mounting bracket, the engine top mounting bracket being mountable to a vehicular engine.
-
-
37. A fuel flow measuring method for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said method comprising:
-
co-locating a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data on a common mounting structure in an engine compartment; and transmitting said fuel flow output data outside the engine compartment; wherein said data processing circuits comprise a fuel flow rate calculation period timer register and a fuel flow transducer pulse counter register and said method includes; (a) calculating calibrated fuel flow rate data based on the contents of said timer and counter registers, and (b) generating and outputting RS232 digital data characters in a predetermined serial format for inputting said calibrated fuel flow rate data to a GPS receiver. - View Dependent Claims (38)
-
-
39. A method for displaying fuel flow information on a GPS signal receiver disposed in the cockpit of an airplane, said method comprising:
-
sensing fuel flow to an engine of the airplane in an engine compartment; calculating, in said engine compartment, based on said sensed fuel flow, a calibrated rate of fuel flow to said engine of the airplane; and generating, in the engine compartment, calibrated fuel flow rate data and sending it to a data input port of a GPS signal receiver outside the engine compartment in a format that will cause display of such data on the GPS signal receiver. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
-
-
42. A fuel flow measuring module for providing vehicular engine fuel flow data, said module comprising:
-
a fuel flow transducer and interconnected fuel flow data processing circuits providing fuel flow output data, said transducer and circuits being co-located on a common mounting structure comprising a common housing within which said transducer and circuits are co-located; wherein said housing has apertures in opposite sides for passing input and output fuel lines and has electrical connection wires passing through a side of the housing. - View Dependent Claims (43)
-
Specification