Vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus

• US 7,890,227 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2005
• Issued: 02/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Hashimoto, Kohji, Kanzaki, Shozo, Sayama, Masahiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Keith; Jack
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khatib; Rami
• Application Number:
  US11/202,259
• Publication Number:
  US 20060200276A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,013 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/29, 701/31, 701/35, 701/36, 701/102, 701/114, 701/115
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/46 for ICE-powered road vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/061 for DC powered loads

Abstract

A vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus can perform a variety of abnormality detections while reducing the control load of a microprocessor in the abnormality detection of a volatile backup memory that is backed up by an on-board battery. The apparatus includes a control CPU which is fed with power from a main power supply circuit upon closure of a power switch, a nonvolatile control memory and a backup memory. Even if the power switch is opened, the backup memory, being a partial area of a RAM memory, is fed with power through an auxiliary power supply circuit connected directly to the battery. When the battery is replaced with a new one and connected again, a power supply interruption monitoring memory is reset. At the start of operation of the control CPU, the backup memory is initialized based on reset information, and the power supply interruption monitoring memory is rewritten into a set state.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus comprising:

a main power supply circuit that is fed with electric power from an on-board battery to generate a first stabilized control voltage when a power switch is closed;

an auxiliary power supply circuit that is directly fed with electric power from said on-board battery to generate a second stabilized control voltage without regard to the opening and closing of said power switch;

a control CPU composed of a microprocessor including a nonvolatile control memory in which a control program and a reference control constant are written; and

a volatile backup memory that is always fed with electric power through said main power supply circuit or said auxiliary power supply circuit so as to store learned correction data for said reference control constant stored in said nonvolatile control memory;

wherein said control CPU is connected to a plurality of input sensors and a plurality of electric loads, and is fed with electric power through said main power supply circuit so as to control said plurality of electric loads in response to contents of said nonvolatile control memory and the operating state of said input sensors;

wherein said apparatus further comprises a power supply turn-on detection circuit having a rising differentiating circuit for an input voltage or an output voltage of said auxiliary power supply circuit, and a power supply interruption monitoring memory that is reset by the output of said rising differentiating circuit;

wherein said apparatus further comprises;

initialization means for initializing said backup memory;

initialization completion storage means for storing an initialization completion state of said initialization means;

initialization storage verification means for verifying an initialization completion storage state of said initialization completion storage means;

hierarchization abnormality detection means for detecting the presence or absence of an abnormality in the storage contents of said backup memory using a plurality of abnormality detection processes; and

abnormality detection selection means for selecting and determining which one or more of the abnormality detection processes of said hierarchization abnormality detection means should be executed;

wherein said power supply turn-on detection circuit stores the existence of a power supply interrupted state into said power supply interruption monitoring memory by putting the contents of said power supply interruption monitoring memory into a reset state in response to when said auxiliary power supply circuit is connected to said on-board battery;

wherein said hierarchization abnormality detection means executes a plurality of abnormality detection processes including at least a first abnormality detection process, and each of said abnormality detection processes estimates or detects whether there is an abnormality in the memory contents of said backup memory;

wherein said first abnormality detection process makes, in response to when said power supply interruption monitoring memory has not stored a set state, a determination that stored information of said backup memory has been lost;

wherein said initialization means initializes said backup memory by said control CPU when said hierarchization abnormality detection means has estimated that there is an abnormality in the contents of said power supply interruption monitoring memory;

wherein said initialization completion storage means rewrites and changes the contents of said power supply interruption monitoring memory into a set state in response to when said control CPU has completed the initialization of said backup memory, and at the same time, verifies, using said initialization storage verification means or a voltage monitoring signal that an initialization completion state has been stored;

wherein said initialization storage verification means reads out and verifies whether the rewriting and changing of said power supply interruption monitoring memory has been executed to change the reset state into a set state;

wherein said voltage monitoring signal inputs a drive power supply voltage for said power supply interruption monitoring memory to said control CPU whereby said control CPU verifies the storage of initialization by the presence or absence of said voltage monitoring signal, and if the drive power supply voltage has not been supplied to said control CPU, verifies and determines that the storage of initialization has not been made; and

wherein said abnormality detection selection means operates in such a manner that immediately after said power switch has been turned on, only some of the abnormality detection processes including said first abnormality detection process of said hierarchization abnormality detection means are executed, while omitting execution of remaining abnormality detection processes in said hierarchization abnormality detection means, and during operation of said control CPU except for immediately after the turning-on of said power supply, a plurality of the remaining abnormality detection processes are repeatedly executed in a periodicity no more than a predetermined period.

2. The vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

said power supply turn-on detection circuit includes a Schmitt circuit that has a first threshold and a second threshold higher than said first threshold, for performing a hysteresis operation, and puts the contents of said power supply interruption monitoring memory into a reset state when it is detected that the input voltage or the output voltage of said auxiliary power supply circuit has risen from said first threshold or below to said second threshold or above; and

said backup memory continues a storage operation when the input voltage or the output voltage of said auxiliary power supply circuit is equal to or higher than a value corresponding to said first threshold.

3. The vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

said hierarchization abnormality detection means includes, in addition to said first abnormality detection process, at least one of second and third abnormality detection processes;

said second abnormality detection process checks whether a memory at a specific address in the backup memory correctly stores prescribed specific numerical data; and

said third abnormality detection process checks the presence or absence of the missing or mixing of bit information in said backup memory.

4. The vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein:

said hierarchization abnormality detection means includes at least one of a fourth and a fifth abnormality detection process;

said initialization means further includes a partial rewrite means;

said fourth abnormality detection process checks whether the values in the backup memory exceed a permitted correction variation range by making a comparison between the contents of the backup memory and data related to the permitted correction variation range stored in the nonvolatile control memory;

said fifth abnormality detection process stores positive logic data in said backup memory, additionally stores beforehand inverted logic data with respect to said positive logic data, and checks whether said inverted logic data and said positive logic data are mutually in an inverted logical relation with each other at the time of abnormality check; and

when it is determined by said fourth or fifth abnormality detection process that the content of a memory at a specific address in said backup memory is abnormal, said partial rewrite means initializes the content at said abnormal address in said backup memory.

5. The vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus as set forth in claim 1,

wherein:

said control CPU further comprises;

an engine state detection circuit that detects an operating/stopped state of an engine which is to be controlled, depending upon whether said power switch is closed;

an awake timer circuit part; and

a third power supply circuit that is always supplied with electric power from said on-board battery to generate a predetermined stabilized voltage;

said nonvolatile control memory further includes a multilevel selection means for sequentially selecting a plurality of the abnormality detection processes of said hierarchization abnormality detection means;

said awake timer circuit part is always fed with power through said third stabilization power supply circuit, and measures the time during which said main power supply circuit has been interrupted, and when said time thus measured reaches a predetermined target awake time, said awake timer circuit part awakes and activates said control CPU in a stopped state of said engine by generating an awake output signal thereby to connect said main power supply circuit to said on-board battery; and

said multilevel selection means sequentially selects and determines, in response to when said control CPU executes an awake operation in the stopped state of said engine which of the plurality of abnormality detection processes of said hierarchization abnormality detection means should be performed, and one or more of the abnormality detection processes thus selected is intensively executed in a state where input and output control is stopped, and initializes said backup memory when an abnormality has been detected.

6. The vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein:

said main power supply circuit is connected to said on-board battery through a power feed switching element that responds to an awake output signal from said awake timer circuit part, and awakes and activates said control CPU in response to when electric power is fed to said control CPU;

said power feed switching element comprises an output contact of a power supply relay to feed electric power to said electric loads or a dedicated switching element connecting between said on-board battery and said main power supply circuit;

said awake output signal is stopped in response to activation of said control CPU; and

said power feed switching element is self-held by said control CPU, and is opened in response to the stop of an operating condition signal output or a self-hold drive command output of said control CPU.

7. The vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus as set forth in claim 3,

wherein said main power supply circuit is connected to said on-board battery through an output contact of a power supply relay which is energized through said power supply switch;

nonvolatile data memory is further connected to said control CPU; and

said nonvolatile control memory has stored therein transfer and save process, and a specific numerical data which is applied by second abnormality detection process;

said power supply relay self-hold operation is executed in response to the operation of said control CPU so that it continues self-hold feeding of electric power to said main power supply circuit even when said power switch is opened, and it is de-energized in response to the stop of an operating condition signal output or a self-hold drive command output of said control CPU;

said transfer and save process is executed during the self-hold operation of said power relay to transfer and save learned correction data, which has been stored in a first area of said backup memory according to learning items, into a first area of said nonvolatile data memory, and also to transfer and save abnormality occurrence frequency data, which has been stored in a second area of said backup memory according to abnormal code numbers, into a second area of said nonvolatile data memory; and

said initialization means reads out, transfers and writes the contents of said nonvolatile data memory into said first and second areas of said backup memory, writes said prescribed specific numerical data into the remaining specific addresses of said backup memory, and performs reset processing with respect to the other addresses of said backup memory.

8. The vehicle-mounted electronic control apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein:

said nonvolatile control memory further comprises a control program which is a multilevel selection unit; and

said multilevel selection means sequentially selects and determines, in response to when self-hold power feed is executed due to the opening of said power switch, one or more of the plurality of abnormality detection processes excluding said first abnormality detection process, intensively executes the one or more abnormality detection processes thus selected in a state where input and output control is stopped, and initializes said backup memory when an abnormality is detected.