Electronic control system for vehicle

• US 8,180,521 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2009
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Enomoto, Hiroyuki, Shimizu, Kokichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allred, David E
• Application Number:
  US12/424,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271064A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29, 701/35
• US Class Current: 701/32.8
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/02 Ensuring safety in case of control system failures, e.g. by diagnosing, circumventing or fixing failures
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/22 Safety or indicating devices for abnormal conditions in air/fuel ratio feedback systems F02D41/1495, in electric control linkage F02D11/107, in purge control systems F02M25/0809
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/2425 Particular ways of programming the data

Abstract

An electronic control unit performs self-diagnosis based on signals received from various sensors, and stores abnormality data in an EEPROM when abnormality is detected. The DTC is stored in a first memory area and a second memory area of the EEPROM, if a condition flag stored in the EEPROM is OFF and ON, respectively. The condition flag is switched from OFF (initial value) to ON, when service start data is received from a telematics service center in a period from the completion of assembling the electronic control unit to the vehicle to the start of use of the vehicle by a user.

Claims

1. An electronic control system for a vehicle comprising:

a non-volatile memory assembled to the vehicle and rewritable with data in a plurality of memory areas thereof;

a diagnosis unit configured to perform diagnosis based on data from devices mounted on the vehicle;

a memory area switching unit configured to store in the non-volatile memory abnormality data detected by the diagnosis unit; and

an output unit configured to output the abnormality data stored in the non-volatile memory in response to a read-out request,

wherein the diagnosis unit is configured to be operable in a function check mode for performing a function checking operation and a normal mode for performing a normal operation, and

wherein the memory area switching unit is configured to switch the memory areas of the non-volatile memory for storing the abnormality data based on whether the function check mode or the normal mode is performed when an abnormality is detected,

the memory area switching unit is configured to store the abnormality data in a first memory area of the plurality of the memory areas of the non-volatile memory and set a history data, when the abnormality is detected in the function check mode,

the memory area switching unit is configured to store the abnormality data in the first memory area and a second memory area of the plurality of the memory areas of the non-volatile memory, when the history data is not set and is set at a time the abnormality is detected in the normal mode, respectively, and

the output unit is configured to output the abnormality data stored in the first memory area and the second memory area, when the read-out request is a first request and a second request, which is different from the first request, respectively.

2. The electronic control system according to claim 1, wherein the memory area switching unit is configured to store the abnormality data in a first memory area and a second memory area of the plurality of memory areas of the non-volatile memory, when the abnormality is detected in the function check mode and the normal mode, respectively.

3. The electronic control system according to claim 1, wherein:

the diagnosis unit is configured to perform the diagnosis by sequentially operating loads in the vehicle forcibly to confirm operations of the loads.

4. The electronic control system according to claim 1, wherein:

the diagnosis unit is configured to perform in the function check mode diagnosis processing, which is stricter than that performed in the normal mode.

5. The electronic control system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a failure diagnosis device provided detachably to generate the first request and the second request for receiving the abnormality data stored in the first memory area and the abnormality data stored in the second memory area, respectively.