Method and Apparatus for Instantaneously Measuring and Indicating Fuel Consumption Rate

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for instantaneously measuring fuel consumption rate and to an apparatus installed in a vehicle, e.g., an automobile for indicating and informing the driver of the instantaneously measuring fuel consumption rate (the instantaneously measuring distance traveled per unit fuel amount consumed) of the running vehicle to give directions on the economical driving of the vehicle.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Devices of the above-type have been proposed, for example, in the Japanese Patent Application (Publication) No. 48-5453 in which the amount of fuel consumed per predetermined unit time is measured and indicated in terms of liter/sec, for example. Consequently, the measured value is not related to the distance traveled by the vehicle and an additional conversion operation is required for indicating the measured value in terms of for example km/liter, the very versatile unit for indicating the fuel consumption rate.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an instantaneously measuring fuel consumption rate meter which is capable of always indicating the fuel consumption rate in terms of the accurate distance traveled per unit fuel amount consumed (e.g., km/liter).

It is another object of the present invention to provide a fuel consumption rate meter which is designed so that instead of directly measuring the amount of fuel consumed, the amount of fuel consumed is indirectly measured by measuring the amount of air drawn into an internal combustion engine and converting it into the amount of fuel consumed.

In accordance with the present invention, there is thus provided an instantaneously measuring fuel consumption rate meter wherein a signal representing the operating parameter of the internal combustion engine of a running vehicle measured on demand in terms of the amount of fuel consumed and another signal representing the running speed of the vehicle are separately integrated by first and second integrating circuits, whereby at the instant that the integrated value of the first integrating circuit reaches a predetermined value the integrated value of the second integrating circuit is indicated on indicating means.

The device of this invention has among its great advantages the fact that when there occurs a rapid rise in the amount of fuel consumed due to the deteriorated driving conditions, the cycle time for the integrated value of the first integrating circuit to attain the predetermined value is reduced and in this way the indication follow-up speed of the fuel consumption rate on the indicating means is increased as the rate of increase in the amount of fuel consumed is increased and at the same time the accurate fuel consumption rate is always indicated in the ordinary terms of km/liter which are readily understandable by the driver.

Another great advantage of the device of this invention is that the number of revolutions per unit time N of the engine and the absolute pressure P in the engine are measured to obtain the intake fuel amount q per unit time from the following equation

where K is a constant determined by the displacement (combustion chamber volume) of the engine, the mixture ratio of fuel and air and the volumetric efficiency, and the distance traveled per predetermined value of the intake fuel amount q obtained from the above equation (A) is counted and indicated thereby improving the accuracy of the fuel consumption rate meter.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the general construction of an embodiment of an instantaneously measuring fuel consumption rate meter according to the present invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are voltage waveform diagrams which are useful in explaining the operation of the fuel consumption rate meter shown in FIG. 1.

FIGS. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are wiring diagrams showing the detail internal circuit constructions of the respective blocks in the fuel consumption rate meter of FIG. 1.

FIG. 11 is a wiring diagram showing another embodiment of the fuel amount unit counter circuit shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 12 is a voltage waveform diagram which is useful in explaining the operation of the counter circuit shown in FIG. 11.

FIGS. 13 and 14 are wiring diagrams showing respectively another embodiments of the memory circuit and the indicating circuit shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 15 is a wiring diagram showing still another embodiment of the memory circuit shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 16 is a wiring diagram showing still another embodiment of the fuel amount unit counter circuit shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 17 is a wiring diagram showing still another embodiments of the fuel amount unit counter circuit, the memory circuit and the indicating circuit shown in FIG. 1.

FIGS. 18 and 19 are wiring diagrams showing still another embodiments of the counting circuit shown in FIG. 17.

In the block diagram of FIG. 1 showing the general construction of an embodiment of a fuel consumption rate meter according to the invention, numeral 1 designates the point switch of a distributor (not shown) mounted in an automobile which in the case of a 4-cylinder engine opens and closes twice for every revolution of the engine and generates breaking signals at a terminal 1a. Numeral 2 designates an ignition coil which is actuated by the opening and closing of the distributor point switch 1, 10 a waveform shaping circuit for reshaping the breaking signals generated at the terminal 1a in synchronism with the engine revolution and generating revolution pulses at a terminal 10a, 3 a semiconductor pressure sensor connected to the engine (not shown) through the intermediary of a rubber tube 3a for measuring the pressure in the engine and generating output signals proportional thereto. Numeral 20 designates an amplifying circuit for amplifying the output signal of the semiconductor pressure sensor 3 generated at its output terminals 3b and 3c and generating a pressure signal at a terminal 20a, 30 a pulse generating circuit for receiving as its inputs the revolution pulses generated at the terminal 10a and the pressure signal generated at the terminal 20a and generating at a terminal 30a consumption pulses having a time width proportional to the pressure signal in synchronism with the revolution pulses. Numeral 40 designates a clock pulse generating circuit for generating clock pulses having a constant frequency determined by the constant K in the above equation (A) at a terminal 40a, 50 a fuel amount unit counter circuit constituting a first integrating circuit for computing the intake fuel quantity q from the above equation (A). In this embodiment the circuit 50 is so constructed as to generate at a terminal 50a a "1" level instruction pulse when the amount of the consumed fuel obtained from the above equation (A) reaches 0.4 cc, and to generate at a terminal 50 b a "1" level synchronizing pulse when the amount of fuel consumed reaches 0.4032 cc. Numeral 4 designates a vehicle speed sensor comprising a magnet fixedly mounted on the cable of a speedometer (not shown) and a reed switch disposed adjacent to the peripheral edges of the magnet to generate at a terminal 4a a speed signal consisting of four pulses for every revolution of the magnet, 60 a waveform shaping circuit for reshaping the speed signal at the terminal 4a and generating speed pulses at a terminal 60a, 70 a counting circuit for counting the speed pulses generated at the terminal 60a and constituting a second integrating circuit for starting its counting operation in synchronism with the synchronizing pulse generated at the terminal 50b, 80 a memory circuit for storing the count value of the counter circuit 70 generated at its terminal 70a, 90 an indicating circuit for indicating the stored value of the memory circuit 80 generated at its terminal 80a.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the voltage waveforms generated at various points in the circuitry of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 (1) shows the waveform of the revolution pulses generated at the output terminal 10a of the waveform shaping circuit 10 of FIG. 1, and FIG. 2 (2) shows the waveforms of the consumption pulses generated at the terminal 30a of the pulse generating circuit 30 of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 shows that the engine internal pressure is P.sub.1 mmHg when the pulse width is T.sub.1, whereas the engine internal pressure is P.sub.2 mmHg when the pulse width is T.sub.2.

FIGS. 3 (1) and 3 (2) show respectively the waveforms of the instruction pulses and the synchronizing pulses respectively generated at the output terminals 50a and 50b of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 50 shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 (3) shows the waveform of the speed pulses generated at the output terminal 60a of the waveform shaping circuit 60 of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 shows that a total of 6 speed pulses arrive during the time that the amount of fuel consumed reaches 0.4 cc and the corresponding distance traveled is 2.4 m thus giving the fuel consumption rate of 2.4/0.4 = 6. The value, 6, is stored in the memory circuit 80 and it is then indicated by the indicating circuit 90 to read 6 km/liter.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are wiring diagrams showing respectively the detail internal circuit constructions of the waveform shaping circuit 10 and the pulse generating circuit 30 shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 4, the noise component of the breaking signals at the terminal 1a is removed to generate at the output terminal 10a rectangular revolution pulses synchronized with the revolution of the engine. In FIG. 5, when the revolution pulse at the terminal 10a goes to the "1" level, the output of a NOR gate 301 in a flip-flop 30F comprising the NOR gates 301 and 302 goes to a "0" level so that the base current flowing through resistors 303 and 304 is interrupted and a transistor 306 is turned off. When this occurs, its collector potential V.sub.c rises with a fixed time constant determined by the resistance value R of a resistor 307 and the capacitance C of a capacitor 308 according to an equation V.sub.c = V.multidot.(1 - e-t/RC) or approximately V.sub.c = K.multidot.C.multidot.R.multidot. t, where K is a constant and t is a time variable. This collector potential V.sub.c is applied through a resistor 309 to the non-inverting terminal (+) of a voltage comparator 311. On the other hand, a pressure signal having a potential E.sub.1 proportional to the internal pressure P.sub.1 mmHg of the engine is generated at the terminal 20a and this pressure signal is applied through a resistor 310 to the inverting terminal (-) of the voltage comparator 310 so that the output of the voltage comparator 311 changes from the "0" to "1" level when V.sub.c exceeds E.sub.1. When this transition occurs, the output of the NOR gate 301 in the flip-flop 30F goes to the "1" level and the transistor 306 is turned on. Consequently, the collector potential V.sub.c becomes equal to a divided voltage V.sub.o by the resistor 307 and a collector resistor 305 and the output of the voltage comparator 311 goes to the "0" level when E.sub.1 exceeds V.sub.o. This operation is repeated when the next "1" level pulse arrives at the terminal 10a. Consequently, a consumption pulse having the time width T.sub.1 shown in FIG. 2 (2) is generated at the output terminal 30a of the NOR gate 302 in the flip-flop 30F, whereas a consumption pulse having the time width T.sub.2 is generated when the engine internal pressure is P.sub.2 mmHg.

Next, FIG. 6 is a wiring diagram showing the detailed circuit constructions of the pressure sensor 3 and the amplifying circuit 20 shown in FIG. 1. The detection signal generated at the output terminals 3b and 3c of the pressure sensor 3 is amplified by the differential-type amplifying circuit 20 and a pressure signal whose magnitude is proportional to the engine internal pressure P introduced through the tube 3a is generated at the terminal 20a. The potential E of the pressure signal is set so that the potential E becomes E.sub.o and equal to the divided voltage V.sub.o by the resistors 305 and 307 in the pulse generating circuit 30 when the engine internal pressure is 1 atmospheric pressure (760 mmHg).

FIG. 7 is a wiring diagram showing the detail internal circuit construction of the clock pulse generating circuit 40 of FIG. 1 which comprises a known type of astable oscillator circuit. The oscillation frequency of the circuit is determined so that one cycle of the clock pulses generated at the terminal 40a corresponds to the fuel consumption of 0.8 mcc. In FIG. 8, there is illustrated a wiring diagram showing the detail internal circuit construction of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 50 of FIG. 1, in which when the "1" level consumption pulse shown in FIG. 2 (2) is generated at the terminal 30a, the pulse is inverted by a NOT gate 501 to the "0" level and the clock pulses generated at the terminal 40a are counted by decade counter divider circuits 510, 520 and 530. When a total of 500 clock pulses are generated while the respective E terminals of the decade counter divider circuits 510, 520 and 530 remain at the "0" level, their respective outputs Q.sub.o, Q.sub.o and Q.sub.5 go to the "1" level altogether so that the output of a NAND gate 502 goes to the "0" level and this "0" level is inverted through a NOT gate 502a to generate at the terminal 50a the "1" level instruction pulse shown in FIG. 3 (1). When the number of the applied clock pulses reaches 502, the respective Q.sub.2, Q.sub.o and Q.sub.5 terminals of the decade counter divider circuits 510, 520 and 530 go to the "1" level so that the output of a NAND gate 503 goes to the "0" level and the "1" level synchronizing pulse shown in FIG. 3 (2) is generated at the output of a NAND gate 504 in a flip-flop comprising the NAND gates 504 and 505 or the output terminal 50b. Simultaneously, the decade counter/divider circuits 510, 520 and 530 are all reset to start counting operation again.

FIG. 9 is a wiring diagram showing the detail internal circuit construction of the waveform shaping circuit 60 of FIG. 1, in which the noise component of the speed signal generated at the terminal 4a of the vehicle speed sensor 4 is removed and subjected to a one-half frequency division and the reshaped speed pulses shown in FIG. 3 (3) are generated at the terminal 60a.

FIG. 10 is a wiring diagram showing the detailed circuit constructions of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 70, the memory circuit 80 and the indicating circuit 90 shown in FIG. 1. The synchronizing pulse generated at the output terminal 50b of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 50 is applied to the R terminal of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 70 to reset it and the speed pulses generated at the output terminal 60a of the waveform shaping circuit 60 are applied to the Cp terminal and are counted by the counter circuit 70 which in turn generates its count value at terminals 70a.sub.1, 70a.sub.2, 70a.sub.3 and 70a.sub.4 through its Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 terminals. In the memory circuit 80 which receives the count value of the counter circuit 70, the count value is introduced as the input data to its D.sub.1, D.sub.2, D.sub.3 and D.sub.4 terminals and the instruction pulse generated at the output terminal 50a of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 50 is applied to the CL terminal, whereby the input data is stored in response to the application of the instruction pulse and the stored value is generated at terminals 80a.sub.1, 80a.sub.2, 80a.sub.3 and 80a.sub.4 through the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 terminals. The indicating circuit 90 which receives the stored value of the memory circuit 80 comprises resistors 2R.sub.0, 2R.sub.1, 2R.sub.2, 2R.sub.3, 2R.sub.4, R.sub.1, R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 constituting a digital-to-analog conversion resistance ladder 903, a current controlling resistor 904, an indicating ammeter 901 and a smoothing capacitor 902. The resistance value of the current controlling resistor 904 is adjusted so that the ammeter 901 gives a maximum needle deflection when the signals at the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 outputs of the memory circuit 80 are all at the "1" level, namely, the needle of the indicating ammeter 901 makes a full movement, whereas when the signals at the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 terminals of the memory circuit 80 go for example to the "1", "1", "1" and "0" level, respectively, the indicating ammeter 901 gives a 7/15 needle deflection. On the other hand, if the resistance value of the current controlling resistor 904 is adjusted so that the indicating ammeter 904 gives the maximum needle deflection when the signals at the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 terminals of the memory circuit 80 go to the "0", "0", "0" and "1" level, respectively, then the indicating ammeter 901 gives a 7/8 needle deflection when the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 go to the "1", "1", "1" and "0" level, respectively.

FIG. 11 is a modification of the first detail internal circuit construction (FIG. 8) of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 50 shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 12 is a voltage waveform diagram useful in explaining the operation of the circuit shown in FIG. 11. When a consumption pulse is applied to the terminal 30a, clock pulses applied to a terminal 40a during the time width of the consumption pulse are counted. With the circuit construction of FIG. 8, however, there are cases where the time duration for the same 500 clock pulses varies as shown by the time widths t, t' and t" in FIGS. 12 (2) and 12 (3) even when the consumption pulses generated at the terminal 30a has the same time width as shown in FIG. 12 (1), namely, there occurs an error even when the consumption of fuel is constant. Consequently, to prevent such error a D-type flip-flop 506 is added as shown in FIG. 11 to generate a synchronizing pulse in synchronism with the consumption pulse and in this way the voltage waveforms at the terminals 50a and 50b correspond to a time width to as shown in FIGS. 12 (4) and 12 (5), respectively.

FIGS. 13 and 14 show modified constructions of the memory circuit 80 and the indicating circuit 90 which are designed so that the needle of the indicating ammeter 901 deflects in the reverse direction. Namely, in FIG. 13, the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 output terminals of the memory circuit 80 are replaced with the oppositely phased Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 output terminals, while in FIG. 14 the resistor 2R.sub.o of the resistance ladder 903 in the indicating circuit 90 is replaced with a resistor 2R'.sub.o having its one end connected to the power supply and one end of an indicating ammeter 901' is also connected to the power supply.

FIG. 15 shows another embodiment of the memory circuit 80 of FIG. 10 which is designed to cause the needle of the indicating ammeter to deflect in either direction. In this second embodiment circuit 80A, EXCLUSIVE OR gates 801, 802, 803 and 804 are respectively connected between the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 outputs of the memory circuit 80 and the output terminals 80a.sub.1, 80a.sub.2, 80a.sub.3 and 80a.sub.4 and the other input terminal 80b of the EXCLUSIVE OR gates 801, 802, 803 and 804 is connected to a resistor 806 and a change-over switch 805, whereby when the switch 805 is closed the signals at the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 outputs of the memory circuit 80 are directly generated at the output terminals 80a.sub.1, 80a.sub.2, 80a.sub.3 and 80a.sub.4 so that the deflection of the indicating ammeter increases as the value of the memory contents increases, whereas when the switch 805 is opened the signals at the Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 outputs of the memory circuit 80 are inverted and generated as such at the output terminals 80a.sub.1, 80a.sub. 2, 80a.sub.3 and 80a.sub.4 so that the deflection of the indicating ammeter decreases as the value of the memory contents increases.

FIG. 16 shows another embodiment of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 70 of FIG. 10. The second embodiment circuit 70A differs from the circuit of FIG. 10 in that it further comprises NAND gates 701 and 702 so that when the count value exceeds a predetermined value, the counting is locked to prevent further counting of the speed pulses generated at the terminal 60a. Namely, when the count value reaches "15", the output of the NAND gate 701 goes to the "0" level and the NAND gate 702 is closed causing its output to go to the "1" level and thereby to stop counting the speed pulses at the terminal 60a any longer.

FIG. 17 shows another embodiment of the fuel amount unit counter circuit 70, the memory circuit 80 and the indicating circuit 90 of FIG. 1 which are designed for digital indication. In the Figure, elements 710 and 720 of a counter circuit 701 comprise Motorola MC14518 integrated circuits and elements 901 and 902 of an indicating circuit 801 comprise Yokokawa Hewlett Packard (YHP) LED display elements 5082-7300, whereby in response to the synchronizing pulse at the terminal 50b the counter circuit 701 starts counting the speed pulses at the terminal 60a and delivers its count value to terminals 70a.sub.1, 70a.sub.2, 70a.sub.3, 70a.sub.4, 70a'.sub.1, 70a'.sub.2, 70a'.sub.3 and 70a'.sub.4. When, in this state, the instruction pulse generated at the terminal 50a is applied to the indicating circuit 801, the count value at that time only is read and displayed.

FIG. 18 shows another embodiment of the counter circuit 701 which is provided with an additional function so that when the count value reaches a predetermined value, the counting operation is stopped and the count value is maintained, namely, at the instant that the count value reaches 80 the counting is stopped and the count value 80 is maintained.

FIG. 19 shows a modification of the counter circuit 701 shown in FIG. 17, in which a one-eighth frequency divider circuit 730 is provided in the preceding stage of the counting elements 710 and 720 and in this way the counting error is reduced to one eighth of that of FIG. 10 thereby ensuring an improved accuracy. The frequency divider circuit 730 may for example be the RCA CD4024 integrated circuit.

While, in the embodiment of this invention described above, the semiconductor pressure sensor 3 is used to measure the absolute pressure of the engine, a slidable resistor may be used to generate a pressure voltage. Further, the relative pressure with respect to the atmosphere may be used in place of the absolute pressure.