Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – One cell or battery charges another – Vehicle battery charging
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-28
2001-04-17
Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
One cell or battery charges another
Vehicle battery charging
C320S125000, C320S160000, C180S065100, C180S065310, C123S19800E
Reexamination Certificate
active
06218804
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle including an engine stopping/starting control unit for interrupting, during running, ignition control of an engine under a specific vehicle stopping condition, and re-starting, after interruption, the ignition control of the engine in response to a specific vehicle moving operation. Particularly, an engine stopping/starting control unit is disclosed with improved accelerating performance upon vehicle movement.
2. Background Art
An engine stopping/starting control unit intended to suppress the emission of exhaust gas, particularly upon idling, and fuel consumption, has been disclosed. One such unit is disclosed in Japanese patent Laid-open No. Sho 63-75323. In this patent, the control unit performs such that when a vehicle is stopped, the engine is automatically stopped, and when a throttle grip is operated to move the vehicle, the engine is automatically restarted to move the vehicle.
In a light vehicle, such as a motorcycle or a three-wheeled vehicle, it may be desirable to use a head lamp in the daytime as well as in the nighttime. This can cause problems when the light vehicle moves from the stopped position. Because activation of the head lamp increases the power requirement from the generator, the required driving torque of the generator is correspondingly increased. As a result, the vehicle in which the head lamp is left on has an increased mechanical load on the engine. This negatively affects accelerating performance.
To solve the above problem, a technique has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 58-179134, in which the power generation amount of a generator is lowered upon rapid acceleration in order to reduce the load on the engine, thereby ensuring sufficient accelerating performance.
For a light vehicle such as a motorcycle or a three-wheeled vehicle, it may also be desirable to keep the head lamp on for improved visibility to the opposite lane during running and upon vehicle stop, such as at a stoplight.
For the vehicle including the engine stopping/starting control unit, however, since the engine is automatically stopped upon vehicle stop, if the head lamp is left on, a discharge of the battery rapidly proceeds. As a result, upon vehicle movement after automatic stoppage, the power generation amount of the generator is increased, so that the load of the engine is correspondingly increased, thereby reducing accelerating performance.
As described above, for the vehicle including the engine stopping/starting control unit in which the head lamp is left on upon vehicle stop, there arises the problem that sufficient accelerating performance cannot be obtained upon rapid acceleration during running and upon vehicle movement after automatic stoppage of the engine.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the problems associated with the conventional art and obtains other advantages not contemplated by the conventional art.
The present invention includes an engine stopping/starting control unit in which a head lamp is left on during vehicle stop, and in which a desirable accelerating performance is obtained even upon vehicle movement after automatic engine stoppage.
To achieve the above object, a vehicle includes an engine stopping/starting control unit for interrupting, during running, ignition control of the engine under a specific vehicle stopping condition, and, restarting, after interruption, the ignition control of the engine in response to a specific vehicle moving operation. The vehicle includes the following desirable characteristics:
(1) the engine stopping/starting control unit includes: a vehicle moving operation detector for detecting a vehicle moving operation, and a charging limiting device for limiting charging from a generator into a battery for a specific period of time if it detects the vehicle moving operation;
(2) the engine stopping/starting control unit further includes an acceleration detector for detecting an acceleration performed by a driver during running, and the charging limiting device limits the charging from the generator into the battery for the specific period of time if acceleration or vehicle movement is detected by either the acceleration detector or the vehicle moving operation detector;
(3) the engine stopping/starting control unit further includes a regulator for controlling the voltage outputted from the generator to a charging voltage and supplying the charging voltage to the battery, and the charging limiting device limits the charging by reducing the charging voltage of the regulator; and
(4) the engine stopping/starting control unit further includes a switch for controlling the supply of power to a head lamp of the vehicle, and a head lamp control device for controlling opening/closing of the switch. When the ignition control of the engine is interrupted, the head lamp control device interrupts the switch to substantially reduce the voltage applied to the head lamp.
According to feature (1), when the vehicle moving operation is detected, the charging from the generator to the battery is limited to reduce the electrical load of the generator. Accordingly, since the torque required for the engine to drive the generator is reduced, the accelerating performance is improved. Also, because the charging from the generator to the battery, upon vehicle movement from vehicle stop, is not interrupted but only limited, the head lamp does not become dark upon vehicle movement from vehicle stop.
According to the feature (2), the accelerating performance can be improved not only upon vehicle movement from vehicle stop, but also acceleration during running.
According to the feature (3), the charging limitation upon vehicle movement after vehicle stop, or upon acceleration, can be simply performed by control of a voltage of the regulator.
According to the feature (4), when the ignition control of the engine is interrupted upon vehicle stop and the engine is automatically stopped, the voltage applied to the head lamp is substantially reduced. Accordingly, the discharge of the battery can be suppressed without turning the head lamp off. As a result, since the amount of charging from the generator to the battery can be reduced upon the subsequent vehicle movement, the electrical load of the generator is reduced. This improves the accelerating performance upon vehicle movement.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3904948 (1975-09-01), Earle
patent: 4687983 (1987-08-01), Beyn
patent: 5080059 (1992-01-01), Yoshida et al.
patent: 6037749 (2000-03-01), Parsonage
patent: 58-179134 (1983-10-01), None
patent: 63-75323 (1988-05-01), None
Honda Satoshi
Iwadate Toru
Nakajima Hiroyuki
Sakamoto Tomokazu
Toriyama Masayuki
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Toatley , Jr. Gregory J.
Wong Peter S.
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