> My thoughts drift toward the automotive engine control. Electronic valves, > spark timing, fuel injection timing etc... I think this would require much > faster response than a path control for an automobile.
Not easy to use for your own purposes though. The hardware is certainly capable (typically a fairly high-spec embedded PowerPC) the platforms are basically completely closed. > The current state of engine control seems to be the evolution of the slow, > early processors with lookup tables. Indeed, many thousands of them, interacting with each other in complex ways. Good for the job at hand, and incorporating hundreds of PID controllers (and more elaborate variants where P, I and D are themselves the output of cascaded lookup tables.) > An update every 36 degrees of crankshaft rotation and every 18 > degrees of (virtual) camshaft rotation at 6000 rpm. Typically things are calculated every mS, or scheduled on a particular tooth of the crank encoder. > Some of the new generation diesel motors have no camshaft. The valves are > solenoid actuated. Granted, they run at approximately 2000 rpm so the timing > requirements of the solenoid cycles are not as severe. I am looking forwards to the day that tech gets to automotive engines. With a turbo diesel, once you have boost, you can switch to 2-stroke. I am not sure if anyone realises that. > Some of the high end automotive gasoline motors do not require a starter > motor. They sense where the motor is, inject fuel into the correct cylinder > and fire the spark plug to get the motor moving. Really? That's news to me, but identical to how out 1916 Dennis fire engine (9.12 litres, 4 cylinders) is started. Do you have a reference? The engineering/science students who look after the fire engine would love that. > There is testing with injecting gasoline into a diesel motor under load. > They get the best power and mileage with an 85% gas/15% diesel mixture. It has often occurred to me to wonder: If you were designing the optimum petrochemical fuel, would it be petrol, or diesel, or, far more likely, neither? (My day job? I am one of the guys who programs those automotive ECUs, for the european arm of the Big Three manufacturer likely to make an actual profit this year) -- atp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return on Information: Google Enterprise Search pays you back Get the facts. http://p.sf.net/sfu/google-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
