Description

INDICATING DEVICE OF FUEL CONSUMPTION BY ENGINE

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine, in which a fuel waste amount according to a vehicle load is displayed for a driver to drive a vehicle with less fuel consumption to reduce waste of the fuel, thereby reducing fuel consumption of a vehicle. Background Art

[2] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a structure of a prior art engine.

[3] In Fig. 1, a prior art engine includes an engine start unit 1, a generator 2 for generating and supplying power, a fuel unit 3, an injector 4, a main body 5 of the engine, an electronic control unit ECU 6 of the engine, an indicating device 7 of fuel consumption, and a battery 8.

[4] Fig. 2 shows an example of display of a prior art indicating device 7 of fuel consumption, which employs liquid crystal display units 21 in a display unit, wherein the liquid crystal display units 21 display a situation of a low fuel consumption measured through the connection with the injector 4.

[5] In Fig. 2, reference symbols 1 to 8 in the indicating device 7 of fuel consumption represent liquid crystal display units.

[6] Fig. 3 shows an example of high fuel consumption display of the prior art indicating device 7 of fuel consumption.

[7] Fig. 4 is shows another prior art indicating device 7 of fuel consumption as an example, which employs a liquid crystal display unit 22 as a display device, wherein high or low fuel injection amounts are displayed through a graph.

[8] As shown in Fig. 1, as an engine is started initially by power of the battery 8, the engine starting unit 1 and the generator 2 generate power together and simultaneously the fuel unit 3 is controlled by the ECU 6, so that mixture of fuel and air is supplied to the engine via the injector 4. Then, an explosion stroke is carried out by a signal of an ignition plug (unshown), which is connected to the main body 5 of the engine, and an exhaust stroke is finished. After that, a suction stroke for the mixture of the fuel and the air is carried out by the injector 4, a compression stroke and the explosion stroke are carried out again, thereby rotating the engine.

[9] Previously, in order to display fuel consumption of the engine in real time, two power lines (+, -) are withdrawn from the battery 8 and a line is withdrawn from driving lines of the injector 4 by stripping the driving lines partially of coatings thereof, wherein the withdrawn lines are arranged in parallel each other. Further, in

order to realize speed, an additional signal line is withdrawn from an autometer of the main body 5 of the engine and the withdrawn signal line is connected to the indicating device 7 of fuel consumption of the engine.

[10] In general, the ECU 5 controls almost all control operations for the engine automatically and fuel consumption through the injector 4 is increased as the vehicle speed is increased.

[11] The speed of the vehicle becomes fast and a load of a vehicle body becomes less when the vehicle runs down a slope. Therefore, the injector 4 hardly uses the fuel and the vehicle runs down the slope by elasticity.

[12] In the case of a flat, an opening/closing degree of the injector 4 becomes different according to the vehicle speed. Therefore, the indicating device 7 of fuel consumption requires all the injector signal and the engine speed signal. Engine characteristics are obtained by correlation between the injector signal and the vehicle speed represented by a display function fout= f (injector signal, vehicle speed), which is well-known in the art so that any detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

[13] The prior art indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine has, however, disadvantages as mentioned below.

[14] In order to install the indicating device 7 of fuel consumption by an engine in a vehicle, one injector signal line has to be stripped of its coating from an injector 4 and connected to an additional line in parallel to be arranged in a vehicle when the vehicle is on sale or sold already rather than in the manufacturing process newly.

[15] Usually, the injector of a vehicle is driven by using transistors, or collectors of elements such as field effect transistors FETs. Therefore, in the case of a four-cylinder engine, a collector of a transistor driving a predetermined injector in a circuit driven by four transistors is connected with a new load in parallel for decreasing an impedance and a driving signal voltage, so that unbalance of the engine causing shaking, handle shaking, and local decrease of a vehicle torque (force) are generated and engine stopping during driving is caused in an old vehicle.

[16] Additionally, the additionally connected injector signal line has to be arranged in the vehicle. Therefore, a negative portion of the engine is stripped of its coating during use to be apt to contact, so that short may be generated. Conclusionally, the four- cylinder engine is in danger of engine explosion or fire from the damage of one of the four injector coils.

[17] In order to drive the indicating device 7 of fuel consumption by an engine, two lines of positive and negative polarities have to be withdrawn from the battery 8 in the engine and the lines have to be connected, wherein the lining is very dangerous work. If any unprofessionals or users carry out such dangerous work, electric shock may be generated causing a faint or death by unskilled mistakes, and erroneous short may

generate battery explosion.

[18] More seriously, in order to withdraw the signal line for speed from the main body of the engine, the engine is partially disassembled and the signal line should be withdrawn in parallel to an existing speed line to be arranged in the vehicle so as to be connected to the indicating device 7 of fuel consumption, wherein the work should be carried out by a professional inconveniently.

[19] If the four lines arranged from the engine are erroneously released from positions and the lines influence on a rotation element in the engine, serious accidents may happen during the driving of the vehicle.

[20] Unfortunately, all the above matters correspond to random modification of the vehicle according to automobile insurance terms and cannot be protected by insurance coverage when accidents relating thereto happen. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[21] Therefore, the present invention is derived to resolve the above and any other disadvantages of the prior art.

[22] According to the present invention, there is an object to provide various irrational problems of the prior art and to provide an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine, which is easy to be installed by a user to obtain precise information and various advantages.

[23] There is another object of the present invention to provide an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine, which displays a waste amount of fuel according to a load of a vehicle so as to induce a driver to drive a vehicle with less fuel consumption by watching the displayed waste amount of the fuel, thereby reducing the waste of the fuel. Technical Solution

[24] In order to achieve the above objects, according to the present invention, there is provided an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine characterized in that DC power generated by an engine and applied by a cigarette jack is connected to a side of a DC stabilizer, AC signal components thereof are applied to an amplifier via a coupling condenser, an output from the amplifier is applied to a filter and simultaneously an output from the filter is applied to a level comparator, an output from the level comparator is applied to a trigger signal reading port among a plurality of input ports of a microprocessor and simultaneously an output from the filter is applied to an input port of an A/D converter of the microprocessor, a display unit (a liquid crystal displays LCD or light emitting diodes LEDs) is connected to an output port at a side of the microprocessor, a switch unit for data input or manipulation is connected to a side

of the microprocessor, and a global positioning system GPS is connected to a communication port of the microprocessor. Therefore, the indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine displays a waste amount of fuel according to a vehicle load to induce a driver to drive a vehicle with less fuel waste, thereby reducing the waste of fuel.

Advantageous Effects

[25] The present invention has advantages as follows.

[26] first, there is no need to carry out the complicated work for stripping an injector signal line of its coating and connecting partial lines in parallel to each other after opening a lid of an engine, differently from the prior art.

[27] Second, the disadvantages such as output decrease of the engine, unbalance of output causing engine shaking and handle shaking, damage of an injector coil, decrease of lifespan of the injector coil and the like caused by the parallel connection of the injector signal line may be removed by not using the injector signal line.

[28] Third, a cigarette jack should be inserted simply in order to drive an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine instead of arranging positive and negative power lines from a battery directly, so that the inconvenience and irrationality may be reduced.

[29] Fourth, vehicle speed data is obtained by using a GPS instead of partially disassembling an engine and withdrawing and arranging lines from an autometer, which should be carried out by a professional mechanic.

[30] Fifth, according to the present invention, a user simply inserts the cigarette jack and drives the vehicle so that the engine damage, overheating, fire, power short resulted from lining mistakes possibly generated in the prior art causing electric shock, faint or death may be considerably reduced.

[31] Sixth, a vehicle fuel consumption amount is obtained by a function fout from an rpm signal and a vehicle speed signal in the present invention, differently from the prior art in which individual modelling is required according to the kind of a vehicle since an opening/closing degree of an injector is different depending on the kind of the vehicle, so that the inconvenience may be largely reduced.

[32] Seventh, an owner of a vehicle has to modify an engine directly and install the indicating device of fuel consumption of the engine in the prior art, so that such the modification and the installation influence on engine performance seriously and accidents caused by malfunctions caused by the modification and the installation cannot be protected by car insurance coverage. However, such problems may be largely reduced according to the present invention. Brief Description of the Drawings

[33] The objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[34] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a structure of a prior art engine;

[35] Fig. 2 is a front view showing a situation that a fuel consumption of a prior art indicating device of fuel consumption; [36] Fig. 3 is a front view showing a situation that a fuel consumption of the prior art indicating device of fuel consumption of Fig. 2; [37] Fig. 4 is a graph showing an example of a display device using an LCD in another prior art indicating device of fuel consumption; [38] Fig. 5 is a block diagram showing a structure of an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; [39] Fig. 6 is a detailed view showing the structure of the indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; [40] Fig. 7 is a graph showing waveforms output from each signal according to the indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and [41] Fig. 8 is another graph showing waveforms output from each signal according to the indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Mode for the Invention [42] Now, an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanied drawings. [43] Fig. 5 is a block diagram showing a structure of an indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 6 is a detailed view showing the structure of the indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine of Fig. 6, Fig. 7 is an graph showing waveforms output from each signal, and Fig. 8 is nother graph showing waveforms output from each signal. [44] A major difference in structure between the present invention and the prior art is that no signal line is withdrawn or connected at any positions of an engine part as shown in Fig. 5. [45] A cigarette jack 11 is installed in any kinds of vehicle and an indicating device 10 of fuel consumption is applied with power.

[46] A line connected to the cigarette jack 11 is represented by A. As an engine rotates, a generator 2 generates a DC voltage applied to the cigarette jack 11. [47] An internal structure of the indicating device 10 of fuel consumption by an engine is as shown in Fig. 6. [48] The cigarette jack 11 generates the DC voltage, for example 5V, required in the operation of a circuit by a DC power stabilizer 110, and AC components of the DC voltage is applied to an amplifier 101 through a coupling condenser Cl, so that an output from the amplifier 101 is applied to a filter 102. [49] An output from the filter 102 is applied to a level comparator 103 and a square pulse or an impulse thereof is applied to a port 105 in a microprocessor 106, wherein the port is capable of reading a trigger signal. [50] An output from the level comparator 103 is applied in two directions of positive and negative directions, wherein at least one of the outputs is applied to the trigger signal reading port 105 of the microprocessor 106. The output from the filter 102 is applied to an A/D converter of the microprocessor 106 for precise reading of the signal through digital signal processing when the signal is very weak or irregular. [51] A display unit 108 such as a liquid crystal display unit or light emitting diodes is connected to an output port of the microprocessor 106 and a switch unit 109 is connected to the microprocessor for data input or manipulation. Further, a GPS 107 is connected to a predetermined port of the microprocessor 106. [52] If desired, a sound synthesizing unit or a memory unit storing sound signals outputs the sound signals for outputting warning sound messages. The sound signals are applied to a sound output unit 112 such as a sound signal amplifier and a speaker to output sound. [53] Now, the operation of the indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine according to the present invention will be described in more detail on the basis of the above structure. [54] In general, the generator 2 is connected to a rotation shaft of the engine and an DC voltage is obtained in proportion to an rpm of the engine. [55] A frequency proportional to the rpm of the engine may be obtained together with the DC voltage. [56] The DC voltage is partially used for charging the vehicle battery 8 through a rectifying circuit and used as electricity for various use in the vehicle. [57] However, ripple components is loaded to the DC voltage even though the DC voltage passes through the rectifying circuit, as shown by signal 1 in Fig. 7. [58] The signal is too weak to be employed directly so that the signal passes through the amplifier 101 to be converted to signal 2, wherein signal 2 is converted signal 3 through the filter 102.

[59] The amplifier 101 has a variable resistor for controlling an amplification degree thereof.

[60] The signal passing through the filter 102 is converted to uniform signal 4 through the level comparator 103 and signal 4 is applied to the trigger signal reading port 105 of the microprocessor 106.

[61] The microprocessor 106 reads out information on the rpm precisely from signal 4.

[62] If a vehicle engine is old, the signal is small in size or contains lots of noise as shown in Fig. 8.

[63] The signal passing through the coupling condenser Cl has lots of noise (signal 5), so that the noise is amplified and becomes large when the signal passes through the amplifier 101. Even though the signal passes through the filter 102, a filtering portion thereof becomes small as shown by signal 7.

[64] In this case, the filter 102 is connected to the A/D port 104 of the microprocessor for sampling the signal, so that a precise frequency and kinds of other signals may be realized by digital signal processing algorithm.

[65] If information on the rpm obtained from the signal realized by the trigger signal reading port 105 or processed by the A/D converter 104 is assumed as an rpm RPM, and a value on a speed read out by a predetermined port of the microprocessor 106 from a speed data obtained by the GPS 107 is assumed as a speed SPEED, a final display result function fout=f(RPM,SPEED) * K, wherein K represents a coefficient.

[66] The function fout is obtained according to the general engine characteristics, in which the RPM increases as the SPEED increases, increasing waste of fuel, and displayed by a display unit 108.

[67] The indicating device of fuel consumption by an engine displays high or low fuel consumption amount in real time by the result obtained through the function in real time.

[68] The obtained fout is properly displayed by the display unit such as the LCD or the

LEDs 108, wherein various edition or manipulation is carried by using the manipulation unit 109. The manipulation unit 109 is in the general button shape, and includes one or more buttons for mainly required functions such as ON/OFF, data input, sound output ON/OFF, screen display ON/OFF and the like.

[69] If desired, the sound synthesizing unit or the sound memory unit 111 and the sound output unit 112 are connected to the microprocessor 106 for sound output.

[70] Although the foregoing description has been made with reference to the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that changes and modifications of the present invention may be made by the ordinary skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and appended claims.