Method and system for determining causes of engine stop using ignition power monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9541023-B2
Application number	US-201414554576-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2014
Priority date	Aug 1, 2014
Publication date	Jan 10, 2017
Grant date	Jan 10, 2017

Abstract

A method for determining causes of engine stop using ignition power monitoring may include performing ignition power holding determination to determine, in a state in which a vehicle is started and an engine is driven, whether the vehicle is in a key-on state, to which power is consistently applied, in order to hold the starting of the engine of the vehicle. The method also includes performing power-off recognition time comparison by comparing, when ignition power is turned off and the engine is stopped, a time required to recognize ignition power-off in an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) with a preset ignition power-off recognition time for failure determination. The method also performs a power abnormality determination by determining whether the engine is stopped due to ignition power failure when the time required to recognize the ignition power-off in the ECU is not greater than the preset ignition power-off recognition time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining causes of engine stop using ignition power monitoring, the comprising the steps of:
in a state in which a vehicle is started and an engine is driven, performing ignition power holding determination to determine whether the vehicle is in a key-on state, to which power is consistently applied, in order to hold a condition of starting of the engine of the vehicle;
when ignition power is turned off and the engine is stopped, performing power-off recognition time comparison to compare a time required to recognize ignition power-off in an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) with a preset ignition power-off recognition time for failure determination; and
performing power abnormality determination to determine if the engine is stopped due to ignition power failure based upon the time required to recognize the ignition power-off in the ECU is not greater than the preset ignition power-off recognition time.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
when the ignition power is determined to be not applied by performing ignition power holding determination, performing vehicle driving determination to determine whether the vehicle is driven; and
when the vehicle is driven, performing power-off recognition time comparison.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
when the engine is determined to be stopped due to the ignition power failure in the performing power abnormality determination, storing a current state of the vehicle and a state of the ignition power failure as DTC in a memory of the ECU.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the performing ignition power holding determination is executed again after storing the current state.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing key-off operation determination to determine whether the engine is stopped by an actual key-off operation when the time required to recognize the ignition power-off in the ECU is greater than the preset ignition power-off recognition time.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of:
wherein when the engine is determined to be stopped by the key-off operation in the performing key-off operation determination, performing data storage of storing a current state of the vehicle and a state of the key-off operation in a memory of the ECU.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the performing ignition power holding determination is executed again after performing the data storage.

8. A method for determining causes of engine stop using ignition power monitoring, comprising the steps of:
in a state in which a vehicle is started and an engine is driven, performing ignition power holding determination to determine whether the vehicle is in a key-on state, to which power is consistently applied, in order to hold the starting of the engine of the vehicle; and
performing engine stall determination to determine if the engine is stalled instead of stopped by ignition power-off when power for driving of the engine is applied to the vehicle and an engine rpm is determined to be less than an engine rpm for stall determination during performing the ignition power holding determination.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the engine rpm for stall determination is set as 150 rpm.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the steps of:
when the engine is determined to be stalled in the performing engine stall determination, performing data storage of storing a current state of the vehicle and a state of the engine stall in a memory of an ECU (Electronic Control Unit); and
executing the performing ignition power holding determination again after performing the data storage.

11. A system for determining causes of engine stop using ignition power monitoring, comprising:
a first engine stop determination unit for: comparing an engine rpm input from an engine with a preset engine rpm for stall determination; and determining whether the engine is abnormally stopped in a state in which ignition power for holding starting of the engine is normally held;
a second engine stop determination unit for: measuring, in a state in which the ignition power for holding the starting of the engine is turned off, a time required to recognize ignition power-off from an off-time of the ignition power in an Electronic Control Unit (ECU); and determining whether the engine is stopped by any one of an key-off operation and ignition power failure; and
a DTC memory for recording determination results related to engine stops determined by the first and/or second engine stop determination units.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the DTC memory stores vehicle detection data detected from the engine and the vehicle, together with Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) in which causes of the engine stop are recorded.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first and second engine stop determination units and the DTC memory are provided in the ECU.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp

Inventors

• Kim Seung-Bum

Classifications

• G01M15/00

  Testing of engines · CPC title

• F02P11/06

  Indicating unsafe conditions · CPC title

• F02D41/042

  for stopping the engine · CPC title

• F02N2250/06

  Engine stall and related control features, e.g. for automatic restart · CPC title

• B60W50/02 Primary

  Ensuring safety in case of control system failures, e.g. by diagnosing, circumventing or fixing failures · CPC title