JPH05180339A - Speed change indication device for car - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To command a speed change by fitting according to the request of a driver by delaying the output timing of a speed change indication following a delay time from the output of the speed change indication to the speed change execution. CONSTITUTION:It is judged to be set to the (n)-th speed when a running status is shown by (A) point and to be up shifted to the (n+1)-th speed when changed to (B) point. When the speed change is carried out, a speed change reaction time is calculated. This speed change reaction time is a time spent from the lighting of an up shift light 11 to a time in which an up shift operation is carried out and is calculated by an electronic control device 10 for engine. A shift line is changed to a high speed side or a low speed side in response to the speed change reaction time found out by the calculation. Thereby, an operation delay time from the lighting of the up shift light to the execution of the up shift operation, is shortened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, and in order to improve fuel economy, a gear shift instructing device for instructing that gear shifting should be performed based on the operating condition of the vehicle such as engine load and vehicle speed. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, the shift speed can be arbitrarily selected, so that the vehicle can travel in various ways according to the driver's preference. On the other hand, the gear may be set to an inappropriate gear for the running state, and the engine may rotate excessively to deteriorate fuel efficiency. Therefore, conventionally, there has been developed a device that determines by electric means that gear shifting should be performed based on the driving state of the vehicle and outputs a gear shift instruction signal in the form of lighting a lamp or the like. One example is JP-A-59-2.
It is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 9519. The device described in this publication detects an engine load, an engine speed, and an engine rotational acceleration, and changes a threshold value for determining the engine speed based on the engine rotational acceleration, and an engine speed determination result based on the threshold value. The shift-up instruction signal is output based on the engine load determined to be. According to this device,
Upshifting in accordance with the upshift instruction signal allows the selection of a shift speed suitable for the operating state, so that fuel consumption can be improved.

[0003]

Since the above-described gear shift instructing device merely instructs that a gear shift should be performed and the driver actually performs the gear shift, the operation from the output of the gear shift instruction to the execution of the gear shift is performed. There is an unavoidable delay between them, and during that time, the output of the shift instruction signal continues, such as the lamp staying on. Further, even if gear shifting is executed after a predetermined delay time, the driving state may have already changed at that point and a new gear shifting instruction signal may be output. In such a case, the gear shift instruction signal is frequently output, which gives the driver a feeling of being busy, and eventually the driver may ignore the gear shift instruction signal. Therefore, in the above-described conventional device, the threshold value for determining the engine speed is increased according to the engine rotation acceleration to delay the output of the shift instruction signal, so that the time difference between the output of the shift instruction signal and the execution of the shift is reduced. It will be shortened.

However, the demands on the driving state and running state of the vehicle and the driving preference or habit vary greatly from driver to driver, and the actual timing of shifting is different from driver to driver. Therefore, even if the output timing of the gear change instruction signal is changed by changing the threshold value based on the engine rotation acceleration, the output timing of the gear change instruction signal is too early and the driver is annoyed, or the gear change instruction is changed. The signal output may be too slow. In other words, the above-mentioned conventional device does not necessarily fully take in the driver's request even though it is intended for the manual transmission having a high degree of freedom of gear shifting, and therefore, the timing of giving the driver a gear shift instruction. There was a possibility that would be inappropriate.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a gear shift instruction device capable of giving a gear shift instruction in response to a driver's request.

[0006]

The present invention achieves the above object by adopting the configuration shown in FIG. That is, the present invention is directed to a driving state detecting means 1 for detecting a driving state of a vehicle, and a shift instruction for instructing that a shift of the transmission should be executed based on a comparison result between the detected driving state and a predetermined reference value. A shift instruction device for a vehicle, comprising: a shift instruction means 2 for outputting a signal, wherein an operation delay detecting means for detecting a time from the output of the shift instruction signal to the execution of a shift in the transmission. 3 and output timing changing means 4 for changing the output timing of the shift instruction signal based on the time detected by the operation delay detecting means 3 so as to shorten the time. Is.

[0007]

In the device of the present invention, the operating condition of the vehicle such as the engine load, engine speed, vehicle speed, etc. is detected by the operating condition detecting means 1, and the detected operating condition is determined by the gear shift instructing means 2 as a predetermined reference value. Be compared. Based on the comparison result, the gear shift instructing means 2 outputs a signal instructing that the gear shift should be executed, if necessary. on the other hand,
The operation delay detection means 3 detects the time from the output of the shift instruction signal to the execution of the shift in the transmission, and the output timing changing means 4 outputs the shift instruction signal based on the detected time. Change the timing. That is, when the time from the output of the shift instruction signal to the execution of the shift is long, the output of the shift instruction signal is delayed. As a result, the time difference between the output of the shift instruction signal and the execution of the shift is shortened, so that the shift instruction signal does not cause the driver any trouble, and the shift is performed according to the shift instruction signal to improve the fuel efficiency.

[0008]

EXAMPLES The present invention will now be described based on examples. FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, which is an engine electronic control unit (EFI-EC).
An upshift light 11 controlled by U) 10 is provided on the instrument panel 12. The engine electronic control unit 10 includes a central processing unit (C
PU), storage devices (RAM, ROM), and input / output interfaces are mainly used, and engine speed NE, vehicle speed V, throttle opening θ, engine load Q
N and other signals are input, the upshift light 11 is turned on by determining that an upshift should be performed from the operating state obtained from these input signals and the preset reference value, and the reference value is required. It is supposed to be changed according to. Specifically, the control described below is performed.

FIG. 3 is a general flow chart of an example for a vehicle equipped with a forward five-speed manual transmission, which is initially set (step 2) after the engine is started (step 1), and a shift instruction signal SIL and The shift-up area signal SUP or various timers are reset to zero.
Then, in step 3, the shift diagram is corrected. As shown in FIG. 4, an example of this shift diagram is that in which a region of each shift speed is defined with the vehicle speed, the engine speed, and the engine load as parameters, and is stored in the storage device of the engine electronic control unit 10. Remembered

This shift diagram defines the reference value for gear shift determination. In the example shown in FIG. 4, it is determined that the nth speed should be set if the operating state is the state indicated by point A. When the operating state changes from point A to point B, the (n + 1) th
It is decided that a fast upshift should be made. The correction of the shift diagram is to change the shift line, which is the boundary of the region of each shift speed, to the high speed side or the low speed side, and in this embodiment, it is performed according to the control routine shown in FIG. That is, it is judged in step 31 of FIG. 5 whether or not the gear shift is executed. If the judgment result is "no", the control routine is exited. If "yes", the gear shift reaction time Th is calculated in step 32. To do. The gear shift reaction time Th is the time from when the upshift light 11 is turned on to when the upshift operation is performed, and is calculated by the engine electronic control unit 10 based on the input signal. You can Then, the shift line is changed to the high speed side or the low speed side according to the shift reaction time Th obtained by the calculation.

To correct the shift line, it suffices to change the shift line in accordance with the shift reaction time Th. For example, the vehicle speed threshold Vs (upshift reference value), which is a parameter of the shift line, is changed. Each time, the correction may be made cumulatively, or a new setting may be made each time a shift is performed. That is, when the shift reaction standard time is Ts, the previous vehicle speed threshold value is Vp, and the coefficient is α, Vs = Vp + α (Th-Ts) is calculated each time a shift is executed, and the vehicle speed threshold value Vs is cumulatively updated. Alternatively, when the standard vehicle speed threshold value Vh is used, Vs = Vh + α (Th−Ts) may be calculated each time a shift is executed, and the vehicle speed threshold value Vs may be reset. The initial value of the vehicle speed threshold Vs is
It is preferable to set according to the gear, engine load, engine water temperature, and it is preferable to reset each time the engine is started. Further, the coefficient α may be a constant, but is preferably a variable having parameters such as gears, engine load, engine water temperature, and acceleration. Further, it is preferable that the standard vehicle speed threshold value Vh is set according to the gear position, engine load or engine water temperature.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, the shift line from the n-th speed to the (n + 1) -th speed is changed as shown by the broken line by performing the correction as described above. Therefore, after the correction, Even if the vehicle speed increases from the A point to the B point, the upshift is not determined. When the vehicle speed becomes the C point, it is determined that the upshift should be performed.

In the control routine shown in FIG. 3, after the shift diagram is corrected as described above, in step 4, the judgment on the lighting time limit is performed. When the upshift light 11 is continuously lit for a certain period of time or more, it can be considered that the driver has no intention of shifting, and thus the lighting time limitation is unnecessary for the upshift light 11 in this case. This is a control for avoiding lighting, and therefore, in step 4, for example, it is judged whether or not the lighting time of the upshift light 11 has exceeded a predetermined time, and the judgment result is "no".
If so, that is, if the lighting time exceeds a certain time,
In step 5, the control for turning off the upshift light 11 is executed, and thereafter, the process returns to the step before step 3. If the result of the determination in step 4 is "yes", the process proceeds to step 6 to make a determination regarding the light-off time limit. This turn-off time restriction is a control for prohibiting the upshift light 11 from turning on for a certain period of time after turning off the upshift light 11 in order to prevent the upshift light 11 from blinking frequently. The control can be performed by determining whether or not the elapsed time after turning off the upshift light 11 has become a predetermined time or longer. If the determination result is “no”, immediately return to the step before step 3. , If yes, go to step 7 of
The judgment regarding the F control is made.

The determination of the OFF control is a control for determining whether or not the preconditions for lighting the upshift light 11 such as that the clutch is not in the half-clutch state and the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than a predetermined vehicle speed. If the result is "yes", the shift stage is calculated (step 8).
This is a control for obtaining the current shift speed, and as an example, the shift speed can be calculated from the engine speed and the vehicle speed. It should be noted that the detection may be performed based on the output from a position sensor such as a shift lever (not shown) instead of calculating the shift speed.

Then, it is judged whether or not the detected current shift speed is one of the first speed to the fourth speed (step 9),
If the determination result is "yes", the process proceeds to step 10 and it is determined whether or not it is immediately after the shift is executed. The reason why the shift speed determined in step 9 is the first speed to the fourth speed is that there is no upshift in other shift speeds such as the fifth speed or reverse or in the shift state. If the result of the determination in step 10 is “yes”, the process proceeds to step 5 to turn off the upshift light 11.
On the contrary, if the judgment result is "no", the routine proceeds to step 11, where it is judged whether or not the driving state is in the upshift region. This is performed by comparing the current shift speed with the shift diagram, and if the operating state is one in which an upshift is to be performed, the determination result of step 11 becomes "yes" and the process proceeds to step 12. In step 12, a decision is made as to the lighting delay control. This is a control for delaying the lighting state for a certain period of time in order to avoid frequent blinking of the upshift light 11. If the operation state is in the upshift region for a certain period of time or longer, the result of the determination in step 12 is The answer is "yes" and the upshift light 11 is turned on (step 13), and then the process returns to the step before step 3.

When the result of the OFF control judgment in step 7 is "no", that is, when the condition for turning off the upshift light 11 such as the half-clutch condition is satisfied, and the gear is the first speed or the first speed. If it is other than the fourth speed and the result of the determination in step 9 is "no", and if the result of the determination in step 11 is "no" because it is not in the upshift region, the process proceeds to step 14 to perform the light-off delay control. Make a decision. This is a control for avoiding frequent blinking of the upshift light 11, and if the state to be extinguished continues for a certain period of time, the determination result of step 14 becomes "yes", and the upshift light 11 is extinguished. (Step 5). Step 14
If the result of the determination is "NO", the control process returns to the step before step 3.

Therefore, in the above control device, the upshift light 11 is turned on when the operating state is judged to be the state in which the upshift is performed as compared with the shift diagram and the lighting delay time elapses. However, since the shift diagram can be changed to the high vehicle speed side according to the operation delay time, the upshift area is changed to the high vehicle speed side, and the upshift light 11 is turned on after the vehicle speed becomes high. Become. As a result, the upshift light 11
Since the operation delay time from the lighting of the upshift to the execution of the upshift operation is shortened and the timing of lighting the upshift light 11 matches the characteristics of the driver, the upshift light 11 does not become a bother, By changing gears according to the shift light 11, fuel efficiency can be improved.

A control routine that is a more specific version of the control routine of FIG. 3 described above is shown in FIGS. The numbers circled in FIGS. 6 to 8 indicate that lines with the same numbers are connected to each other. First, after starting the engine (step 41), an initial state for resetting each signal and timer is set (step 42), and then in step 43, the shift instruction signal S
It is determined whether IL is "1". This shift instruction signal SIL
Is "1" when the upshift light 11 is on
The signal is set to 0 and is set to "0" in the off state. When the upshift light 11 is on, the process proceeds to step 44, and when it is off, the process proceeds to step 45. Step 44 is upshift light 11
Is a control process for judging the driver's intention to upshift based on the lighting duration time TLON of the driver. When the lighting duration TLON is shorter than the reference time t1, there is an intention to upshift, and conversely, the reference time t1. If it is above, it is determined that there is no intention to upshift. And this step 4
If the determination result of 4 is "yes", the process proceeds to step 46. Further, in step 45, in order to prevent the upshift light 11 from blinking frequently, it is judged whether or not the turn-off continuation time TLOFF of the upshift light 11 is the reference time t2 or more,
If the determination result is "no", the process returns to the step 43, and if "yes", the process proceeds to the step 46.

The judgment process from step 46 to step 57 constitutes the contents of the OFF control.
First, at step 46, it is determined whether or not a clutch (not shown) is engaged, that is, the clutch signal CL is "OF".
It is judged whether it is not F ", and the judgment result is" yes ".
If so, the process proceeds to step 47. In step 47, it is judged whether or not braking is being performed, that is, whether or not the brake signal BK is "ON", and if the result of the judgment is "yes", the routine proceeds to step 48. In step 48, it is judged whether or not the engine is idling, that is, whether or not the idling signal IDL is "ON", and if the judgment result is "yes", the routine proceeds to step 49.
In step 49, it is judged whether or not the reverse gear is selected, that is, the reverse signal RV is not "ON", and if the judgment result is "yes", step 50.
Proceed to. In step 50, it is judged whether or not the throttle opening θ is within a predetermined reference opening range a1 ≤ θ ≤ a2. If the result of the judgment is "yes", the routine proceeds to step 51.
In step 51, it is judged whether or not the vehicle is turning, that is, the yaw rate YR is smaller than the reference value b. If the judgment result is "yes", the routine proceeds to step 52. In step 52, it is determined whether the engine speed NE is equal to or higher than the reference speed c. That is, if the engine speed is a low speed, an upshift may cause inconvenience such as knocking. If the result of the determination in step 52 is "yes", the process proceeds to step 53. In step 53, it is determined whether or not the vehicle speed V is equal to or higher than the reference vehicle speed d, and if the result of the determination is "yes", the process proceeds to step 54. At step 54, it is judged if the amount of change .DELTA.NE of the engine speed is smaller than the reference value e. This is not a condition that requires an upshift even if the engine speed temporarily increases when the engine is running dry or slips on a snowy road. Therefore, in such a case, lighting of the upsit flight 11 is prohibited. If the judgment result is “yes”, step 55
Proceed to. In step 55, it is judged whether or not the amount of change ΔV of the vehicle speed V is smaller than the reference value f. If the result of the judgment is “yes”, the behavior of the vehicle has not changed significantly, so an upshift is necessary. It is determined that there is, and in that case, the process proceeds to step 56. In step 56, it is determined whether the engine load change amount ΔQN is smaller than the reference value g. If the engine load is not particularly increased, upshifting may be performed, so if the determination result is "yes", then the process proceeds to step 57. In step 57, it is judged whether or not the variation Δθ of the throttle opening θ is smaller than the reference value h, and if the judgment result is “yes”, step 5
Go to 8.

After passing through the OFF control judgment process from step 46 to step 57, the current shift speed is calculated in step 58 from the engine speed and the vehicle speed. In step 59, it is determined whether the gear position is the first speed or the fourth speed. If the result of the determination is "yes", the process proceeds to step 60. That is, the target transmission in this embodiment is capable of performing five forward shifts, and there is a possibility of upshifting only in the first to fourth shift stages. Because.

Then, in step 60, it is judged whether or not it is in the upshift region, and if the judgment result is "yes", the routine proceeds to step 61, in which it is judged whether or not the shift instruction signal SIL is "0". To do. If the shift instruction signal SIL is set to "1" and the result of the determination in step 61 is "no", it means that the upshift light 11 has already been turned on. Therefore, the control process returns to the step before step 3. If the determination result is "yes", it is determined in step 62 whether the shift-up area signal SUP is set to "1". This signal is set to "1" when the operating condition is in the upshift region, and when the first upcoming judgment process is made, the upshift region signal SUP is "0", so that the judgment result is "1". "No",
In this case, the process goes to step 63 to set the shift-up region signal SUP to "1", and then at step 64, the shift-up region ON timer TSON is reset and started, after which the control process returns to the step before step 3. After that, if the judgment of step 62 is made, the judgment result becomes "yes", so the routine proceeds to step 65, where it is judged whether or not the count value of the shift-up area ON timer TSON is equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value t3. .. This is to make sure that the shift-up area is surely reached. If the determination result is "no", the process returns to the step 3 before, and if the reference time t3 has elapsed and the determination result of the step 65 is "yes", the shift instruction signal SIL is set to "1" in the step 66. Set and turn on the upshift light 11, and at step 67 the lighting duration time T
Reset and start the timer that counts LON. Then, the process returns to the step 3 before.

In contrast to the lighting control of the upshift light 11, the control of turning off the upshift light 11 is performed as follows. If the judgment result of the judgment process of the OFF control at the steps 46 to 57 and the judgment result at the steps 59 and 60 are "NO",
Since it is not necessary to turn on the upshift light 11, in this case, the routine proceeds to step 68, where it is judged whether or not the shift instruction signal SIL is "1". If the result of the judgment is "no", it means that the upshift light 11 has already been turned off. Therefore, the control process returns to the step before step 3, and if "yes", the process goes to step 69 to shift. It is determined whether or not the up area signal SUP is "0". If the result of the determination is "NO", the process proceeds to step 70, first, the shift-up region signal SUP is set to "0", and then in step 71, the shift-up region off timer TSOFF is reset and started. Return to before step 3. If the determination in step 69 is performed after this control is performed, the determination result is "yes". In this case, therefore, the processing proceeds to step 72 and the shift-up area off timer T
It is determined whether or not the SOFF count value has become equal to or greater than the reference value t4. This is to confirm that the shift-up should not be performed. Therefore, if the result of the determination in step 72 is "NO", the process returns to the step before step 3, and if the state in which the upshift light 11 should be turned off continues for the reference time t4, the result of the determination in step 72 is Since the answer is "yes", the routine proceeds to step 73, where the shift instruction signal SIL is set to "0" to turn off the upshift light 11, and at the following step 74, the timer for counting the turn-off continuation time TLOFF is reset. Start it. Then, return to the step before step 3.

On the other hand, if the result of the determination at step 44 is "no", it means that the upshift light 11 has been continuously lit for a long time equal to or longer than the reference time t1. In this case, Immediately proceeding to step 73, the shift instruction signal SIL is set to "0" and the upshift light 11 is turned off.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, the judgments of steps 46 to 57 are made as the OFF control, but a predetermined one may be selected from these judgment processes and adopted. Further, other OFF control such as prohibiting the lighting of the upshift light may be added to the uphill road.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, an example is shown in which the gear change instruction is performed by turning on the light. However, the gear change instruction in the present invention informs that the gear change should be performed by means other than the light. It may be present, and it may be configured to notify not only the upshift but also the downshift.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the shift instruction device of the present invention, the output timing of the shift instruction is delayed according to the delay time from the output of the shift instruction to the execution of the shift. Therefore, the instruction of the shift is not bothersome to the driver, and as a result, the shift is performed in accordance with the shift instruction, and the fuel efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a basic configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a general flow chart showing a control routine executed in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a shift diagram and its correction.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control routine for correcting a shift diagram.

FIG. 6 is a part of a flowchart showing a more specific control routine for turning on and off the upshift light, which is executed in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is another part of the same flowchart.

FIG. 8 is still another part of the same flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Driving state detecting means 2 Gear shift instructing means 3 Operation delay detecting means 4 Output timing changing means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A driving state detection means for detecting a driving state of a vehicle, and a shift instruction signal for instructing that a shift of a transmission should be executed based on a result of comparison between the detected driving state and a predetermined reference value. In a vehicle gear shift instruction device comprising: a gear shift instruction means for outputting the operation, an operation delay detection means for detecting a time from the output of the gear shift instruction signal to the execution of the gear shift in the transmission; A vehicle gear shift instruction device, comprising: output timing changing means for changing the output timing of the gear shift instruction signal based on the time detected by the delay detection means so as to shorten the time.