JPH0346333B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Field of Industrial Application" The present invention relates to a control system that controls the operation of automobile accessories such as lamps and indicators based on instructions from a driver, and particularly to an abnormality detection section thereof.

``Problem to be solved by the invention'' An automobile has an extremely large number of equipment, and these equipment are operated based on instructions given by the driver by operating a control switch or the like.

The control system is a system that transfers the driver's instructions to the operation of equipment.

By the way, if some kind of abnormality occurs in the control system, the control system will be erroneously controlled, which may impede the safe operation of the vehicle.

Therefore, when an abnormality occurs in the control system, it is desirable to promptly detect it in order to take early countermeasures.

An object of the present invention is to provide a control system having a function that can promptly detect the occurrence of such an abnormality and automatically restore the system.

"Structure of the Invention" The vehicle control system of the present invention includes an operating means for instructing the operation of vehicle accessories and a switching device driven by a stepping motor based on operating data inputted by the operating means. Switch the connection pattern of the equipment to the power supply,
A control system for an automobile having a control means for controlling the operation of the equipment, a counter means for counting the number of operations of the operating means, an increase value of the counted value of the counter within a predetermined short time and a predetermined comparison value. a comparison means for comparing the increased value, a determination means for determining an abnormality when the increased value is greater than the comparison value as a result of the comparison, and a determination means for resetting the stepping motor to a predetermined position when the determination means determines that the stepper motor is abnormal. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a recovery means for automatically recovering the switch device.

``Effect'' During normal driving, the driver performs only simple operations. This is because automobiles were originally manufactured so that simple operations were sufficient.

Therefore, the number of times a driver can change the operation of equipment within a certain period of time is naturally limited, and if the driver changes the equipment more than that, he may have to repeat the same operation after discovering that the equipment does not operate as desired. In most cases, it is repeated.

Therefore, if the operation time within a predetermined number of times is greater than a predetermined number, it can be determined that there is some kind of abnormality. If it is determined that there is an abnormality, the stepping motor is reset and the switching device is automatically restored.

"Example" The present invention will be explained in more detail below based on the example shown in the drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automobile control system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a block diagram showing the main parts of the control system from the operating means to the equipment. Figures 3 a to c are flowcharts of the main parts of the master station.
The figure is a flowchart of the main parts of the remote station. Note that the present invention is not limited to this example.

As shown in FIG. 1, the control system 100 includes:
Master station 10, instrument panel remote station 20, front remote station 30, and rear remote station 40
The remote stations 20, 30, and 40 are connected to the master station 10 via transmission lines 29, 39, and 49, respectively, in a satellite manner. Positionally, the master station 10 is installed under the passenger seat, the instrument panel remote station 20 is installed on the back side of the instrument panel, and the front remote station 30 is installed inside the engine room.

These control stations 10-40 are, for example,
It is mainly composed of a microprocessor such as the MC6801, and communicates frequently with each other to control the operations of the equipment belonging to each control station and to avoid conflicts.

The operating means 21, such as a lamp switch or a turn signal switch, located near the driver's seat is a second
As shown in the figure, it is connected to an instrument panel remote station 20.

In addition, various electrical equipment 61 to 64 are connected to the rear remote station 40 via a switch device 50.
is connected. Specific examples of the electrical equipment 61 to 64 include a stop lamp, a rear wiper motor,
These include rear washers motors, turn lamps, etc.

The switching device 50 is a stepping motor 5 driven by the rear remote station 40.
4, a rotating disk 55 rotated by the stepping motor 54, and a group of contacts 56 that come into sliding contact with the rotating disk 55.

A conductive surface 5 having a predetermined shape is provided on the surface of the rotating disk 55.
_5a and an insulating surface _55b are formed, and a voltage is supplied from a battery V to the central portion of the conductive surface _55a . Therefore, when the contacts 56 _{a to} 56 _d contact the conductive surface 55 a of the rotating disk 5, the corresponding electrical devices 61 to 64 are turned on. That is, the conductive surface 5
The shape of 5 _a represents the on/off control pattern of each electrical device 61 to 64.

When the rotary disk 55 is rotated to the position shown in FIG. 2, all the contacts 56 _a to 56 _d slide against the insulating surface 55 _b and all the electrical equipment 61 to 64 are turned off. This position is called the home position, and is a position where the stepping motor 54 is rotated counterclockwise so that the stopper 55' of the rotary disk 55 comes into contact with the stopper 57 and no longer rotates.

In normal operation, the driver operates the operating means 21
If, for example, the operator instructs the operator to operate the rear wiper, the instruction is read by the instrument panel remote station 20, and the instrument panel remote station 20 transmits the instruction to the master station 10 via the transmission line 29. Master station 10 transmits this to rear remote station 40 via transmission line 49. The rear remote station 40 drives the stepping motor 54 in response to this instruction, and rotates to a position where the contact point corresponding to the rear wiper motor contacts the conductive surface 55 _a of the rotating disk 55 . So Leah
The wiper motor will be energized and the rear wiper will operate.

Now, as shown in FIG. 3a, the master station 10 is counting the number of operations. That is, the master station 10 has an internal counter corresponding to each predetermined equipment, and counts the number of times an instruction to change the state of the equipment is given in the corresponding internal counter. In the case of the above example, the driver
When the instruction to operate the rear wiper is transmitted from the instrument panel remote station 20 to the master station 10, one of the internal counters of the master station 10 corresponding to the rear wiper motor is incremented by 1. be done.

On the other hand, the master station 10 periodically executes a timer interrupt routine as shown in FIG. 3b every five seconds, for example. This routine is a routine that checks the count values of the internal counters, and when one of the internal counters reaches a predetermined number, for example, 8.
First, determine whether the above is true or not. Assuming that none of the internal counters is greater than or equal to 8,
Subtract 2 from all internal counters and set them to 0 if the result is negative. Next, the abnormality flag is cleared and the process returns to the one before the interrupt was generated.

When normal operations are continued, the internal counters hardly increase; on the other hand, all the counters are decremented by 2 every predetermined period, so in most cases the internal counters are essentially all 0.

On the other hand, if any of the internal counters is 8 or more, the process moves to an abnormality determination routine.

When one of the internal counters becomes 8 or more, the same operation is performed 8 or more times within a predetermined period, or
This is when the same operation is repeated three or more times within a predetermined cycle over many cycles. Frequently repeating the same action like this is unthinkable in normal operations, so such cases are determined to be abnormal.

In the above example, if the driver
If the rear wiper does not operate even though the driver has instructed the driver to operate the wiper, it is thought that the driver will feel suspicious and will repeatedly operate the operating means 21 over and over again. Then, the count value of the internal counter corresponding to the rear wiper motor becomes 8.
, and an abnormality is determined.

After the abnormality determination is made, processing as shown in FIG. 3c is performed.

That is, first, it is checked whether the abnormality flag is set. This abnormality flag is a flag for distinguishing whether the abnormality determination is the first abnormality determination or the second abnormality determination. When the abnormality flag is not set, this is the first abnormality determination, and when it is set, this is the second abnormality determination.

If the abnormality flag is not set, this is the first abnormality determination, and the remote station that controls the equipment corresponding to the internal counter of 8 or more is instructed to initialize and reset. For example, if the internal counter corresponding to the rear wiper motor is 8 or more, rear remote station 4, which is the remote station that controls the rear wiper motor,
0, instructions for initialization and resetting are given from the master station 10.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the remote station when initialization and resetting instructions are received from the master station 10.

To explain this operation in the example above, the rear
The remote station 40 rotates the stepping motor 54 counterclockwise to position the rotating disk 55 at the home position. This is initialization.

Next, the stepping motor 54 is rotated clockwise to rotate the rotary disk 55 to the position of the control pattern in which the rear wiper motor is turned on.

When this process is completed, the rear remote station 40 sends an answer to the master station 10 to the effect that initialization and resetting have been completed.

Since initialization and reconfiguration should normally be completed within one second, the master station 10 waits for an answer from the rear remote station 40 within one second, as shown in Figure 3c. .

If there is no answer within 1 second, it will be rear
It can be determined that there is some abnormality in the operation of the remote station 40. Therefore, a message indicating that the rear remote station 40 is abnormal is displayed, and the process proceeds to other necessary processes.

On the other hand, if there is an answer within 1 second, an anomaly flag is set to indicate that the first anomaly determination has been completed, the counter is decremented by 3 when the number is 8 or more, and the process moves on to other processing. The reason why the counter is decremented by 3 when the counter is 8 or more is to prevent this from happening if it remains 8 or more, which would immediately result in an abnormality determination.

If the reason why the rear wiper did not operate despite the operation to operate the rear wiper was due to a misalignment of the rotating disk 55 due to step-out of the stepping motor 54, etc., the above-mentioned initialization and resetting should be performed. The settings will resolve the abnormality, turn on the rear wiper motor, and achieve rear wiper operation.

Once the operation of the rear wiper is achieved through the initialization and resetting described above, the driver returns to normal operation, so there is no longer any abnormality determination, and the internal counter will eventually return to 0 during the periodic check.
and the abnormality flag is cleared.

However, if the rear wiper still does not operate despite the above-mentioned initialization and resetting, the driver repeats the operation of the operating means 21 again. Then, the internal counter becomes 8 or more again, and an abnormality determination is made.

However, at this time, the abnormality flag is set. This means the second abnormality determination and means that the rear wiper is still not operating even though the rear remote station 40 has been initialized and reset. As shown in FIG. 3, a message indicating that the equipment, ie, the switch device 50 or the rear wiper motor is abnormal, is displayed, and the process proceeds to other necessary processes.

As can be understood from the above description, this control system 100 not only allows for prompt detection of an abnormality, but also allows for determining whether the abnormality is due to an abnormality in the equipment or the remote station. It is also possible to perform discrimination. Furthermore, it is also possible to achieve automatic recovery from an abnormality in the switch device 50.

Another example is one in which the counter means, comparison means, determination means, etc. are constructed by hardware circuits.

``Effects of the Invention'' According to the present invention, a switching device is driven by a stepping motor based on an operation means for instructing the operation of an automobile accessory and operation data inputted by the operation means, and the A control system for an automobile having a control means for switching the connection pattern of equipment and controlling the operation of the equipment, comprising a counter means for counting the number of operations of the operation means, and a count value of the counter within a predetermined short time. a comparison means for comparing the increased value and a predetermined comparison value; a determining means for determining that the increased value is abnormal when the increased value is larger than the comparative value as a result of the comparison; An automobile control system is provided, characterized in that it is equipped with a recovery means for automatically recovering the switching device by resetting the stepping motor to a predetermined position, thereby quickly detecting an abnormality in the automobile control system. Aim for automatic recovery of the switch device.

Furthermore, if the present invention is applied to a control system using a microprocessor like the above embodiment, it can be implemented without adding any hardware at all, so it has the advantage that it can be easily applied to a control system that is already in operation. There is.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automobile control system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the main parts of the control system from operating means to equipment, and FIGS. 3 a to c is a flowchart of the main part of the master station, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the main part of the remote station. (Explanation of symbols), 100...Car control system, 10...Master station, 20...
Instrument panel remote station, 21... Operating means, 40... Rear remote station, 5
0... Switch device, 54... Stepping motor, 55... Rotating disk, 55 _a ... Conductive surface, 55 _b
...Insulating surface, 56, 56 _a to 56 _d ... Contact, 61
~64...Electrical equipment, V...Battery.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An operation means for instructing the operation of an automobile accessory, and a switching device driven by a stepping motor based on operation data inputted by the operation means to connect the accessory to a power source. A control system for an automobile having a control means for switching patterns and controlling the operation of the equipment, comprising a counter means for counting the number of operations of the operating means, an increase value of the count value of the counter within a predetermined short time and a predetermined value. a comparison means for comparing the increased value with a comparison value, a determination means for determining that the increased value is abnormal when the increase value is larger than the comparison value as a result of the comparison, and a determination means for determining that the stepping motor is abnormal when the increase value is determined to be abnormal by the determination means. A control system for an automobile, comprising a recovery means for automatically recovering the switch device by resetting it to a predetermined position.