JPH11115627A - Load operation control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the phase shift of a twinkling by that a first control means sends the synchronizing signal of a prescribed cycle as a standard cycle for a second control means and the second control means synchronizes again the action of an own certain cycle by the standard cycle and acts a load connected to itself. SOLUTION: ECU 12 sends a twinkle synchronized signal for ECU 11. When the ECU 12 judges the start of the twinkle action of a winker, a winker stop signal sent through a multiplex communication circuit 14 for the ECU 11 is switched to a winker action order and at the same time as switching, the sending of the twinkle synchronized signal of the prescribed cycle which is the standard cycle is started. At every time when the ECU 11 receives the twinkle synchronized signal from the ECU 12, a canter for counting the twinkle cycle is reset and a re-synchronization is applied to the twinkling of a winker lamp. Thereby, the shift of the twinkle phase of the winker lamp can be reduced to the extent to which the disorder of the exterior twinkle phase can not be seen.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a load operation control device, and more particularly, to a vehicle provided with a multiplex communication system.
The present invention relates to a blinker blinking control device capable of continuing to normally operate a blinker lamp even if a blinking operation of a blinker as a load or a communication error occurs during a blinking operation of a lamp.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of blinker lamp blink control in a vehicle provided with a multiplex communication system. This example is an example of one blinker lamp. In the figure, 11, 12, and 13 denote vehicle computers (ECUs).
And are connected to each other by a multiplex communication line 14. E
The CU 11 is an ECU that controls turning on and off of the turn signal lamp 15, and the turn signal lamp 15 is connected to the ECU 11 by a power supply line 16. The ECU 13 is an ECU that detects the state of the turn signal switch 17. ECU1
3 indicates the state of the turn signal switch 17 in the multiplex communication line 14.
Is transmitted to the ECU 12 via the. The ECU 12 determines the information from the ECU 13 and determines whether or not to perform the blinking operation of the turn signal.

One method of controlling the blinking of the turn signal lamps 15 via the multiplex communication line 14 is as follows.
A turn-on command and turn-off command of the turn signal lamp 15 are transmitted alternately at a preset cycle through the ECU 10, and the ECU 11 controls the turn-on and turn-off of the turn signal lamp 15 according to the signal.

As another method, when the ECU 12 determines that the blinking operation of the turn signal lamp 15 is performed, the
A turn signal operation command is transmitted to U11 via the multiplex communication line 14, while the ECU 12
There is also a method of transmitting a blinker stop command to the ECU 11 when it is determined to stop the blinking operation of.
When the ECU 11 receives the turn signal operation command, the ECU 11
U11 counts a preset blinking cycle using a signal of its own oscillator, and controls blinking of the turn signal lamp 15. In this case, the actual blinking cycle counted from the oscillator signal includes an error corresponding to the oscillation frequency error of the oscillator. As shown in FIG. 1, when there is only one blinker lamp and one ECU that controls the blinker lamp, the error of the blinking cycle does not matter as much as the appearance of the blinker lamp.

[0005]

In the former method described above, when the multiplex communication line 14 is congested, the signal communication is delayed, so that the blinking cycle of the turn signal lamp 15 becomes inaccurate.
A signal from the ECU 12 is transmitted to the ECU 1 due to a communication error or the like.
If it does not reach 1, the flashing may drop off.

On the other hand, the latter method has a problem in the case of the configuration shown in FIG. 2 described below. FIG. 2 is another example system configuration diagram of the blinker lamp blinking control in a vehicle having a multiplex communication system. In this example, a plurality of blinker lamps are controlled to blink by different ECUs. FIG. 3 is a blinking phase diagram when there is a difference between the blinking periods of the two turn signal lamps in the configuration of FIG.

As described above, in the case of the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the error of the blinking cycle of the turn signal lamp does not matter much in the appearance of the turn signal lamp. However, as shown in FIG. 2, when a plurality of (two in this example) blinker lamps 15a and 15b are controlled to blink by separate ECUs 11a and 11b, an error in the blinking cycle causes inconvenience. For example, as shown in FIG.
a), the ECUs 11a and 11b, which turn on and off the turn signal lamp 2 (15b), have an error E1 as shown in the figure, and if the turn signal lamps are turned on and off continuously, time passes. As a result, the blinking phases of the turn signal lamps 1 and 2 are shifted, which causes a problem in appearance of the turn signal lamps.

In this case, as a countermeasure, each ECU 11a,
If a high-precision oscillator such as a crystal oscillator (error of about ± 0.001%) is used as the oscillator of 11b, it is possible to reduce the deviation of the blinking phase. Very expensive. On the other hand, as an example of an oscillator which is inexpensive but has a large error as compared with a crystal oscillator, there is a ceramic oscillator. Such a ceramic oscillator,
Normally, the error is about ± 0.5%.
There is a maximum difference of 1% in the blinking cycle for each CU. This means that, assuming that the set value of the blinker blinking cycle is, for example, 700 milliseconds (ms) (that is, 350 ms on and 350 ms off), the blinking cycle difference between the ECUs is a maximum of 7 m.
s, which is a calculation of a difference of 350 ms for 50 blinks, that is, the phase of blinking is inverted. Therefore, the blinking phase between the blinker lamps shifts with time, which causes a problem in appearance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problem. When one or a plurality of turn signal lamps are turned on and off, a relatively inexpensive oscillator is used to make the appearance of the phase shift of the turn-on lamps a problem. It is to reduce it to an extent. That is,
The present invention provides an E control for turning on and off the turn signal lamp.
Even when a relatively inexpensive oscillator having a large error is used as the CU oscillator, it is noted that the difference in the blinker blinking phase between the ECUs within a short period of time is in a range in which it is apparently invisible. ECUs that control turning on and off the lights
The above problem is solved by sending a blinking synchronization signal to each ECU separately from the blinker operation / stop command and resynchronizing blinking of the blinker lamp.

[0010]

According to the first or fourth aspect of the present invention, multiplex communication in which the operation of one or more loads (for example, turn signal lamps) is controlled by at least one control means (computer). In a load operation control device in an apparatus having a system, a first control means (computer) for generating an operation / stop signal for operating / stopping at least one load; A second control means (computer) for operating the connected load at a constant cycle;
The control means sends a synchronization signal of a predetermined cycle as a reference cycle to the second control means, and the second control means resynchronizes the operation of the fixed cycle of itself with the reference cycle, and And operating a load connected to the load.

With such a configuration, when blinking control of a blinker lamp of a vehicle equipped with a multiplex communication system is performed,
Even if the blinker operation of each blinker is out of phase or the blinker operation / stop signal or blinking synchronization signal does not arrive due to a communication error during blinker operation, return to the normal blinker operation again. Can be. further,
According to the configuration of the present invention, a normal blinker blinking operation can be performed even if a relatively large error oscillator is used as an oscillator used in each computer. Therefore, it is not necessary to use an expensive oscillator having high oscillation accuracy, and the cost of the product is reduced. The effect of down is also remarkable.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, a description will be given of an embodiment in which one blinker lamp and one control means for controlling lighting and extinguishing thereof, that is, a computer (ECU), as shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a timing chart of the blinker blink control in the case of one blinker lamp according to the present invention. The signal S1 indicates that the ECU 12
This is a blinker stop command to be transmitted to No. 1 and is transmitted when the blinker is not operated (that is, when the blinker switch 17 is off). The signal S2 is a turn signal operation command transmitted from the ECU 12 to the ECU 11,
This is transmitted when the turn signal is to be operated (that is, when the turn signal switch 17 is on). As a specific example of the transmission, a predetermined bit of the transmission data is determined to designate a blinker. For example, if the bit is “0”, it is defined as a blinker stop command, and if the bit is “1”, it is defined as a blinker operation command. The ECU 11 starts blinker blink control when the command from the ECU 12 is switched from the stop command to the operation command.

The signal S3 is transmitted from the ECU 12 to the ECU 1
1 is a blinking synchronizing signal to be transmitted. When the ECU 12 determines that the blinking operation of the turn signal is to be started, first, E
The blinker stop signal S1 transmitted to the CU 11 via the multiplex communication line 14 is switched to the blinker operation command S2, and at the same time, the transmission of the blinking synchronizing signal S3 having a predetermined period as a reference period is started.

According to the present invention, when the ECU 11 receives the turn signal operation command S2, the ECU 11 counts a preset blinking cycle using a signal of its own oscillator, and controls blinking of the blinker lamp 15. In the present invention, the ECU 11 resets the counter for counting the blinking cycle every time the blinking synchronization signal S3 from the ECU 12 is received, and resynchronizes the blinking of the blinker lamp.

The EC will be described in more detail below.
Assuming that the blinking cycle of the blinker lamp counted by U11 itself is T1, the difference between the reference cycle T of the blinking synchronization signal S3 from the ECU 12 and the blinking cycle T1 is T2. The cycle T of the blinking synchronization signal S3 is obtained by counting the blinking cycle of the blinker lamp set in advance by using the signal of its own oscillator.

At this time, when the blinking synchronizing signal S3 is transmitted from the ECU 12 to the ECU 11 at the timing t1, the blinking cycle of the winker lamp is continued at the timing t1. Control resynchronizes,
The next blinking is started from this timing t1. In this way, the blinking state of the blinker lamp 15 can be synchronized with the blinking synchronization signal S3 counted by the ECU 12. S4 is a waveform diagram of the blinker lamp blinking state.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart when a plurality of blinkers are controlled to blink by a plurality of ECUs according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, two turn signal lamps 15a,
Even when the ECU 15a is controlled by the separate ECUs 11a and 11b, the blinking state of each blinker lamp is controlled by the blinking synchronization signal S counted by the ECU 12 as shown in FIG.
3 to resynchronize. That is, the turn signal lamp 1 (15
For a), the blinking cycle of the ECU 11a itself is T1a.
However, in order to eliminate the difference (flashing deviation) T2a from the flashing cycle T of the flashing synchronization signal S3 from the ECU 12, the ECU 1
1a performs resynchronization every time it receives the blinking synchronization signal S3. On the other hand, for the turn signal lamp 2 (15b), the ECU 1
Although the blinking cycle of 1b itself is T1b, the difference (flashing deviation) T from the blinking cycle T of the blinking synchronization signal S3 from the ECU 12 is shown.
In order to eliminate 2b, the ECU 11b performs resynchronization each time it receives the blinking synchronization signal S3. S4a and S4b are waveform diagrams of the blinker lamps 1 and 2 in a blinking state.

More specifically, the operation of the turn signal lamp 1 is an example in which the internal blinking cycle T1a of the ECU 11a is longer than the reference cycle T by the blinking synchronization signal.
The operation of the blinker lamp 2 is an example in the case where the internal blinking cycle T1b of the ECU 11b is shorter than the reference cycle T based on the blinking synchronization signal. ECU 11 for controlling turn signal lamp 1
a, the time t1 before the time of the blinking cycle T1a elapses.
At this time, the synchronization signal S3 is received, and at this time t1, the internal counter of the ECU 11a is reset and the next blinking is forcibly started at the place where the light-off state should be continued.

On the other hand, an ECU for controlling the turn signal lamp 2
11b, before the time t1 is reached, the blinking period T1b has already been reached.
Has elapsed, and the ECU 11b proceeds to the next blinking operation when the blinking period T1b has elapsed. Then, the synchronization signal S3 is received at the timing of the time t1. When the synchronization signal S3 is received, the ECU
Although the lighting operation is continued in 11b, the internal counter of the ECU 11b is reset at time t1, and the counting is newly started from there.

That is, in the case of the ECU 11a (internal blinking cycle> reference cycle), the light-extinguishing time is shorter by T2a than that counted by the ECU 11a, while the ECU 11b
(Internal blinking cycle <reference cycle), the lighting duration time is E
It becomes longer by T2a than counting by CU11b.
Then, the blinking deviation of each blinker lamp can be reduced to such a degree that it can hardly be recognized visually.

If such resynchronization is performed continuously as shown in the figure, the blinking phase of the turn signal lamp does not shift from one lamp to another even when the blinker lamp is continuously blinked and a long time has elapsed. Here, the blinking synchronizing signal S3 counted by the ECU 12 includes an error with respect to the set period by the period error of the oscillator of the ECU 12, but all the blinker lamps are synchronized with the blinking synchronizing signal S3. Blinking, so the blinker appearance problem can be solved.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart when the blinking synchronizing signal does not reach the blinker lamp side ECU. During the blinker blink control using the present invention,
The flashing synchronization signal S3 is generated by the ECU 11 due to a communication error or the like.
In other words, as shown in the figure, the blinking synchronization signal S3 may not reach the ECU 11 due to a communication error or the like during the blinking operation of the blinker lamp as shown in F1, and resynchronization may not be performed. Even in this case, at the next point, EC
From U12, the next blinking synchronizing signal S5 normally returns to ECU11.
, And resynchronization is performed at that timing, the blinking phase of the blinker lamp has a small deviation, and the apparent blinking phase deviation is not apparent.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, the blinking synchronization signal S3 for resynchronization from the ECU 12 is transmitted to the ECU 11 in accordance with the blinking of the blinker lamp. Depending on the degree of the oscillation frequency error, the blinking synchronization signal S3 may be thinned out, for example, transmitted once for every two blinks of the turn signal lamp. That is, the cycle of the blinking synchronization signal serving as the reference cycle can be set to an arbitrary multiple of the blinking cycle within a range that does not affect the appearance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example system configuration diagram of a blinker lamp blinking control in a vehicle having a multiplex communication system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing another example system configuration of blinker lamp blinking control in a vehicle having a multiplex communication system.

FIG. 3 is a blinking phase diagram when there is a difference between blinking periods of two turn signal lamps in the configuration of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a timing chart of blinker blink control in the case of one blinker lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a plurality of turn signal lamps according to the present invention;
It is a timing chart at the time of performing blink control by CU.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart in a case where a blinking synchronization signal has not reached an ECU.

[Description of Signs] 11, 12, 13, 11a, 11b: Vehicle computer 14: Signal line 15, 15a, 15b: Lamp 16: Power supply line

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Ikuo Hayashi 14 Iwatani, Shimowakaku-cho, Nishio-shi, Aichi Pref. Japan Automobile Parts Research Institute (72) Inventor Susumu Akiyama 1-1-1 Showa-cho, Kariya-shi, Aichi Stock In Denso (72) Inventor Politics Kawai 1-1-1 Showa-cho, Kariya, Aichi

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A load operation control device in a device provided with a multiplex communication system for controlling the operation of one or more loads by at least one control means, the operation for operating / stopping at least one load.・
A first control unit that generates a stop signal; and a second control unit that receives the operation / stop signal and causes a load connected thereto to operate at a constant cycle. The first control unit includes: A synchronization signal of a predetermined cycle is sent to the second control means as a reference cycle, and the second control means resynchronizes its own operation of the fixed cycle with the reference cycle, and a load connected to itself. Operating the load operation control device. 2. The load operation control device according to claim 1, wherein said synchronization signal from said first control means is transmitted to said second control means simultaneously with said operation / stop signal. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reference cycle from the first control means is substantially the same as the fixed cycle in the second control means or a cycle obtained by multiplying the fixed cycle. Load operation control device. 4. A blinker blinking control device for controlling blinking of a blinker lamp in a vehicle provided with a multiplex communication system, wherein first control means for generating an operation / stop signal for operating / stopping at least one blinker lamp. And a second control means for receiving the operation / stop signal and blinking a turn signal lamp connected thereto at a constant cycle, and wherein the first control means controls the second control means with respect to the second control means. Sending a synchronization signal of a predetermined period as a reference period, the second control means re-synchronizes its own blinking operation at the constant period according to the reference period, and performs a blinking operation of a blinker lamp connected to itself. A blinker blinking control device characterized by the above-mentioned. 5. The blinker blink control device according to claim 4, wherein the synchronization signal from the first control means is transmitted to the second control means simultaneously with the operation / stop signal. 6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the reference cycle from the first control means is substantially the same as the constant cycle in the second control means or a cycle obtained by multiplying the constant cycle. Blinker blink control device.