Outboard Motor Voltage Fluctuation Detection and Fuel Pressure Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Outboard motors face challenges with power-supply voltage fluctuations due to high power consumption by electric actuators, leading to potential fuel-pressure variations and engine rotation fluctuations, which can delay diagnosis of defects and require insufficient power source capacity.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a power-source voltage detector, event occurrence detector, and event information recorder to detect voltage variations, record event information, and output data for operators to quickly identify defect causes, including the use of electric actuators and communication with external information collectors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple electric actuators are simultaneously driven to improve outboard motor functionality, then the motor performance is enhanced, but the power-source voltage fluctuates and causes fuel-pressure variations
Solution Approach 1:
The control circuit detects the simultaneous drive request for multiple electric actuators before actual operation and preemptively adjusts fuel injection amount to compensate for expected voltage drop. This preliminary adjustment prevents fuel-pressure variations caused by voltage fluctuations during actuator operation.
2Reliability
If the power source capacity is increased to maintain stable voltage during actuator operation, then voltage stability is improved, but the device complexity and size increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing power source capacity, the control circuit dynamically changes the fuel injection parameter based on detected voltage levels. When voltage drops during simultaneous actuator operation, the system adjusts fuel injection amount to maintain proper fuel pressure, achieving voltage stability compensation without hardware expansion.
3Reliability
If fuel injection control is adjusted to compensate for voltage drops, then fuel-pressure stability is improved, but the control system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control circuit continuously monitors the actual voltage during operation and uses this feedback to dynamically adjust fuel injection amount. This closed-loop feedback mechanism automatically compensates for voltage drops without requiring complex external control systems or additional sensors.
Data Source
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AI summary
An outboard motor includes a plurality of electric actuators including an electric steering actuator and an electric tilt actuator, a power-source voltage detector that detects a power-source voltage in the outboard motor, an ECU, and a memory. If a power-source voltage detected by the power-source voltage detector becomes lower than a predetermined threshold value and if the plurality of electric actuators are simultaneously driven, the ECU determines that a voltage variation event has occurred. Event information including the number of occurrences of the voltage variation event is recorded in the memory.