阅读说明：本技术 发电机控制电路 (Generator control circuit ) 是由 吴仲智 吴少钧 于 2019-07-25 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明是有关一种发电机控制电路,其包含一侦测电路与一控制电路,侦测电路侦测一发电机的一负载状态,以产生一负载数据,控制电路依据负载数据与一门槛数据产生一控制讯号,而执行一负载响应控制模式控制发电机。(The invention relates to a generator control circuit, which comprises a detection circuit and a control circuit, wherein the detection circuit detects a load state of a generator to generate load data, and the control circuit generates a control signal according to the load data and threshold data to execute a load response control mode to control the generator.)

1. A generator control circuit, comprising:

a detection circuit for detecting a load state of a generator to generate a load data; and

a control circuit for generating a control signal according to the load data and a threshold data to execute a load response control mode to control the generator.

2. The generator control circuit of claim 1, wherein the detection circuit further detects an engine speed of an engine to generate a speed data, the control circuit further generating the control signal according to the speed data.

3. The generator control circuit of claim 2, wherein the engine speed is below a speed threshold, the control circuit executing the load-responsive control mode.

4. The generator control circuit of claim 2, wherein the detection circuit detects the engine speed according to a generator speed of the generator or receives the engine speed detected by an on-board control unit.

5. The generator control circuit of claim 1, wherein the detection circuit detects a voltage level of an energy storage device coupled to the generator and generates a voltage data as the load data.

6. The generator control circuit of claim 1 wherein the threshold data is a slope threshold, the control circuit operating on the load data according to a conversion parameter to generate a load curve, the control circuit executing the load response control mode when a variable slope of the load curve is greater than the slope threshold.

7. The generator control circuit of claim 6 wherein the control circuit further detects a state of the variable slope before the slope threshold when the variable slope of the load curve is greater than the slope threshold, the control circuit executing the load-responsive control mode when the direction of the variable slope is the same before and after the variable slope is greater than the slope threshold.

8. The generator control circuit of claim 1 wherein the control signal is a pulse width modulation signal to control the operation of the generator, the control circuit modulating a duty cycle of the pulse width modulation signal to slow the rising slope of a power generated by the generator.

9. The generator control circuit of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further coupled to a switch unit, the switch unit is coupled between an energy storage element and a rotor coil of the generator, and the control circuit transmits the control signal to the switch unit to control the switch unit to switch.

10. The generator control circuit of claim 1, wherein the detection circuit detects a voltage level of an energy storage device coupled to the generator and generates the load data, the control circuit controls the generator according to the load data, and the control circuit executes the load-responsive control mode when the voltage level of the energy storage device is higher than a threshold.

11. The generator control circuit of claim 1, wherein the detection circuit detects a voltage level of an energy storage device coupled to the generator and generates the load data, the control circuit controls the generator according to the load data, and the control circuit stops executing the load response control mode when the voltage level of the energy storage device is equal to or higher than a level threshold.

12. The generator control circuit of claim 1, wherein the detection circuit detects a voltage level of an energy storage device coupled to the generator and generates the load data, the control circuit controls the generator according to the load data, and the control circuit stops executing the load-responsive control mode when the voltage level of the energy storage device is equal to or lower than a threshold.

13. The generator control circuit of claim 1, wherein the detection circuit further detects an engine speed of an engine to generate a speed data, the control circuit further controlling the generator according to the speed data, the control circuit stopping the load-responsive control mode when the engine speed is above a speed threshold.

14. The generator control circuit of claim 1 wherein the control circuit implements the load responsive control mode to control the generator to slow the generator from generating a rising ramp of power.

Technical Field

The invention relates to a control circuit, in particular to a generator control circuit.

Background

Engine-driven generators are power generation devices used for various purposes, for example, small diesel power supply devices, vehicle power supply systems, and the like, and are widely used, and particularly, the engine-driven generators are required to be space-saving, and are further used as motors for starting engines. However, in a general vehicle, the electrical load is usually loaded instantaneously, for example, the air conditioner is turned on and off, the load of the generator is increased by the instantaneous loading, and the load of the generator is driven by the engine, so that the load of the generator is increased by the load increase, and the load torque is increased, thereby reducing the output power that the engine should output to the transmission system, and the vehicle-mounted system reduces the output power of the generator when detecting the instantaneous increase of the electrical load.

However, in some situations, the electrical load may increase slowly, which may also increase the load of the generator, and affect the output power of the engine to the transmission system, for example, in order to facilitate the driving of people, a lot of driving assistance devices are added, such as automatic parking, automatic obstacle avoidance, and other assistance controls, the loading manner of the aforementioned assistance control is not the traditional instant on or instant off, but the load is increased at a slower speed, such as slowly rotating the steering wheel, and at this time, the traditional vehicle-mounted system cannot detect the slow loading generated by the system.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a generator control circuit, which can detect the instant loading and the slow loading to control the generator in a load response control mode, so as to slow down the rising slope of the power generated by the generator when the load increases, and to preferentially provide the output power of the engine to the required system.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a generator control circuit, which can detect different load states of a generator and execute a load response control mode to slow down the rising slope of the power generated by the generator, so that the output power of an engine can be preferentially provided to a required system.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a generator control circuit, which further executes a load response control mode according to the operating state of the engine, for slowing down the rising slope of the power generated by the generator.

The invention discloses a generator control circuit, which comprises a detection circuit and a control circuit, wherein the detection circuit detects the load state of a generator, generates load data and provides the load data to the control circuit, so that a control signal is correspondingly generated according to the load data and threshold data, and a load response control mode is executed to control the generator, thereby driving the generator to slow down the rising slope of a generated power supply, and preferentially providing the output power of an engine to a required system.

Drawings

FIG. 1: a block diagram of one embodiment of a generator system of the present invention;

FIG. 2: a block diagram of an embodiment of a generator control circuit of the present invention;

FIG. 3: which is a graph of the instant loading of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4: it is a graph of the voltage level of the energy storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5: which is a graph of the slow load of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6: it is a graph of tracking load rejection of an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7: which is a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention in which a generator control circuit controls a generator.

[ brief description of the drawings ]

10 generator control circuit

12 detection circuit

122 voltage detecting unit

124 rotation speed detecting unit

14 control circuit

20 electric generator

20A driving mechanism

22 rotor coil

24 switch unit

30 Engine

B energy storage element

C1 load curve

C2 load curve

C3 load curve

C _THThreshold curve

D _LOADLoad data

D _RPMSpeed data

D _VoltVoltage data

ECU vehicle-mounted control unit

L load

LOAD status

P power supply

RPM engine speed

RPMA generator speed

S _CTRControl signal

SL _THSlope threshold

SL _UPRising slope

T _DDetecting time

Time point T1

Time point T2

Time point T3

Time point T4

V _BATVoltage reference level

V _THThreshold

S10-S45 steps

Detailed Description

In order to provide a further understanding and appreciation for the structural features and advantages achieved by the present invention, the following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiments is provided:

although certain terms are used herein to refer to particular elements, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that various names may be used to refer to the same element, and the description and claims are not intended to distinguish between the elements, but rather are intended to distinguish between the elements as a whole. In the following description and in the claims, the terms "include" and "comprise" are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean "include, but not limited to. Furthermore, the term "coupled" is intended to include any direct or indirect connection. Thus, if a first device couples to a second device, that connection may be through a direct connection, or through an indirect connection via other devices and other connections.

The alternator includes a rotor coil and a stator coil. In normal operation, when an excitation current is supplied to the rotor coil, the rotor coil generates a magnetic field. When an engine of an automobile drives the excited rotor coil to rotate, the excited rotor coil can generate a rotating magnetic field, and the rotating magnetic field enables the stator coil to generate alternating current electric energy. The alternating current electric energy generated by the alternating current generator is rectified by the rectifier to generate direct current electric energy so as to charge the energy storage element or directly supply power to a load.

In view of the fact that the conventional generator control system cannot detect the instantaneous loading and the slow loading to control the generator to slow down the generation of power, the present invention provides a generator control circuit to solve the control problem caused by the conventional technique.

The characteristics and the associated architecture of a generator control circuit according to the present invention will be further described as follows:

first, please refer to fig. 1 and fig. 2, which are a block diagram of an embodiment of a generator system according to the present invention and a block diagram of a generator control circuit according to the present invention. As shown in the drawings, the generator control circuit 10 of the present invention includes a detection circuit 12 and a control circuit 14, the detection circuit 12 is coupled to the control circuit 14, the detection circuit 12 is further coupled to a generator 20, the control circuit 14 is also coupled to the generator 20, and the generator control circuit 10 is built in the generator 20 in this embodiment, in one embodiment, the generator control circuit 10 may be a control chip, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the control circuit 10 may be disposed outside the generator 20 and coupled to the generator 20. The generator 20 is coupled to an energy storage element B and at least one load L. Further, the detecting circuit 12 is also coupled to the energy storage device B and the LOAD L, so that the detecting circuit 12 can detect the LOAD state LOAD from the energy storage device B and the LOAD L, i.e. detect the LOAD state of the generator 20. In this embodiment, the energy storage element B may be a battery or a storage battery or a super capacitor or an energy storage battery core, and the load L may be a vehicle-mounted system (e.g., a vehicle auxiliary system or a vehicle instrument system), or an electrical device (e.g., a cooling air, a light source, a sound system).

The detection circuit 12 detects the voltage levels of the energy storage element B and the load LSince the energy storage element B, the load L and the generator 20 are connected in parallel, the voltage level at the connection point of the energy storage element B and the generator 20 is the voltage level V of the energy storage element B _BATWhereby the detection circuit 12 further detects the voltage level V _BATCorrespondingly generating a voltage data D _VoltTo obtain the LOAD state LOAD of the energy storage element B and the LOAD L. Thus, the detection circuit 12 is based on the detected LOAD status LOAD, i.e. based on the voltage level V _BATCorresponding load data D can also be generated _LOADTo the control circuit 14 to let the control circuit 14 according to the load data D _LOADThe load state of the generator 20 is known to generate a corresponding control signal S _CTRTo the generator 20, and controls the operation of the generator 20. The control circuit 14 of the present invention can be based on the load data D _LOADKnowing whether the LOAD status LOAD of the generator 20 is instant LOAD or slow LOAD, the control circuit 14 is based on the LOAD data D _LOADCompares the LOAD variable with a threshold data to detect whether the LOAD state LOAD of the generator 20 is an instant LOAD or a slow LOAD, so that the control circuit 14 can determine whether to execute a LOAD Response Control (LRC) mode to generate a corresponding control signal S _CTRThereby generating the control signal S based on the load response control mode _CTRGenerator 20 may be controlled to slow the rate at which power is generated, i.e., slow the rising slope of the generated power, to avoid affecting the output of power from engine 30 to the desired system. Therefore, the generator control circuit 10 of the present invention can control the generator 20 based on both the transient loading and the creep loading, which can perform the load response control mode. The operation of this embodiment is described in further detail below.

In the present embodiment, the detecting circuit 12 further includes a voltage detecting unit 122 and a rotation speed detecting unit 124. The voltage detecting unit 122 is coupled to the energy storage element B and the load L to detect voltage levels of the energy storage element B and the load L, i.e. detect a voltage level V _BATAnd further, the voltage detecting unit 122 detects the voltage level V according to the detected voltage level _BATGenerating voltage data D _VoltBecause of the voltage level V _BATWill vary with the load variations and will,e.g., decreases as the load increases, so voltage level V _BATCan indicate the load state, so the voltage data D _VoltCan be used as load data D _LOADI.e. dependent on the load data D _LOADLoad variables are detected to detect transient loading and slow loading. In an embodiment of the present invention, the control circuit 14 receives the load data D _LOADAnd converting the parameters into load data D _LOADThe operation is performed to generate a load curve, and the load variable can be obtained according to the load curve. The RPM detecting unit 124 is coupled to an on-board control unit ECU to directly obtain the engine RPM detected by the on-board control unit ECU, or coupled to the generator 20 to detect the generator RPM RPMA of the generator 20, i.e. the rotation speed of the rotor coil 22. Since the generator RPM RPMA corresponds to the engine RPM, detecting the generator RPM RPMA corresponds to detecting the engine RPM.

In addition, as shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, the generator 20 is connected to an engine 30 through a driving mechanism 20A, the engine 30 drives the generator 20 through the driving mechanism 20A, therefore, the rotation speed detecting unit 124 detects the generator rotation speed RPMA of the generator 20 corresponding to the engine rotation speed RPM of the engine 30, and the rotation speed detecting unit 124 generates the corresponding rotation speed data D according to the generator rotation speed RPMA or the engine rotation speed RPM _RPMTo provide a state in which the control circuit 14 determines the engine speed RPM. The generator control circuit 10 is coupled to the switch unit 24 of the generator 20 via the control circuit 14 and outputs a control signal S _CTRTo a switching unit 24 of the generator 20, the switching unit 24 is coupled between the energy storage element B and the rotor coil 22 by a control signal S _CTRControlling the switching of the switching unit 24, i.e. controlling the energy storage element B to provide the excitation current to the rotor coil 22, and further controlling the generator 20 to generate the power P, i.e. controlling the output power of the generator 20, since the power P corresponds to the control signal S _CTRSo by adjusting the control signal S _CTRFor example, the duty ratio (duty) of the pulse width can adjust the amount of the generated power of the generator 20, i.e. slow down the control signal S _CTRThe rising slope SL of the duty ratio (duty) of the pulse width _UP(as shown in FIG. 3) is decreasingThe dynamo-electric machine 20 generates a rising slope of the power source P.

As shown in FIG. 3, the generator control circuit 10 of the present invention detects the transient loading condition, in which the load data D is loaded _LOADThe corresponding load curve C1 generates a transient variable, i.e., the load suddenly increases a lot at the same time point, for example, from 10 amperes (A) to 20 amperes (A), wherein the load curve C1 is calculated by the control circuit 14 via a conversion parameter (e.g., an equivalent circuit parameter of the load L, such as an impedance value), and converts the voltage data D _VoltThe load curve C1 corresponds to the load variation amount because of the current load amount. Voltage dependent level V _BATThe decrease indicates an increase in load, so that the load curve obtained by the control circuit 14 according to the converted parameter is opposite to the voltage level V _BATCurve (c) of (d). In this embodiment, the control signal S _CTRWhich may be a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal, and the control circuit 14 controls the duty cycle (duty) of the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal to modulate the power P of the generator 20, which means that increasing the duty cycle (duty) of the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal increases the generated power P. Under the condition of instant loading, in the embodiment, at the time point T1, according to the load curve C1, the load current rises sharply from 10 amperes (a) to 20 amperes (a), and because at the time point T1, the variable slope of the load curve C1 is larger than that of a threshold curve C _THA slope threshold SL _THThe threshold data is a slope threshold SL _THTherefore, the control circuit 14 can immediately determine that the load variation is large, and execute a Load Response (LRC) mode to modulate the control signal S _CTRTo control the generator 20 to slow the generation of the power P, thus allowing the output power of the engine 30 to be preferentially provided to the required systems, such as the transmission system or the vehicle auxiliary systems.

In turn, the control circuit 14 may further determine whether to execute the load response control mode according to other conditions. For example, the control circuit 14 further provides the rotation speed data D according to the detection circuit 12 _RPMDetermines whether the engine RPM is below a speed threshold (e.g., cutoff of the engine 30), and the control circuit 14 may further determine that the generator 20 is coupled thereto, as shown in FIG. 4Voltage level V of energy storage element B _BATWhether or not it is greater than a threshold V _TH(e.g., 10.5V). The control circuit 14 detects that the load change is large and the engine 30 is in the low rotation state, the load response control mode is executed, because the engine 30 is in the low rotation state, which means that the generator 20 cannot increase the load of the engine 30 any more, the control circuit 14 executes the load response control mode, and if the engine 30 is in the high rotation state, the load response control mode is not executed, and the rotation threshold may be set as required. In addition, the control circuit 14 detects that the load variation is large and the voltage level V of the energy storage element B is high _BATGreater than a critical threshold V _THIndicating that the energy storage device B still has enough power reserve for the overall system operation, the control circuit 14 can execute the load response control mode to control the generator 20, so as shown in fig. 3, the increase slowing control signal S is used _CTRTo drive the generator 30 to delay the generation of the rising slope of the power source P. If the voltage level V of the energy storage element B _BATLess than critical threshold V _THIt means that the energy storage element B may not be enough to provide the overall system operation, so that the control circuit 14 may suspend executing the load response control mode to allow the generator 20 to generate power to charge the energy storage element B.

As shown in FIG. 5, the generator control circuit 10 of the present invention detects the load of the slow-range, wherein the load data D _LOADFor example, in the case of a slow load, the load curve C2 generates a slow variable, i.e., the load is slowly increased, and in the embodiment, from the time point T1 to the time point T2, according to the load curve C2, the load current is slowly increased from 10 amperes (a) to 20 amperes (a), so that the variable slope of the load curve C2 is still greater than that of the threshold curve C _THSlope threshold SL of _THTherefore, the control circuit 14 still determines that the load variation is large and executes the load response mode to modulate the control signal S _CTRTo control the generator 20 to slow down the generation of the power P, so as to increase the control signal S through slow down as shown in fig. 5 _CTRTo drive the generator 30 to delay the generation of the rising slope of the power source P. As illustrated in the foregoing embodiments, the control circuit 14 may be further based onOther conditions determine whether to execute the load response control mode, and are not described in detail herein.

Please refer to fig. 6, which is a graph illustrating tracking and load rejection according to an embodiment of the present invention. When the load rejection occurs, the voltage level V of the energy storage element B _BATIt will rise briefly, then fall, and then rise to the desired level, for example, by turning off the cooling and warming machine, so that the load curve C3 will show a situation where it falls briefly, then rises and falls. When the load curve C3 rises, the variable slope is greater than the slope threshold, so the control circuit 14 determines that the load change is large and executes the load response mode, and thus a false determination occurs. For this reason, the control circuit 14 of the present invention can detect whether the direction of the variable slope of the load curve C3 is the same before and after the variable slope is greater than the slope threshold. As can be seen from fig. 6, if the load is unloaded, the variable slope of the load curve C3 will have opposite directions, i.e. the variable slope will have opposite signs. Therefore, when the control circuit 14 detects that the variable slope is greater than the slope threshold, it further tracks a detection time T _DIf the direction of the detected variable slope of the load curve C3 is different before and after the variable slope is greater than the slope threshold, it indicates that the load change is a transient change of the load rejection state, and the load response mode does not need to be executed. If the direction of the variable slope of the detected load curve C3 is the same before and after the variable slope is greater than the slope threshold, which indicates that the load change is not a transient change of the load rejection state, but the load change is indeed large, the control circuit 14 executes the load response control mode.

As described above, the control circuit 14 executes the load response control mode to control the generator 20 in the transient loading or slow loading state, or further uses the rotation speed data D in the transient loading or slow loading state _RPMJudging whether the RPM of the engine exceeds a threshold and judging the energy storage potential V _BATGreater than a critical threshold V _THOr forward detecting time T _DThe control circuit 14 executes the load response mode when no dump load condition exists, thereby controlling the generator 30 to delay the generation of the power supply PThe slope. In addition, after the control circuit 14 executes the load response control mode, if the RPM of the engine is greater than the rotation speed threshold, the engine 30 can output large power without limiting the output power of the generator 20 or the voltage level V of the energy storage element B _BATEqual to or below a threshold V _THAt this time, the energy storage element B may not be enough to provide the overall system operation, so that the control circuit 14 stops executing the load response control mode, and the generator 20 is dedicated to supply power to the overall system and charge the energy storage element B. In addition, since the control circuit 14 executes the load response control mode, the power source P generated by the generator 20 can still be used to charge the energy storage element B when the voltage level V of the energy storage element B is higher _BATAt or above a level threshold, the control circuit 14 may stop executing the load response control mode.

Please refer to fig. 7, which is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a generator control circuit controlling a generator according to the present invention. As shown in fig. 7, and referring to fig. 1 and fig. 2 together, the control flow of the generator control circuit 10 of the present invention is as follows:

step S10, starting the system;

step S20, judging whether the load state exceeds a threshold;

step S30, judging whether the starting condition is met;

step S35, executing the load response control mode;

step S40, judging whether the stop condition is met; and

at step S45, execution of the load response control mode is stopped.

In step S10, the entire system including the generator control circuit 10 is started. In step S20, the control circuit 14 of the generator control circuit 10 determines whether the LOAD variation exceeds the threshold according to the LOAD status LOAD, as in the above embodiment, by determining whether the variable slope of the LOAD curve is greater than the slope threshold, and in step S20, the control circuit 14 may further determine the rotation speed data D detected by the detection circuit 12 _RPMAnd voltage data D _VoltSubsequently, in step S30, the control circuit 14 determines whether or not to execute the load response control mode.

In step S30, control is performedIf the detection engine 30 is in a low speed state and the energy storage device B still has enough power reserve for the whole system to operate, the control circuit 14 detects the time T ahead when the LOAD state LOAD occurs _DThe no LOAD condition is confirmed, and then step S35 is executed to control the circuit 14 to execute the LOAD response control mode, which is intended to slow down the rising slope of the output power P of the generator 20, otherwise step S20 is executed to re-detect according to the LOAD condition LOAD. When the control circuit 14 executes the LOAD response mode and the LOAD variable of the LOAD state LOAD is smaller than the threshold in step S20, step S40 is performed to determine whether the LOAD response mode is satisfied, the control circuit 14 detects that the engine 30 is in a higher rotation speed state, or the control circuit 14 determines that the energy storage device B does not have enough power reserve for the operation of the whole system, or the voltage level V of the energy storage device B _BATEqual to or higher than the level threshold, that is, the energy storage element B has enough power reserve for the overall system to operate, so that any condition is satisfied, that is, step S45 is executed, and the control circuit 14 stops executing the load response control mode and returns to the normal execution state; otherwise, the process returns to step S20. Further, the generator control circuit of the present invention is not only applicable to control of a generator of a vehicle, but it may be applied to any kind of generator.

In summary, the generator control circuit of the present invention can detect the situation that the load state of the generator is instantly loaded or slowly loaded, and execute the load response control mode to control the generator, so as to slow down the rising slope of the power generated by the generator, thereby slowing down the load of the generator on the engine, so as to preferentially provide the output power of the engine to the required system, for example, when the generator is applied to a vehicle, the output power of the engine can be preferentially provided to the transmission system or the driving assistance system. Conversely, when it is determined that no transient or creep loading has occurred, the control circuit may be disabled from executing the load responsive control mode, allowing the generator to contribute to powering the overall system and charging the energy storage element.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, which is defined by the appended claims.