Cruise Control (with MPG sensitive logic)

[oldbeaver]

Bravo!

You wrote:

Originally Posted by jomelmaldonado

As a matter of fact, if anyone of you has any idea how to improve or implement a PID controller using discrete control, please let me know.

I will send an email to a friend of mine who is the Chief of Electric Vehicles Laboratory in PUC University (Santiago) who may have the expertise for helping you with the PID discrete controler. His work has been mainly designing (power) controlers for electric vehicles.

With respect to myself: I cannot help you at all. I am very far of that.

Just an idea: VAG group cars (Volkswagen, Skoda, Seat, Audi) are one of the few that have onboard trip computer for diesels. These cars have lots of good sensors and signals. Thay also have cruise controlers. You may offer to develop an Adaptive for them, hopefuly, one that can be installed on old models (such as mine of 2009) he, he.

Again, congratulations.

[oldbeaver]

For Jomel Maldonado,

As I promised, I have got the MB W124 cruise control circuit for you (and all who may want it).

Oldbeaver

[actwithclarity]

How about a car that just drives for you... no thanks. In practice it tends to be worse and I think it would be a bit boring. Maybe in a century or two we will have perfected automated cars but I am personally in no rush. Driving is too fun.

[backyard engineer]

my brain is smoking, I thinking about a dumb it down button, or maybe a warning label on this tread: caution may be too technical for the average modder. but.... I wish I had one of them smart controllers on my car.

[alainmci]

I bent the bracket that hold the CC cable forward (toward the throttle body). I accelerate to 110 km/h and set the CC. b/c of the bent bracket, the cable can only pull so much on the throttle. after 3 or 4 try, the max throttle is set at TPS 21. perfect for the echo will maintain 80-90 km/h with that setting. if i go up a hill, the TPS stays at 21 and the car slows down.

[jomelmaldonado]

Hello everyone, I am starting to control a servo actuator which has a small DC motor rather than the vacuum operated diaphragm, since the vacuum actuator is a discrete control system and the servo motor can be operated as a continuous control system. It is controlled by the PWM pins of an Arduino and 4 power transistors configured as an H Bridge controller. I am including the video I uploaded to youtube, the narrated language is in Spanish, but the description is in English. Hope this information help in some way or spark some new ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm5drF1kgDo

[oldbeaver]

Jomel,

Extraordinario trabajo. Extraordinary work. Congratulations! Please, continue.

Thanks for sharing with us all.

Oldbeaver

[Cardinal Grammeter]

This is a huge thread and I hope I'm not repeating the obvious...

I drove a Scion xb that had instantaneous mpg display.

Much to my shock, it became crystal clear that mpg was a simple function of Throttle Position. So if you wanted to drive at a constant 45 mpg, you would set your throttle position to get that mpg and simply hold it up and down hills.

So for constant mpg, a simple hand control would be the proper controller.

That Scion was capable of over 50 mpg on the flat but it was impossible to hold such a small throttle setting with my foot. The cruise control was like using a sledge hammer and would pump the throttle all over the place.

With this knowledge, when I had to drive through a valley (down hill, up hill) I would guess what throttle position at the start would get me over the top of the hill at 35-40 mph.
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Another way to take advantage of this relationship would be to modify an existing cruise control so that you could limit max throttle position. My guess is that an adjustable mechanical stop might work assuming the cruise is not all electronic fly by wire. So you could have a "hand max stop control."

It is somewhat ironic that cruise control in OBDII cars is so primitive.

Regards,
Tom

[njakts]

hello!
what F/V converters did you use? LM2907?
if so, what values did you use for the circuit to work.
I am also developing a cruise control and need to find a way how to monitor tachometer.
As fot the F to V circuit, I need it to work from 40Hz to ~350Hz and give voltage from 0 to 5volts.


Thanks

[AlVal]

damn, I really thought this invention was gonna be a patent I could file myself, thought it was all "mine"

I think the future is combining what's being achieved in this thread with the below, as well as a mercedes distronic - type setup, and a fuzzy logic that learns traffic flow, traffic light patterns, and the exact topography of your regular routes (e.g. commute route)

turns out I can't post links yet, but google scania active prediction system and daimler predictive cruise control