Cruise Control (with MPG sensitive logic)

[MetroMPG]

If you do start a project to hybridize your car, please start a thread to document it. Based on the work we've seen you do so far, it would be a project worth watching.

[NachtRitter]

Very awesome work!! Definitely something that's missing on my Maus...

[jomelmaldonado]

For now I will be fine tuning the cruise control, but maybe in the future if I gather the money, I will like to hybridize my Swift, but that again will be in the future. Any new modifications I do will be posted in here. If any one of you knows of a suitable hub motor that could be adapted to each rear wheel and that is cost effective, please let me know. Thanks all of you for the help with tips and advices, I wish you all good luck in this 2009.

[Clev]

Originally Posted by CobraBall

Between 1934 & 1939 Chevrolet had a dash mounted "throttle" knob attached to a cable. It was the poor man's cruise control.

Once at the desired cruising speed, the driver pulled the "throttle knob" out until he was controlling the engine speed with the knob instead of the foot pedal. The cable was hooked directly onto the carb linkage at the same place the foot pedal cable was attached.

Constant RPM, not a constant speed. Worked fine on flat roads which were not very common in the 30's.

Ah, interesting. My cruise control actuator does exactly that. I want a hand-throttle like basjoos's; I wonder if I could use my iDuino and a servo to pull the cruise control's chain, controlled from a potentiometer on a hand-throttle.

[MD2000]

FYI
A friend of mine that is a Prius hypermiler, has found that Toyota has a patent pending for a MPG tuned cruise control that is tied into a GPS and terrain maps.
The principal is that the cruise control will always know where you are, and what the terrain is, and will use smart software to tune the electric to gas ratio for optimum MPG.
No idea when we may see something like this, but I suspect it will pretty soon.

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by MD2000

FYI
A friend of mine that is a Prius hypermiler, has found that Toyota has a patent pending for a MPG tuned cruise control that is tied into a GPS and terrain maps.
The principal is that the cruise control will always know where you are, and what the terrain is, and will use smart software to tune the electric to gas ratio for optimum MPG.
No idea when we may see something like this, but I suspect it will pretty soon.

That almost sounds like my old idea for eliminating false Fuzzbuster alarms,
by using a processor tied between a GPS & Radar detector.
It would map and remember all the areas where there were false alarms
and block out the alarm when you drove past the same area again.
By sharing a data base, your Fuzz buster could know where every
leaky Radar source was in the whole state..

The general idea likely has already been implemented in some form in air force jets under the name ECM.

------

I really like the idea of my car 'knowing' that the hill ahead is steep,
And is going to get steeper in another mile.
That would be the coolest way to get the most out of a re-gen system..

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by jomelmaldonado

For now I will be fine tuning the cruise control, but maybe in the future if I gather the money, I will like to hybridize my Swift, but that again will be in the future. Any new modifications I do will be posted in here. If any one of you knows of a suitable hub motor that could be adapted to each rear wheel and that is cost effective, please let me know. Thanks all of you for the help with tips and advices, I wish you all good luck in this 2009.

I've been thinking about adding a small E-assist motor to my Honda CRV.
I was considering manual control pots wired into the EV motor motor controller, logically ANDed with the output of the VSS, since I don't want to apply motor assist when the e-motor RPMs would be low (under 1,000 RPMs, out of it's efficient range).

But, after reading here, I thinking that, instead of applying E-assist manually, it might be a lot better to automate it and apply power as needed..
I've been thinking about using a lighter battery pack and trying to use regen a little more creatively. Like turning on a little regen charge-up when the car was getting good MPG. And, Turning on a bit more Regen when the car was getting great MPG..
So, when going down hills, the pack would be getting a charge all the time.
(The pack would be protected from over-charge by the controller).


And, applying 20 amps of assist power when the CRV was getting below average MPG ( <25 MPG). And use 40 amps if the CRV was only getting <20 MPG..
I would logically AND the e-assist signal with the a pack SOC signal, if the EV controller didn't have that function to protect the pack from over-discharging.

In other words, this thread has giving me a lot of ideas..
Keep up the good work!


Kelly Controllers has a bunch of new Hub motors for scooters..
Some may not be too small for your application.?.
https://www.kellycontroller.com/shop/?mod=cat&cat_id=16

[jpgmtech]

Wow! Great work on this tread. I finally found a ECM table which contains a fuel limiter for the cruise control on my diesel - it will put a hard limit on the fuel delivered while in cruise. I can set the limit for typical 60mph cruise level grade, then use the foot-feed if i need to maintain a particular speed...

Unfortunately this is pretty specialized to the Duramax diesel. The Ford Aerostar MAP sensor idea is a great one!

[brucey]

That is some really neat stuff with the cruise control. Although the idea of simply hooking up a bicycle gear shifter to the throttle body seems simpler (KISS), this is definately better to impliment in all cars.

[Zotz]

Noob here, first post - a great site!

Handthrottle:
Perhaps a little cross pollenation: jeepers use hand throttles a lot offroad and it's a simple mod, probably adaptable to most cars. Here's an installation.

Many simply get the parts from a bike shop. Goes unsaid that you have to be a bit careful using it.

CC Hack:
One of the jeep guys hacked the steering wheel CC controls to run the winch in and out and control engine RPM in steady state (to charge the rapidly depleting battery). It has a switch to go back to 'normal' use. It's not the same as what you're building, but it may poke some thoughts.