Cmo Funciona una ECU

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Each year, cars seem to get more and more complicated. Cars today might have as many as 50 microprocessors on them. Although these microprocessors make it more difficult for you to work on your own car, some of them actually make your car easier to service. Some of the reasons for this increase in the number of microprocessors are !he need for sophisticated engine controls to meet emissions and fuel"economy standards Advanced diagnostics Simplification of the manufacture and design of cars #eduction of the amount of wiring in cars $ew safety features $ew comfort and convenience features %n this article, we&ll take a look at how each of these factors has influenced the design of your car.

The computer from a Ford Ranger

Sophisticated Engine Controls

'efore emissions laws were enacted, it was possible to build a car engine without microprocessors. (ith the enactment of increasingly stricter emissions laws, sophisticated control schemes were needed to regulate the air)fuel mi*ture so that the catalytic converter could remove a lot of the pollution from the e*haust. +See ,ow Catalytic Converters (ork for more details.Controlling the engine is the most processor"intensive .ob on your car, and the engine control unit +EC/- is the most powerful computer on most cars. !he EC/ uses closed-loop control, a control scheme that monitors outputs of a system to control the inputs to a system, managing the emissions and fuel economy of the engine +as well as a host of other parameters-. 0athering data from do1ens of different sensors, the EC/ knows everything from the coolant temperature to the amount of o*ygen in the e*haust. (ith this data, it performs millions of calculations each second, including looking up values in tables, calculating the results of long e2uations to decide on the best spark timing and determining how long the fuel in.ector is open. !he EC/ does all of this to ensure the lowest emissions and best mileage. See ,ow 3uel %n.ection Systems (ork for a lot more detail on what the EC/ does.

The pins on this connecter interface with sensors and control devices all over the car.

A modern EC/ might contain a 45"bit, 60"7,1 processor. !his may not sound fast compared to the 500" to 8,000"7,1 processor you probably have in your 9C, but remember that the processor in your car is running much more efficient code than the one in your 9C. !he code in an average EC/ takes up less than 8 megabyte +7'- of memory. 'y comparison, you probably have at least 5 gigabytes +0'- of programs on your computer "" that&s 5,000 times the amount in an EC/.

ECU Components
!he processor is packaged in a module with hundreds of other components on a multi"layer circuit board. Some of the other components in the EC/ that support the processor are Analog-to-digital converters " !hese devices read the outputs of some of the sensors in the car, such as the o*ygen sensor. !he output of an o*ygen sensor is an analog voltage, usually between 0 and 8.8 volts +:-. !he processor only understands digital numbers, so the analog"to"digital converter changes this voltage into a 80"bit digital number. High-level digital outputs " ;n many modern cars, the EC/ fires the spark plugs, opens and closes the fuel in.ectors and turns the cooling fan on and off. All of these tasks re2uire digital outputs. A digital output is either on or off "" there is no in"between. 3or instance, an output for controlling the cooling fan might provide 85 : and 0.5 amps to the fan relay when it is on, and 0 : when it is off. !he digital output itself is like a relay. !he tiny amount of power that the processor can output energi1es the transistor in the digital output, allowing it to supply a much larger amount of power to the cooling fan relay, which in turn provides a still larger amount of power to the cooling fan.

igital-to-analog converters " Sometimes the EC/ has to provide an analog voltage output to drive some engine components. Since the processor on the EC/ is a digital device, it needs a component that can convert the digital number into an analog voltage.

Signal conditioners " Sometimes the inputs or outputs need to be ad.usted before they are read. 3or instance, the analog"to"digital converter that reads the voltage from the o*ygen sensor might be set up to read a 0" to 5": signal, but the o*ygen sensor outputs a 0" to 8.8": signal. A signal conditioner is a circuit that ad.usts the level of the signals coming in or out. 3or instance, if we applied a signal conditioner that multiplied the voltage coming from the o*ygen sensor by 6, we&d get a 0" to 6.6": signal, which would allow the analog"to"digital converter to read the voltage more accurately +see ,ow Analog and <igital #ecording (orks for more details-. Communication chips " !hese chips implement the various communications standards that are used on cars. !here are several standards used, but the one that is starting to dominate in"car communications is called CA! +controller"area networking-. !his communication standard allows for communication speeds of up to 500 kilobits per second +=bps-. !hat&s a lot faster than older standards. !his speed is becoming necessary because some modules communicate data onto the bus hundreds of times per second. !he CA$ bus communicates using two wires. %n the ne*t section, we&ll take a look at how communication standards have made designing and building cars easier.

The diagnostic port from a To"ota minivan

Advanced

iagnostics

Another benefit of having a communications bus is that each module can communicate faults to a central module, which stores the faults and

can communicate them to an off"board diagnostic tool. !his can make it easier for technicians to diagnose problems with the car, especially intermittent problems, which are notorious for disappearing as soon as you bring the car in for repairs. 'A!auto.com !echnical %nfo 9ages lists the fault codes stored in the EC/ for various carmakers. Sometimes, the codes can be accessed without a diagnostic tool. 3or instance, on some cars, by .umping two of the pins in the diagnostic connecter and then turning the ignition key to run, the >check engine> light will flash a certain pattern to indicate the number of the fault code stored in the EC/. ?et&s take a look at how microprocessors and communications standards have made cars easier to build.

Easier

esign and #anufacturing

,aving communication standards has made designing and building cars a little easier. A good e*ample of this simplification is the car&s instrument cluster. !he instrument cluster gathers and displays data from various parts of the vehicle. 7ost of this data is already used by other modules in the car. 3or instance, the EC/ knows the coolant temperature and engine speed. !he transmission controller knows the vehicle speed. !he controller for the anti"lock braking system +A'S- knows if there is a problem with the A'S. All of these modules simply send this data onto the communications bus. Several times a second, the EC/ will send out a packet of information consisting of a header and the data. !he header is .ust a number that identifies the packet as either a speed or a temperature reading, and the data is a number corresponding to that speed or temperature. !he instrument panel contains another module that knows to look for certain packets "" whenever it sees one, it updates the appropriate gauge or indicator with the new value. 7ost carmakers buy the instrument clusters fully assembled from a supplier, who designs them to the carmaker&s specifications. !his makes the .ob of designing the instrument panel a lot easier, both for the carmaker and the supplier. %t is easier for the carmaker to tell the supplier how each gauge will be driven. %nstead of having to tell the supplier that a particular wire will provide the speed signal, and it will be a varying voltage between 0 and 5 :, and 8.8 : corresponds to 40 mph, the carmaker can .ust provide a list of the packets of data. !hen, it is the carmaker&s responsibility to make sure that the correct data is output onto the communications bus. %t is easier for the supplier to design the instrument panel because he doesn&t need to know any details of how the speed signal is generated, or where it&s coming from. %nstead, the instrument panel simply monitors the communications bus and updates the gauges when it receives new

data. !hese types of communications standards make it very uncomplicated for carmakers to outsource the design and manufacture of components !he carmaker doesn&t have to worry about the details of how each gauge or light is driven, and the supplier who makes the instrument panel doesn&t have to worry about where the signals are coming from.

Smart Sensors
Clusters are now being used on a smaller scale for sensors. 3or instance, a traditional pressure sensor contains a device that outputs a varying voltage depending on the pressure applied to the device. /sually, the voltage output is not linear, depends on the temperature and is a low"level voltage that re2uires amplification. Some sensor manufacturers are providing a smart sensor that is integrated with all the electronics, along with a microprocessor that enables it to read the voltage, calibrates it using temperature" compensation curves and digitally outputs the pressure onto the communications bus. !his saves the carmaker from having to know all the dirty details of the sensor, and saves processing power in the module, which otherwise would have to do these calculations. %t makes the supplier, who is most up on the details of the sensor anyway, responsible for providing an accurate reading. Another advantage of the smart sensor is that the digital signal traveling over the communications bus is less susceptible to electrical noise. An analog voltage traveling through a wire can pick up e*tra voltage when it passes certain electrical components, or even from overhead power lines. Communication buses and microprocessors also help simplify the wiring through multiple$ing. ?et&s take a closer look at how they do this.

oors with lots of switches are %ecoming more and more common.

Simplified &iring
7ultiple*ing is a techni2ue that can simplify the wiring in a car. %n older cars, the wires from each switch run to the device they power. (ith more and more devices at the driver&s command each year, multiple$ing is necessary to keep the wiring from getting out of control. %n a multiple*ed system, a module containing at least one microprocessor consolidates inputs and outputs for an area of the car. 3or instance, cars that have lots of controls on the door may have a driver&s"door module. Some cars have power"window, power"mirror, power"lock and even power"seat controls on the door. %t would be impractical to run the thick bundle of wires that would come from a system like this out of the door. %nstead, the driver&s"door module monitors all of the switches. ,ere&s how it works %f the driver presses his window switch, the door module closes a relay that provides power to the window motor. %f the driver presses the switch to ad.ust the passenger"side mirror, the driver&s door module sends a packet of data onto the communication bus of the car. !his packet tells a different module to energi1e one of the power"mirror motors. %n this way, most of the signals that leave the driver&s door are consolidated onto the two wires that form the communication bus. !he development of new safety systems has also increased the number of microprocessors in cars. (e&ll talk about this in the ne*t section.

Safet"' Comfort and Convenience

;ver the last decade, we&ve seen safety systems such as A'S and air bags become common on cars. ;ther safety features such as traction" control and stability"control systems are starting to become common as well. Each of these systems adds a new module to the car, and this module contains multiple microprocessors. %n the future, there will be more and more of these modules all over the car as new safety systems are added. Each of these safety systems re2uires more processing power, and is usually packaged in its own electronics module. 'ut it doesn&t end there. %n coming years, we&ll have all kinds of new convenience features in our cars, and each of these re2uires more electronics modules containing multiple microprocessors. %t seems that there is no limit to how much technology carmakers are going to pack into our cars. !he addition of all these electronic features is one of the factors driving carmakers to increase the system voltage on cars from the current 86": system to a 65": system. !his will help provide the e*tra power these modules re2uire. 3or more information on car computers and related topics, check out the links on the ne*t page.

(ots #ore )nformation

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