CYLINDER RECOGNITION APPARATUS FOR A MULTI-CYLINDER INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

摘要

An improved cylinder recognition apparatus for a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine capable of recognizing the operating states of a relatively large number of cylinders by use of two kinds of output signals of a signal generator in a short time and in a reliable manner. A signal generator generates a first signal and a second signal synchronously with the rotation of the engine, the first signal containing a plurality of positional pulses each representative of prescribed reference rotational positions of a corresponding cylinder, the second signal containing a plurality of cylinder recognition pulses each at a location near a corresponding one of the positional pulses. Each cylinder recognition pulse has a specific angular relation with respect to a corresponding positional pulse which is different from that of any other cylinder recognition pulse. A microcomputer detects the level of the second signal at the prescribed reference rotational positions of each cylinder so as to generate an appropriate serial pattern representative of a series of successively detected signal levels. The microcomputer includes a register for sequentially storing the successively detected signal levels, and has a look-up table stored therein which contains a plurality of serial patterns each corresponding to a specific cylinder. The microcomputer recognizes the operating state of each cylinder based on an appropriate number of successively detected last signal levels stored in the register while looking at the look-up table.