A NOVEL APPROACH TO DEVELOP ECU BASED AUTOMOBILE STARTING SYSTEM USING LAB VIEW FOR SAFE AND RELIABLE START

Engine start is a very crucial phase in the operation of automotive engines and the starter motor plays a vital role in this short transient period. The quality of engine start influences emission and also the drivability of the vehicle. If a fault occurs with the starter motor, the engine cannot be run, especially in emergency vehicles like Ambulance, Fire engine etc. Starter motor faults cause some other faults. However, a complete exhaustive model of the combined engine starter system has not appeared to date in open literature. As a typical mechanical and electric device relating to efficiency, safety to passenger, car and starter reliability, starting system based on integrated control method by electronic control unit (ECU) and software based monitoring system is the right solution. This paper discusses MATLAB/SIMULINK R2007b based approach to develop an electronic control unit for starting system to reduce the internal resistance of the battery due to overloading, failure of mechanical components of starter motor and pitting of electrical contacts of solenoid switch and Lab VIEW based condition monitoring of automobile starting system has been developed for implementation on the light duty vehicles. This technique is effective in detection of battery open circuit voltage, for reliable start and increased service life of both battery and starter motor, and also for safety of vehicle and passengers, conditions of seat belt and gear neutral positions are verified before cranking the engine. The ECU based starting system has potential to be used for real time condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of vehicles with the help of industrial computers.