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Step 17Reactor Control Unit (RCU) - aka "THE BRAIN 2"
Any modern car has an Electronic Control Unit, or ECU, which monitors and controls the engine function and keeps everything working. It is often called the Brain of the car. One of the Honda ECU's main functions is to properly inject gasoline into the engine, and monitor the fuel/air mix. Since we are doing some Serious Monkeying Around with both of those pathways in order to replace the gasoline with our Gasifier produced syngas, we built our own Reactor Control Unit (RCU) - also known as THE BRAIN 2.
The RCU taps into the Honda ECU to bypass its control of the fuel injectors and fuel/air mix. It also has several other functions:
- Sense if the fuel mix is lean or rich. We use the existing oxygen sensor from the Honda and access it where it connects to the Honda ECU (Honda's stock ECU is their brain for running the car).
- Control our new fuel/air mix butterfly valve. We drive a servo from a dial mounted on the dash. We also have a switch on the dash that can toggle between Manual fuel/air mix control, and Automatic fuel/air mix control. In Auto mode our RCU uses a closed-loop feedback to automatically adjust the air/fuel mix, just like the Honda ECU does when running on gasoline.
- A control for the grate jigglerator motor (fuel unclogging system)
- A sensing and control loop for steam injection into the gasifier, when there is adequate heat. The GEK in the this Honda has a variety of heat recycling systems which result in a surplus of heat in the gasifier, heat which can be usefully consumed via more steam over the glowing char in the reactor, and thus a more hydrogen rich gas output.
- A solid fuel level sensor and auger motor control. Not used in the current non-auger design.
- A USB connection to a laptop, we send all the sensor data to the laptop to display it. The Co-pilot can check the readings on all the instrumentation - thermocouples, pressure sensors, oxygen sensor, and all the motors can be activated manually by the copilot.
- A switch to disable or enable the electronic fuel injection. we again tapped into the Honda ECU for this.
Our Reactor Control Unit is built with a SiLabs 8051 devkit with a custom expansion board plugged to it. There are 12 thermocouple jacks, 4 pressure sensors, 4 30-amp H-bridges for motor drive, a USB connection for a data display laptop, etc....
The RCU taps into the Honda ECU to bypass its control of the fuel injectors and fuel/air mix. It also has several other functions:
- Sense if the fuel mix is lean or rich. We use the existing oxygen sensor from the Honda and access it where it connects to the Honda ECU (Honda's stock ECU is their brain for running the car).
- Control our new fuel/air mix butterfly valve. We drive a servo from a dial mounted on the dash. We also have a switch on the dash that can toggle between Manual fuel/air mix control, and Automatic fuel/air mix control. In Auto mode our RCU uses a closed-loop feedback to automatically adjust the air/fuel mix, just like the Honda ECU does when running on gasoline.
- A control for the grate jigglerator motor (fuel unclogging system)
- A sensing and control loop for steam injection into the gasifier, when there is adequate heat. The GEK in the this Honda has a variety of heat recycling systems which result in a surplus of heat in the gasifier, heat which can be usefully consumed via more steam over the glowing char in the reactor, and thus a more hydrogen rich gas output.
- A solid fuel level sensor and auger motor control. Not used in the current non-auger design.
- A USB connection to a laptop, we send all the sensor data to the laptop to display it. The Co-pilot can check the readings on all the instrumentation - thermocouples, pressure sensors, oxygen sensor, and all the motors can be activated manually by the copilot.
- A switch to disable or enable the electronic fuel injection. we again tapped into the Honda ECU for this.
Our Reactor Control Unit is built with a SiLabs 8051 devkit with a custom expansion board plugged to it. There are 12 thermocouple jacks, 4 pressure sensors, 4 30-amp H-bridges for motor drive, a USB connection for a data display laptop, etc....
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