Apparatus and method for engine control
An apparatus and method for sensing the position of a piston in a valve in a gas compressor or the position of a piston in a free piston engine. The apparatus includes a plurality of valve sensors, a plurality of magnets, and a plurality of valve sense modules coupled to the valve sensors and a controller coupled to the plurality of valve sense modules. The method includes processing information received from the valve sensors to determine the linear position of the valves in the gas compressor or a piston in a free piston engine.
1 . An apparatus comprising:
a first plurality of electronic sense modules, each of the first plurality of electronic sense modules daisy chained together through a first cable type to form a first daisy chain, the first cable type including a fast bus and an Ethernet bus; and
a second plurality of electronic sense modules, each of the second plurality of electronic sense modules daisy chained together through the first cable type, the second plurality of electronic sense modules to form a second daisy chain, wherein each of the first plurality of electronic sense modules and each the second plurality of electronic sense modules is coupled to one of a plurality of sensors in a gas compressor or a free piston engine.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a controller coupled to the first daisy chain through the first cable type and to the second daisy chain through the first cable type.
3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the controller includes a first fast bus controller, a second fast bus controller, and a processor, the first fast bus controller coupled to the fast bus of the first daisy chain and the second fast bus controller coupled to the fast bus of the second daisy chain and the processor is coupled to the ethernet bus of the first daisy chain and the ethernet bus of the second daisy chain.
4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the first fast bus controller comprises a field-programmable gate array.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a controller coupled to the first daisy chain through a second cable type including an Ethernet bus.
6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a controller coupled to a bridge through a second cable type and the bridge coupled to the first daisy chain through the second cable type.
7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors are disposed in a gas compressor.
8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of sensors is a valve sensor.
9 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the valve sensor comprises an anisotropic magneto-resistive sensor.
10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first plurality of electronic sense modules includes a first particular number of electronic sense modules and power is managed by controlling the first particular number of electronic sense modules.
11 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the second plurality of electronic sense modules includes a second particular number of electronic sense modules, each of the second plurality of electronic sense modules has a sampling rate and power is managed by decreasing the sampling rate.
12 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors are disposed in a free piston engine.