Granted Patent B2

US 7,509,945 · App. 11/686,594 · Granted Mar 31, 2009

Abstract

Claims (28)

1. A fuel pump controller, comprising:

a detecting device for detecting environmental vibrational energy and converting the environmental vibrational energy to an electrical signal,

a motor controller coupled to a fuel pump motor, wherein the electrical signal is coupled to the controller and it is used by the controller to command the fuel pump motor to operate at one of a plurality of speeds, wherein said commanded speed is at least in part correlated to the environmental vibrational energy.

2. The controller of claim 1 , wherein said detecting device and said motor controller are provided in a common housing.

3. The controller of claim 2 , wherein the common housing is an electrical connector.

4. The controller of claim 3 , wherein the electrical connector is adapted to be mated to a connector for a fuel pump motor and pump assembly.

5. The controller of claim 1 , further including a signal conditioning module coupled between the detecting device and the motor controller.

6. The controller of claim 5 , wherein said signal conditioning module includes an amplifier.

7. The controller of claim 5 , wherein said signal conditioning filter contains at least one electrical filter component.

8. The controller of claim 1 , wherein said motor controller is a pulse width motor controller.

9. The controller of claim 1 , wherein said detecting device is a microphone.

10. The controller of claim 1 , wherein said detecting device is an accelerometer.

11. A vehicle fuel pump speed control, comprising:

a transducer for detecting environmental noise, wherein said transducer converts the environmental noise to an electrical transducer output signal, wherein said electrical transducer output signal is indicative of the environmental noise,

a signal conditioning module electrically coupled to the electrical transducer output signal for conditioning said electrical transducer output signal to produce an electrical conditioned output signal,

a motor controller electrically coupled to said electrical conditioned output signal, wherein said electrical conditioned electrical signal is used by the motor controller to command an electrical fuel pump motor to rotate at a speed that is at least in part correlated to the environmental noise.

12. The vehicle fuel pump speed control system of claim 11 , further including a fuel pump mechanically coupled to said fuel pump motor, wherein said fuel pump and said fuel pump motor are located within a cavity defined at least in part by a fuel tank.

13. The vehicle fuel pump speed control system of claim 11 , wherein said transducer, signal conditioning module, and said motor controller are collectively provided in a common housing.

14. The vehicle fuel pump speed control system of claim 13 , wherein the common housing is an electrical connector.

15. The vehicle fuel pump speed control system of claim 14 , wherein the electrical connector is mated to a connector for said fuel pump motor.

16. The vehicle fuel pump speed control system of claim 11 , wherein said motor controller is a pulse width motor controller.

17. The vehicle fuel pump speed control system of claim 11 , wherein said signal conditioning module contains at least one electrical filter component.

18. A method for controlling a speed of a fuel pump motor, comprising:

detecting vibrational energy associated with a vehicle's state,

converting the detected vibrational energy into an electrical signal that, is indicative of said detected vibrational energy,

using said electrical signal to control a speed of a fuel pump motor in a way that a fuel demand of a vehicle coupled to the fuel pump motor may be met.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein a microphone is used to detect the vibrational energy associated with the vehicle's state.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein and accelerometer is used to detect the vibrational energy associated with the vehicle's state.

Assignments (6)