Method for determining the angular position of an engine by way of a crankshaft sensor and a camshaft sensor

1. A method for determining an angular position of an engine by way of a crankshaft sensor comprising a crankshaft detector facing a crankshaft toothed wheel, performing two revolutions per engine cycle, and comprising a large number of regular teeth and a revolution marker, the crankshaft detector being able to produce a ‘tooth’ event corresponding to an edge for each of said teeth, a ‘revolution’ event for the revolution marker, and a ‘missing tooth’ event when two successive ‘tooth’ events are abnormally far apart, and of a camshaft sensor comprising a camshaft detector facing a camshaft toothed wheel, performing one revolution per engine cycle, and comprising a small number of irregular teeth, the camshaft detector being able to produce a ‘tooth start’ event for each rising edge and a ‘tooth end’ event for each falling edge, the method comprising:

producing the ‘revolution’ event by the crankshaft sensor,

determining with the camshaft sensor the angular position of the camshaft by identifying the ‘tooth start’ and ‘tooth end’ events produced by the camshaft detector following said ‘revolution’ event, in a fast mode, over at most one crankshaft revolution, wherein if a ‘missing tooth’ event is produced by the crankshaft detector after the ‘revolution’ event and if the determination of the angular position of the camshaft fails, the method continues with a step of:

determining with the camshaft sensor the angular position of the camshaft by identifying the ‘tooth start’ and ‘tooth end’ events produced by the camshaft detector, in a slow mode, over at least two crankshaft revolutions.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the crankshaft toothed wheel is regularly angularly divided into 60 teeth positions and comprises a large number of teeth equal to 58, and 2 consecutive missing teeth forming the revolution marker.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the camshaft toothed wheel comprises a small number of teeth equal to 4, comprising a first small tooth, followed by a first small cavity, followed by a first large tooth, followed by a second small cavity, followed by a second large tooth, followed by a first large cavity, followed by a second small tooth, followed by a second large cavity.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a ‘missing tooth’ is not able to be produced within a window whose extent is said large number of teeth toleranced by +/− a tolerance of 2 teeth following a ‘revolution’ event.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a ‘missing tooth’ is not able to be produced within a window whose extent is said large number of teeth toleranced by +/− a tolerance of teeth following a ‘revolution’ event.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the crankshaft toothed wheel is regularly angularly divided into 60 teeth positions and comprises a large number of teeth equal to 58, and 2 consecutive missing teeth forming the revolution marker.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the determination of the angular position of the camshaft by identification in the slow mode is continued in the slow mode for as long as the determination of the angular position of the camshaft fails.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein a ‘missing tooth’ is not able to be produced within a window whose extent is said large number of teeth toleranced by +/− a tolerance of teeth following a ‘revolution’ event.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the crankshaft toothed wheel is regularly angularly divided into 60 teeth positions and comprises a large number of teeth equal to 58, and 2 consecutive missing teeth forming the revolution marker.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein a ‘missing tooth’ is not able to be produced within a window whose extent is said large number of teeth toleranced by +/− a tolerance of 2 teeth following a ‘revolution’ event.