Gearshift control system

Abstract: A gearshift control system comprises an electrical control unit (1) which operates hydraulic valves (14) controlling a hydraulic gearshift actuator. The vehicle in which the system operates has a dashboard control (5) to preselect a gear change, which is actuated by depressing the clutch pedal (3) operating a switch (2), both the switch (2) and control (5) being connected to the unit (1). The system includes means for updating the electronic stored values representative of the position of the gearshift actuator. The system also includes means for aborting a gearshift if, after given time periods, either the shift has not been completed, or the clutch pedal is released. In any event the gearshift will be aborted if the clutch is released during a change. The system will not initiate a gearshift unless the clutch pedal is held down for a given period of time.

Description: The present invention relates to a Gearshift Control System for a vehicle, and has particular application to a forward reverse preselect vehicle transmission in which a direction change is selected with e.g., a dashboard control prior to disengaging the main clutch, and the gearshift subsequently occurs automatically when the clutch is disengaged. The invention is especially useful for tractors used in loading work where frequent forward/reverse gear shifts are required. The invention addresses the management of the gearshift actuator piston in response to the position of the clutch pedal in such a way that avoids fouling of the gears and results in simple operation for the driver. Potential problem areas are, e.g if the clutch pedal is momentarily accidentally pressed when a gear has been preselected, or is depressed insufficiently far. Alternatively the pedal might be disengaged too early, whilst the gearshift is still being carried out, or the synchromesh may not engage the new gear for some reason, e.g. the speed of the vehicle may be too high. EP-A-111065 discloses a power-assisted transmission with a gearshift suppressing arrangement in which the transmission is controlled so that the gear can only be changed where the clutch is completely disengaged. The suppressing arrangement relies on a sensor measuring the movement of the clutch. According to the present invention, there is provided a preselect gear control system for a vehicle, the system comprising a gearshift actuator, a clutch control member, a clutch switch responsive to the said clutch control member being in the disengaged position, a preselect switch for generating a signal which is representative of a desired gear ratio for the transmission, characterised by indicator means for indicating the desired gear as selected by the said preselect switch, a control unit responsive to the said clutch switch and the said preselect switch for actuating the said gearshift actuator to operate the vehicle transmission in the neutral gear ratio if the clutch switch is actuated for longer than a first predetermined time period and less than a second predetermined time period, and for actuating the said gearshift actuator to operate the transmission in the desired gear ratio if the clutch switch is actuated for longer than the said second predetermined time period and less than a third predetermined time period, the said control unit including gearshift aborting means for actuating the said gearshift actuator to operate the transmission in neutral if the desired ratio is not engaged after the clutch switch has been actuated for more than the said third predetermined time period, the said control unit further including outputs to said indicator means. Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of a specific embodiment, which is made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a schematic diagram representing a control system in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the range of movement of an actuator piston of a control system. Referring to Figure 1, the control system comprises a central control unit 1, a clutch pedal 3 and a clutch switch 2 ("on" if clutch pedal fully depressed) connected via clutch position signal line 4 to the central control unit 1. An actuator piston is moved by hydraulic pressure from lines extending from hydraulic valves 14 and 14', connected to the control unit 1 via control lines 13 and 13'. A preselect switch 5 is connected via preselect signal line 6 to the control unit 1. The switch 5 can be a simple button which is depressed when, for example one wishes to change from forward to reverse gears. A gearshift actuator piston, which is connected mechanically to operate a synchromesh mechanism, has a displacement sensor 7 with an analogue electronic output connected via actuator displacement signal line 8 to the central control unit. The central control unit 1 has electronic indicator light outputs connected via indicator light signal lines 9, 10 to respective indicator lights 11, 12. The control unit also has an audible alarm output connected via audible alarm signal line 15 to an audible alarm 16. A speed sensor 17 is connected to the control unit via speed signal line 18. The control unit 1 fulfils a number of functions which might be carried out by separate dedicated items of electronic hardware but, more usually, would all be performed by a single appropriately programmed processor. Before the control system can operate, it is initialised. With reference to figure 2, initialisation involves moving the actuator piston, by means of a valve 14, to an extreme (eg to the left in figure 2) of its range of movement determined in practice by the synchromesh to which it is connected and recording in a store (memory) a value representative of the actuator displacement, as sensed by the displacement sensor 7, adjusted by a set margin EPSILON (see figure 2). This gives a threshold LEFTMIN over which the control unit will consider the gear to be engaged. In this system, an array is created in which the value for LEFTMIN is entered 5 times. The reason for this will be explained later. A further memory location NOVRAM (LEFTMIN) is used to store the average of these 5 values. The average value will of course, initially, be identical to each of the 5 values. The process is then repeated for the opposite extreme of movement of the actuator piston using valve 14' to give a value for the other threshold RIGHTMIN. A neutral position is then calculated half way between LEFTMIN and RIGHTMIN, and upper and lower thresholds NEUTRAL LEFT and NEUTRAL RIGHT calculated by adding and subtracting a constant ALPHA. The central control unit 1 will now consider the transmission to be in neutral, at least for the purposes of the forward/reverse preselect control, when the actuator lies between NEUTRAL LEFT and NEUTRAL RIGHT, to be in forward gear when the displacement is below RIGHTMIN and reverse gear when the displacement is above LEFTMIN. Once the system has been initialised, after each movement of the piston into forward or reverse a self adjusting routine is gone through as follows. The last measured displacement of the current actuator piston position is stored in the array, displacing one of the old values, and the 5 values in the array are averaged. The value stored in NOVRAM, that is the previous stored average of the 5 array values, is compared with the new average. If the difference is more than a set reference value, the value of NOVRAM is set to the new average, otherwise it remains unchanged. In this way, the NOVRAM values are constantly updated. Using the average of 5 values and only changing NOVRAM for differences of more than a given value, ensures that any adjustment is gradual. A number of functions in the control unit are provided to ensure the safety of the system. Firstly, the control unit will only initiate a gear shift if the tractor speed is below a given value, e.g. 2 kilometres an hour for low range and 5 kilometres an hour for high range. The clutch pedal must also be held fully down for 300 mS before the control unit will initiate a shift. If the pedal is held down for less than 100 mS, no action is taken. If it is held down for more than 100 mS and less than 300 mS, the control unit moves the actuator automatically to neutral. Once these two conditions are met, (ie the speed condition and the clutch pedal being held down for more than 300 mS) a signal is sent to the actuator piston to move. If the synchromesh does not engage within 2 seconds, the control unit automatically puts the actuator piston to neutral and an audible warning sounds. If the clutch is inadvertently engaged by releasing the pedal whilst the actuator piston is traveling between forward and reverse, the control unit will automatically instruct the actuator to go into neutral. Once the actuator is in neutral a shift can of course be re-initiated by releasing the clutch pedal and depressing it for 300 mS or more again.

Claims: A preselect gear control system for a vehicle, the system comprising: a) a gearshift actuator; b) a clutch control member (3); c) a clutch switch (2) responsive to the said clutch control member being in the disengaged position; d) a preselect switch (5) for generating a signal which is representative of a desired gear ratio for the transmission; characterised by e) indicator means (11,12) for indicating the desired gear as selected by the said preselect switch; f) a control unit (1) responsive to the said clutch switch and the said preselect switch for actuating the said gearshift actuator to operate the vehicle transmission in the neutral gear ratio if the clutch switch is actuated for longer than a first predetermined time period and less than a second predetermined time period, and for actuating the said gearshift actuator to operate the transmission in the desired gear ratio if the clutch switch is actuated for longer than the said second predetermined time period and less than a third predetermined time period, the said control unit including gearshift aborting means for actuating the said gearshift actuator to operate the transmission in neutral if the desired ratio is not engaged after the clutch switch has been actuated for more than the said third predetermined time period, the said control unit further including outputs to said indicator means (11,12). A system as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said control system includes means (17) for determining the speed of a vehicle and said gearshift actuator is responsive to said speed being below a maximum reference value, to actuate said gearshift actuator.

Inventors: LE CLEZIO YVON, LE CLEZIO, YVON
Applicants: MASSEY FERGUSON SA, MASSEY FERGUSON S.A.
Application year: 1995
Main classification: B60K41
IPC codes: F16H61, F16H59, B60W30, B60W10