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Engine Control Units (ECU) are used extensively
in modern engines from everything from a family car engines,
motorcycle engines, formula 1 racing car engines, to military
helicopter engines. Advances in electronics over the past
few decades have meant that these units are smaller and more
powerful controlling many engine functions.
The units are in essence a micro-computer;
the engine control unit reads data taken from various sensors
positioned around the engine to perform various control, management
and data logging functions. Some of the most common functions
include Ignition control, Fuel injection control, turbocharger
control, idle speed control, throttle control, traction control
and data logging. In more advanced systems control functions
can be done real-time from remote computers as in F1 racing
cars, super bikes and rally cars.
Modern Engine control Units (also known
as Engine Management Systems (EMS)) generally consist of a
number of chips mounted on a printed circuit board set in
a casing generally made from aluminium or ceramic material
depending on the application; the components on the printed
circuit boards which include a microprocessor which processes
the input data from the sensors in real-time, EPROMS or Flash
Memory. Software is stored on the board either in the microcontroller
or other chips on the printed circuit board.
These devices require a high input voltage
and draw a high drain current in a hostile environment. Lithium
technology provides the best solution for this application.
The Sonnenschein and Tadiran range of Lithium cells include
high temperature cells which can still deliver high power
even at extremes of temperature found in engine environments.
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