초록 ▼

A voltage regulator for regulating the output voltage of a diode-rectified alternating current generator that supplies the electrical loads on a motor vehicle including the storage battery. The voltage regulator has an up-down counter which is incremented when the output voltage of the generator is

A voltage regulator for regulating the output voltage of a diode-rectified alternating current generator that supplies the electrical loads on a motor vehicle including the storage battery. The voltage regulator has an up-down counter which is incremented when the output voltage of the generator is below a desired regulated value and is decremented when the output voltage of the generator is above the desired regulating value. The magnitude of the count in the counter is repeatedly sampled and used to determine the on time of a semiconductor switch that is connected in series with the field winding to thereby control the duty cycle of the field voltage pulses. The counter is incremented at a lower rate when the speed of the engine that drives the generator is below a predetermined speed than it is when the speed of the engine is above the predetermined speed. When the generator is not rotating, the up-count of the counter is limited to a predetermined value that provides a minimum field voltage duty cycle. The system is capable of sensing either battery voltage or rectifier output voltage and is controlled to automatically switch between battery voltage and rectifier voltage under certain operating conditions.

대표청구항 ▼

The method of regulating the output voltage of a generator that has a field winding and an output winding, the steps comprising, sensing the magnitude of the output voltage of said output winding, comparing the sensed voltage with a reference voltage, incrementing a counter when the sensed voltage i

The method of regulating the output voltage of a generator that has a field winding and an output winding, the steps comprising, sensing the magnitude of the output voltage of said output winding, comparing the sensed voltage with a reference voltage, incrementing a counter when the sensed voltage is lower than the reference voltage and decrementing the counter when sensed voltage is higher than the reference voltage, repeatedly sampling the magnitude of the count in the counter at a predetermined frequency, energizing said field winding each time the counter is sampled with a voltage pulse the pulse width of which is a function of the magnitude of the count in the counter at the time that the counter is sampled and during the time that the sensed voltage is lower than the reference voltage, and maintaining said field winding deenergized when said sensed voltage is higher than said reference voltage while at the same time decrementing said counter.