Digital Instrument Panel for Diesel Engines
This project serves as a ‘black box’ which interfaces with the pressure, temperature, RPM and other sensors of a Diesel Engine to generate serial packet data for a ‘Digital Instrument Panel’, which can be viewed on a PC, on an operator’s HMI (Human Machine Interface) console or wirelessly via the Bluetooth link on a PDA.
The project was designed to suit the requirements of Medium Capacity Diesel Engines (up to 700 HP) on Railroad vehicles and Gen-sets (environments subjected to heavy switching where EMI/EMS noise considerations are important), and Engines on PLC controlled test beds after maintenance. It was designed to interface with existing industrial grade sensors fitted on the engine, which may be non-linear. It also includes intuitive alarm annunciations based on recorded speech messages.
The project can be used stand-alone or as a ‘Diesel Engine Pre-processor’ in a PLC based system. The entire electronics is controlled by a single M16C62P Microcontroller, which drastically reduces the cost and complexity of the system.
