The present invention relates to marine engine control, and in particular to the control of plural marine engines when used to drive a power boat at higher speeds.
A power boat with a single engine may be controlled with a steering wheel much in the same manner as an automobile is controlled. Two or more marine engines may be used for additional power for a larger power boat and for greater speed. Controlling more than one engine has been accomplished by using a “tie bar”.
A tie bar mechanically ties two or more outboard engines together rigidly so that their propulsion directions are aligned, and the engines preserve that alignment when turned to the left and to the right by the same degree of angular displacement in response to the control exercised by the driver of the power boat, thereby assuring the same angular displacement for both the engines moves the boat forward at maximum efficiency.
Finer control, for use in maneuvering the boat in a crowded harbor or near a dock, for example, and particularly in maneuvering into a boat slip when there may be crosswinds and stronger currents, is more difficult with multiple engines joined by tie bars. To accommodate this need for better control while still preserving the capability for unified engine control, computer-based steering controllers have replaced tie bars.
Computer-based control systems typically provide a joystick rather than a steering wheel to enable the operator of the power boat to control direction of the boat. A computer processor receives signals from the movement of the joystick that it translates into angular positions for the motors that move the power boat. These computer-controlled systems work reasonably well for both maneuvering and forward motion.
For power boats that have more than one motor and are capable of higher speeds—speeds that can be in excess of 130 knots/hour—software and computer-actuated controls work reasonably well, in theory.
The present disclosure teaches a novel tie bar assembly that provides the operator of a power boat equipped with two or more computer-controlled engines the additional assurance that, at higher speeds, the angular displacement between all the engines stays at a predetermined angle near zero degrees.
The novel tie bar assembly includes a first shaft and a second shaft receivable inside the first shaft. The second shaft slides freely within the first shaft, in the manner of a cylindrical bearing, unless it is restrained from axial movement. Both the first shaft and the second shaft have corresponding transverse holes. The transverse holes comprise a pair of holes through the second shaft and at least one transverse hole in first shaft. The axes of the holes of the first and second shafts can be aligned to receive a pin that prevents further axial movement of first shaft with respect to second shaft as long as the pin is in place.
When first shaft and second shaft are secured together with the pin, the present tie bar assembly operates in the same manner as a traditional tie bar assembly: holding the marine engines in a parallel relationship regardless of their orientation with respect to the axis of the shaft. When the pin is removed, the first shaft and the second shaft are then free to slide axially relative to each other and thus the angle between the engines attached to the tie bar assembly may be changed, with the two engines oriented at different angles with respect to each other, restoring maneuvering control of the marine engines to an onboard computer processing unit, as directed by the boat operator through a joystick.
At a pre-designated speed, however, the pin is inserted to secure the two marine engines in parallel relationship for steering by the boat operator using a steering wheel. Below the pre-designated speed, the pin can be withdrawn and the steering of the boat returns to joy-stick control.
Insertion and withdrawal of the pin may be subject to software or other computer control programming, such as, for example, using speed set points to cause the control system to align the engines so that the holes in the first shaft and second shaft are aligned, and then causing an electronically-activated solenoid to insert the locking pin into the aligned holes automatically based on speed set points. The control system, on reaching a first speed set point on accelerating will activate the electronically-activated solenoid to insert the pin to lock the marine engines in the same relative angle of operation, and on reaching a second preset speed on decelerating, the control system activates the electronically-activated solenoid to withdraw the pin to restore normal joy-stick operation and its greater control of the operation of the individual marine engines.
An aspect of the disclosure is that the locking of the engines in parallel position at higher speeds is a safety feature that helps to prevent loss of control.
An aspect of the present disclosure is that locking of the two-part tie bar assembly may be automatic at a pre-designated speed and therefore provide an additional safety feature that depends only on the speed of the power boat for activation and not on the operator of the boat to activate it.
Another aspect of the present disclosure is that the two-part tie bar assembly adaptively connects to two marine engines in the same manner as prior art tie bars connected to marine engines, namely, by attaching to a yoke rigidly affixed to the rear of each engine and a threaded, lockable adjustment on one yoke to allow an adjustment in the spacing of the two engines so they are oriented in parallel. Once the engines are set in parallel, further adjustments are not required to the present tie-bar. The predrilled holes in the hollow outer shaft and solid inner shaft are formed precisely to accept the pin translates the angle of one engine to a corresponding angle of the other.
These and other aspects of the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art of the operation of power boats from a careful reading of the detailed description accompanied by the following drawings.
In the drawings:
The present disclosure teaches an improved tie bar assembly for use with a power boat 10. Referring now to the drawings.
Also shown in
The present adaptable tie bar assembly 42 of the present invention, as shown in
Referring now to
The adjustment fitting 54 contains a first end and a second end. The first end is received within the second end of the first shaft 46 and the second end is engaged to the first connector device 56. As mentioned above, the first shaft 46 may be hollow, partially hollow, or contain a hollow portion on the first end and/or the second end. The second end of the first shaft 46 at least contains a hollow portion for receiving the first end of the adjustment fitting 54. The adjustment fitting 54 may be circular and the hollow portion of the second end of the first shaft 46 that receives the first end of the adjustment fitting 54 may also be circular, wherein the diameter of the adjustment fitting 54 or at least the portion of the adjustment fitting 54 received within the second end of the first shaft 46 has a diameter slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the hollow portion of the second end of the first shaft 46. The first end of the adjustment fitting 54 is externally threaded and the second end of the first shaft 46 is internally threaded for mating the adjustment fitting 54 to the first shaft 46 in a selectively secured arrangement, allowing the adjustment fitting 54 to be separated from the first shaft in a manner that does not damage the adjustment fitting 54 or first shaft 46. The adjustment fitting 54 is rotated within the hollow portion of the second end of the first shaft 46, translating along the longitudinal axis of the first shaft 46. In other words, the adjustment fitting 54 is rotated and moves within the hollow portion of the second end of the first shaft 46. The adjustment fitting 54 allows the adaptable tie bar assembly 42 to be adjustable and maintain a length as desired by the user for the particular operation. While a circular cross-section has been illustrated and described herein for the adjustment fitting 54 and the hollow portion of the second end of the first shaft 46, the cross-section may be other shapes, such oval, square, rectangular, triangular, and the like.
The first shaft 46 contains a transverse hole 68 extending through the first shaft from one side of the first shaft 46 to the opposite side of the first shaft 46. The transverse hole 68 is preferably disposed on the first end of the first shaft 46. As illustrated in
The adaptable tie bar assembly 42 may be coupled to a processing device, such as a central processing unit (CPU) 60. The CPU 60 may be part of a digital computer that, in terms of hardware architecture, generally includes a memory device, input/output (I/O) interfaces, and a network interface. The memory device may include a data store, database, or the like. It should be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that
The CPU 60 is a hardware device adapted for at least executing software instructions. When a power boat 10 is in operation, the CPU 60 may be configured to execute software stored within the memory device, to communicate data to and from the memory device, and to generally control positioning of the first marine engine 14 and the second marine engine 18 and activating the electrically-activated solenoid 76 pursuant to the software instructions based upon feedback from one or more sensors, including one or more speed sensors.
The I/O interfaces may be used to receive user input from and/or for providing system output to one or more devices or components. User input may be provided via, for example, a keyboard, touchpad, a mouse, and/or other input receiving devices. The system output may be provided via a display device, monitor, graphical user interface (GUI), a printer, and/or other user output devices. I/O interfaces may include, for example, a serial port, a parallel port, a small computer system interface (SCSI), a serial ATA (SATA), a fiber channel, InfiniBand, iSCSI, a PCI Express interface (PCI-x), an infrared (IR) interface, a radio frequency (RF) interface, and/or a universal serial bus (USB) interface. At least one sensor is communicatively coupled to the I/O interface. The sensor(s) determine the speed of the power boat 10. Speed can be determined by GPS tracking and/or detecting speed relative to water.
The network interface may be used to enable communication over a network, such as the network, the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), and the like. The network interface may include, for example, an Ethernet card or adapter (e.g., 10BaseT, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, 10 GbE) or a wireless local area network (WLAN) card or adapter (e.g., 802.11a/b/g/n/ac). The network interface may include address, control, and/or data connections to enable appropriate communications on the network. A NMEA 2000 interface is preferably utilized that allows various devices using Controller Area Network (CAN) technology on the power boat to communicate with each other within the same network without interference. The NMEA 2000 standard contains the requirements of a serial data communications network to inter-connect marine electronic equipment on vessels. The standard describes a low-cost moderate capacity bi-directional, multi-transmitter/multi-receiver instrument network to interconnect marine electronic devices. It is multi-master and self-configuring, and there is no central network controller. Equipment designed to this standard will have the ability to share data, including commands and status with other compatible equipment over a single channel. It is based on CAN (Controller Area Network).
The memory device may include volatile memory elements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, and the like)), nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CDROM, and the like), and combinations thereof. Moreover, the memory device may incorporate electronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. The memory device may have a distributed architecture, where various components are situated remotely from one another, but can be accessed by the CPU 60. The software in memory device may include one or more software programs, each of which may include an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions. The software in the memory device may also include a suitable operating system (O/S) and one or more computer programs. The operating system (O/S) essentially controls the execution of any other computer programs, and can provide timing, input-output control, file and data management, and memory management. The computer programs may be configured to implement the various processes, algorithms, methods, techniques, etc. described herein.
The memory device may include a data store used to store data. Moreover, some embodiments may include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer readable code stored in the memory device or other processor-equipped computer, server, appliance, device, circuit, etc., to perform functions as described herein. Examples of such non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, a hard disk, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), Flash memory, and the like. When stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium, software can include instructions executable by the CPU 60 that, in response to such execution, cause the CPU 60 to perform a set of operations, steps, methods, processes, algorithms, functions, techniques, etc. as described herein for the various embodiments.
As shown, the memory device may include software that interprets the sensor data received from the sensor and based upon the sensor data the software sends instructions to the CPU 60 to perform a set of operations, such as switching between control systems.
When pin 64 is in transverse hole 68 and corresponding hole 72, as seen in
Based upon instructions received, the CPU 60 switches between control system 1 and control system 2 based on the speed of hull 26 and sensor data input from the sensor. When accelerating past a preset speed 50 kph, for example, CPU 60 may switch from control system 1 to control system 2 where first marine engine 14 and second marine engine 18 are locked in a parallel relationship. Boat 26 can be steered but first marine engine 14 and second marine engine 18 are always parallel in control system 2. On decelerating to a preset speed of 20 kph, for example, CPU 60 may be programmed to switch from control system 2 back to control system 1 and thus enable adaptable tie bar assembly 42 to allow more independent control of marine engine 14 and marine engine 18 for greater maneuverability.
In control system 1, as seen in
Alternatively, pin 64 may be inserted by hand.
The foregoing description and the accompanying figures are intended to explain the present invention using embodiments that are of necessity limited in scope but still illustrate for those of ordinary skill the general concepts of the present disclosure.
The present patent application/patent claims the benefit of priority of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/189,761 filed on May 18, 2021, and entitled “ADAPTABLE TIE BAR ASSEMBLY FOR SECURE ALIGNMENT OF MULTIPLE MARINE ENGINES AS HIGHER SPEEDS.”
Number | Date | Country | |
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63189761 | May 2021 | US |