What Is Car ECU?
by Bernie Weston -
The vehicle ECU is an electrical computer which used in present day vehicles to manage its electronic modules. Reading input from sensors and delivering output to digital units, the automotive computer system manage the appropriate maneuvering of the automotive.
The automotive ECU collect inputs from other components in the motor vehicle like the crankshaft and camshaft sensors to cleverly compute data like exhaust, intake, fuel pump and some other components to evaluate and manage the driving situation of the engine, transmission system such as the body functions, the traction control (ABS), the AC and more.
A typical example is the speed sensor located on the wheel which calculate the speed of the wheel and send the data to the motor vehicle's computer. This way, instead of handing out messages to several modules from one detector, the messages would be delivered by the engine control unit to all the devices that are interested in this data like the ABS, suspension system, speedometer and more.
On-board Diagnostics Port
A vehicle that incorporate car ECM will also furnish OnBoard Diagnostics (OBD) outline to enable officials or driver to connect diagnostic equipment in order to evaluate the car computer module settings.
Vehicle ECU anti theft control
The car immobiliser is anti theft mechanism partition in the auto ECM. It bars the car engine from igniting unless utilizing an accredited key. This system uses an exclusive transponder key that saves the digital security pin-code or plainly a password. The engine control unit wouldn't light up the injection fuel system infrastructure and the ignition lock if the PIN code in the key is not in sync with the PIN code stored in the immobiliser.
Worldwide car makers use other types of ECUs like the BCM (Brake Control Module), PCM (Powertrain Control Module), GEM (General Electric Module) and more. Latest automotive might have many ECUs and with this growing complexity, the programming entailed in configuring or resetting the engine control module is becoming much more challenging to handle.