The invention relates to a control unit for a pressure regulating valve in a motor vehicle, preferably for a pressure regulating valve that adjusts the oil pressure, wherein a signal that corresponds to the pressure that is to be set can be transmitted to the control unit, the control unit is signal-connected on the output side to a pressure regulating valve for the fluid that is to be pressure adjusted, wherein the electrical current supply to the pressure regulating valve is provided by way of a PWM signal that is generated by means of the control unit and the control unit is embodied for the purpose of over-exciting the solenoid of the pressure regulating valve with a higher electrical current prior to influencing the pressure regulating valve with the electrical current that is associated with the pressure that is to be set for a period of time.

Disclosed is a method for determining a temperature of a solenoid injector including a coil and a needle when the solenoid injector is in a non-injection phase, the method being characterized in that it includes the following steps: powering the solenoid injector coil using an electric generator for a period of time tvoltage strictly shorter than a period of time tlim corresponding to a time for which the coil is under power causing the needle to open; measuring at least one value icoil of the current of the solenoid injector coil using a current measurement sensor when the coil is powered; and determining a temperature of the solenoid injector from the at least one value icoil of the current of the solenoid injector coil.

A solenoid actuator is described. The solenoid actuator comprises an armature, pole piece(s), electromagnet coil(s) arranged, in response to energisation, to cause travel of the armature between first and second positions along a direction of travel, permanent magnet(s) positioned and orientated for latching the armature in at least the first position when the armature is in the first position and spring(s) arranged to bias the armature. The solenoid actuator can be operated to provide partial lift.

A desired effective voltage can be ensured with certainty in a preheating control. An operation control part 52 reads a correction value c with respect to a battery voltage Vb at the time of performing correction based on preliminarily stored correlation between a battery voltage Vb of a vehicle-use battery and a correction value c (S104, S106), and compensates for lowering of an effective value of a pulse voltage by adding a correction value c to a duty ratio calculated by a predetermined arithmetic expression thus ensuring a desired effective voltage with certainty in a preheating control.

A control device for an engine includes a variable valve timing mechanism. The control device performs learning a holding control amount of a hydraulic valve when actual valve timing is held at a fixed timing in each of spring and non-spring regions, and an updating. The updating includes updating the control amount for the non-spring region whenever the control amount for the spring region learned drops below the control amount for the non-spring region to satisfy a relationship with the control amount for the non-spring region being less than or equal to the control amount for the spring region, and/or updating the control amount for the spring region whenever the control amount for the non-spring region learned exceeds the control amount for the spring region to satisfy a relationship with the control amount for the spring region being greater than or equal to the control amount for the non-spring region.

A solenoid actuator is described. The solenoid actuator comprises an armature, pole piece(s), electromagnet coil(s) arranged, in response to energization, to cause travel of the armature between first and second positions along a direction of travel, permanent magnet(s) positioned and orientated for latching the armature in at least the first position when the armature is in the first position and spring(s) arranged to bias the armature. The solenoid actuator can be operated to provide partial lift.

In a method for actuating a switch element of a valve device between a first end position and a second end position, in a normal mode within a cycle following an end of a first energization, a movement of the switch element in a first direction effected by the loading device is retarded in a first direction by a brief second energization (braking pulse) that is introduced within the cycle once a pause period has ended following a characteristic point in time. It is provided that the optimum pause period and/or the optimum variable characterizing the braking pulse be ascertained in an adaptation mode.

The present disclosure relates to internal combustion engines. The teachings thereof may be embodied in methods for determining a state of an injection valve of an internal combustion engine. Some methods may include actuating the piezo actuator in a pulse-width-modulated manner; recording the T on and/or T off switching times of the pulse-width-modulated piezo output stage of the piezo actuator; and evaluating the recorded switching times to derive the state of the injection valve.

A method includes applying a specified starting voltage to a valve actuator in a first specified operating mode for closing the valve, the valve having a spring with a spring force against which an actuator force of the actuator acts. In the first operating mode, a first period of time is ascertained which represents that a maximum current value has been reached. Furthermore, a second period of time is ascertained which represents that a minimum current value has been reached. In a specified second operating mode, the specified starting voltage is applied to the actuator until the end of the first period of time is reached, and a control voltage is then applied to the actuator until the end of the second period of time is reached, wherein the average value of the control voltage is lower than the average value of the starting voltage.

A injection control device for an internal combustion engine includes a fuel injection valve directly injecting a fuel into a cylinder of the internal combustion engine, and a drive current setting unit setting a drive current of the fuel injection valve according to a fuel pressure that is a pressure of the fuel supplied to the fuel injection valve, using a drive current profile specifying a relation between the fuel pressure and the drive current. When a compression stroke injection injecting the fuel in a compression stroke or an expansion stroke injection injecting the fuel in an expansion stroke is executed, the drive current setting unit sets the drive current using a predetermined profile having no hysteresis in change characteristics of the drive current with respect to the fuel pressure in a fuel pressure region of the compression stroke injection or the expansion stroke injection, as the drive current profile.