A locomotive assembly including a legacy locomotive controller and an intercept locomotive controller and a method of controlling a locomotive are disclosed. The locomotive assembly includes a power bus, a locomotive, and an intercept locomotive controller. The locomotive includes a primary power unit coupled to the power bus and a legacy locomotive controller programmed to transmit a control command to the primary power unit. The intercept locomotive controller is electrically coupled between the locomotive controller and the primary power unit and is programmed to intercept an initial locomotive control signal transmitted from the legacy locomotive controller to the primary power unit indicating an amount of locomotive power, modify the initial locomotive control signal, and transmit the modified control signal to the primary power unit.

A hybrid power source connects a secondary battery and an EDLC. A first switch connects the hybrid power source and a lead acid battery in parallel. A power source controlling portion controls power supply to the hybrid power source and the lead acid battery. The hybrid power source is connected to a starter for starting an engine for a vehicle, and also connected to an electric device except for the starter through the first switch, and the lead acid battery is connected to the electric device, and also connected to the starter through the first switch.

A vehicle power supply device includes: a plug socket to supply an external device with electrical power; and an external output switch configured to be switched between an on state in which the electrical power is supplied from a battery to the plug socket and an off state in which the supply of the electrical power is stopped. In a case where the external output switch is in the on state, when the vehicle transitions from a ready mode to an OFF mode, the switch control unit sets the external output switch to the off state along with the transition, and when the vehicle transitions from an ACC mode or an ON mode to the OFF mode, the switch control unit maintains the on state of the external output switch.

A method for operating a motor vehicle includes operating the motor vehicle in a drive mode, a recuperation mode or a charging mode, wherein when operating the motor vehicle in the recuperation mode, a recuperation driving route driven during the recuperation mode and an associated recuperation energy amount are determined and are stored as driving route data in a driving route memory and/or are transmitted to an external data storage device; wherein when switching into the charging mode or when operating the motor vehicle in the charging mode an expected driving route of the motor vehicle is predictively determined and for the expected driving route the driving route data are read out from the driving route memory and/or are requested from external data storage device; wherein the target state of charge is set to a value which is determined from a maximal state of charge of the energy storage and the recuperation energy amount stored in the driving route data.

A hybrid vehicle including a hybrid power control unit (HPCU) is provided. The HPCU includes a power module having chips disposed therein, each of which generates heat during operation, a coolers that cools the heat from the power module. Additionally chip soldering interface material (SIM)s that bond the chips and the power module are provided to form interior solder layers. Further, a cooler Soldering Interface Material (SIM)s bonds the power module and the coolers to form an exterior solder layers. Consequently, improvements in cooling performance and a reduction in cost are achieved, without a variation in applied thickness and a pump-out phenomenon caused when using a TIM having low thermal conductivity.

A drive control device for a hybrid vehicle is provided with a differential device including four rotary elements; and an engine, first and second electric motors and an output rotary member which are respectively connected to the four rotary elements. One of the four rotary elements is constituted by a rotary component of a first differential mechanism and a rotary component of a second differential mechanism selectively connected through a clutch, and one of the rotary components is selectively fixed to a stationary member through a brake. The hybrid vehicle is selectively placed in a plurality of drive modes according to respective combinations of engaged and released states of the clutch and the brake. The drive control device comprises: a substitutive drive control portion configured to alternately implement a vehicle driving control and a battery charging control in the event of a failure of one of the first and second electric motors, the vehicle driving control being implemented to operate the other of the first and second electric motors, for generating a vehicle drive force, and the battery charging control being implemented to charge a vehicle driving battery with the other electric motor.

A method to control a hybrid vehicle with a parallel architecture and with an unknown speed profile, wherein the hybrid vehicle is provided with an internal combustion engine and with a reversible electrical machine connected to a storage system designed to store electrical energy; the method comprises the steps of recognizing the operating mode of the hybrid vehicle; determining a function of the specific fuel consumption of the drive system of the hybrid vehicle as a function of the operating mode of the hybrid vehicle; determining the optimal value of the power of the storage system and the optimal value of the power of the internal combustion engine, which correspond to the values that permit a minimization of said function.

A control device of an electric vehicle includes: an information acquiring portion acquiring information in a switching control of traveling modes of the electric vehicle and information on a gradient of an uphill road; a balanced driving force calculating portion determining that the electric vehicle is stopped on the uphill road in a motor traveling mode and calculating a balanced driving force against a sliding-down force causing the electric vehicle to be slid down; a temperature change estimating portion estimating changes of temperatures of the motor and the inverter; a time calculating portion calculating a drivable time until the temperature of the motor reaches a motor-side upper limit allowable temperature and an energizable time until the temperature of the inverter reaches an inverter-side upper limit allowable temperature; and a mode switching portion switching the motor traveling mode to another traveling mode.

Methods and systems are described for providing a local electrical power source at a header of a combine harvester. An alternator is mechanically coupled to a header backshaft. The header backshaft is mechanically coupled to a drive mechanism of the combine harvester to cause rotation of the header backshaft which, in turn, causes the alternator to generate electrical power. A power supply circuit transferred electrical power from the alternator to one or more electric devices mounted on the header. In some implementations, the header does not include any physical cables between the combine and the header.

When at least one of motor generators is not under normal control and where the MG1 temperature is less than an upper limit value, an ECU is configured to perform an inverter-less running control. In the inverter-less running control, an inverter is brought into a gate shutoff state and an engine is driven to cause the motor generator to generate a counter-electromotive voltage which consequently produces a counter-electromotive torque. During the inverter-less running control, the ECU makes a voltage difference between the counter-electromotive voltage and the voltage of a power line connecting a converter and an inverter when the MG1 temperature is equal to or greater than a predetermined value smaller than the voltage difference when the MG1 temperature is less than the predetermined value.