Abstract
Knock in a gasoline engine has been known to decrease the power and efficiency of an engine and shortens the life span of the engines components. Several new engines have been fitted with knock controllers that automatically retard the timing once knock is detected. There are many engines now on the road that have not been fitted a knock controller. In order to take advantage of the high efficiency and power if an engine is running at the knock onset without the danger of knock, a retrofittable knock controller has been designed and built. But in order to eliminate other vibration noises that may enter the knock sensor, the signal should be band passes at the knock frequency.
The knock frequencies of different engines are different. Therefore, a portable device that detects the knock frequency has been designed and built. The device can be connected to a knock sensor and the engine can be brought to a knocking condition manually. When the engine knocks, then the device that contains a Digital Signal Processor DSP56001 will process the signal and the knock frequency will be show on a digital monitor or the frequency spectrum can be viewed in a portable computer. The result can then be used to decide on what frequency the knock signal should be band passed, so other noises can be eliminated and the knock controller will perform as expected.