
Fully digital valves open up engine possibilities - rmason
https://newatlas.com/camcon-digital-iva-valve-system/55827/
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tomatotomato37
I thought koenigsegg was already doing this with their freevalve thing

Also I saw an interesting point in an article about the koenigsegg thing that
would pertain to this too; environmental laws would be much harder to
practically enforce with this as you could run virtually any engine anemic
enough to get though the emissions tests (and set it as the default mode to
get around the Volkswagen nonsense) and then offer high/sport/cruise modes
that runs the engine at full capacity otherwise

~~~
thinkingkong
Wouldnt the test just need to apply to all modes? If its a matter of
automatically tuning through a series of conditions then its reasonable that
those could be documented and tested by the facility / standards body.

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yontherubicon
Sure, but emissions testing after you've got the car would be utterly useless.

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inferiorhuman
How so? Roadside emissions testing is very much a thing, as are annual
emissions checks.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Not in all states. I haven't had to do it in 20 years.

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Animats
The idea has been around for a long time. Most of the big auto companies have
played around with it. There are at least four startups in this space. The big
problem is a good actuator, not compute power. Here's an actuator demo from
2014.[1] It can be made to work, but so far, it's not cost-effective. Maybe
this time.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYEjAv0hFug](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYEjAv0hFug)

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maxxxxx
When I did my mechanical engineering degree a long time ago this would have
been the holy grail for engines. Let's hope reality doesn't offer drawbacks to
this system like it happens to so many other engine designs.

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rmason
It seems in tech just when the incumbents seem like they will lose to the
upstart they achieve a breakthrough and the inevitable is delayed for a few
more years.

Combine this breakthrough with what Michigan State is doing in gas powered
engines and battery powered cars dominance is delayed for at least another
decade.

[http://www.wkar.org/post/reworking-michigan-msu-develops-
lig...](http://www.wkar.org/post/reworking-michigan-msu-develops-light-weight-
high-efficiency-engine#stream/0)

~~~
mkstowegnv
The inherently self destructive nature of ICE's make it likely that ICE
vehicles will always be more complex, less reliable/ higher maintenance than
comparable all electric vehicles. The simplicity advantage of electric will
soon take a quantum leap when driveshaft-free 4 motor all wheel drive vehicles
hit the market [1].

On the other hand as long as batteries are heavy, ICE's will have a place in
aircraft, and I would think the OP's technology could be huge for helicopters.

1 [http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/2017/06/hondas-all-
elect...](http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/2017/06/hondas-all-electric-
nsx-4-motor-ev-is.html)

~~~
ak217
> The simplicity advantage of electric will soon take a quantum leap when
> driveshaft-free 4 motor all wheel drive vehicles hit the market

You can't just eliminate the driveshaft because the wheel must be on a
suspension. Remove the driveshaft and you have to put the motor on the wheel,
increasing unsprung weight, exposing the motor and making high voltage parts
subject to damage.

4 motors is more complex than 2 and doesn't buy you much except in niche
packaging applications (like buses). As far as torque vectoring, you can
achieve the same effect with differential braking (the duty cycle of torque
vectoring is very short, so you don't lose any efficiency). A 2-motor Tesla is
probably already the optimal passenger car configuration.

Agreed on everything else though.

~~~
hevi_jos
4 electric motors on wheels is extremely simpler than 2 motors, mechanical
differentials and couplings.

I actually helped a mechanical engineer to create a simulator for car dynamics
in software.

Today's cars are over engineered mechanically in order to support and resist
the forces and torques from the motor to the wheels.

When you put the motors in wheel you basically reduce the required rigidity
and the weight of the car substantially.

You point out some disadvantage of the approach. The biggest disadvantage of
all is that is not a proven technology, like 100 years old driveshaft. That
means the company that commercializes it will eat all the risk, like what
happens when people exposes the motor-wheels to wet surfaces and some part of
it is damaged. The lawsuits could bankrupt even the biggest company.

~~~
maxxxxx
" 4 electric motors on wheels is extremely simpler than 2 motors, mechanical
differentials and couplings."

Why not 2 on one axle? Do you really need all wheel drive?

~~~
dreamcompiler
Is anyone making hub motors for cars? The technology is probably workable now.

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dreamcompiler
I wish cars had had this 50 years ago. Camshafts are a terrible way to control
an IC engine. But it's too late now.

Ironically, the same advances in power electronics, cheap high-speed
computers, and electromechanical actuation that made individual valve control
possible also enabled efficient electric drive motors that made valves in cars
a non-problem.

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kwhitefoot
You don't necessarily need such valves to make engines easier to start. I
remember my father-in-law's Lister diesel generator, from over forty years
ago, that would start automatically when you turned on a light or appliance.
It had a tiny starter motor and also a starting handle in case the battery was
flat. There was a switch or valve that you would turn manually, or if the
battery was not flat automatically, that made it possible to turn the motor.
It was pretty much impossible to turn the engine over manually without doing
that; with it, it was easy.

I'm not a mechanical engineer and I have no idea how it worked beyond knowing
that it reduced the degree of compression.

~~~
parimm
Its called a decompression valve.

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jondumbau
The temporary 2 stroke idea doesn't sound very well cooked. Fine control over
the valves is great, but the exhaust and other aspects of the engine need to
be tuned for that use case.

~~~
jondumbau
Also the "2 strokes are the future" remark seems a bit off too. The future of
enduro bikes and chainsaws maybe.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Yeah, this idea is just in time for the all-electric revolution.

~~~
King-Aaron
The "all-electric' revolution you've got in mind is likely much further away
than you expect. There will be a market for internal combustion engines for
many more decades before all-electric vehicles can replace the markets in
areas that are more remote, or require long hauling vehicles etc.

~~~
londons_explore
Yes, but like the hard drive market, as soon as a replacement technology comes
over the horizon, all investment in improvements to the existing tech pretty
much stops.

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jondumbau
Nitpicky, but compression release for easy (easier..) starting is already a
thing. It talks about completely opening the valves so the starter only
overcomes friction. Presumably they're talking about having the cylinders that
aren't yet fired spinning over freely? Otherwise it's a very efficient way to
spin and engine that can't possibly start without "compressing gasses".

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Exhaust valves are open during the exhaust stroke anyway. Inlet valves are
open during the intake stroke anyway.

 _The strongest plausible interpretation of what_ ¹ they're saying is to open
valves that are partway through the compression stroke, and open / close any
other valves as necessary at the best possible time to promote rapid starting.

1\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
jondumbau
that really makes the most sense. at that point i imagine it would be a more
finely controlled compression release. i shouldn't read too much into the
wording of what is essentially a marketing statement i suppose :)

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parimm
They have replaced a pure mechanical linkage with a motor in each valve.

A typical 4 cylinder engine will now need sixteen extra motors to run it.

While I like the idea of controlling the timing of each valve interdependently
for the other, I am not for the additional electronics in the engine.

~~~
rasz
Its even worse, they replaced 1 camshaft with 4 camshafts, because electric
linear actuators are not there yet (and probably never will be).

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huffmsa
This means you can actually have a push-button anti-lag system. Push once for
normal, nice keep the home owners association happy mode. Push twice for Group
B hell on Earth mode.

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westmeal
Can private citizens obtain these?

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ebikelaw
This article is pretty much wall-to-wall snake oil. The bit at the end is just
completely false. Some people, who hadn't really bothered to do the math at
the time, believed fifty years ago that spring-closed valves would float at
high speeds and desmodromic valves were the solution. But that isn't true:
metallurgy marches on, and nobody has been seriously impeded in making an
engine turn at any desired speed with valve springs. Motorcycle engines turn
at stupefying speeds without experiencing valve float. In practice it's
actually the desmodromic designs that are troublesome, because of all that
moving mass.

Anyway, there are lots of other dumb claims in here, like nobody has ever done
variable timing of exhaust valves, which is obviously not true.

~~~
jaclaz
>Motorcycle engines turn at stupefying speeds without experiencing valve
float. In practice it's actually the desmodromic designs that are troublesome,
because of all that moving mass.

Sure, go tell Ducati.

~~~
ebikelaw
Tell them what? That literally every other major manufacturer makes a motor
with higher max engine speeds, higher reliability, and lower maintenance
costs? Or that in the 60-year history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing they've
only won once?

