Volvo Trucks chooses Delphi to centralize sleeper cab controls in VN Series vehicles

Delphi Corp's Living Environment Control Module (LECM) is one of the many new features available on Volvo Trucks North America Inc's newly redesigned VN Series of Class 8 commercial vehicles. Volvo Trucks North America is the inaugural customer for the LECM.

An integrated control module for the sleeper area of heavy-duty trucks, LECM is a mechatronic product, meaning electrical and mechanical components are integrated into one system. It centralizes most of the sleeper cab's fuses for lights and outlets, and controls all plug-in accessory power feeds. It also houses functions such as the interior light buttons, auxiliary controls for HVAC, and the clock/alarm/park heater timer from a single module.

“One feature of this module is smart load shedding, which means that it helps monitor all the module functions and outlets in the sleeper cab, and if the truck system voltage starts to get near a specified minimum level, the module automatically shuts off items (like a coffee maker) that could be draining the vehicle's battery,” said Richard Barthel, engineering manager for Delphi Mechatronic Systems.

“In the past, sleeper functions and outlets were separate components and were not monitored as a group,” said Barthel, “so the driver was the only monitor of the amount of power being drained from the truck's battery. Now the LECM helps by automatically reducing some of the loads when it senses lower system voltages.

“Because the unit integrates so many functions, we were able to reduce the mass of the system by 15%, contributing to the truck's increased efficiency,” said Barthel. “The LECM also contributes to the truck's overall reliability improvement by using solid-state power switching, internal splicing, local fusing, and a reduced number of interconnects.”