Abstract: In a method for simulating a crankshaft signal of an internal combustion engine from a camshaft signal, in a normal operating mode of the engine, for at least one rotational speed range and/or for at least one operating state of the engine all tooth times of the teeth of a crankshaft position encoder wheel are trained, and, from these, for each tooth a correction factor is calculated for the corresponding rotational speed range and/or operating state, and in an emergency operating mode of the engine, the crankshaft position is determined from the camshaft signal, and subsequently the crankshaft signal is simulated by determining an average period duration of each tooth of the crankshaft position encoder wheel from the camshaft signal, and multiplying in each case by the correction factor for this tooth.

Abstract: A camshaft position pulse-generating wheel having a plurality of teeth on its circumference at irregular angular distances and one tooth edge in each case, at least at 0°, 90°, 120°, 180°, 240° and 270° of its circumference, and a device for ascertaining a camshaft position. In this position, the camshaft position pulse-generating wheel is connected, in a torsionally fixed manner, to a camshaft of a four-stroke internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder and a camshaft position sensor to detect a position of a tooth edge of the camshaft position pulse-generating wheel. For determining the camshaft position, per revolution of the camshaft and per cylinder of the internal combustion engine, either exclusively a camshaft position is assigned to a position of a negative tooth edge of the camshaft position pulse-generating wheel or to a position of a positive or a negative tooth edge of the camshaft position pulse-generating wheel.

Abstract: A method for determining an initial position of a cyclic motion, includes: recording successive encoder signals to obtain a signal sequence; continuously comparing the recorded signal sequence with a group of possible signal sub-sequences of a reference signal sequence encompassing a sequence of signal positions for at least one complete motion cycle, each of the signal sub-sequences being associated with one or more possible initial positions of the cyclic motion; eliminating one or more signal sub-sequences which do not coincide with the signal sequence or whose initial portions do not coincide with the signal sequence; and determining as the initial position one of the initial positions that are associated with the possible remaining signal sub-sequence.

Abstract: A method for operating an internal combustion engine in the event of a fault in a crankshaft sensor is provided, the internal combustion engine having at least two camshafts and a speed and/or a position of the internal combustion engine being derived from a signal taken from the camshaft. In order to improve the exhaust gas performance of the internal combustion engine even in a crankshaft emergency operating mode, only a first camshaft is used to determine the speed and/or the position of the internal combustion engine, while the second camshaft. is adjusted in its angle of rotation in order to set a variable valve operating mechanism on the intake and exhaust valves of the internal combustion engine that are driven by the second camshaft.