Staged extra Injector control + other goodies design. Input wanted

[Joryn]

Wow...nearly 3 years since I posted in this thread heh. Definitely let this project slide by (getting married, getting a job, all these things get in the way of the car!! ).

Anyways, I really just wanted to post on here saying that I've basically started anew on this project. New microcontroller this time around and I've changed a few of the basic interfaces.

Also I'm posting this thread at the point where I now have a User interface working, ADC inputs from a temperature sensor and pressure sensor working and a nice 2x16 character LCD. So significantly further ahead than I once was which is nice. Also I've formally added a PC interface (USB) for datalog downloading so that should be a nice feature as well.

Re-reading this thread has brought back many ideas, and certainly the appreciation that I had for all the input that you guys brought to the table. Hopefully I can actually get something working that ends up being a half-way point for us guys who don't necessarily want to go all out with a FAST or Megasquirt system

So if you're curious, take a re-read of this thread and feel free to post any new ideas that have popped into our collective consciousness in the past 3 years and I'll see what I can make of it. I'm just sticking my head up to say that it's alive for all those that probably thought I'd fallen off the planet.

Best regards to you all,
Joe

[90TurboVan]

3 years... I was just starting with MCU's back then...

Let me guess, PIC18F4455 coded in C? USB PIC's are fun .

As for ideas, maybe you could interface with the ECU to allow datalog/use of everything the ECU knows (speed, knock retard, whatever). The DRB communication really isn't that hard and the PIC should support the off baud rates that DRB requires.

Boost control would be nice too, the stock control routines are fairly simplistic and the g-valve doesn't allow for much customization either.

[KitCarlson]

Joryn,

I developed a complete engine management system. It includes direct fire ignition, fuel injector drives, idle speed control, fuel pump drive, tach output, MAP sensor, TPS, coolant temperature, intake temperature, O2, aux, and LED drive. It is completely user programmable with 3D fuel tables and 2D ignition. It also has all the starting and warm-up setups. I use a PC or Palm with serial port running a terminal program for setup. Tuning real-time without hesitation. It works very well on my converted Turbo Horizon.

I started doing research in 1997. It was not until 2001 that I actually started to build the hardware. I started with a Mot 68HC912, while working with the software and timers, I decided I needed more power and switched to the Atmel AVR series. Progress moved at a much increased rate. I concentrated on the ignition first since it gives the timing reference to the engine. It is also the most difficult. I used a uC simulator to make the distributor signals and also an optical distributor sensor assembly that replaced points.

I then made sparks in a bench system and checked timing signals with a scope and continued development till it was ready to test. In 2003, I placed it on a carbed VW engine and to my amazement it started right up! I could not sleep for several days while I developed the fuel injection part. Just a week later and the VW was running both ignition and fuel!

I designed the PCB and built some protos. They worked well, so at a great expense I had boards built at a contract mfg. I was lucky and my hardware has remained unchanged.

I have been playing and developing almost daily. My most recent is the programming to use a turbo distributor. It will give me the ability for sequential control. I hope to find time to test soon.

Good luck on your system. I have enjoyed mine, the best engineering project in my career!

[Joryn]

Wow Kit!! Nice work on getting that control system working. I know that as it is right now I don't have the time/patience/skill to go all out and run the entire engine off my unit, but it's nice to see someone doing it. I could probably use some input with regards to the user interface. I'm using C# right now which is pretty slick way to make some nice GUIs but I must admit I don't necessarily know what makes for good calibration/tuning software so if you're got some tips feel free to fire them on over


TurboVan, I'm actually working on an ATmega32 right now and definitely doing it all in C Boost control is also a must in my current design and one of the first things I thought of for the device. With regards to interfacing to the system ECU, I would love to and have wanted to know more about how to interface to those danged TX/RX lines on the LM since I found out about them. If you or Anyone has the protocol information on that interface that would be a great help. Definitely save me some time for all these sensors I'm planning on reading!

Glad to hear there's still interest and encouragement over here. I must say that it's pretty fun to be messing around with this thing again. I'm actually at the point where I need to start finding some solenoids and other hw and start doing some bench testing. so keep the questions/comments/input coming

Regards,
Joe

[gkcooper]

So, you are planning on going commercial with this? Maybe a kit? Please keep us informed.

[KitCarlson]

I only found the time to do my system when out of work, the rest of the time I dreamed of what I wanted to do, then checked out my ideas, circuits and parts.

I do not commit to any hardware or software unless I am 100% sure it will work.

I have retired after working 30 years as a EE, the EMS project keeps my engineering brain active if I ever need to return to work.

In the GUI side, my I did not want to program on both sides (PC and embedded) it gets hard with one person keeping up with all the code changes on both sides. Instead I used VT100 commands (terminal like Hyperterm), with all the smarts in the EMS. The setup structure is simple, select item to change, use + or - to increase or decrease. VT100 commands have clear screen, goto xy position, high-light text, invert video ... I have been working towards a PC application end Phone application, I am having a hard time with text boxes supporting the gotoxy. My present system is very fast and the real time display of engine parameters works very well. I think the PC application might be less efficient with the need for data requests and command processing.

For the complier I use CodeVision. I like it very much. It also has a built-in terminal with VT100. I have a bootloader, so code updates easily happen on the same 57,600 rs232 link.

I have not updated my crummy website and am changing isp soon. Look soon or it may be gone. KitCarlson EMS an Engine Management System

[Joryn]

Sounds like I'm at the point where you started at 30 years ago. Been working as an EE for 3 years now and I've gotta say that this project is more satisfying than anything I do at work (which itself is pretty interesting, don't get me wrong ).

With regards to managing both sides of the interface, I'll admit it's more work, but it's pretty much what I've been doing in my job so I've got some experience with it fortunately. I have used a VT100 interface on a few projects at work, and it's definitely practical to have the entire interface on the controller side, but there's a few things I'd like to manage on the PC. Plus the PC side is really just for pit tuning as opposed to on-the-fly stuff, so it doesn't need to be remarkably fast.

After taking a look at the completed EMS unit that you built I've gotta say it's a pretty nice looking unit. I definitely like the test 'engine' you are using for ignition stuff, I bet that helped a lot for debug. Unfortunately for me I'm currently working out of my apartment and the wife is already looking at me sideways with my breadboards and components floating around, not a lot of room for testing and building stuff.

Hey GK, with regards to commercial applications, I havent' thought too much about it, but if I can get some reasonable success on this project I'd definitely like to make it available (kit, diy instructions, whatever) to the community. So I guess we'll see how it goes

Regards,
Joe

[90TurboVan]

www.moparchem.com • View topic - Flashable SBEC/Bootsrap pin

My foray into flashing/datalogging on an SBEC. SMEC DRB stuff should be the same. The D-Cal group on yahoo has a lot of disassemblies of stock and MP code to go through.

[Aries_Turbo]

joryn, can you shoot me an email. we talked years back about some pic stuff and i wanted to run something by you. brianbucar at yahoo dot com. thanks

Brian

[KitCarlson]

When I first started working in electronics (age 8) I developed by using a chair as a table and knelt on the floor. It is a sad story if I tell you why.

Now I use a small 18" x 18" table large enough for laptop, EMS unit, and simulator. . Spend time with your wife, she is more important that this stuff!!! For me it became clear at 50 years of age.

I do 99% of the work in my head. I then attack the code and checkout in small bits of time with great progress.

The simulator has a bar LED for viewing outputs, with a pin header to view with scope. It also has pots for simulating temperature sensors, TPS, setting O2.... I used an Olimex development board ($9) with proto area, with an Atmel 8535 to put put the distributor pulse train. There is also a serial link I use to control the RPM. Sometimes I just let it sweep from low to high for most development. If you like I can share the code. It is very simple, just a few lines of code, I used a 16 bit timer to generate the distributor waveform. I only use one HEP since the other output only lags in phase. With modern software, hardware and uC's. I see no need to have the separate HEP injector sync.

[Joryn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 90TurboVan www.moparchem.com • View topic - Flashable SBEC/Bootsrap pin My foray into flashing/datalogging on an SBEC. SMEC DRB stuff should be the same. The D-Cal group on yahoo has a lot of disassemblies of stock and MP code to go through.

I just perused that thread for a bit and saw your ECU Edit VB software and I must say it's pretty sweet. If I'm looking at this correctly you already have serial communication setup to the ECU on our cars. Is that right? I'm trying to look at it to figure out how to get the various sensor information from the ECU. That's all I really want from it for now. Although I'm not sure if the communication that you've established is with the factory image or some custom build that you're working with so any information you can give on that would be awesome!

Again, nice work, looks pretty interesting and I had no idea the mopar chem group was this far. Obviously the yahoo groups forums weren't the best place to look for stuff on that anymore

Regards,
Joe

[90TurboVan]

KitCarlson, if you use both HEP lines, you can synch to a cylinder within one revolution, and it makes synching much easier (no time based calculations). I've got PIC code that simulates a turbo distributor and 2.4 cam/crank sensors if you have a use for it...

ECU Edit is not pretty at all, check out the source. It does work though, and you should be able to figure out most of the serial stuff from the source. It uses either modified DRB routines (for just one baud rate), or a simple echo type serial handler. Extension to normal DRB would be easy, I just never got around to it. I'll do a write up on the DRB routines, something that's missing from the TD knowledge base anyway.

[Joryn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 90TurboVan ECU Edit is not pretty at all, check out the source. It does work though, and you should be able to figure out most of the serial stuff from the source. It uses either modified DRB routines (for just one baud rate), or a simple echo type serial handler. Extension to normal DRB would be easy, I just never got around to it. I'll do a write up on the DRB routines, something that's missing from the TD knowledge base anyway.

I was looking at the source code and it's far from the worst I've seen. Sorta tough to figure out how the communication to the ECU works but not too bad. If you could show how this could be used to communicate to the stock ECU that would be awesome, and definitely useful for the general community.

Keep us posted

Regards,
Joe