jai

[Steve=Ravet%Prj=Eng%PCPD=Hou at bangate.compaq.com]

just another intro....

I am a recent graduate of Texas A&M University.  I greatly enjoyed my 8 years 
there, but the bills piled a little too high so I had to get a real job. :-(

I received my undergraduate in May 91 in electrical engineering.  I 
immediately started graduate school, in electromagnetics (silly, silly me).  
After some time, the realization that I really didn't like electromagnetics, 
and what's more, there really aren't any jobs in the field, sunk in.  So I 
switched to digital/computer architecture.  I will graduate in May, and I have 
been working at Compaq since February.  My graduate work involved the GPS 
(global positioning system) as it relates to real time navigation in a car.

I would like to make a suggestion:  I think the topic of electronically 
controlled ignitions fits in well with efi, and would like to see that topic 
covered here as well (mostly because that's the first thing I would like to 
add to my car).  Please no flames, but perhaps a yea or nay response to see 
what the general consensus is.

I think a CPU that should be considered is the Dallas Semiconductor DS5000.  I 
include here a snippet of information that appeared on alt.hotrod (which means 
that most of you have already seen it, i guess.  oh well).

<BEGIN_QUOTE>
In article <1gc6-pr at dixie.com> hotrod at dixie.com writes:
>[The EFI system is pretty simple.  A dallas semi DS5000 hybrid supplies 
>all the smarts.  This is a pretty amazing part.  It contains an
>8052-like processor, ram, "rom" (battery-backed ram), timers, watchdog
>timer and some other goodies in a double height 40 pin dip.  It has
>3 8 bit I/O ports and a serial port.  Best of all, you program it
>by jinking several pins during power up and then pumping intel HEX
>records into the serial port.  when the END record is received,
>the chip reboots and starts running the program as if it were in
>ROM.
<END_QUOTE>

The main advantage I see here is that no eprom programmer is required.  In 
fact, if you have a laptop of some sort, you can compile/reprogram without 
ever leaving the car.  The built-in I/O ports are nice too.  And there are 
plenty of 8052 compilers/assemblers out there.

One more thing, not to stifle creativity, but I think we should come up with a 
"list project".  That is, after _plenty_ of discussion, we should decide on 
what the capabilities of the system should be, what type of CPU to use, etc.  
The hardware should be generic enough to handle various engine configurations 
and other mods people want to make that aren't part of the "list project".  
Discussion would *not* be limited to just the list project, but if most people 
work on the same thing, we will make the most progress.  For now, we should 
pool our knowledge.  I have little knowledge of engines in general, but I can 
breadboard and program embedded systems.  Perhaps people who have extensive 
knowledge of efi (and electronic ignition systems) could write a tutorial on 
theory and post it.

Anyway, looking back, I'm afraid I'm becoming long winded, or worse, trivial, 
so I will end.  Looking forward to some good info.

--steve
sravet at bangate.compaq.com