286 toyota...

[Scott Davis]

Hello all...
	My name is Scott Davis, I am an ME at the University of 
Illinois.  My current project is using a 286 system to control as many 
functions on my car (1980 toyota corolla) as possible. 

	This all started when I found a brand spankin new 286 12 MHz 
motherboard in the trash outside of a building being refirbished.  Along 
with a few PC jr's from a bygone age, I salvaged what I could a nd made 
off for home.  Immediately, I wanted to put a system in my car- which 
incidentally takes up quite a bit of my time.  I started with trying to 
think of ways to use the processor to monitor the various temperatures 
and states of the different parts of the car.  Then I posted a few 
articles to a few newsgroups and got the http:// for this group.

	After reading the article on a digital ignition and EFI 
conversion, I wanted to do the same.  Wouldn't it be nice to have that 
kind of control over the car as it goes through its paces?  But I have 
some questions for all of you...

	1.  How to make a 12v+ source into a clean set of +12v, -12v +5v 
and -5v power to run the unit

	2.  What kind of A/D converters I/O boards and the like to 
monitor anolog signals act upon that information  (I have very little 
controller experience)

	3.  reliability.... What happens when the system goes down?  
Safegurads... Backups...  

	4.  How to get the system discribed to adapt to a four cylendar 
car 

	5.  any other ideas that you may have concerning the mounting of 
a full scale computing device in a vehicle.  (and if it is not possible, 
why not?)
	
	Thanks in advance.  I appreciate all of your input and look 
forward to hearing from you.
	
Scott

ssdavis1 at students.uiuc.edu
80 Corolla SR-5
http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~ssdavis1
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