ABS

[Chuck Tomlinson]

> From: George M. Dailey <gmd at tecinfo.com>
> 
> Alright gentlemen, enough general talk about ABS.  Who, out there, has
> DIY_ABS? I'm thinking that if you buy the critical parts (modulator), the
> ECU should not be hard to build.
[snip]
> On a serious note, it doesn't seem to hard to do technicly. Uh-oh, looks
> like trouble.

IMHO, the big difference between DIY_EFI and DIY_ABS is the need for ABS 
to be essentially bulletproof.  If your DIY_EFI code isn't tuned just 
right or has a few bugs, the engine will blow up, run rough, or not run 
at all.  That's unpleasant, but you'll live to complain about it.

Typically, when you're "in ABS", people's lives are on the line.  I'm not 
trying to be overly dramatic; that's just the way it is.  A momentary 
command error in an ABS controller can spin the car, or release the brakes. 

Do you want to trust your life to home-brewed code when hundreds (if not 
thousands) of engineers and scientists with mega-dollar budgets have been 
working their butts off for years to come up with safe production ABS 
systems?  A DIY_ABS system will have to do *everything* that a production
 system does, and do it just as well.  

Unlike DIY_EFI, the occasional glitch or "driveability" problem is 
*unacceptable*.  Unless an ABS system is damned near perfect, it *will* 
fail sooner or later.  When it does, the consequences are likely to be 
severe.

IMHO, DIY_ABS code is a very bad idea.  Transferring a complete braking 
system from an ABS vehicle to a similar non-ABS vehicle is risky enough, 
but doing your own ABS code is... unwise.

Just my 2c...
--
Chuck Tomlinson