Old 486 Board for ECU? Why?

[Diehl, Jeffrey]

So how are you getting these free samples?

I tend to agree with this architecture, but this is a religious argument.
Instead of arguing about architecture, it's more useful to us newbies if we
constrain our discussion to the "how" and "why" of EFI.  I'm here to learn.
On of the things I'm interested in is knowing about any novel applications
for an DIY EFI.  The limited slip feature sounded so cool, for example!

My rationale for wanting to use the PC architecture is that by simply
re-writing a few lines of code, which I can do in my sleep, I can completely
change the way my car would respond.  Maybe I improve it.  Maybe it won't
start.  Either way, I learn.  Now if I had to program a microcontroller in a
foreign assembler language, I might not be so eager to reprogram and
experiment.  Just my $.02

So, what are people doing for crank angel sensors?  I've thought about
counting teeth on my flywheel.  The problem is that I only have 106 teeth.
If I used to detectors, I could come up with 318 "events."  This gets me a
1.1 deg. resolution, and it might float a bit inside this range.  Any better
ideas would be most welcome.

Thanx,
Mike Diehl,
MR-2, '87na

-----Original Message-----
From: Frederic Breitwieser [mailto:frederic at xephic.dynip.com]
Sent: May 05, 2000 8:20 AM
To: 'diy_efi at diy-efi.org '
Subject: RE: Old 486 Board for ECU? Why?


>Sorry, makes no sense to me when you can buy any GM ecm for 50.00
>at any junkyard or a reman for 100 and change.  

Acadamia is a major part of it.  But, I am going to be doing singificantly
more than making pistons move.  Much more.

>If you are going to put this in a car it will be an expensive kludge.

Kludge, yes.  Expensive, no.  Not yet anyway.

>You are going to build a  one-off ISA card, with all the hardware to 
>properly condition the power, do all the control functions, a
>watchdog,etc. custom enclosure and harness, then 100's of hours of
>code?????  

I've built this out of "stuff I have" except for the isa card that executes
what the PC does.  So far, mostly free samples, a few favors and its not
cost me all that much.  For me to learn the 68HC11 on the necessary level to
do what I'm trying to do, my learning curve would be much longer.  FOr me,
(and apparently only me), this works.

>Are you going to mass produce these things? Doubt it. That is the only
>way this project could ever be cost effective.

This is not my intention.  However, I could very easily.

>The target GM ECU would be running HC11 of course.

Yes, I do agree in this aspect.

>Your card means little to the rest of the world, even if you make the 
>design free and give away the circuit boards.   It will still be a 
>kludge running on a cheap motherboard.   

Okay, don't copy my idea, not a problem :)  Really, my point in discussing
this to the level that I have, was not to say "Jim, if you don't follow my
idea you are full of shit".  All I've attempted to do, and maybe my word
choices were not what they should have been, was to describe what I'm doing,
the reasons why I chose what I chose, and say for me, it works.  That is all
:)

>To make this concept real world, the final version would have to be 
>on an industrial controller, and I think any cost 
>benefit is long gone by then.

For me, its easy to reconfigure, its a platform that I know fairly well, and
my learning curve is much short.  Regardless of platform I have to learn the
EFI timing/injection portion, so using a platform I know, have access to
parts, etc, eliminates that as a show stopper (for me).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from diy_efi, send "unsubscribe diy_efi" (without the quotes)
in the body of a message (not the subject) to majordomo at lists.diy-efi.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from diy_efi, send "unsubscribe diy_efi" (without the quotes)
in the body of a message (not the subject) to majordomo at lists.diy-efi.org