[Bulk] Re: [Diy_efi] Donegan ECU

Tue Jan 9 01:11:31 UTC 2007

Well - I'm doing it modular (using double row headers for board
interconnects) because it is far easier for me to develop it this way -
board fab prices of a 1$ or so for dinky boards - easily thrown away
during dev bug-fix -vs- big $$ boards where one little oops means the
board is junk$$. The software I'm using is WinQcad - none of the free
packages I found to be worth the effort. WinQcad is cheap if you get
above the free point of 400 connection points (which I have already done
on the small boards). Another advantage to doing small subsystem boards
is that some of us can use just a subset of things and fit say the stock
position on a Harley or CX500 :-)

The schematic for the CPU is available (PDF) from www.olimex.com or
www.sparkfun.com - it's the LPCH2138 model. The individual boards I'm
doing I'll share as they get done enough so I don't expect complete
ridicule :-)

Anyone wanting to take the sub-pieces and turn them all into one board
is welcome to do so. And BTW I don't 'do' surface mount (yet) no desire
to have a reflow setup at home or go blind trying to place parts with my
old unsteady hands - and yes I'm a dinosaur - I did tubes long before
any of this new stuff was available :-)

Until I can find some way to ensure I have no likelyhood of getting sued
I will likely keep the Ion stuff to circuit design only... And, BTW, I
had a custom inverter built for that part - that one part is ~115$ so
the the Ion board sub-assembly would likely be a parts cost of ~150$ for
8 channels. Each coil/spark plug attachment requires a high voltage
diode (40K is a nice safe voltage) to block the spark from entering the
Ion board - that diode isn't cheap either...

On Tue, 2007-01-09 at 00:11 +0000, Ian Molton wrote:
> Steven Donegan wrote:
> > The hardware portion is simple - a current mirror and high voltage supply. The software may have to be done by individuals for their own non-profit use as ion sensing for the purpose of engine optimization appears to be a patented idea. Anyone want to ask the patent holders how they would feel about hobbyist use of their patented ideas?
> > 
> > Daniel Nicoson <A6intruder at myo-p.com> wrote: Please tell us more about your ion sensing system...
> 
> Im not sure hobby usage would violate a patent - its not like you'd be 
> in competition or making money off it.
> 
> your ECU is very appealing to me on the grounds that I like ARMs.
> 
> got any idea on fab prices?
> 
> also I'd prefer mine to be non-modular for reliability reasons - I want 
> to do it surface mount and lacquer the board after assembly, once its 
> tuned and ready.
> 
> got schematics in a format tht can be edited with open source tools ?
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Diy_efi mailing list
> Diy_efi at diy-efi.org
> Subscribe: http://lists.diy-efi.org/mailman/listinfo/diy_efi
> Main WWW page:  http://www.diy-efi.org/diy_efi