Speeduino PCB for Delco Replacement

[Holden202T]

It been a while in the making but i have finally gotten to a point where i have enough to make a post!!

so the board has improved a bit .... but also it had to be changed to suit a new mcupro as the old one is no longer available..... i was also trying to use an on board usb port for robustness which has not been working too reliably so i've resorted to the below usb adaptor.

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Theres one or two bugs that need to be sorted in the next version of the board, but nothing that couldn't be worked around.

I had a need for some of the extra features on this new board, that was to allow me to run a buick V6 with LS coils without the need for any other add on modules.

This is my brothers car, we are installing a turbo v6 into it for drag racing, so it was the perfect platform to test the new board!

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To make the speeduino work with LS coils i needed either a missing tooth trigger, or a cam sensor, so the plan was to use a VR V6 auto cam sensor (ecotec too) and then use the 18 x crank trigger, so we fitted the required bits to make it happen.

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So with the cam and crank triggers wired into the speeduino i was able to wind the engine over and confirm i got full sync!

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I was then able to use a stopper in the cylinder to find and mark TDC so i had a way to dial in the spark reference angle.

To do this though i needed to have a spark to trigger the timing light, so i had to make some coil mounts.

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Once id worked out the shape i drew it up in CAD so one day i can get some laser cut.

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Once the coil mounts were sorted i was able to get enough wiring sorted for a test fire.

Its clearly not running too well, but its running which given what i've done to get to this point was enough of a win for me! i need to get some headers on it and hopefully then can dial the tune in a bit more!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmknGD2IFY4[/youtube]

[immortality]

That's awesome, getting rid of the DFI module is a real bonus.

[vlad01]

Nice one! I almost forgot about this project.

[vlad01]

I thought I'd dig this up since the thread and news of the plug n play Haltech 808 style ECU.

Looks like a nice bit of kit with lots of features, but seems to be missing a very important one in a modern ECU, the ability to run non factory ignition which then Ant reminded us of this project.

Obviously this one can run the LS coils and I read that you needed the cam sensor, can this be configured to not require the cam sensor, say like in a wasted spark setup. I am kinda guess this layout you used was something to do with the 18-3x ?


The cam sensor is the obvious solution, but the magnets on them are known to break off or fall apart in high performance applications, not always the case but it def happens and I have seen it first hand. So having no cam sensor but running LS coils would be the preferred setup if I was to use something like this to ensure reliability over sequential spark. One day I might once good DFI modules and or coils dry up (new and used) and it's already started to happen as of some years ago. I really like the idea of going to LS coils for that reason.


Also, that USB cable solution, I think there are USB cables for internal use that are continuous all the way from bulk head to the internal mini USB connector. If you ever use something like that. I would revise the board for a hole near by that connector in the main PCB, and then an off-stand, one end locked to the PCB, the other end you can secure the USB cable near that connector with a nylon cable saddle. Bit of loctite at each end of the threads so nothing vibrates loose.

This is the factory method the CNC machines I used to build and service had on some of the piggyback daughter boards where cables plugged into them or even on the main boards where cables came in from the side of the electronics cabinet. This worked very well against vibration and strain relief. In this case, all of the cables had the loose wires from the saddles to the connector, but the saddle supported the outer jacket and also formed part of he grounding for the shielding. So that way the inner wires were not burden by the weight of the jacket and shielding and all strain relief was via the outer jacket in the saddle. The lighter the wires, the less support they need, were they fully support their own weight mid air. If I could find a usb cable that was constructed like that, that would be the ideal one to use. But I didn't see any like that searching google images. I might have a pic from my old work of one of these boards to show what that looked like.

There are cables available like this though, which would still work ok with an off-stand and saddle close by.

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[vlad01]

I forgot to ask, what's the go with the bluetooth provision?

[KingAustraliaggGG]

I would love to know more, would the stuff from pazi88 GitHub help here

[Holden202T]

ok firstly, the haltech delco plugin..... i get it they are replicating a stock ecu with modern software etc ..... but it seems like a real shame there are so many un-used pins on it that you cant re-purpose for things like multi coils or injectors ..... but its definitely nice that it has a on board wideband, will make plug and play, auto tuning a breeze.

On the speeduino delco board .... a lot has happened since my last post and i had meant to post sooner about this but i really wanted to get it to a point where i had done more with it than just shed tinkering, like at least a dyno session ... sadly that hasnt happened ... YET!

VLAD, that second usb adaptor with the 90 degree plug is the one i am using on it.

regarding the bluetooth header on the board, its standard on speeduino so i just left it, i havent used it much but if you buy a bluetooth module off ebay etc (HC-05 from memory) and put it on there you can connect to it that way, probably a good option for once its installed in a car kick panel!

Soooo that orange galant in the previous pictures that used to belong to my brother .... he wanted to sell it, it was a really good price and it was the only car i had to develop this board on .. but i dont have the room for it so i said id buy it if he was able to keep it at his place

so i can still use it as my test bed, and worst case if he moved house and didnt have the room i could pull the driveline etc and sell or scrap the shell....

so to that end i have been putting alot of work into getting it completed and racable ... the speeduino is now v1.4

regarding the comments about crank / cam inputs and wasted spark and what not, this board is limited to 4 outputs for coils and ignition, so it can run a v8 wasted spark, or 4 cyl sequentially ....

in the case of the v6, i have done some more tinkering with the intent to make this board work without having to go to the length of adding a cam sensor, what i ended up with is removing the balancer and cutting 2 of the 3 teeth off the chopper wheel, you then wire the 3 x wire to the cam input and the 18 x wire to the crank and this gives you wasted spark ... now i have tested this on a engine on the stand in the shed and with no plugs in wound it over and got 1 coil to fire just as a proof of concept.

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ive gotten the galant to a point where once i mount the thermo fans to the radiator (very close to finishing bracketry for that) i could probably drive it up the road and it wouldnt overheat.....

there was a space where the boost gauge now is, i added another hole and sorted for what i need

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turbo is tight but it fits!

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i've got it running ok, it starts pretty well and warms up / idles good, played around with some 2 step testing but not much else i can do at the moment ... just need to get the last few things ticked off then i can hopefully get it to a dyno and see if it all works as expected.

few random pics of progress.....

so i wanted to test closed loop boost control, and also wanted to put a 7psi spring in the gate and then have the ability to turn it up as needed from there

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been working on a lazer cut bracket to hold the radiator (it has 2 screw holes in each end tank, and then nut serts into the radiator support to tie it all together.

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a tab down the back of it to attach the thermo fans to.

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this car was a v8 previously with an air cleaner out the bonnet, so i needed to cover that hole, and i felt like a vn group a scoop was the best look for this car .... so thats just got to be trimmed a bit and then holes drilled to screw it to the bonnet!

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[vlad01]

Thanks for updating us! Sounds like some good progress.

I had a look more into the USB cable stuff, there is a ribbon cable breakout board with micro on one end. Just an idea, maybe USB socket could be on the main board routing to a ribbon cable connector closer to the CPU board, and a short ribbon connecting to it, much like a phone uses internally. I still think even with the above USB bulk head cables, they look like they would be prone to wearing out from the weight and vibration, they are very bulky in relation to the connector size. It's a shame that those CPU boards don't appear to have USB pass though on their pins so one could just have the USB wherever they want on the main board rather than a janky connector hanging off the side. I couldn't find anything in the documentation to suggest they have that as an option.

So am I assuming right that coding is the limitation to supporting 18-3x natively? From the documentation is looks like other trigger types are still WIP, but 18-3x isn't even on the list yet.

[Holden202T]

yeah the original mcupro board i made had a 4 pin header which was basically the USB pins so thats why i used it, just punched them out to a usb port and done and it worked perfectly! then they stopped making it and for a while there, there was a board with no usb, and it had rx / tx and power to a header, that was ok and worked for a usb to ttl converter but then the latest has the ch340 usb chipset and even with removing the resistors to de-couple it from the processor i wasnt able to get reliable comms.

there is a dual wheel option in speeduino but i am not sure if it works or not for 18-3x ....

also while we are here, i was trying to work out the differences between the board versions, v1.3 has 4 x analog inputs added to spare pins and some pin outs fixed up so it is more plug and play, then v1.4 which i havent made one of yet has added two pins on B1-B2 to go to a uart to can adaptor ... and i have hacked the speeduino code to send out can frames on that serial port (if can is enabled in speeduino) to my can gauge, very rough proof of concept, but wanted to prove it works before i added it to the PCB .... at the moment its just can frames with values i put into it, not actually getting variables from speeduino yet, but that side of it im not really concerned about, its more if i could add my routine into the speeduino code to send my frames out over the serial port and then work out how to configure the uart 2 can adaptor to read them correctly and such

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[vlad01]

That's stupid they removed the header in the later versions.

I think I did read the dual wheel option by I think it had on the notes as untested iirc and it was a standard not like the 18-3x I recall. But maybe it can be hacked to make it work?

For the LS coils, what pins on the ECU plug do you use for that? Some of the spare ones?

Also, I found online in the states those ECU plugs that the 808 uses, but it's on a breakout board. They don't seem to sell them unsoldered. I feel like one day, even an 808 as a donor for those plugs will become hard and expensive to find, so at least there is that option. 3D printing should sort the rest of the ECU case and what not.

I have not seen an 808 or even a 424 for quite some years at the wreckers, even if the cars are there, everyone raids them as soon as they roll in, probably for a quick buck. I doubt there are many people like us that actually need them for anything serious.