tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

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tmbryhn
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tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by tmbryhn »

Hi, and greetings from Norway! This is my first post on the FreeEMS forum, but hopefully won't be the last ;-)

First of all, I would like to thank Fred and the other developers for a fantastic open source platform.
I'm looking forward to become a part of this community.

So, what's my story?
I have run EFi (MS2) in one of my VW Beetles for a couple of years to this date. I drive V-dubs on a daily basis, all year round (even though Norwegian winters can be pretty harsh^^), and have been doing so for about seven years. you can say that I'm very affectionate about those cute old German cars <3

For about a year ago, after gathering some experience running the Megasquirt-platform providing both spark and fuel, I felt that the MS itself platform was of good value, but the hardware (ECU case and circuitry) was imo. inadequate and far from elegant enough for being a permanent installation in a reliable daily driver. I especially didn't like the DB37 and DB9-connectors, and also the fact that a lot of jumper wires have to be soldered from different points on the PCB for the ECU to suit the needs of the user...

I decided that I wanted to make my own ECU that would suit my 4-cylinder needs.
The idea that kick started the process, was that I wanted to design a PCB that would fit inside an original Bosch ECU case, using the stock main connector that would be de-soldered from the stock Bosch PCB. That way I would end up with a design that was water/splash proof, more robust with better connections and at the same time letting me design a PCB with more on-board features than what the MS v3.0-board have out of the box.

The Bosch case i chose to go with initially sports a skinny 25-pin connector. Although, in the beginning that was adequate for my 4-cyl. aircooled boxer-needs, running full-sequential CoP and injection with two tach-inputs (36-1 crank + single pulse/ 720 crank deg. distributor module) and idle control.

Preferring electronics and elimination of mechanical parts, I have also started developing a dual-DBW prototype that I would like to incorporate into the ECU.
In time, when all of this will be coming together, I will need a bigger case, bigger connector, and a controller with a lot more I/O's than my currently used freescale MCU has to offer.

This is where FreeEMS springs to mind.
Attachments
ECU.jpg
ECU + harness.jpg
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Fred
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Re: tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by Fred »

Welcome to the forum! I moved it here in particular due to the title. Please see this thread on the main reason I moved it at all: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2378 You can start a new thread if/when you join the exclusive club :-D

Please tell us more about your beetle(s)! And post some photos of them!!! Unsure if you read, but I'm a BIG fan of the air cooled beetle! :-)

And on behalf of everyone who deserves your thanks, you're welcome!

Fred.
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tmbryhn
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Re: tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by tmbryhn »

Thanks for the warm welcoming!

It's been quite some time since my first post...

I currently own three Beetles. The first one that I bought at the age of 17, is currently undergoing a total restoration. This process has been, and continues to be a means for me to learn body- and paint work, so I'm doing all the welding, sheet metal work, priming and painting myself. Gotta DIY, right? ;-)
My first Beetle. It's almost ready for paint!
My first Beetle. It's almost ready for paint!
It's suspension is under lightly upgrading, and I'm building a modified 2,1 ltr. WBX-engine for it. WBX is the German short for "wasserboxer" (waterboxer), and by modified, I mean that I have machined the case and converted it from water- to aircooled. I think this forum thread will be of interest.
It's written in Norwegian, but the pictures are pretty clear as to what's going on. Of course, I'm also doing all of the machine work myself ;-)

http://www.vwnorge.no/index.php/topic,40863.0.html

My second Beetle is a 100% original untouched 1972 1300S, and I intend to keep it that way. I have owned this beautiful Beetle for two years now, and ever since the first day I saw it and fell in love, it has served as a reliable daily driver. This summer, my girlfriend and I had a trip around Iceland, and clocked in 1620 km on the meter :-)
It's not fast, nor stuffed with elegant electronics, but it's a car that reminds me of what a Beetle is all about, and I just can't be without it!
My original untouched VW. It's a daily driver, and the picture is taken from a trip with my girlfriend &lt;3
My original untouched VW. It's a daily driver, and the picture is taken from a trip with my girlfriend <3
My last Beetle, I bought one year ago. The plan I had in mind and the motivation for getting another family member was that I would soon need a R&D-platform for my car related electronics projects. Today, both my girlfriend and I are driving it on a daily basis with my homemade ECU (using MS2 extra code) strapped to the firewall in the engine compartment together with a home-built 1915cc low end street friendly engine.
It will also serve as a test platform for my DBW-controller that is being developed (more on that later :-) )
The R&amp;D Beetle
The R&D Beetle
The engine in question and the ECU can be seen in action here before i got to install it in the car.
I'm speaking Norwegian, but it's worth a peek anyway :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZRSkdZHMWI

The future: I'm excited to start peeking into the world of freeEMS. I'm very happy for this forum, cause I got some questions coming your way!
What I'm thinking of as a start, is to make a similar custom PCB to fit the Freescale MCU, the sensor intarface circuitry and all the driver circuits, get some firmware uploaded, and start playing on the engine that I'm running my own ECU on right now.

What's your take on that, Fred?
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Re: tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by Fred »

I currently own three Beetles. The first one that I bought at the age of 17, is currently undergoing a total restoration. This process has been, and continues to be a means for me to learn body- and paint work
Sweet, I've had both of mine for a very long time, too.
so I'm doing all the welding, sheet metal work, priming and painting myself. Gotta DIY, right? ;-)
I like your attitude, you'll go far, here. Some have forgotten this, and are fading into oblivion alone.
It's suspension is under lightly upgrading, and I'm building a modified 2,1 ltr. WBX-engine for it. WBX is the German short for "wasserboxer" (waterboxer), and by modified, I mean that I have machined the case and converted it from water- to aircooled. I think this forum thread will be of interest.
It's written in Norwegian, but the pictures are pretty clear as to what's going on.
I understand some of what I saw there, but not other aspects/motivations. Neat thread anyway! :-)
Of course, I'm also doing all of the machine work myself ;-)
'Of course' is the correct attitude ;-)
My second Beetle is a 100% original untouched 1972 1300S, and I intend to keep it that way. I have owned this beautiful Beetle for two years now, and ever since the first day I saw it and fell in love, it has served as a reliable daily driver. This summer, my girlfriend and I had a trip around Iceland, and clocked in 1620 km on the meter :-)
It's not fast, nor stuffed with elegant electronics, but it's a car that reminds me of what a Beetle is all about, and I just can't be without it!
These have the better front end suspension, right? I put 800km on the hotel last weekend alone :-D
My last Beetle, I bought one year ago. The plan I had in mind and the motivation for getting another family member was that I would soon need a R&D-platform for my car related electronics projects. Today, both my girlfriend and I are driving it on a daily basis with my homemade ECU (using MS2 extra code) strapped to the firewall in the engine compartment together with a home-built 1915cc low end street friendly engine.
I want to hear/see more about these engines.
It will also serve as a test platform for my DBW-controller that is being developed (more on that later :-) )
You know I implemented this 9 months ago, right? Vids on youtube. It's not production ready, but it does work, and could easily be improved to be production ready. Nevertheless, carry on and have fun :-)
The engine in question and the ECU can be seen in action here before i got to install it in the car.
I'm speaking Norwegian, but it's worth a peek anyway :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZRSkdZHMWI
Interesting stuff. Can you post some decent pics of your head temp sensor setup(s) and your trigger wheel and cam sync setups? Always curious about these :-)
The future: I'm excited to start peeking into the world of freeEMS. I'm very happy for this forum, cause I got some questions coming your way!
What I'm thinking of as a start, is to make a similar custom PCB to fit the Freescale MCU, the sensor intarface circuitry and all the driver circuits, get some firmware uploaded, and start playing on the engine that I'm running my own ECU on right now.

What's your take on that, Fred?
Perfect! What's the ign/inj/crank/cam setup on this engine? Ahh, vid watched now, got it.

Fred.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
tmbryhn
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Re: tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by tmbryhn »

No, the 1300S is equipped with the older torsion front suspension. The "Super Beetle", or 1302 / 1303 which is the proper term, like the silver R&D-Beetle on the last picture in the previous post has the McPherson-front suspension, but of course still got the old torsion rear suspension.

Yes, I am aware of your DBW-creation on the FreeEMS testcar. I've seen all the youtube-movies :) To me, it's pure inspiration!
I'm somewhat stuck at this moment though. I got the PID-stuff to work pretty good, and got the butterfly to move in both directions and stay on the spot perfectly, but the motion is not as "smooth" that I would like it to be, and I'm still not makin a seemless transition between the "limp home position" where the motor needs to reverse instead of driving forward to hold the position. You know what I mean?

Like with everything else, I'm not a programmer either, I just try to learn this stuff, and am pretty new to C... I'm using Microchip MCU's for the time being, and this is what the dual TB DBW-prototype v1.0 looks like:
Dual TB DBW prototype.
Dual TB DBW prototype.
It's got dual H-bridge, 2x IAT input, 2x external MAP-input, 4x TPS input for redundant TPS on both TB's and also Analog TPS, IAT, and MAP-output to external ECU.
Basically, it's just a means for me to be able to develop some working code... I hope to get there eventually, and I have gotten a long way, but I'm not satisfied yet... If you're open for letting me take a look at what you have written for your test vehicle that I saw on youtube, I would be more than happy to receive a PM ;-) Everything to get one step further is appreciated.

Here are som pics that you were curious about :-)
CHT sensor in head (Medium).jpg
Crank and dist. trigger.jpg
tmbryhn
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Re: tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by tmbryhn »

I machined this on the lathe with the same dimensions as a stock T1 distributor. Using a Bosch Hall-sensor on the picture, but I have also fitted a VR-sensor with great success.
In the video, the engine ran fully sequential injection with the Hall-sensor providing the cylinder#1 compression stroke flag.
Camsynch (Medium).jpg
JaniM
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Re: tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by JaniM »

Here is on VW distcamsyncer for Fred :)
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Distributor.jpg
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Fred
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Re: tmbryhn's daily driven VW Beetle

Post by Fred »

Thanks for the pictures, guys! Now I understand how your missing tooth wheel is attached. Cheers. :-)

Re DBW yes, I know exactly what you mean. It's inherently difficult to achieve smoothness in that region. You have to have your feed-forward setup perfectly :-) The code I have was smashed together bin 48 hours including building the hardware and doing the wiring. You will learn more figuring it out yourself. I'll pm some further thoughts, though.

Fred.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
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