Newbie Introduction

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Locost_Johnh
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Newbie Introduction

Post by Locost_Johnh »

Hello! I've got this wild idea that it would be fun to build my own ECU for my little car. The car is called a "Locost" which is a play on the name Lotus, of which it's a replica. I'm an electronics engineer, but it's been quite a while since I really did any design or built anything. I can hack around a little in other's code, but I get lost easily. I'm hoping to be able to take advantage of the work going on here to cobble together a simple system that I can learn from as I grow it.

Here are a few pics of the car. I built it myself with steel, a welder, fiberglass and resin. Many people ask "Is that, you know, like a kit car or something?" And I tell them "It's LIKE a kit, but without the KIT. You buy a book, steel, a welder and have at it." If anyone is interested, there are a bunch of loonies building these things and they mostly seem to roost at http://www.locostusa.com.

John
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All painted and ready to roll
All painted and ready to roll
Frame finished and w/ sides
Frame finished and w/ sides
Starting the frame
Starting the frame
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Fred
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Re: Newbie Introduction

Post by Fred »

Hi, and welcome along! :-)

I like the non-kit kit car, very cool. There is so much satisfaction in building your own stuff :-)
Locost_Johnh wrote:I'm hoping to be able to take advantage of the work going on here to cobble together a simple system that I can learn from as I grow it.
PERFECT!!

What is the donk? If you can suffer mechanical ignition on it, you can start FreeEMS fuel injection on it tomorrow. I drove my Volvo around 900 miles in the USA on the code in the last release. (and nothing much has changed, unfortunately, since then)

Fred.
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Locost_Johnh
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Re: Newbie Introduction

Post by Locost_Johnh »

Fred wrote: What is the donk? If you can suffer mechanical ignition on it, you can start FreeEMS fuel injection on it tomorrow.

Fred.
Thank you for the welcome. Unfortunately, the distributor interferes with the throttle bodies I bought (not a surprise). It's going to be an all or nothing install. But I'm not in a hurry - it takes me a long time to move through a project. I'm in it for the education and the experience. Getting a working ECU at the end is just a bonus. :P

I have a lot of lurking and poking around on this site and your code ahead of me. That will keep me entertained for months. Hope you can tollerate a bunch of lame questions along the way. I also need to finalize and fabricate the mechanical stuff. I'm set on the intake design but I'm still waffling on how to do the cam/crank position sensing. But that's a topic for another time and another thread.

John
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jharvey
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Re: Newbie Introduction

Post by jharvey »

Welcome along and interesting project. Feel free to ask questions, I'll do my best to answer them. The wiki is reasonably up-to-date. If you haven't already happened on that page, I'd recommend going to freeems.org and browsing around.
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Fred
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Re: Newbie Introduction

Post by Fred »

Locost_Johnh wrote:Unfortunately, the distributor interferes with the throttle bodies I bought (not a surprise). It's going to be an all or nothing install.
ITBs then? There is no alpha-n code or blend code, yet, but it could be implemented fairly quickly if required. Ditto the ign+fuel aspect, 4 of the output channels could be used to drive 2 coils and 2 sets of injectors with some minor hacking. I'd be happy to help if you wanted to try it before we suss out big banged outputs fully.
I have a lot of lurking and poking around on this site and your code ahead of me. That will keep me entertained for months. Hope you can tollerate a bunch of lame questions along the way.
Lame questions are fine, go nuts. Code criticism also welcome, esp when justified and meaningful. If you want to assist while you're reading and learning, you could compare some of the outdated docs in the docs directory with the code and let me know what is wrong, probably lots. I want to restructure the docs for better version control storage, so don't go editting stuff just yet.
I also need to finalize and fabricate the mechanical stuff. I'm set on the intake design but I'm still waffling on how to do the cam/crank position sensing. But that's a topic for another time and another thread.
Not really, if you can tolerate wasted spark (mainly the looks of it) and semi sequential injection (fine if you're NA) then you don't need a cam input. At that point, the two obvious choices are 36-1 and 60-2 crank wheels. You can use VR or Hall or even optical, but avoid VR with integral conditioning, they suck arse.

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!
Locost_Johnh
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Re: Newbie Introduction

Post by Locost_Johnh »

Harvey - Thanks for the pointer, I hadn't found that yet. I got started following a link from somewhere (Google?) to the http://www.diyefi.org/ page. Found the forum from there and now I'm a member. :D

Fred - I might take you up on the spark support in a few months. Like I said before, I move slowly and want to finish the mechanical stuff before starting the electronics. By then I may even be able to help you with it. Finding this site and people who want to make a "free EMS" really work is very encouraging. Similar project sites seem less open to adaptations.

I'll also be sure to take notes when I find differences between Docs and code. That's something I seem to be able to do OK with. Kind of along those lines, it might be a good idea to update the "Latest News" and "Status" blurbs on the http://www.DIYEFI.org and [oops edited] freeems.org main pages. Looks like there has been good work going on since those were updated (October 2008.)

John
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Fred
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Re: Newbie Introduction

Post by Fred »

I should get that fixed up soonish. I updated the forum software last night. I'm going to move the forum to a subdomain next. Then the task is to bring the main site up to a reasonable standard... sorry for the late reply, this tab has been open in my browser, literally for months...

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!
preludelinux
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Re: Newbie Introduction

Post by preludelinux »

Interesting hobby you have there. I've always wanted to build a car from the ground up. Might have to look into this more in the future.
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