Delta said this in another thread and I'd like to run through what it will and won't compete with and why.Delta wrote:I'd like to think this project would take a stand at some point and say - were going to compete with Motec not MS. For the first design it doesn't matter what we do - just get it working and keep it cheap - drive an autofet directly without snubber or anything, it'll work.
Firstly, it's not going to compete with any existing MS product at all. It's going to thump them solidly into the back seat for anything other than a hobby "just for fun" solution.
FreeEMS's closest competitors will likely be VEMS and MS3 (if it ever arrives). Both VEMS and MS3 will do V8 sequential which we won't, but both VEMS and MS3 will cost 2 - 5 times as much as a bare FreeEMS solution. FreeEMS should thump VEMS performance wise and be close to MS3 performance wise. MS3 will have significantly more IO and a LOT of features up front. VEMS has a lot of features up front too, but LESS IO, and in fact, less of everything else (pin count, CPU performance, memory, etc).
I would like to think that I'm not naive, though sometimes people show otherwise :-) On that note, I think it would be naive to think FreeEMS will compete with Motec and Autronic and XYZ in the future. Reason being, we are using a high end chassis chip, not an engine control chip. The latter is used in all of the more reputable mainstream standalones. What this equates to is MUCH less CPU power and IO and accuracy possible on our system. Does "much less" matter? No it doesn't, "much less" is still way way WAY more than enough.
FreeEMS as it is conceived is intended to meet all/most of my needs for all/most of my future and current projects AND the vast majority of low budget (but not low power) car builders needs. I hope that in the future FreeEMS becomes the low end option from a number of successful projects designed and built in different ways at that time. Some of them may butt heads with the "big boys" but on a feature for feature basis, most DIY solutions just won't. Cases and software features and outright CPU power just won't measure up. Once again, this doesn't matter as the approach taken by the big boys is to hit the ant problem with a sledge hammer solution. I like that approach, but it's not required. The way I see the XDP512 in the overall scheme of things is "just enough to do a 4/6 cylinder with plenty of accessories really well" also "just enough to do a 8 cylinder with plenty of accessories fairly well". If it is "just enough" then it is cheap. If it is a sledge hammer then it costs. The ECU processors are WAY more expensive. Not DIY friendly at all. There are other options, and in the future I'm sure we will get around to exploring them.
Right now we should all focus on the task at hand : Build a great DIY based community around a good mid range solution called FreeEMS. FreeEMS is a means to and end and an end in itself depending on who is looking at it and how you look at it.
A big community of clever people freely sharing ideas and knowledge is a GREAT thing for EVERYONE :-) We are well on track to that being a reality with a good number of very talented individuals here. Once we get FreeEMS "to market" this community will grow a LOT and all sorts of things will happen. If we don't get FreeEMS to market ever/soon enough this community will fade and disappear. I've put a lot of blood sweat and tears into it already so I REALLY want to see it succeed and I hope everyone here is thinking the same thing.
FreeEMS should be a very capable high quality solution that meets a specific set of general needs. Not a Motec beater etc as that is just not realistic at this time. Once FreeEMS brings in the masses absolutely ANYTHING is possible and something wonderful is definitely going to happen :-) FreeEMS should be pretty damn cool indeed by my standards at least, but it will by no means be the last thing out of this community!
Here's to the future!
Fred.