Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

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martinprice2004
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Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by martinprice2004 »

First post here..hello.

I am developing an engine management system based on an Ardunio processor. I have just set up a board with an EDIS-4 unit and coil pack and cannot seem to get the plugs to fire. My trigger wheel is set up on a lathe and I do seem to be getting a varying voltage from the tacho output of the EDIS unit when the rpm goes up, so this leads me to believe the edis unit is doing something, but no coils firing.

Could some of you more experienced guys have a look at my setup in the following picture and see if I have missed anything obvious.

http://www.heliumfrog.net63.net/gashima ... csetip.jpg

Any other checks I can do with my multimeter to validate the individual parts would be a help, such as coil resistances etc.

Thank you to you all in advance.
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Fred
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by Fred »

Sorry for the delay approving this.

Coils vary from 0.5 Ohm to 3 Ohm on the primary. Make sure both coils match, I guess.

Do you have a scope? How about a logic analyser? You'll probably need one of these to make development smooth/fast, or you'll be flying blind and it'll take much longer to get right.

I guess the first thing to do is to disconnect your control logic and make sure you can get the unit working in fail safe mode without input.

For wasted spark you don't need to ground the plugs to ground. Just connect each pair of grounds together. This will stop them injecting massive noise into your shared ground.

If/when you set this up on a real engine, make sure your grounds are independent and NOT shared.

Hope that helps.

Fred.
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by crazyafrican »

any chance you can send me your code for this? or put it up on sourceforge?
would love to have a look
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by martinprice2004 »

As soon as I get anywhere with this I will post all code and details of the build on my website.
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by Fred »

There's some neat stuff on that website of yours! :-)

You didn't mention that it was for a Bug! Nor that you're a POHM. I'm fond of bugs... :-)

http://www.heliumfrog.net63.net/bajabug ... atest.html

Re sharing source, better to share early than share complete, if you want to engage people, that is. And also if you want help, otherwise the helpers are blind.

Keep us posted!

Fred.
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by crazyafrican »

are you just going to control ignition? here is my project that you could be interested in:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduems/

I also have code for EDIS control that is not included in the project, but it needs work so very interested in viewing your code
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by Fred »

Sorry to ask what seems like an obvious question, patronising, even, but:

What material is the trigger wheel in this photo made from:

http://www.heliumfrog.net63.net/bajabug ... rwheel.jpg

Looks like it's not mild steel. If it's not mild steel, or compacted ferrous material, you may not get much/any/enough of a signal. If it's alloy it simply won't work at all.

Perhaps it's steel (not s/s) and just painted silver?

Fred.
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by Fred »

"Another small job was to make a crank pulley washer. The standard VW ones are really weak, so I turned one about 3mm thick. This is painted and fitted as shown above."

Likely painted, too, then, I guess.

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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by martinprice2004 »

Thank you for the interest in the project. Initially I want to replace the 009 distributor (centrifugal advance only) with an EDIS unit. The advance is to be controlled with an arduino using a lookup table. I then want to add a map sensor and also a narrow band lambda sensor so I can adjust the carb. I have been working on a TV out display so all the relevant details can be displayed whilst driving.

The trigger wheel is steel mounted to the aluminium crank pulley. Its not painted, its just the photo.

I think my problem may be that I have the VR sensor wired the wrong way around. I have followed some diagrams off the net and these may not be correct. I will try again next weekend. I now have an oscilloscope so this should help me. The sensor is producing a waveform and the tacho output is working, but I think this would do so even if wired incorrectly. There is also a way of simulating the VR signal using an audio file which should help isolate the fault.

http://www.heggs.co.uk/vrssim/

I think this diagram may be wrong for my sensor.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthr ... tid=178912 wiring is for a ford vr sensor. I think the universal sensor from trigger-wheels.com may be different.

Am I correct in saying that I should get it working even if I just wire the sensor without any shielding on the bench?
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Re: Help diagnosing EDIS-4 unit

Post by Fred »

If you do have it backward, then it definitely won't work (correctly). Use your newly acquired scope to verify the polarity of the signal, or just try reversing it. The shield shouldn't matter for bench use.

You meant wideband, right? Narrow band is border-line useless for anything except idle. 105usd + shipping gets you a Spartan wideband from http://14point7.com at that price (and quality!) it's hard to say no.

I wouldn't bother with the PC VR stuff, pretty much a waste of time given your current setup.

Did you fix up your plug grounds yet?

Fred.
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