MegaSquirt main board adapter card design

[ababkin]

good find! but...

Do any of our users have one of these installed that they can photograph?

Admin.

should have searched harder
http://www.megamanual.com/msexp/

[Fred]

For those that are IP blocked (like me) :



Admin.

[GartnerProspect]

For what it's worth the board I'm currently developing should be pretty much cross-platform compatible. I'll gladly work on a DIY-EFI compatible processor module once the base design is done

[AbeFM]

I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly there is to gain from plugging into the MS board. What's on there? A couple inputs for triggers, at most one is used, and in most cases need an upgrade to something better anyway. Fuel and Ign drivers, which won't be used. The cabling to the car won't be used. I guess there's a driver for the idle valve, or something, but honestly the only thing worth keeping from the MS is that the software is known to 'work'.

Really, I'd much rather have the two boxes, complete, side by side, so I can run one or the other, or even in parallel. Ripping out the ECU from my MS seems like it would only make things harder.

What am I missing?

[Fred]

All power and conditioning circuits, and most importantly (THE point) most people have a car attached to their MS ;-)

cpu swap is a couple of minutes at most, running new looms, designing whole new boards etc... could take a while and costs a prospective tester more.

I'll be using mine as the test rig is on cardboard with a parallel loom if/when i try it in car. I have no ms hardware though, and no msed car.

Feel free to knock up a new board for us all to play with though if you think it is easier :-)

Gartner "work with diyefi" ? :-) who exactly is that? ;-) working with yourself should be pretty easy I imagine ;-) (ps, post pics! (not this thread))

What I mean is that it isn't really like that. It's just us, ie, whoever posts/does stuff, and that's it :-)

Admin.

[AbeFM]

So you're looking for the 'bottom board', I dunno what you call it, but yeah, power, basically. Maybe build the drivers on there. Maybe it would be fun to layout.... Too bad I suck.

[GartnerProspect]

So you're looking for the 'bottom board', I dunno what you call it, but yeah, power, basically. Maybe build the drivers on there. Maybe it would be fun to layout.... Too bad I suck.

You pretty much see it the way I see it. I thought about a daughter card, until I really sat down and looked at the systems that the MS board implements... Both how few and how basic. It's really trivial to develop a board that simulates the functions without copying a single part of the schematic. So I'm going to put something together that goes one step further... Once I get comfortable on KiCad I'm going to port all my pieces over and post up some preliminary neato 3D pictures

[AbeFM]

Can't wait to see it.


Plus, in my testing, I've found it's really nice to have a known working system side-by-side with the experimental one. Since the OEM ecu isn't an option to me, I would love to have a patch cable from MS-boomslang to the freeems ('freeeeeeeems!') so I can jump back and forth between them. And with Jean's handy break out board, I can run any signals I want anywhere (though why my cooling fans don't work with it on needs to be investigated.

-Abe.
P.S. Post early, post often! I might want to take a look at the layout, just to see what ideas it gives me, and to think about packaging.

[GartnerProspect]

P.S. Post early, post often! I might want to take a look at the layout, just to see what ideas it gives me, and to think about packaging.

I'm trying, I swear! I've been cramming at the office and by the time I get back to my pad I'm dead tired and can't focus on anything. Leaving for the US Virgin Islands next Saturday, for 5 days, and I need to make sure all my work here is caught up and ready to go. This will be the first time this client has had to fly solo since they opened. So no time this week.

Might bring the laptop and work on it en-route. But more likely I'll just print out all the datasheets I need and do it on paper. Don't feel like getting my computer ripped off on St. John...

In two weeks I'll have time to whip out a quick example layout for you all to beat up PROMISE!

[Fred]

In two weeks I'll have time to whip out a quick example layout for you all to beat up :D PROMISE!

That's the spirit! Accepting others criticisms in your stride is what it is all about :-)