It would be handy if you could test your EFI with out having it on the
 engine. In other words in the shop.

 What you need is a Crank Angle Sensor AKA CAS simulator and a hand vacuum
 pump for the MAP sensor. The vacuum pump is no problem as they can be had
 for around $20 in auto parts stores.

 The Crank Angle Sensor simulator is just a variable frequency variable
 pulse
 width generator. Unfortunately manufacturer of these device want several

 hundred dollars.

 It took me  a few hours to make one suitable for testing an EFI system
 from
 parts I had lying around. Nothing you can't find in Radio Shack. I was
 only
 interested in 7500 RPM as that is worse aircraft engine case so this one
 is
 fixed frequency... fixed pulse width out. With a couple of pots it could
 be
 made variable frequency.

 Here are all the tools you need and a picture or two of the device.

 If enough people show an interest I will do a pc board and/or an assembled
 unit. My guess is $50.


 Paul Lamar

 Paul--
       Sounds like a VERY worthwhile project of significant interest to
 many of us!

 Paul Vermillion

 Thanks. It is getting very close to working.
 My main limitation is learning the idiosyncrasies of ZBasic.
 The manual was written by a computer science professor
 and I am a Dick and Jane person :)

 Speaking of that Mark, how is the book on ZBasic?


 Paul Lamar

 Still waiting for it to arrive.  I guess it was shipped via slow boat from
 China.

 I am making good progress learning this ZBasic but there is still
 a lot I don't understand. Don has been very helpful. He could use
 a lot more examples in the ZBasic Language Reference Manual.

 Paul Lamar

I may stop by the Half-Price Bookstore and see what they have.  Who knows
what I might find.

Mark

I don't think you are going to find anything on ZBasic.
Plenty of books out there on QB and QB is fun to learn
but there are so many real time extensions in ZBasic
as learning QB will not be much of a help.
It will certainly give you the basics of programming
pardon the pun :) Some say it will spoil you :)

BTW the A to D only takes 26 usecs so a 3 rotor would
be no problem if that were the only limitation.
Apparently the real limitation right at
the moment is sending data to the net book using
the USB. That takes about a millisecond and we only have
four to work with on a 2 rotor and 2.66 milliseconds
on a 3 rotor at 7500 RPM.

Currently my USB port is set to 19,200 bits
per second but there is an implication using USB 2
that this could go 5 times faster or 115,200
bits per second. All I need do is figure out
how to speed up my USB port.

Do you have a USB 2 port on your net book?

Another alternative is store the data and send
it out to the net book while the RPM is lower
than say 6000.

Paul Lamar

Paul,

According to the eeepc user's group, it can handle USB 2.0, but it may not
currently be configured for it.  I'll have to check tonight after work.  My
gut feel tells me that it is configured for USB 2.0.

Mark

Don suggested a couple of com programs. Currently we (you and I )are using
the com program built into the IDE. That would give one easier
control of the bit rate.

"Paul Lamar wrote:
Is there a stand alone communication program that will
receive data from the AVR debug.print or console.write?"

"Many. I've used TeraTerm and Bray's Terminal. A search using "terminal emulator" and similar terms should turn up several options, most of which should be no-cost."

Last edited by dkinzer on 20 May 2010, 13:16 PM;

Paul Lamar