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

Specificly, what data is it we are sending over the USB?
C. Smith

Could be all sorts of things. Engine data of all kinds.
I have not decided yet. A lot depends on how much time I have.

I am still thinking about other schemes.
If I can figure out the hardware interrupt system
all com can be done in the back ground. What happens
then is the data to the net book is auto slowed while
the engine runs at high RPM.


Single chip control computers are like money. You
can never have enough power. It is nice to know
there is a future upgrade coming.

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/datasheets_v2.asp?family_id=607
http://www.atmel.com/products/AVR/xmega.asp?family_id=607

AT32UC3A0512  512 Kbytes 64 Kbytes yes yes 144 pin LQFP or BG
Up to 91 DMIPS Running at 66 MHz from Flash (1 Wait-State)
802.3 Ethernet MAC 10/100 Mbps interface

That is 100 megabits be second.



Paul Lamar