I'll have some boards in a few days.
The height of the board is 1.25 inches and it
is 3.80 inches long. The board length is
the same width as the ZBasic mother board.
Packaging will be optional. I might
design a billet case and have some body NC mill
it. Or you can do it your self out of sheet
aluminum. There are some tiny fans on the market.

This measures the RPM using a CAS on the flywheel
teeth every .63 seconds to the nearest rev and notifies
the main computer it has valid data. The computer reads
the data and resets the board to start over.
That is done in just a millisecond or less.

Nothing exotic here as it uses only four cheap
CMOS chips. The most expensive part is the coax connector.
Radio Shack used to carry these chips but you will
now need to buy them from Digi-Key. I am thinking
of selling a kit.

Next project is the injector and ignition driver board.
I'll design it for six injectors. Which can be staged
or not staged. That will be done in software.
The ignition part will just amplify the HE sensor out
puts on the board and send them out to MSD or other
type of stand alone ignition systems like the Ford EDIS.

Thats it for a basic running engine. EGT amp
board will then be done for EGT reading and feedback
and auto tune.

The multi-strike rotary engine ignition board will come later.

There is plenty of I/O pins on the Atmel mother board
for other expansion such as simple instrument panel
displays.

Paul Lamar


Not yet on running.

The RPM module is compatible with all engines
that have flywheels with starter teeth.
It will work with any computer that has
two 8 bit I/O ports. That is most single
chip computers and PC's with parallel port
PCI plug in cards. QB64 or C programming languages
will be required for the PC.

http://www.pcconnectionexpress.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=186766&SourceID=k172344

Most single board computers are programmed in asm,
C or BASIC. Some tiny BASIC stamp computers
will work if they have enough I/O pins.

----------------------------------------------------

Since parallel ports have disappeared off PC mother
boards lately a new product is making waves
and has the potential for something big.
This has many applications in machine control.

http://www.dlpdesign.com/

The DLP-USB245R is DLP Design’s smallest
USB-to-parallel FIFO interface module.
A low cost ($18) USB to parallel device
is filling the void. This eventually could
be a whole class of products.

FIFO stands for First In First Out like
a long skinny warehouse with a door on both
ends.

Single-chip USB-to-parallel FIFO bidirectional
data-transfer interface. Data transfer rates up
to 1Mbyte per second. USB 2.0 full-speed compatible.

Here is the PDF. What is needed is
a 16 bit version. This only 8 bits so far.

A lot is going to depend on the software
support. Hopefully it will work with QB64.


BTW
Here too is a $30 replacement for the $90 Hytek board. Not quite
as capable as this module is only 10 bits and not 12 bits like the
Hytek. Not near as many I/O bits but you can never have
enough I/O. Not as fast either. This makes for a real cheap storage
O-scope for a lot of computer EFI IGN service and diagnostic
problems. If you don't have one of these and learn to use it you
have no excuse :) These things do a lot of jobs that storage  O-scopes
used to do costing thousands of dollars. In fact I don't
know of any 14 channel O-scopes.

These are so cheap you could afford to install it on
your EFI system and leave it there. Bring your note book
or net book to the airport and plug it in any time you
want to diagnose a problem os just record a lot
of engine parameters. Up to 20,000 samples per second.
Tracy should build this module into his computer.

"The DLP-IO20 Data-Acquisition Module is a low-cost, easy-to-use
data-acquisition system for analyzing AC voltages, driving
5-volt relays, controlling and monitoring processes and
measuring DC voltages in the range of 0-5 volts.  This module
provides topside wire terminal blocks for the wiring
connections.  The 20 channels on the DLP-IO20 are broken down as
follows: 3 outputs with high current relay/LED drivers and 17
digital I/O; 14 of which can be set to analog input mode.  The
DLP-IO20 also provides two latching relay contacts.  Each of the
channels and relay contacts can be controlled via simple,
multi-byte commands.  All operational power is taken from the
host PC via the USB port."

"Fourteen inputs can read and return the voltage on the analog
inputs using a 10-bit ADC. The maximum sample rate is 20Ksps.
The input voltage range is 0-5 Volts."

There is a DLP USB interface product on the Atmel board.

Paul Lamar