My Winter Project

[Prof]

Better update this thread then !
 
So it rolling roaded without the eManage and made 317BHP at the Fly.
 
I am waiting on the intercooler from Pace - it\'s getting recored so that should be back with me any day now.
 
I have also built and tested the little gizmo box that will interface between the eManage and the stock ECU - but a byproduct of doing that is that I\'m going to use that device to feed an LCD screen with Air/Water temp values.  It\'s workng on the \'bench\', but hasn\'t been tested in the car - I shall be finishing the display portion this week, and it will go on at the weekend.  Pics will follow...
 
Once that\'s done, the eManage can go back on, along with:
 
Electric Rad Fan from a Volvo T70
800cc Secondary Injectors
Greddy Compression Tube
ARC Intercooler
 
Then there is the water injector/sprayer to start putting together.  It\'s a hybrid kit made from CoolingMist/Devilsown and some other eBay parts - along with a custom made progressive controller with it\'s own gauge and some hozelock irrigation bits for the sprayer - don\'t laugh - this stuff was awsome when used at 50-60psi on the coolingmist pump.  More Details and pics and a diagram will follow to explain this heath robinson setup.

[Prof]

As Promised, pitcure of the gizmo that will allow the eManage to play nice with the ECU.
 
There is also a vid of the test setup in action.
 
The final version will be a 2 line display, with an inverse LCD that will be blue but turns red if either air or water temps go over a set limit (set in the firmware).
 

[BlitzBoy]

good custom work I like it

[mpk490p]

Very nice your a cleaver chap Dave (PS love the Xmas tree and model cars!)

Mark

[grinder]

loving the temp display - do you NEED the emanage for this to work ?

[Prof]

loving the temp display - do you NEED the emanage for this to work ?

Nope - the circuit has a quad op amp - I\'m only using 3 of them, all they do is amplify the signals by 1 (no amplification), but the output can deliver more current and does not alter the input signal.  This means when I do connect up the eManage again it won\'t screw up my temp signals.
 
Since I had the water and air temp signals available I used them. The little 8 pin chip is a PIC microcontroller - it takes the voltages and converts them into a digital value, but as thermistors are logarithmic devices, you either have to do some math on the value to get a temp display or cheat like I did and pass the values to a big lookup table - the results are then turned into serial signal for the display device to read (they could go to a datalogger or PC as well).
 
The biggest headache is finding a decent looking case to put the display into - I yobbed an old Meridian phone in the end - as they have a 2x24 line display, although I\'m using my own lcd and a customised driver board.

[grinder]

i bow down to your genuis !!

so whats the odds of you knocking a few more of these out

so i would assume that it uses the stock sensors for the temps ?

[Prof]

This one was built on veroboard, so a bit of a custom job.
 
Circuit could easily be modded just to output temp signals and not buffer them for eManage, so a dual opamp could be used (8 pin chip).  That would make the board a lot smaller and simpler - plus it could use the 5v ref signal that feeds the other sensors on the car, saving on the voltage regulators.
 
The hardest part was the coding in the chip - but I\'ve done that now, so I could knock up a pcb board design and see how small it could be made.
 
Connections would be :
 
Ground
+5V REF
IAT
Water Thermo
Serial Out
Serial Ground
 
Then you just need to find a nice cheap serial LCD - such as the Matrix Orbital series.
 
If there\'s interest in it I could make up a run of boards, and get someone to market them.
 
Parts aren\'t expensive as it happens - the \'sender\' unit was about £10-15 worth of parts, and the LCD display was about £30 for display, case and parts.  Cheap compared to 2 gauges

[grinder]

and would look cool as hell in the FC

would just need somewhere to mount it so that it looks neat !!

as you say - cheap compared to 2 gauges

could you do a 3 line one with oil temp ( although i dont think there is an oil temp sensor in the car anywhere )

[Prof]

Should be possible to do more sensors - the pic code can be moved to a larger pic device, as the one I\'m using is crammed full !
 
I managed to get a cheap phone to house the lcd display, but it would be nice to get a custom display case / guage sorted out - The Matrix Orbital ones fit in a 5 1/4" drive bay - so they are quite large - but would go in the DIN mounting I think. I did toy with the idea of taking out the centre vents - but I kind of like them and there useful for keeping the hands warm when driving with the roof down on occasions - so they are not getting touched
 
As for temp sensors - I would need to know the resistance at 2 temp points - ideally 25C and say 80C, then I can match up the thermistor that was used as the sender. I have an Excel spreadsheet with the formula plumbed in, which calculates all the other points to make the lookup tables.

[pdtaylor18]

did you eat engineering and electronics books as a baby Dave ?? We are just mere puppets to your wisdom and fountain of knowledge.  Apexi does a similar sort of thing in their new turbo timer which does the old lean and rich bit as well as the timer function.. Not sure where they tapped into the sytem though but imagine at the ECU end. You could incorporate so many imputs in just one gauge.

[Ricco_04]

Wow, thats rather good :yes

Although I got ever so slightly confused how you did it! :Giggle

[Prof]

Quick update on this - the custom temp gauge thing is in the car and was tested on a warmup yesterday, and on the run in to work this morning.  The display bit still needs a bit of finishing - but it\'s working a treat.
 
On the warmup it started at 15 degrees water temp and steadily rose to 81/82 degrees.  If I revved it a bit I could get it up to 86.
 
Air temps started at 20 and rose to 42 by the end of my testing - not suprised as the car was stationary.
 
On this mornings run I got water temps up to 92/93 for a brief period, after a bit of WOT action up a hill, as I then got stuck in some slower traffic - but the stock rad works really well in the current air temps and had the water temp back down to 84 in a few seconds.  It does show how damped the temp gauge is in the car - as that never moves off the half way mark.   Air temps were a suprise - got up to 44 at one point, but after a section of spirited running, the intercooler was knocking 10 degrees C off that - and I\'ve still got the stock one plumbed in.
 
Pic\'s will follow once I\'ve smartend up the case a bit and decided where to mount the thing.  :driving

[logicalChimp]

That little gauge / readout looks very tasty!

How easy would it be to adapt to the FD?

[Prof]

That little gauge / readout looks very tasty!
 
How easy would it be to adapt to the FD?

In theory this should be easily adaptable to any engine - the main issue is getting the values for the thermistor\'s which are what\'s used in the temperature sensors on the car.  The service manual gives the resistance of these at 2 temperatures - 25 and 80 and from that it\'s possible to put these values into a spreadsheet and get the intermediate resistances - and hence voltages - as all thermistors tend to follow a set logarithmic curve.
 
The biggest problem for me was the display case - as no one makes a nice looking case for an LCD display that isn\'t an ugly square box.  Possibly if I change the display I would go for a 52mm gauge with an LED/LCD readout.