DIY ECU build thread

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

Any idea on what kind of testing budgets we are talking here? 10k, 100k, 1M? That's if we are talking certification tests.

Now with a Windows simulator:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6MFl8bPDNU

Nice work! A windows simulator would have saved me a ton of time over the years.

The new board has arrived, stay tuned :)

The new board works, now I need a better base tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWYU1SngT5w

I'm always in awe when I read about your progress. At some point I would like to try one of your ECU's on my dyno... although I'm still a long way from making the dyno work.

Keep up the progress!

Getting closer a PnP Miata NA ECU. 1) the case is bolt-on compatible 2) the connector is the same 3) now I am stimulating a stock ECU on a bench and this gives me a ball part of default fuel map

Hi. New guy here. Very impressive project. I have a 1990 Miata NA that is basically stock (except for a COP conversion). I wouldn't mind trying you product out in that car. I can reflow SMD's and have some amateur hobby electronics experience. I probably don't have the skills to help develop this product and my programming skills are very limited. I hope it's ok for me to ask a couple questions though:

Putting aside emission issues, is your product developed enough that the car would be operational enough to safely drive around in traffic? Don't worry guys. I don't plan on breaking any laws. Just trying to understand what the overall operational level is at this point.

Second, I haven't been able to find much documentation on your web site. I'm trying to understand which product would be easiest to install in this car given it's stock configuration. The Frankenso or the Frankenstein. I really desire to get rid of the wasted spark arrangement from the outset. Eventually, I would like to go sequential injection.

I apologize if this post is OT as this seems more like a development thread. I kind of figure you wouldn't mind some folks testing your project out in real cars as part of the debugging process. If my post is out of line, I can delete it if desired.

Best regards

Is it just me or does email notification about new replies does not work here?

In reply to ImA4Wheelr: Frankenso is the board to use on a 1990 Miata. In fact Frankenso was designed with pre-OBDII Mazda pinout it mind. Just compare a Frankenso set for a 1994 Miata:

with the same board set for a 1995 Accord:

Hopefully one looks a bit cleaner in terms of jumper wires then the other one.

this ECU is pretty close to being drive-able, but we are still waiting for a person to actually start driving it :) Everyone myself included finds lame excuses not to drive: I am struggling to fix the test mule, another guy has decided to go offline for a back surgery, the guy who has ordered that 1994 PnP-ish board does not have time to put it in. Overall, there is still probably 1 (one) mile of actual mileage on this. Technically there is a guy in Bangkok who made himself a board using the files but we hardly understand what's going on there, hopefully one day I will just learn that he has installed this on a hundred of 4g63s.

Wanna step in? :)

Re: documentation: there is probably too much loosely-organized info regarding developing but not enough end-user info, mostly because that's work in progress not an off-the shelf product.

I guess if I would be you I would run away given all that. If on the other hand you do know & feel cars enough to know if your engine is happy or not, you might be the person we are looking for - a person to provide the feedback needed to transition this from "PnPish if you have my cell phone number" to "PnP".

russian wrote: still waiting for a person to actually start driving it :) Everyone myself included finds lame excuses not to drive: I am struggling to fix the test mule

I've got ashamed of myself and sold the broken test mule yesterday. Today I am shopping for a new test mule for this project: 1) has to be manual 2) ECU should be located somewhere inside the cabin, not under the hood

Ideas? Miata would be the obvious choice but I do not want to pay the crazy money for a nice one and risk ruining it, also I do not want to buy a crappy one and work on fixing the Miata instead of working on the ECU. Right now I am leaning towards a Hyundai under 100K miles somewhere around $2-$3K

Sorry for the slow reply. I checked for a replay a few times, but not in the last few days.

Sure I would be up for testing it out and helping document some of the installation procedures. I live out in the country and have plenty of safe areas to start out before testing in traffic. Is there are way to PM here? When I pull up your profile, it only gives me the option to leave a public comment.

EDIT: When I say option, I mean that it says I need approval from the Admin to send private messages. Maybe you can contact me first. Tell me how you would like to proceed and maybe I can reply to your message.

russian wrote: Today I am shopping for a new test mule for this project: 1) has to be manual 2) ECU should be located somewhere inside the cabin, not under the hood Ideas? Miata would be the obvious choice but I do not want to pay the crazy money for a nice one and risk ruining it, also I do not want to buy a crappy one and work on fixing the Miata instead of working on the ECU. Right now I am leaning towards a Hyundai under 100K miles somewhere around $2-$3K

I'd say any 90s-2000s econobox, but I don't know which ones have the ECU inside. Probably a bunch.

A '91 to 98 Saturn can be had for $cheap, manual, and has the ECU by the driver's feet. If its remotely cheap to acquire the board from you, there are lots of owners who would volunteer test cars.

Also as a bonus, any junkyard will have about a billion of them, so its a piece of cake to go snag an ECU or 10 to harvest the cases/connectors/etc.

In reply to ImA4Wheelr:

Actually I have already sent you a PM but I guess these do not really work maybe not sure. I am Andrey Belomutskiy on Facebook, arro239 on Skype and russian on http://rusefi.com/forum/ if any of these would work for you. I'd rather not publish my cell here but I think it would be easiest to simply talk on the phone.

In reply to ProDarwin:

You'd be shocked to learn what people are asking for used cars, especially with low miles - I was looking for low miles so that I can focus on the ECU and not on repairs. I think I got a pretty sweet deal on this 101K 2003 manual Neon:

Here's a quote from the ad: "the car has a few dents, all from being hit with a baseball or softball, and the most noticeable dent over the right rear was from turning to soon and catching the garage pole while parking"

The ECU is not where I would rather see it but whatever. On the other hand there is some Neon community.

russian wrote: In reply to ProDarwin: You'd be shocked to learn what people are asking for used cars, especially with low miles - I was looking for low miles so that I can focus on the ECU and not on repairs. I think I got a pretty sweet deal on this 101K 2003 manual Neon: Here's a quote from the ad: "the car has a few dents, all from being hit with a baseball or softball, and the most noticeable dent over the right rear was from turning to soon and catching the garage pole while parking" The ECU is not where I would rather see it but whatever. On the other hand there is some Neon community.

This is relevant to my interests.

In reply to moparman76_69: I've just realized how many NGC era vehicles are using the same ECU connector, I am pretty excited!

I am now trying to figure out who makes these ECU connectors - the "headers" these are called on the ECU side. I know 05083222AA but that's Mopar part #, not the original connector supplier part #, and I am looking for the male side anyway.

Not to mention Chrysler normally locks their stuff down pretty tight so there isn't much in the way of tuning. I'm considering moving to a full standalone in the van and can use the eariler 2.0/2.4 cam/crank/coilpack to run the engine.

I am probably crazy, but is not this picture beautiful?

That's pretty berkeleying awesome.

I want to reuse this connector and I do not want this silicone. Any suggestions?

2 hours of VM&P Naphtha bath

tooth brush cleanup

2 hours of fresh VM&P Naphtha bath

tooth brush cleanup & warm soapy water

success

That picture is a thing of beauty.

I received your package (containing Frankenso kit and other parts). Also found an assortment of 0805 resistors that I had ordered from Fasttech a long time ago. I will begin the assembly process tonight.

Finally I have a reliable test mule - now I need to figure out cold start logic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhIWAPaUnYM

I've implemented cranking fuel as "magic_base_value * coolant_temp_curve_correction (CLT) * cranking_duration_correction(cycle_counter)" and I think it's getting much better - here's a vid of a first cold start of the day. Still needs to get better Still takes a lot time to catch up, maybe I will add more fuel right at the beginning of cranking Also really struggles to run for the first 10 seconds. Any ideas what to adjust?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqBzuZEqcEo

I wrote code for an engine computer some time back. Starting is always dicey and a two-fold approach worked best: run rich, like the posts here say, but on top of that, have a separate fuel adder that dumps in even more while cranking, and once fired, tapers off over maybe 10 seconds.