Spec-ing a new microsquirt-based ECU

I was playing with a microsquirt I'm mating to a Toyota 4A-GE 20v for a customer's Ford Cortina and realized how capable the MS2 has become on a 4 cylinder engine, especially when compared to an MS3. Working with the microsquirt also made me jealous of the form factor over the standard Megasquirt form factor.

I started a discussion over on JBPerf's forum about putting together a motherboard which would fit in a standard eurocard enclosure and house a microsquirt, JBPerf IOX, 14point7 SLC, and some circuitry for the expanded I/O capability. This would have 4 logic level ignition outputs and 4 high impedance injector outputs. I'd like this to use a more appropriate automotive connector like a JAE or Molex. I could see this being available as a 2 layer through hole PCB with a BOM from digikey or mouser. I think this would do a lot to bring megasquirt back to the hobbyist in a way that doesn't look like someone vomited inside of your enclosure.

The discussion over at JBPerf is here: http://forum.jbperf.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1385&p=7090#p7090

What would you like to see in something like this? What connectors would you expect would be appropriate?

How do I convince you to play with my stuff? :)

russian wrote: How do I convince you to play with my stuff? :)

I'd love to see a platform with a more open license overtake megasquirt, but until then, I'm sorry, but I'm not an EE and not in a position to work with hardware at that low of a level.

but I'm not an EE and not in a position to work with hardware at that low of a level.

You do not have to be an EE - the EE work is done or being taken care by EE people, we are now looking for people to actually try it. Without people who would try raw version we would not have the fully cooked stuff.

russian wrote:

but I'm not an EE and not in a position to work with hardware at that low of a level.

You do not have to be an EE - the EE work is done or being taken care by EE people, we are now looking for people to actually try it. Without people who would try raw version we would not have the fully cooked stuff.

I'm willing to play with it, but I'm not in a position to devote a lot of time to it.

There are also proto boards available in Eurocard size, so having as much proto area as ECU area is just a card away. If things are thought through from the beginning, this can even be considered from the outset by providing a header which could interface with the proto card, bringing through 12V, 5V, ground, CAN Bus, etc. I think there's a standard eurocard connector which is usually intended for a backplane connection, but it may also be available in a vertical orientation rather than right angle, otherwise a simple 0.1" header near the back of the case could work well, Arduinos have shown that.

Being able to implement off-the-shelf realtime clocks from Sparkfun or Adafruit could reduce the necessity for development there. The same could be said for GPS if it was put on the table. JBPerf's current full size IOX is 100mmx120mm, so one of them could be fit above or below the main board as well, providing that much more I/O in the same enclosure. The icing on the cake would be being able to add one of the aforementioned proto PCBs and have something like an Arduino micro providing EGT and other IO via CAN Bus

This same Arduino could allow SD Card logging of anything on the CAN Bus, or GPS, or ANYTHING. It's an Arduino after all. Or it could be a Teensy, or whatever would fit on the proto board. That board and the ability to talk over CAN Bus could provide SOOOO much flexibility, all in the same enclosure.

Can you please educate me on eurocard enclosure? Dimentions/price/links? I am still looking for a perfect enclosure.

We discuss it a bit over at JBPerf's forum: http://forum.jbperf.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1385&p=7090

and at msextra: http://www.msextra.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=55074

It doesn't look like Eurocard will work with the connector you've spec'd for your RusEFI, as the connector is wider than 100mm.