Consult type hardware/software plans

[domestos75]

yep same here.i've had mine for well over 18 months.its black with 75MAK plates.don't know any guys or gals up here who own R's.i'm interested in your new invention.i think it will save me some money rather than going to the mechanic all the time to sort problems out.

cheers,
steven

 

[Paul R]

My board works!!!

I finally got hold of a laptop with a COM port (an old P120!!) and my board works. I loaded up the free version of Conzult and it worked perfectly!!

The main interest to me was that my injectors reached 85% duty cycle (stock boost), which shows they have a bit left in them yet

My next task is to get on with the software. I also found a USB module that comes with drivers so it creates a virtual COM port and any software can still use this 'COM' port as if it was real. Should be pretty good for development. Also comes with extra drivers that allow you to talk send/receive data etc as a proper USB port

Excellent, thats good news. I still haven't built the board yet, got it laid out on veroboard and finally got all the components (going for the 2Mhz crystal and binary counter version) just need to get it soldered. I have been developing the software and I think I'm about as far as I can go without hooking it up to debug it. Snag is there is another car show this weekend so beer will take priority I'm afraid (unless I take the bits with me of course...)

How much does that module cost btw? Because you do the same thing with bluetooth dongles, they create a virtual com port for legacy software but you need the other end to support it.

 

[Paul R]

Hi Willy,

Not sure if your still reading this thread. I've been struggling with the circuit even though it is simple (I guess I'm more simple than it). Any chance you can check a couple of values for me please?

The only bit I'm curious about is the TX line going to the ECU, one of the componant lists uses a BCR133 which I ordered from Farnell not realising that it was the SMT version (of which I now have 10 of), so I fell back to using a different NPN tranny but it might not be correct. With the board just switched on and not plugged into anything serial or ECU I get a constant 5v out which I don't think is right.

I'm trying to borrow a silly scope again to make sure the clock is being generated. Other than that not much can go wrong.....


...famous last words.

 

[Willy]

Hi Paul,

Sorry to dig this up from the dead, but how you going with your consult port?

I have been flat out with uni and have just started to look at it all again this week. Hopefully I can make a USB board soon

Also been looking at the daughterboard. Got the schematic for one, shouldn'e be too hard.

Anyone else been looking into this stuff?

 

[youngsyp]

Some very interesting reading here guys. I think that if you could get all this perfected, there would be a big interest from this forum to buy the kits/ products from you. If you were willing to sell them that is. I for one would be at the head of the cue.

Keep us posted.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Willy]

Thanks for the interest. I will hopefully get stuck into it int he coming months. I'm trying to do a PhD at the same time, so it's a busy time for me. One of my mates has offered to find out about getting the boards manufactured once I have designed them.

I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[Paul R]

Hi,

Things quietened off a bit to be honest. Obvious problem checking the circuit and falling out with the other-halfs parents (who have the silly scope) was looking to get a simple 10Mhz one from Maplin which should do the trick. I'm also moving house at the mo so enough boxes and crap around as it is without me soldering on the kitchen worktop :/

Anyway enough excuses, it's something I definately still want to do but just hit an impasse, we are moving tomorrow and probably through the weekend so after that I shall a bigger computer room and can finish it off in there.


As for the program, that has been progressing well I think. I don't have the circuit to test it or a COM port on this laptop so I got a freeware program called VSP - Virtual Serial Port which defines a serial port to Windoze and forwards the traffic to and from a socket. I then wrote a Perl script to listen on the socket and log the output and reply back with expected data when it got certain values.

It's a rudimentary test harness but seems to work. I used it to fix a few bugs with the code and need to sort out things such as multiplexing (currently I'm polling for single values at a time but you can send a stream of 8 commands at once). This simplex way of asking for the values can slow things down if you want say 15-20 values at once and you have a small timer interval of 3 seconds. I added a deadlock check in there but making it work in multiples of 8 would be much much better.

If you want to have a look or try it then let me know as I will have to e-mail it (no webspace) but be aware I have added UI features as I have thought of them (designed honest!) but that doesn't mean the code behind them is done though.

The code is done in such a way that it can be pulled out and put into a .dll so anyone can write their own UI if they want to.



As for selling, don't think my soldering skills are up to something someone would actually pay for, if nothing else this has taught me that I was a better solderer 10 years ago

The circuit is freely downloadable and so is this code. It is quite easy to put the board together using a PCB but I was going for the veroboard approach as I don't know anywhere around to make the PCB in single numbers. That confused a lot of things including me.

If anyone else wants to make one then I can try and find somewhere to buy the PCB in bulk along with all the components needed.

 

[youngsyp]

Paul, I would definitely be interested in building one, if you could get hold of the parts and the circuit board. Alternatively, I have a Maplins very close by so I could look at buying the parts if I had a definitive list and the pcb.
My old man works for Cisco so, I'm sure I could get him to sort the software side of things if your code is complete. I must admit I don't entirely understand that side of things but, he has electrical engineering qualifications so, I'm sure he could help me out understanding the circuit, what It is trying to achieve and how the software comes in etc...

Anyways, keep us posted with your progress and findings.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Willy]

Paul: Sounds like you're doing well with the software. That was a cool idea with the COM port stuff. I really have to get into that side of things. I'm so slack and my GF seems to take up all my time at the moment. Next weekend I'm heading down to Brisbane to see my auntie and uncle who are coming over from England, so I probably won't be around much for 2 weeks. After that I'll get into it. The USB board shouldn't take me long to do. I've found a USB module that comes with drivers so it acts as a virtual COM port in Windows. That means it will work with Conzult and other software that uses the COM port by itself. Once I have the USB thingy working, my mate will get onto it and try and arrange to get some boards manufactured. He has a nice laptop with USB, so that will be useful. I actually started making an adapter so I can plug a network cable into the COM port and run it out to the car. This means I can have the board plugged into the car and program it inside the house

For my PhD I will be developing a wireless device that should operate at distances up to 10km. Hmmmm that could make development even easier Could also be used as a track side data logger, but that's a long, LONG way off. My hardware skills are way better than my software skills. My mate is a programmer, so that could be useful I'm now using Linux, so development can be a bit sped up I don't wanna lock it into Linux though. My mate was talking about using Java, because it can be ported to any platform. Problem is that it's so slow.

I can test your software for you if you want. My email addy is simon.willis@jcu.edu.au

As for your hardware. Mine didn't work at first. My problem was with the MAX232 device. I had some of the pins hooked up wrongly and some of the capacitors backwards. It is very important that you use polar capacitors and make sure they are the correct way around and specified in the data sheet for the MAX232. I tested mine by hooking it up to a 12V source and applying either 12V or 5V at certain points around the circuit. If you apply 5V before the transistor then you should get 12V out to the ECU and if you apply 12V on the input from the ECU you should get 5V out. Then apply 5V on the T1IN line of the MAX232 and you should get a certain voltage on the T1OUT line (can't remember what voltage, have to look up RS232 standrad) and vice-versa. Once it works you should be able to fire up the free version of Conzult and it should work If it comes up with ECCS not responding, then it's not working properly.

Oh yeah, I have also tested this with COnzult on my mates R32 GTS-T and it worked perfectly


Simon (sorry about the llong post)

 

[Paul R]

Hi youngsyp, if you have a look some of the links which were mentioned one of them has a PCB layout, this normally is printed onto clear acete film and then used with a UV lamp to etch onto UV senstive copper board. Snag is you need an acid batch to etch away the copper filler inbetween the tracks. Of course you can get companies to do it for you which saves alot of hassle, after you have drilled the solder pads through it is a lot easier to build the board.

As for Maplins, I went to the local one and found they didn't have some of the parts, they could order them but being impatient I tried to go for equivilent componants which ended up being wrong. I also tried Farnell (inOne) and ordered online, they turned up in good time and wouldn't of had any problems apart from ordering the wrong pack type (ended up with surface mount transistors instead of the normal "solderable" size). If your dad can solder SMT then you should be fine, they had the non SMT versions as well.



Willy: Cheers for the debugging info definately handy, just what I need. When I have unpacked I will have a go with the multi-meter. It's probably something very simple...


...so how much is the USB module thingy?

I'll forward you the code and the binary, it is pretty rough though. So give it a go and let me know what happens. Judging by the test harness output the Conzult sends the ECU INIT code then tries to read the ROM-ID which fails with the harness more than likely because I'm not streaming the results back. Using my program it is less picky and responds, this might be a snag as the ECU data might need a more specific sequence.

I was going to update the code under Linux but then switched to Windoze, I installed Cygwin on the laptop to get bash and Perl working (didn't want ActivePerl) so do you want that code as well?
Have fun! [/list]

 

[Willy]

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted back here for a while. Went on holiday for 2 weeks. Paul: I received your code, but I have leant the laptop out to my GF's mum. I may finish making up my extension cord and test it on my desktop PC this week.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[str_motorsport]

very very intresting project here!!
unfortunatly i am so stupid with electronics and pc that i will never be able to do such a work!!
any chance to have a "consult" done(i will pay)....or have some detailed intructions...?
thanks and keep the good work

 

[str_motorsport]

sorry but do you know if that consult works?
http://www.plmsdevelopments.com/consult_if.htm

 

[Willy]

I have built the interface on the PLMS site and it works perfectly.

You can use the trial version of Conzult to check if it works.