280Z28 Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 So the NI USB devices have too much latency in a real-time system like an engine, so I had to get one of their better, intenal units. I went with the NI PCIe-6259, and for what I'm paying it had BETTER take care of my needs with the car and in the bedroom. :o http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201814 NI was nice enough to give me a full refund on the USB devices I had (~500) so it was essentially a hardware upgrade. Pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 I have no idea what that is.... Could you enlighten me? Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobythevan Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 What are you doing in the bedroom that needs 32 analog inputs? Cameras? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280Z28 Posted May 17, 2006 Author Share Posted May 17, 2006 I have no idea what that is.... Could you enlighten me? Mario It's an I/O card that I can hook up to a car similar to how the megasquirt does, but it's MUCH faster, MUCH more accurate, and backed by a new computer. Right now, the software runnig it is simple and doesn't do anything megasquirt doesn't do. However, it's written in C# and powered by a dual-core P4, so it has a bit of room for expansion. I have individual coil packs here (one per cylinder), so first up is hooking those up. Focus now is on individual ignition control and sequential, individually controlled injectors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280Z28 Posted May 17, 2006 Author Share Posted May 17, 2006 What are you doing in the bedroom that needs 32 analog inputs? Cameras? Hahahahaha the bedroom part was a joke lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280Z28 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 I've calculated the "theoretical timing resolution" for events (fuel injectors on/off, ignition timing) at less than 1/150 of a degree when the engine is running at 10,000 rpm. Now I just have to see how close I can get it due to propagation delays in the system after the signal leaves the ECU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z-ya Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Are you going to use the NI hardware to control fuel and igntion, or just igntion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280Z28 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 Electronic throttle, climate control, audio system with voice commands (not video since the screen is in front of the driver, and after all I'm an Acoustics grad student on a PhD track, I have to put it to some use :haha: On a more engine-specific level, I going to get it running with a simple setup like I'm familiar with. Then I'm working on sequential fuel injection and cylinder-by-cylinder ignition control. I'm having several acoustic sensors placed in locations around the block and in the oil galley, and using feedback from them to drive the individual spark control. For street conditions, I'm focusing on AI for learning where the car "wants" to optimize three things: driveability (reduce jitter from my hot cam, and offer better control on the low-end of the throttle even with a large throttle body since the electronic one doesn't have to be driven linearly), gas mileage, and emissions output. Gas mileage works over long-term to correct for environmental effects (elevation, humidity), minimizing the pulse width for given vehicle speeds and throttle positions. Emissions output consists of wideband O2 in each bank, plus possibly thread thermocouples on each exhaust port. The goal is offering lean burn idle and cruise while assuring in-cylinder temperatures stay within ranges known to not increase NOx creation. Offering lots of power is something current systems are quite good at, so mine will model after the same concepts. They are relatively easy to tune compared to idle, part-throttle, and cruise, and the system can be hand tuned in the power band. The things mine does offer is cylinder-by-cylinder knock monitoring and EGT, plus wideband feedback on each bank. I'm looking at 4-5 years out for the final showing since I know this won't be easy. With the current advancements in conservative power usage with monstrous processing power in small packages, this technology is only going to get easier. I'll probably use more complicated sections of my system for my master's thesis and/or dissertation. Target audience is the performance enthusiasts who insist on driving "race-bred" cars on the street. Oh, as a direct answer to your question, I plan to have bank injection and electronic HEI ignition running in the Z by the beginning of July. After that I target the TA since it already has the wiring in place for sequential injection and coil-per-plug spark control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 So what computer are you using? Why C#? C/C++ is not much more difficult to use and will give tons more performance and not require using Embedded Windows XP or CE. Of course I'm thinking of the final product, interim use of a laptop with XP is fine but if you ever want to sell any of the final systems the Embedded XP/CE licenses will add significant overhead without any real benefit, unless you consider the occasional requirement to reboot a plus. I do embedded programming on micro-controllers, PDAs and PCs for a small company that builds handheld XRF (X-Ray Flourescence) equipment. I've built a V3 Megasquirt but haven't installed it into a car yet and have been kicking ideas around for a much more powerful system. Anyway, sounds like you have an interesting project and am curious to know more about it. Wheelman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280Z28 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 So what computer are you using?Why C#? C/C++ is not much more difficult to use and will give tons more performance and not require using Embedded Windows XP or CE. Of course I'm thinking of the final product' date=' interim use of a laptop with XP is fine but if you ever want to sell any of the final systems the Embedded XP/CE licenses will add significant overhead without any real benefit, unless you consider the occasional requirement to reboot a plus. I do embedded programming on micro-controllers, PDAs and PCs for a small company that builds handheld XRF (X-Ray Flourescence) equipment. I've built a V3 Megasquirt but haven't installed it into a car yet and have been kicking ideas around for a much more powerful system. Anyway, sounds like you have an interesting project and am curious to know more about it. Wheelman[/quote'] C# offers stability, safety, and ease of programming over C++. Additionally, it's really not that slow for most things (in some cases faster than C++ standard libs even). For the very few items where it's notoriously slower like BLAS/LAPACK, I can make calls to unmanaged libraries. It's dead simple to make familiar, attractive Windows GUIs. The language itself offers tons of features that make things easier. The cost of Windows XP OEM license is a non-issue in comparison to the hardware involved (around $3k for the computer side without the in-dash LCD). Additionally, Microsoft's top priorities is pushing the managed languages. Things are only going to get faster, the tools for development more powerful (Visual Studio 2005 is already amazing), and systems more stable. DirectX has a completely managed API for full hardware acceleration of my graphics features. The only reason to go C++ for me would be if the system was embedded. My current computer is a dual core P4D 930, 2gb DDR2, Raptor 150, Geforce 7600, and a Dell 2007FP and Dell 3007WFP for desktop development and a 15" LCD (passenger for debugging) and 7" widescreen LCD (in dash for engine feedback display). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 I guess I just assumed embedded was the ultimate goal, the thought of running a standard laptop in an automotive environment leaves me cold. Wheelman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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