HellfFire Classic ECU Replacement Status Update

[superlen]

Hello all!!

As some will remember, I was working on a drop in replacement ECU for our Z's & had to take a hiatus when my daughter was born. This week she started kindergarten (my how time flies when you have young ones underfoot). Last month I began un-mothballing the project and gearing up to finish. Apologies of course for the delay, but rest assured I haven't forgot about this.

The status when I paused was this:

1 - The prototype board came up nicely and I was driving my car around using 100% stock L-Jet components (save for the HellFire ECU of course)....poorly tuned at best & no enrichment code was in place which caused some stumbling when I floored it. This was expected & I didn't care, I was all smiles that it worked as well as it did.

2 - The primary GUI functionality is present, but has a *LOT* of debug screens and added test buttons here and there. It's quite cluttered as I continue to test/debug, but will be getting cleaned up as I progress. The GUI does look good and I'm mostly happy with the interface. Still quite a bit of legwork to make this clean and presentable. The communication with the ECU has been rock solid & realtime data is sent continuously to the pc to see while the engine is running. Firmware update via the Laptop needs to be finished.

3 - 20 ECU boards are assembled  & just need programming to production firmware.

4 - Sensors (Primarily the pain the arse AFM) still need to be calibrated & the tables loaded with qualified data. Currently I have data that is *close* but can be better. I  built a flow bench to calibrate the AFMS. I have about 20 or so AFMs from various years to play with. It will be interesting to see how they have aged. I'm guessing poorly. ?  The flowbench still needs some attention & will be the first on the list to work on.

5 - I need to qualify/test the stock injectors to characterize their average opening time and flow rates. I have some stock numbers in the tables now that work, but they can be improved.

6 - Various tuning tables need to be added, (acceleration, cold start, other enrichments)

7 - Then I need to tune it of course to the stock engine. I have one bone stock 77 engine and another that is bone stock plus the addition of a mild cam. I have a wideband O2 on the engine that I will use to assist with tuning. I keep wanting to build a dyno as well, but sanity so far has kept me from running down that rabbit hole.

It feels good to be back on the project & I'm excited to make some headway. I'll post some progress pics on the flowbench and AFM results when they are available, and feel free to pester, prod, poke, or ask questions about the project.

Len

Here's a link to the last thread:

 

[Patcon]

Nice to see you back at it!

[superlen]

Another Update and a request for some critique/feedback. I have been working on two fronts lately, the ever time-consuming GUI and my flow bench to test/calibrate the AFMs.

First, here are some screenshots of the GUI and I would like some feedback from users on what tools/features they typically like to see while tuning. Realize of course that the system ships as a 100% bone stock L-Jet replacement with ZERO tuning needed. However, the HellFire is highly configurable. You will be able run pretty much any combination of stock and aftermarket sensors. Stock AFM, with aftermarket analog TPS, Aftermarket MAF, stock cold start valve, or do away with it and have the ECU accomplish cold start enrichment, ect. Plus, even your "stock" AFM might have drifted or someone adjusted the spring and you may want to adjust for that in the ECU AFM table. Therefore, I assume that most will want to tweak a little even if they are running stock. At the very least, the GUI provides an awesome debug tool if you car isn't running right.

The first is just a quick pic showing three of the screens. The main sensor view (kinda hidden by the ECU pinout help screen) & the pulse width view in the bottom right. The ECU pinout screen is interactive. When you mouse over the pins, the description field updates to tell you what the pin does. I abstracted this system so any number of connectors/pinouts can be accommodated with external bitmaps and text files. I only have three connectors currently, the ECU, the AFM, & the injector. Users could of course add any they liked as well.

The sensor screen just shows the real time status of all the engine sensors which allows for nice troubleshooting. Also clicking the "CAL" button brings up the sensor calibration screen. The coolant sensor is shown below. It's updated realtime with crosshairs with data from the ECU. One question I had was for this screen. The table uses ADC counts (0-4096) vs output. But it dawns on me that ADC counts aren't as intuitive as just voltage at the ECU pin. So perhaps I should change this to make it more user friendly is someone is actually measuring voltages.

The VE table shown is for Speed Density calculations. The 3d portion can be spun around using the mouse of course. The four cells that are being interpolated update realtime as you run the RPM and load up/down. Right clicking lets you do math on the table, smooth, interpolate, set a group of cells, ect. This is where I would like feedback too from users who have tuned some VE tables. I have no idea what is handy or just fluff as far as features here. I did add a jog dial (black vertical jog bar just to the right of the table) It allows you to tweak the active cell a bit at a time as you hone in on the value you like without constantly re-typing numbers.

That's probably enough for this one post. I'll continue to pop in screens and ask for feedback if people are interested.

Len

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by superlen

[240260280]

Very nice!