developing an ECU for 24 hours of Lemons

[rusefi]

Yes, of Lemons - not of Le Mans



A little bit of background: I am a software developer by trade (core java, high performance java - financial industry) and cars are a hobby - I am racing in http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/
At some point I've got interested in turbo-charting the car and this lead to looking into the configurable ECUs - "engine brains" - and I've realized that the most of the products on the marked are closed-sources, and the open or relatively open ones... I've realized they are a bit outdated - no FPU, hardware hacks, poor code readability etc...

So, I've checked the state of embedded programminig and I've realized that things are not as hardcore as they used to be - you can now program chips via USB, you can get a 168Mhz dev board for $15 - a LOT of CHEAP power, and noone is using it so far!

Here comes rusEfi - http://rusefi.com/
Hack-a-day article gives a good overview.
Source code lives at https://svn.code.sf....trunk/firmware/

Here is an article from developer point of view - http://rusefi.com/articles/tachometer/

So if anyone would be interested to contribute & play with all this, if you know software and curious to contribyte to a real-life project - please do not hesitate

[rusefi]

A first revision of an integrated board has arrived:

[subasurf]

This should probably go into the Engineering Projects section.
Interested to see how this plays out

[rusefi]

The new board is alive - hopefully the video is self-explanatory: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnJM9Edid8E[/youtube]



Now soldering one for a Canadian and another one for a Slovak. Looking for more software developers

[Callum]

Nice work! Can you explain what you are hoping to use the board for?

I know a few people who like to re-map their road cars - is this a similar thing?

[alexx_88]

That's a very ambitious project, so congrats are in order!

We are also a small company who saw the lack of movement in the ECU market, with guys still stuck to 16bit (best case scenario) and a couple of Mhz processors, a proven system that does the trick for simple, low-cylinder count, wasted spark setups, but not quite suited for more complicated engines.

Our ECU's processor has "only" 120Mhz, but I am quite confident it can handle all the features that we plan on having ( http://motorsport-electronics.co.uk/ind ... ystem.html# ).

Did you get a chance to measure the latency of the event handlers and output triggers? At high RPM these latencies can translate into a couple of degrees.

LE: What other features do you think of adding to the product?

[rusefi]

Obviously we are dreaming to implement all the possible features and have them available under a GPL license, but this all depends on more developers would join or not.

I've looked at some output precisions - I am planning to do software PWM so there was a question if it work fine and I think it does work fine: http://rusefi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2

[rusefi]

This project is now on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/31 ... t-ecu-firm

And we've just started another engine!

[rusefi]

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2014042 ... /140429923

[sr.lucas]

Hey there!

I am really interested into participating in this project as a developer!... how should I proceed?

[rusefi]

Lucas, that would be great! You can find all the key links @ http://rusefi.com/wiki/index.php?title= ... code_intro also a lot of stuff is happening @ http://rusefi.com/forum/

[rusefi]

Brief update: we've tested our power supply & main chip schematics and we will now work on a full self-contained board for an older OEM ECU case.

[rusefi]

Order placed for a test run of the new board:

[Scania]

could I buy 1?

[rusefi]

could I buy 1?

I hope to get these boards in a week and validate the design by the end of the month, once I do that there will be a way to purchase a bare PCB.

If you want you can grab the gerber files and order yourself your own batch All the sources are open at http://rusefi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=569