bkofoed

Premium Workshops?? Extra certification from Ford perhaps? FPV accredited mechanics maybe? Cam - Make it so BK

I'm running Xede also. Having the software freely available is a plus, and the Chiptorque engineers even helped me write my own software for monitoring engine vitals through the Xede. (Good luck getting the same specs out of Ford or Unichip! - both are closed shop) Both stage 1 kits are very capable, but being a techie the Xede immediately appeals :lol: BK

Hmmm might be a good read- What magazine and month is it?? BK

Question for BCL and other people with hi-po manuals- how are you finding the clunking?? Mine does have some, but based on some of the descriptions around (and people changing diffs!) I don't think mine is too bad. hmmm BK

KFC Hot'N'Spicey Crispy Strips #11735 http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/getrecipe.zsp?id=11735 BK

Lachlan, how goes the testing on the 968 injectors? BK

ummm, TBO240 did the test on a stocker by the sounds of things, back to back. For what it's worth, mine also pulled 210rwkw and I've had BMC Panel, second intake (xr8 trumpet and 100mm rubber pipe neck) and Centre muffler chop. Those mods have been in for 10Mm's (that's 10,000 km)

You might also ask the Nizpro guys- the color coding on the manifold cover and inlet seem to be spot-on. BK

MET ticket machines I guess are Melb only, public transport systems, btw...

Reminds me of the MET ticket machines- the tall double-width ones have a dot-matrix backlit screen (black and white though). They may have planned for fancy graphics but they ended up with just two lines of text (like the smaller machines!) Maybe one day they'll produce an update for the ICC firmware to use more colours? The Dual Climate versions do have a bit more colour on the main screen, but not by much I've heard the company that makes the whole thing is Sumitomo- a Japanese company that make all sorts of electronic devices. I know this because my cd player went into 'eat disc' mode after I tried to load a cheap CDR (that on closer inspection seems to be much thinner than a standard disk....) later...

I'm thinking the TC switch could be used to enter the Pin, in Morse code- and that way the whole setup could be completely stealth hmmmm the potential.... Later

I think I'll leave tuning to the experts, but Pin number access to performance mode and Traction control off by Pin definetly has potential. It would save my tyres should my younger brother need to drive the car! The plan is that on startup, the car would default to - TC on (dash switch disabled) - Flat maps (passthrough, standard performance, or maybe valet mode, low perf) Can't wait for the info- I'll keep you all posted on progress.

Hey Spadnium, thanks for the offer- yes I'm interested, email sent! I'm trying to work out how to get a dev board from Atmel for $0 as I'm no longer a student As far as SBC's go, what units have you used? Ideally it would need to have very low air flow requirements and preferably run from 12v direct w/o external ATX P/S. I know Matrix Orbital make some nice Blue VFL screens- long term project is to output to Premium Sound LCD screen (at 640x480 or thereabouts) but I guess blue LCDs would be good for those on Standard sound systems. 2x40 Hitachi based is the obvious choice for me as I have coded assembler for them before and I have a few from old NEC desk phones Hmmm the possibilites. Apart from Rim Protection. We can rule that out now Also, Peter mentioned that the Unichip unit is Serial also, though due to contractual requirements no specs (or s/w) details will be made available to non-authorised dealers. (no, that is not the end of this story) I'll keep you guys posted BK

Hi Peter, Does the Unichip provide real-time stats out the serial port? Such as RPM, MAP/MAF reading, etc? Is the unit normally installed in the kickpanel in the cabin or under the bonnet in a BA? Thanks, BK

Hey Geea, Yes, if it all goes to plan, connections required would be - three wires to the standard Xede, plus - two to the back of the Cig plug for power. May need one more wire if the bank switch can't be done over the serial lines. At this stage I need more info on how the Xede operates to see if it is feasible. The parts I'll be using are from bits and pieces I have but if there was interest I could look at making up something with off the shelf parts to do the same function. I like the idea of a keypad to switch into performance mode - might even disable the traction control dash button so when you enter a pin, the TC goes off and Perf mode goes on It would also be possible to have multiple pin numbers, with different settings (lo/med/high power TC on/off etc, etc) Ideally this would all be behind tinted perspex in the tissue box area (just a couple of push buttons exposed, and it would light up with the correct pin). BK

Yep- Nanny/Valet mode as default, with a keypad and pin number needed to change to high output was one of my goals. I'm hopeful I can electronically switch this over serial. That way I'll let other poeple drive it Also, the RPM recording would be interesting. I've got a board I built with a 68HC11F1 with 64K ram and 64K rom, but as it's 8 x 8 bit A/D I'd be losing resolution and I'd rather use 10 bit from the Xede. The display will be a backlit 2 x 40 LCD, (green backlight - can't seem to find blue, might make a strip of SM leds in blue for it) The HC11 is a bit old these days, a colleague tells me Atmel have some advanced microcontrollers going for cheap with dev boards, might look into that too. A PC is also on the cards, though to fit the tissue box area a single board and LCD is all I'll get... BK

Maybe I should have made the title "Electronic dash from Xede output?" JB I'm guessing electronics is not your thing!

Hi All, This is mostly a question for Lachlan, but those with an Xede already fitted may also have looked into this. Photos of the Xede show a db-9 serial for programming, as used by the Xmap2 software. The "Live data" feature on the XMap2 s/w shows the following info: (both in data and adjusted out data) - Knock - Water Spray - RPM - MAF - MAP - TPS - Wastegate duty Questions - Is the DB9 permanently connected or is it used by tuners only? If not are pinouts available for a custom cable? (actually I could find these in a few mins if the spare pins are obvious) - What speed is run on the serial link? 9600,n,8,1 (hopefully!) - Is the protocol sufficiently simple that I could write something to get the Live Data mode turned on, and just make a simple digital dash? - Can the bank switch command be issued over serial or physical selector switch only? - what is the update rate for each data set? Or can they be polled? If my questions aren't leading enough, I'm looking at using a micro with a 2 line LCD screen for many things, including digital Shift light, RPM peak hold, bank switch hopefully and whatever else I can dream up. Given that all the sensor intercepting needed would be fun (and my micro is only 8 bit A-D, Xede appears to be 10 bit) and Xede already does most of them, it may be easier to have the work done for me and use the data from the serial on the Xede. Ambitious? Maybe, possible- only Lachlan can tell me Final version will be output to the Premium Sound LCD - now where's that Aaron guy... BK EDIT: The pinouts for the Serial are shown in the Xmap2 software, so that part I've got covered.

Door moulds look wrong? And aren't the headlight reflctors tinted on T Series? I'm no expert on those 'T's though, could be wrong.... BK

I think you'll find the "underdrive" idea comes from the fact that the new drive ratio is under 1, I.e. 0.8 underdrive pulley will present 80% of the normal RPM to the water pump (or whatever) over the factory design. Hence lower loading on the motor = free power for no tuning changes. This would mean _larger_ diameter pulleys on the accesories (or smaller on the crank). Same principal on overddrive pulleys for factory supercharges, I.e. put more revs in than the factory design and get higher boost that way. But, see above, would the cash be better spent elsewhere?? perhaps... BK

Hi All, found this while hunting around: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/previews/prev...ry.php?id=42529 Hmmm- possible new market? -BK

I've done the centre muffler removal also, and nothing but pleased with the results. Hypnodoc- I remember in an earlier post you said the mid range was flat etc after the center muffler removal and you were looking for other options. Then in another post later you mentioned that the dyno you were running on was found to be faulty? Are the two events related? Also, conspiracy theory, does the ECU learn and detune for the free flowing exhaust over time

Yup I've done this too. Go the airbox mod (100mm rubber "PVC pipe joiner" hacked onto xr8 intake trumpet - search for this) and you'll up the ante again- then exhaust, then chip.... It's all good in the T. BTW: Try a 12mm or so ring spanner over the airbox clips when lifting them into place, so the knuckles stay in A1 condition BK

Well I'm in the process of building my own g-tech like device from scratch. So it may be worth explaining the theory in the hope of understanding the errors involved: The basic principle is this: A single chip, dual-axis accelerometer (which is a triumph of seminconductor manufacturing- a device with a silicon weight suspended on silicon springs over a silicon sensor, all embedded in a chip the size of a match head) Take said device, (in my case, and ADXL202E which is a +/- 2g dual-axis device, same as in the AP-22 and possibly G-tech range), connect it to your favorite microcontroller, add a screen and some buttons, and throw together some great maths and hope for the best. As the device measures acceleration in it's two sensitive axis, (both static and dynamic), you can determine when the car starts to move by a spike in accelaration. At this point, kick off your 1/4 mile timer. Read the value of accelaration like mad (I.e. in as short a code loop as possible), and store the results with the timestamp of when they were read. Every few tenths of a second, integrate the results, and from physics we know integration of Acceleration = Velocity. Assume a standing start (actually we can measure it by calibrating the device at power-on to assume that is a stopped condition), and whacko- we know how fast you're going. Integrate velocity, and you'll get --- distance! So we now know, how long since your launch, the current speed, and current distance. When velocity is above 100km/h, find the closest time slot (or average two) and report that- ding - 0-100 time. When distance reaches the 400m, do the same and report Time and ET. Sounds easy right? Well, it's all good in theory but the G-tech/AP22 people earn their money in the algorithms to accurately read the real acceleration. Remember the sensor is extremely sensitive- it can detect your pulse through your hand and measure vibration we can't even see. So it takes a bit of maths (sliding windows, moving averages, trending, etc name your favorite statisical modelling tool) to get the real data out. Aside: This is the very same sensor used to trigger airbags, just waiting for a very distinct accelaration change profile - a crash infact Sources of errors: - measurement of the output of the accelerometer device (usually done with a pulse-width technique) - number of samples per second (smooths the graph out and reduces ripples/jitter) - the device itself (though some include a calibration factor in the factory, but they are more expensive and used for earthquake monitoring applications) - the accuracy of the time source in the micro (crystal based- so usually insignificant) - the precison of the maths used (integration will need to be done in floating point, so 8bit resolution? 16bit?) I hope to include some calibration in my device, and I have an overpowered chip for the job so I can do more number crunching- time will tell if it's any better than a guy with lots of coffee and a stopwatch, and a painted line on the road.... Hope this helps Later BK

Remeber it's in Ford's interest to make it hard- if it was easy, you'd get those oops-something-blew-at-18-psi-better-reflash-to-standard and go back for warranty people. For those of you that aren't aware of what's going on in the red team, LS1 Edit is rampant- with some people even posting their modified Rom maps on the net. A custom LS1 Edit for your commo V8 (or derivative) with dyno session is $1k plus anyway.... Later BK