Speeduino

June already! Not entirely sure where May went, but another great month of growth and progress for Speeduino.

I've spent a lot of time on hardware design again this month trying to get the Pro boards done for testing. Whilst this is close for a first batch, it's looking like it will now be some time in June. The initial boards will be a 48-pin plug and play for a NA6 Miata/MX-5 simply because it will allow me to test easily and quite a few people have been asking me about this. It will share all the same circuity as the generic Pro board though.

The 0.4.1 boards are now also up on the store for sale. I don't yet have kits prepared, but this should happen in the next week or so. For those who have ordered and are awaiting shipping on your board/s, my apologies for the ~1 week delay, I've been somewhat swamped with orders which is both a good and bad thing

There have also been some simplifications and general improvements to the VR conditioner board design. This follows some decent real world testing that shows the new design to be working well.

As for the firmware, I was all ready to say that as I'd been focussing on hardware that it'd been relatively quiet, but the last week and a half or so has seen a LOT happen. Major changes this month:

• Multiply MAP option added. This takes the MAP reading as a percentage of the barometric pressure and applies it directly in the pulse width calculation with the result that the VE table is 'flattened'. This can help in tuning higher boost applications as well as potentially allowing for more control at idle.
• Option of locked timing during cranking on the 4g63 and basic distributor decoders. Due to their low resolution, these decoders can have issues with accurate timing during cranking and this option allows the coil firing to be locked to the trigger pulses.
• Many improvements to closed loop idle (And the PID controller in general)
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the hard rev limiter from engaging
• HIGHLY experimental closed loop boost control
• Fixes for issues identified by kimdrummel with the dual wheel decoder

This page complements the existing support group that was created a couple of months ago.

On a somewhat related note, the TunerStudio 3 beta continues to be updated frequently. Just as early warning, as soon as the 3.0 release is made, Speeduino will switch to requiring this rather than the 2.x versions. This is because TS3 includes an official signature for Speeduino and there will be changes made in the code to utilise this which will mean that older versions will not connect.

So that's about it for now. As always, the new firmware can be found on the wiki at: http://speeduino.com/wiki/images/a/a3/Speeduino_May16.zip
Remember to always update your ini file when you load a new version!

OK, so I know this is coming out a few days late, but there is just so much being working on that I feel I could keep going for weeks. In the end I had to just draw a line or I'd never get this update out!

Like last month, there remains a lot going on with hardware. The v0.4.1 design is now completed and a batch has been ordered for testing. I'll make a separate post for this once they go on sale, but in short it brings the v0.4 board inline with everything that has been happening on the v0.3.3. I've also made some revisions to the VR / opto board based on some real world testing. I haven't been able to test with more than a small handful of VR sensors, but all those tested are working well now. I will be selling these assembled shortly.

On the firmware front, there remains a lot happening. As a bit of a teaser, the bulk of the work around sequential is now completed, so hopefully this isn't too far away, There are still updates to be made to some of the decoders to enable this and the interface within TS needs a lot of work, but the core code is in place.

OK, so as for the things that ARE coming out with this months release:

• Many improvements made to the launch control. There had been some bugs around this that are now resolved.
• Calibration added for the standard Honda MAP sensor
• Boost cut ignition option added
• Trigger filter configuration added. 3 levels of noise filtering available for most decoders
• Cranking accuracy improvements on low resolution decoders (basic distributor and 4g63)
• Ignition bypass output added
• Made the stall time dynamic, meaning that run on of spark and fuel after engine turn off is minimsed.
• EXPERIMENTAL - Closed loop idle control for PWM based idle valves. This has come after a full rewrite of the PID library that will form the basis of all closed loop adjustments going forward. This feature should be considered experimental for now, but testing feedback is very welcome.

If there are any major bugs or issues, please let me know ASAP.

Where the hell did March go?

Another really big month of work, though much of it has been focussed on the hardware side of things so the firmware update this month is a little lighter than normal (Though still a very worthwhile update).

The v0.3.3 board has been finalised and I've sent an order off for a testing batch. If you're brave, the gerbers are included this month. I don't expect problems (And yes, the grounds are connected!) any problems but you never know until you test. There is a dedicated thread for this board (viewtopic.php?f=14&t=452), but in short it improves transient voltage protection slightly whilst also reducing the parts count, simplifying the assembly and reducing the component cost by a whole $1! These changes are all minor, but a good step forward.

The 48-pin Miata board has also been updated to allow the use of the original pins for functions such as O2 and TPS if desired. I've recently been made aware of a variation of this wiring loom for the 1.8L engine and will update the board again shortly to support that as well.

Work continues on the next major board release. I had hoped to have the schematic finalised by the end of March, but I have changed the featureset slightly and will need some more time to work on this.

On the firmware side, the following changes were made:

• For all the Speeduino users in the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Palau and the United States, degrees fahrenheit now works correctly in TunerStudio
• The beta version of TunerStudio 3 is now available (http://www.efianalytics.com/TunerStudio/beta/). This required certain changes to be made in the ini file as the serial system in TS3 is entirely new (and better).
• Launch control hard limiter is now working correctly (Resolves issue where this would not trigger)
• Launch control can now be triggered when signal goes high or goes low (Going low is the normal case, but there are exceptions)
• Indicators added to TunerStudio for launch control and hard/soft rev limits
• When using the default MAP reading method of Cycle Average, the correct value is now shown when the engine is turned off

• The IAT based ignition retard curve (Under Spark Settings).
• Make sure all your temperature settings are correct if you're using fahrenheit

Another month down and a pretty big one at that as far as the project goes! I'm really happy with the progress this month and, whilst many of the new features might not be exciting to a lot of people, they are very solid additions to what is slowly but surely become quite a mature product.

I've also been beavering away on the hardware side of things and whilst new products are a way off yet, I'm very, very happy with the direction this is going in. More news to come.

So, as far as the details go, the major changes this month are:

• New decoder for Honda D17 (12+1) pattern. This is currently using the crank sensor only
• New decoder for 'Miata 99-05' (Should be considered slightly experimental at the moment, testers VERY welcome)
• Deceleration Fuel Cut Off (DFCO) added
• A new ADC (Sensor) filter system has been introduced. Currently filter levels are hardcoded, but this may become a tuneable option in the future. Default values are pretty good though
• Alongside the above, I have changed the ADC read strategy so that it is both faster and considerably more accurate/repeatable.
• Fix a bug on the timer initialisation for the 2nd channel on PWM idle control
• Many small changes and cleanups in the TunerStudio UI
• Laid some groundwork for large upcoming changes in the next few months...

As usual, please remember to reload your ini file in TunerStudio, otherwise many of the new features won't appear. If there are any problems fond with the new code, just let me know.

Another month down already! Due to various work and outside commitments, things have been slightly quiet on the firmware front in January, but there have been a few important changes made. I say important because one of these changes affects how you compile the firmware and means you WILL need to make a small change to your current setup for the new firmware.

The good news here is that there is no longer the requirement to copy the libs files over into your arduino\libraries directory! This takes advantage of a new feature that came out in Arduino 1.6.6 allowing in directory includes and will make it much simpler for new users to get going and compile the firmware. This also means that the minimum required Arduino version is now 1.6.6, the code will not compile on earlier versions!

ACTION REQUIRED BY ALL EXISTING USERS
2 things to do if you have previously compiled Speeduino:

1. Make sure you have at least Arduino version 1.6.6. If not, this can be downloaded over at: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
2. Delete the directories 'Adafruit_SSD1306', 'Adafruit_GFX' and 'PID_v1' from your arduino\libraries folder

So, with that large change out of the way, the new features added during January were:

• Inlet air temp based timing retard. This allows for the advance to be reduced when inlet temps rise (Such as under boost)
• Improvements were made to the Audi 135 decoder. Now seems to be running well.
• Full support for 3 wire Bosch idle valves. I will eventually get around to making a video of this, but suffice to say that running these with 2 outputs from Speeduino allows for much, much finer control of the idle (Compared to the resistor method)
• Fast cashing method that was implemented on 3D maps was added to the 2D curves. I had thought this would provide a bigger improvement than it did, but there was a definite speed increase.

So that sums it up for Jan. February should allow me to get back onto things more seriously. There are some nice things bubbling away on the hardware side too, but they are likely a few months away.

To make up for getting last months code drop in a few days late, this one is coming in a few days early

Another month down and another solid period of testing and improvement. I know a lot of this stuff isn't particularly sexy, no huge new features or anything, but I can say without a doubt that the things are running much smoother than last month, particularly at idle. Real world testing and bug fixing takes a long time, but its the only way to find some issues

So, here's the shortlist of all the fun changes:

• TPS stability improved at top and bottom of signal range
• Audi 135 experimental decoder added. Tested on stim and appears to be working fine. Need to do documentation for this.
• Fuel pump priming added
• Cleaned up some TS options that were no longer being used (Eg cold cranking pulsewidth etc)
• Allow for 0 values in VE map so that fuel can be completely turned off. This is for cases such as controlling a secondary set of injectors that only come on at a certain point
• Basic noise filtering on MAP sensor. Includes a proper reset of the cycle average method when engine is turned off/on
• Multiple fixes to the low speed timing schedules. Improvements that were previously only applied to Channels 1/2 were extended to 3/4
• A bunch of small fixes that could potentially cause (very) intermittent misfires or timing advance swings

Given its the end of the year, I couldn't help myself but reminisce about just how far Speeduino has come in the last 12 months. This time last year there was only incredibly basic multi cylinder support (4 cyl only), no decoders, no idle control, no temperature compensation, no rev limiter, maps were only 8x8 etc. It really amazes me how far things have come in 2015. Here's to 2016 and another huge year!

The weather is good and my test car is running pretty damn well on the arduino. I wanted to see how well the logging was working with things like Race Render, so here's a short video of a little driving around:

OK, a few days delayed, but the November code release is now available: http://speeduino.com/wiki/images/e/ee/Speeduino_Nov15.zip

It's been a quieter month as I have been simply flooded with work. There haven't been any major new features added, but I have done a lot of tweaking and performance tuning. There has also been some nice progress on the hardware side of things. So, without any more rambling, here is the list of changes in this months code:

• Ignition timing schedules have had a number of improvements. Accuracy is better and 2 bugs that could cause incorrect sparks have been fixed
• Some decoders now have faster and more accurate syncing whilst cranking
• Fixed a bug where the fuel pump would turn on if the ignition was left on with the engine off for 72 minutes
• Finalised the new v0.3.2 board. more details at: http://speeduino.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=262
• Multiple performance optimisations
• 2nd deriv. prediction has been improved, but remains disabled. It can be enabled on a per decoder basis now.

Wow, another busy month gone past already! Plenty of time spent this month on the hardware revisions (Hoping to have these done by the end of Nov), but there was still a heap of work put into the firmware as well. As usual, here's a list of the main changes:

• Selectable ignition modes. In addition to the normal wasted spark mode output, you can now select either Single Channel (For use with distributor systems such as GM HEI) or Wasted COP (For <=4 cylinder only)
• High speed tooth logger is now working again and uses less memory
• rpmDOT added
• Basic launch control (With this comes the first implementation of the generic output code, more to come here)
• ConnerMcLaughlin's command line interface added (Thanks!)
• MAP sampling modes / windowing - Cycle average and cycle minimum are the most useful, but the old instantaneous mode remains (Mostly for testing)
• Multiple 'tooltip' style help comments were added into TunerStudio

Just a quick video showing things up and running on an otherwise stock NA6 Miata / MX5. Running fuel and ignition here under speed-density algorithm.