Uni Final year project....engine managment!

[mrbeige 0]

Start my final year of a BSC Hons Degree in Software Enginerring in September, and I'm trying to come up with an idea for my final year project!

 

I want to do something with engine management as that's what I'm currently doing as a placement student at a company called PI technology (part of PI group, who are Pectel, PI research, PI logger etc.)

 

Thinking of doing a new management system!

 

Anyone got any suggestions?

[dinkus 10]

That sounds like a cool idea. I'd imagine a simple map is pretty easy to do from a software aspect, as it's just plotting engine rpm against air/fuel mixtures.

 

Doing an entire ECU from scratch could be a bit more tricky tho, especially as you'll need to do it all in pretty basic machine code.

 

But if you can find anyone stu...err helpful enough to lend you an engine to try it out with, that'd be cool :)

[Tekara 0]

Could make your own diagnostic software rather than programming an ECU / Map

[bcstudent 0]

What microprocessors/microcontrollers do you have experience with?

[mrbeige 0]

What microprocessors/microcontrollers do you have experience with?

 

Mostly experienced with the software side of things, as part of my job. Need to get a good grounding in harware I think!

 

Calibration tool and new engine management strategy might be on the cards?

[bcstudent 0]

I was actually talking from a software perspective. Am I right to assume you haven't written any code for, say, any of the Microchip PIC range of microcontrollers in either assembly or C?

 

What languages/APIs are you most comfortable with?

[dinkus 10]

MegaSquirt might be a good starting point. It's an open source ECU project and like most ECU programs, is written in machine code. If you've done a bit of programming already then it might confuse you a lot, but if you can get your head around the very linear logic needed then machine code stuff shouldn't be too hard. It's got a very limited set of instructions, which means there isn't a lot to learn, but you will have to spend a very long time working out exactly how it'll all fit together :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

MegaSquirt

 

Love that name! :)

[dinkus 10]

:lol: Yeah I know, Scruffythefirst told me about it the other day.

 

"what's the website?"

"err, I dunno have a search"

"riiiiight, I'm gonna type MegaSquirt into google and see what it chucks up"

"no, seriously"

 

Sure enough, it's the first result on google :)

[mrbeige 0]

bcstudent, Familiar with C/C++ and Simulink/Targetlink autocoding stuff

 

dinkus, Assembler is a very low level way of doing it, I'd probably be aiming towards a higher level language, as above, but I'll have a look at mega squirt stuff, just out of interest!

[bcstudent 0]

In that case you may want to look towards Microchip PIC microcontrollers and an associated C compiler. That's the simplest and most cost-effective solution for a project of that size I can think of.

 

Which university are you studying at by the way?

[dinkus 10]

Yeah, it is very low level stuff, but the problem is it's not very practical have a fully-fledged PC sitting under the bonnet to run high-level code and most ECU stuff is fairly simple anyway, so it's far cheaper to do it in machine code.

 

It's really not that hard to do as long as you can get your head round the linear logic :)

[bcstudent 0]

....hence the beauty of writing C that is compiled to the PIC assembly code.

[dinkus 10]

Ah yeah, sorry your post came up as I was writing mine :)

 

PIC is definitely sounding like the best option. It's a bit of a cop-out but it'll be much easier and quicker to work with.

[bcstudent 0]

It's a bit of a cop-out

 

Would you care to explain that comment? I have no idea what you mean.

[mrbeige 0]

In that case you may want to look towards Microchip PIC microcontrollers and an associated C compiler. That's the simplest and most cost-effective solution for a project of that size I can think of.

 

Which university are you studying at by the way?

 

University of Staffordshire, and doing an industrial placement at the moment.

[Scruffythefirst 0]

Would you care to explain that comment? I have no idea what you mean.

 

Me neither :roll:

 

Theres also a project out there called Dash7 which IIRC is PIC based. Definately the best way to do DAC and low level processing which is all you need for simple ECU's and dataloggers / displays.

[dinkus 10]

It's a bit of a cop-out

 

Would you care to explain that comment? I have no idea what you mean.

 

Sorry, I should have added [/sarcasm] ;)

 

I was implying that you should be a man and do it in machine code rather than cop out and do it in nice pretty C :lol:

[CoxyLaad 0]

how about doing a management system to control a haldex equiped 4wd car? using the abs system to detect wheel speeds? :D

 

and I will test it for you ! :wink:

[bcstudent 0]

It's a bit of a cop-out

 

Would you care to explain that comment? I have no idea what you mean.

 

Sorry, I should have added [/sarcasm] ;)

 

I was implying that you should be a man and do it in machine code rather than cop out and do it in nice pretty C :lol:

 

How about we go nuts and write the whole thing in binary.....1110010100110010100111......

 

Assembly is for girls after all.

[dinkus 10]

How about we go nuts and write the whole thing in binary.....1110010100110010100111......

 

Assembly is for girls after all.

 

Damned straight :lol:

[Henny 0]

In this world there are 10 types of people, Those who understand binary and those who don't...

[dinkus 10]

In this world there are 3 types of accountant. Those that can count and those that can't...

[Henny 0]

:offtopic: :oops:

 

OK, how about a PIC controlled dash setup using LCD displays to show speed, revs, boost/vacuum, oil temp and pressure, water temp and Air/Fuel ratios?

 

That'd be a good one to do IMHO... 8)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Assembly is for girls after all.

 

 

Is that assembly as in School assemblies?