New board: Dual VR 2.0

[jbelanger]

I have designed a new board to replace the original LM1815-based board. This what it looks like (the coin is a Canadian quarter which is the same size as a US quarter):

Dual VR board V2.0

dual_vr2_size.png (20.73 KiB) Viewed 886 times

This is a small board with surface mount components that will be sold fully assembled. I has two VR differential inputs, two 0-5V square wave outputs, and a 12V/ground connections for the power supply. The board has it's own power supply and will be mounted in a small box with short pigtail wiring (shielded wires for the inputs and outputs). Depending on the demand, I may also provide the board without the box and wires for installation within the ECU case.

I will assemble a few boards and do some tests. I'll also finalized pricing and announce it shortly.

Jean

[tpsretard]

very nice mate. looks the business.

mind sharing what you are using, is it the same vr conditioners as the IO board..

[jbelanger]

very nice mate. looks the business.

mind sharing what you are using, is it the same vr conditioners as the IO board..

Thanks.

Yes, that's the same circuit and components as on the I/O Extender except that the I/O Extender has 2 of them (4 VR conditioners) and this one has a small 5V power supply.

Jean

[tpsretard]

wery nice mate.

Autronic used to have a small black box sometime ago.
it used to work really well. 2 vr conditioners and a power source.

how ever when they went away the vr conditioner also did

i am sure if you get this advertised you can get business from other people, not just megasquirt users.

[mad max]

bravo !

[jbelanger]

The board is now available. It is available as an assembled board alone for use in an ECU or in another enclosure and as an external unit with its own box and pigtail wires. The assembled board is $45 and the external board is $60. Shipping is extra.

Here are pictures of the populated board, the external board and pigtails and a close up of the potted board.

The web page will be up soon.

Jean

[BenGTT]

Hello Jean,

Is the board ready for sale ?

Merci

Benjamin

[jbelanger]

Yes. I haven't yet put the web page up with the Paypal button but you can contact me to purchase one (or more).

Jean

[dean924s]

Hi,

I am working with the VR sensors in my porsche 924s (same as a 944). There have been a long time want from owners of the early versions of these cars for using MS to allow for complete control over the fuel and ignition. However to date the stumbling point has been trying to use the two stock VR sensors. One for the speed of the motor and one that is the top dead center reference. In the 944 world they are just referred to as the speed and reference sensors. The issues with using the inputs from these sensors directly to either a megasquirt or a microsquirt seems to be two fold. (and probably related)

Problem #1: The speed sensor reads from a 130 tooth wheel. This high tooth count seems to overwhelm the MS.
Problem #2: The output voltage from the VR sensor may be getting to high as rpms increase and again overwhelms MS.

What I don't know is if it is one or both of the above problems that are causing the problem for the MS units.

What I am wondering is would your Duel VR board be able to condition the output from these two sensors and turn it in to a form usable to the megasquirt for engine speed and top dead center reference?

At the moment my car has been converted to a pigyback EDIS based ignition system that is cam fired from a 72-2 wheel using an RX7 VR sensor. However after reading about your board I am wondering if it may be possible to retain the two stock VR sensors and control both fuel and spark with out the need to add / change the stock ignition and its trigger system. I do happen to think that the EDIS system is better than the stock ignition system on these cars BUT it is not a plug and play application. With your board in line between teh stock speed and reference sensors a ms could be a virtually plug and play conversion

Ohya, obviously I am interesting in purchasing a couple of these for testing if you think it may be applicable to this application.

Many Thanks!!!

Respectfully

Dean

[jbelanger]

What can be done with that setup will depend on which MS variant (MS1,MS2,MS3) and which firmware (B&G code or MS/Extra code) you're using. The problem in some cases is the number of teeth and also that the number of teeth doesn't result in an integer number of degrees (or tenth of degrees).

And I haven't tested the VR conditioner circuit with the Porsche sensors so I wouldn't be able to guarantee if it will work. The circuit has an adaptive threshold so it is able to cope with a very large range but there are limits. Do you know what the highest voltage would be? That would give an indication as to whether the board has a chance of working in that case.

So if you want to try the board in that setup, let me know. The board is available in the 2 versions mentioned above.

Jean

[BenGTT]

Hello Jean,

I have received today your new version of the board. Thanks !! fast shipping even in economic !!

I am lost with the wiring attribution
Wich hole is the +12, ground, VR input+ and VR input - ?

Do you have a picture explaining it ?

I am totaly lost

Thanks you Jean.

Benjamin

[jbelanger]

Here it is:


(click on the picture for a larger version)

That should help .

Jean

EDIT: the wire colors mentioned are for the potted version with the pigtails. For the board-only version you can obviously use whatever wires you want.

[BenGTT]

Thank you Jean,

of course for the wire colors

[UnaClocker]

I imagine this would work with the VR speed sensors on my transmission. I'm going to have to order one of these, I like having things "Just Work", and I'm tired of futzing with the noisy VR circuits on my trans controller device (vague name to be polite). That'll be great when I go and write instructions on how to use the thing..

[jbelanger]

It should work. That's the exact same circuit as what you have on the I/O Extender except that the IOx has 4 channels. There is also a different 5V supply on the dual VR board but that's inconsequential.

So if you want to make sure that it works before getting the board, you can just test it with your IOx.

And you can name the device you're using on my forum. I won't moderate your posts or ban you because of that...

Jean

[UnaClocker]

hahah.. Ya know, I had planned on running an IO-Extender along with the GPIO in the Omni.. Maybe I'll just stick them both in the same case, and run the VR's into the IOx and jumper the conditioned output from the IOx into the GPIO.. hahahaha.. That or see if I can just bring the VSS in to the IOx and use it in the trans firmware on the GPIO, seems like it'd be possible, if the trans firmware supported pulling CAN data from something other than just the main MS..
Now I'm just getting off topic in my own little dream world..

[ovi-wan]

hi,
i have really problems to get my ms1/v2.2 with external conditioner to work. it's a 60-2 setup with bosch oem vr-sensor (yes, and it isn't a hall sensor) i'm tired now to remove or add resistors and caps or putting one pin to ground or not. are there any experiences with similar setups and the assembled 2.0 unit? would like to give it a try. could you pls. send me the shipment cost to germany and your mail address for paypal payment?

thx.
harry

[ovi-wan]

a friend told me the vr-circuit from the manuals has a limitation of ~2kHz for the output. for my non-electronics understanding this means on higher rpm the output is still transmitting one pulse while the input is already a few pulses ahead. pulse length can be shortened by replacing the 39k resistor by a lower value (10-15k). i'll give this a try as well tomorrow.

is there a similar limitation on your new board design as well? just need to know in which configuration they will operate.

thx.,
harry

[jbelanger]

As it is, the limit should be around 100kHz so the limitation should be on the ECU side and not on the conditioner circuit side.

Jean