Tom M'Guinn

Thought I'd post a short video of my current project. It monitors the ignition pulses and displays ignition timing advance on a real-time basis. It's like having a timing light working as you drive, based on the factory speed and ref sensor signals (and the DME/KLR ignition pulse). Next up is to create an output that can be logged and add LEDs to show when the KLR is pulling timing. It would also be a short jump to actually control the timing this way -- making the draw of an Arduino-based stand-alone a bit stronger...

Eric_Oz_S2

That's really clever. Is this based on the Arduino board. It would be great if you could post some specs. I've always wanted to check timing live. Could you record rpm vs timing to memory?

blown 944

That is a cool tool.

One of the things I like about having Josh's logger. I can watch timing live or log it.

Tom M'Guinn

Yes, it's yet another one of my Arduino projects. If you wanted to try your hand at one, I can share the code and set up. I opted to tap into the trigger signals on the DME board after they are filtered by the DME's hardware (i.e., directly off the 8051 interrupt pins) so this approach is probably not for the faint of heart. I'll post up more details as I refine it. I'd like to do a more car-friendly 7-segment LED instead of that panel in the video, and add logging, and add an alert for when the KLR is pulling timing (which was the original inspiration for this...).

Tom M'Guinn

Yes, I've seen that live on Eric's car and am impressed with the data it provides. I assume M-tune shows the programmed advance, whereas this is more like a timing light showing the actual measured advance, for what it's worth. I did this partly as a learning/stepping stone project to get a deeper understanding of the trigger and ignition signals, where the latencies are, etc. I wouldn't trust my 3 liter motor to it yet, but it would be a very small step from here to have the Arduino take over the ignition signal altogether... That would shift focus to getting all the other inputs into the Arduino so it could manage timing based on a map/adjuster approach like a real ECU...

blown 944

Josh would certainly be the better person to comment on how it is working.

I do think it is displaying programmed timing. However, it is based apon RPM,MAF and MAP. I also believe it takes into consideration the yes/no KLR signal. So if you see a sudden dip in timing there would be knock events.

When intitially setting all of this up (and again when he was developing a wasted spark) we were using my advance timing light to verify timing events.

Again Josh would be best to input the technical info.

I think it's awesome that you are diving so deep into the ignition process. Having one more knowledable person to ask questions is a great asset for this community.

I typically just like to get it set up and work so I can mess with other things. I guess I'm just extremely fortunate to have Josh around or I may be going down the same path you are now.

I certainly do like "knowing" though. So maybe I should play with this path as well

Rogue_Ant

Cool project Tom!

Tom M'Guinn

I put a little work into making the reading as accurate as possible (at least as accurate as my two timing lights....) and added a big display for R&D purposes. This is the sparkfun 7 segment display with a tinted plastic lens, mounted in the box it came in with the Arduino and interface circuit inside the box. Next up is to add logging, and then I'll probably ditch the display altogether, despite its cool Back to the Future DeLorean look....

Crazy Eddie

Looks great ...
Smoked lens and all

refresh951

Nice work Tom!

TurboTommy

Very cool, Tom!
Next, some video of full throttle runs.

reno808

nice man