Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Development Strategy


This site has been superceded by the new My16M site

Reverse Engineering

My knowledge of the current control unit is next to nothing. Tasks here are
Verify if the pinouts of the ECU matches the limited information I currently have.
Take timing measurements of the ECU.
Dump the EPROM on the ECU and understand its workings

I was unable to make much sense of the EPROM. I believe some of the program is stored on the 68HC11 that is used. I decided there was more work figuring out the ECU than to design one from scratch.

Hardware

The hardware design is straight foward. Basically it's just a microprocessor driving 4 high powered coils - 2 injectors coils ( medium current/voltage ) and 2 spark coils ( high current/very high voltage.). To me the hardware design is pretty much a no brainer. I'm thinking of giving away the schematics with the unit. The idea after all is that is can be easily fixed by anyone with a reasonable knowledge of electronics. The design uses standard off the shelf components. Everything can be bought at Dick Smiths. I've used an Atmel micro, the 8535. Very nice chip, 8k of Flash, 1/2k RAM and 1/2 k of EEPROM. It also has an 8 channel ADC with 10 bit accuracy. All in a single chip. Wonderful!. It also has an active development community using it and GNU C compiler.

Software

This is where the smarts are. I'm not going to give this away. If you want you can write your own, I've given you the hardware. The software is written completely in C. It will do everything the current controller can do, better of course. It can be programmed in realtime by the rider by connecting to a PC. I'm also looking at adding some handle bar mounted controller so parameters can be tweaked on the fly.