Lil' Blackbox

Coding => v1.0 - v1.1 => Topic started by: lanced69 on January 29, 2016, 06:25:46 PM

Title: Shaft RPM & Boost/DP control
Post by: lanced69 on January 29, 2016, 06:25:46 PM
Hello, I looked for a topic on this but couldn't seem to find one that fits, I hope this forum is still active. Anyhow, I am new to coding, (i'm very good with computers so it won't take long for me to learn) I have done some simple python coding before but it was a while back. I am planning on installing an HE351ve on my 24v 2nd gen dually. I have researched lilbb.com, mopar1973man.com, and cumminsforum.com along with arduino and sparkfun sites. I like what I see, I never would have thought about using an arduino and can shield to control a vgt turbo.

Now looking over the sets of code (The ones I have found) and I have noticed it seems theres two different options for controlling the vanes. The turboshaft RPM counter, or the boost/DP option. I was wondering if you could program the controller to monitor both methods and control the turbo off of that.

(also on a side note, i'm wondering what LCD is recommended, I'm looking at color and monochrome, I want something easy to read during all lighting conditions, and I'm curious how many other PID's the arduino can read through the CAN bus shield.)
Title: Re: Shaft RPM & Boost/DP control
Post by: hakcenter on January 29, 2016, 08:17:32 PM
I honestly wouldn't suggest an LCD. It's nice to know things but in reality it does drag the arduino speed down, and isn't a great idea when you have a 130,000rpm rotor you're trying to control.

If you can keep response time down, minimize data to the LCD to simplicity, then there is some simple but semi complex things you can output.

The shield is capable of communicating with anything connected on the CANBUS if they all use the same speed the VGT is, I am unaware of any canbus hacking.. I just have a ancient 12v.


If not so cheap is your thing, what I would do, is break out the LCD to another Arduino, write up a really simple communication protocol where the LCD is always listening for a specific string packet size, and updates values. Have that regenerating the LCD at maybe 100ms.

So you minimize processing time and speed to just send like, FF FF FF value1 value2 value3 FF FF FF
Title: Re: Shaft RPM & Boost/DP control
Post by: Rx7man on January 29, 2016, 08:51:49 PM
The lilBB controller is just the hardware side of it, you can add sensors, etc to expand your control of the turbo.

I had virtually *no* C programming experience when I started playing with this.. I had used VB.net a fair bit though.  I also recommend offloading the display part to a separate unit. 

I used an Arduino Mega for my main board because of it's extra memory and IO's (though it's not faster).. I just got a second one in the mail with a 320x200 (3.2") color touch screen... I think it's a little small depending on the amount of detail you want to display, but it would do nicely for text (with warning colors even) or some bar graphs.  I haven't got both units talking to each other yet... not enough time in the day.. I got mine from Amazon, search "Arduino Mega and Sainsmart 3.2" TFT"... it was under $50.

If you REALLY want to have a nice display, I'd recommend a Raspberry Pi 2 with a 7" display... The R_Pi had orders of magnitude more computing power and a lot of peripherals built in.. USB, SD card, Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, 4 cores at 1ghz, 1gb ram, some even have SATA.. So not only can it show your turbo stats, it can play movies, music, etc  Some of the extra peripherals were on a breakout board.. I think it was a Sainsmart XS300?.. I think you can get the Pi2, XS300, and a 7" display for about $150 (I'm pretty tempted)


As for the LilBB reading other things.. I don't think the quantity is limited, but depending on the truck, not everything is CAN bus, there were some other protocols... I believe I can say "If it speaks CAN, the LilBB can talk to it"...
If you really want to dig deeper into the capabilities, the two communication chips are MCP2515 and MCP2551, you can look up the datasheets on them...  I hacked into the vehicle wiring harness and found the tach signal wire is a nice 5V square wave generated by the ECU that can be applied to the arduino, and I read my engine RPM from that.  I'm also looking into a 4 channel pyrometer probe that communicates over SPI to get temperatures.

The boost you can build with this setup is pretty darned impressive.. from my experience, the VGT doesn't really change how fast the turbo can spool up, but it makes it able to spool up at nearly any engine RPM.. With a few ton behind my truck it REALLY SHINES, and I am pushing the surge limits of the turbo.. 15 PSI @ 1400 RPM, 25PSI @ 1800, 35 PSI @ 2200.

Cheers... I try and check in here daily... we are around!

PS, How do you like the NV5600 with the 4.10 gears? I heard you do nothing but shift gears.. I have a NV4500 and am looking to change both the tranny and gears to NV5600/3.55 (stock tire size)
Title: Re: Shaft RPM & Boost/DP control
Post by: me78569 on January 29, 2016, 09:11:25 PM
My code set takes into account all 3 plus tps and I have a screen.  You seen mine as it is the mopar1974man code.  Thanks to this site it got refined and I learned a lot.

I don't notice any speed issues with the lcd screen.  Very happy with my setup.

Issue with reading canbus is it does take considerable time, that has really throw a wrench in my plans.  Still working on it when I am bored, but still unable to make it read can messages in a timely manner.  I can request and read values over can but it takes long e ought that the turbo cycles due to no communications.