ALS, Gear Cut/Blip, Launch Control

[Jasper K]

Hi there,

I have finally come around to start doing some more testing with several features.

I have started with Launch Control. At first there was no Clutch switch signal so I told the ECU the clutch was active LOW just to get it to go into LC mode and do some tests. After I wired in the Clutch signal and all is good now. I still have a question regarding the LC strategy. At the moment it seems it is using a retard and mostly Fuel cut to prevent Revs from rising above target RPM too much. Whilst popping and banging waiting for boost to increase AFRs are very lean due to Fuel cut. Is this safe? Is this the normal practice for LC? I don't have much experience with other ECUs besides HKS Fcon Vpro where they do not do a fuel cut but rather retard the ignition a lot and have an actual ignition CUT with a hysteresis to keep the RPMs from rising. This keeps AFRs more sensible. However maybe I am too worried and appearing AFRs are not what they actually are when using LC...... Any advice/thoughts/comments?

Next was ALS. I have wired my K-type EGT sensor into the ECU for this. The ALS offers basically 3 things to play around with. Fuel cut and Ignition retard as well as target TPS. The base settings that were in the ECU when I got it seem to be VERY MILD and whilst it does sputter and pop a bit it doesn't bang and almost doesn't generate any boost. If any it reduces vacuum by a bit. I have tried to get more air into the engine by increasing the target TPS upto 20% and adding a bit of fuel as well as retarding ignition more. It works as it puts me into the 0 Bar range when idling at 2k RPM thereabouts when activated but it still doesn't generate any proper boost and/or large bangs which normally should create lots of exhaust energy to get into boost at idle. Any ideas/thoughts/comments?

Personally I feel there should be the ability to have a ignition CUT as a percentage (as a rotational cut... EG 50% = Fire cylinder every other power stroke) to get more fuel into the exhaust without increasing revs too much and have larger explosions. The same should perhaps apply to the Launch Control to have this ability.

Next on the list was Gear Cut to do FFS on the car. I am not quite sure how to set it up and what type of inputs are needed for it. I figures I needed a Clutch signal so I tried that but that doesn't seem enough. After I saw there was a seperate Gearcut Request option which I then set to the Clutch signal on the same Input. That was not allowed and the ECU said that input was already used on the Clutch Switch. I then set the Clutch switch to another input and set the active LOW to make sure the Clutch was always Depressed and set the Gearcut Request to the actual Clutch signal..... still no success. Am I missing something? How should this be setup to work properly?

Next on the list is to do Gear Blip but I have seen on this forum that isn't something very simple apparantly. What would be needed to get it to work on a DBW Hawkeye with a Manual H-pattern box? Is it possible at all?

Cheers,

Jasper.

[EMS]

Hi there,

I have finally come around to start doing some more testing with several features.

I have started with Launch Control. At first there was no Clutch switch signal so I told the ECU the clutch was active LOW just to get it to go into LC mode and do some tests. After I wired in the Clutch signal and all is good now. I still have a question regarding the LC strategy. At the moment it seems it is using a retard and mostly Fuel cut to prevent Revs from rising above target RPM too much. Whilst popping and banging waiting for boost to increase AFRs are very lean due to Fuel cut. Is this safe? Is this the normal practice for LC? I don't have much experience with other ECUs besides HKS Fcon Vpro where they do not do a fuel cut but rather retard the ignition a lot and have an actual ignition CUT with a hysteresis to keep the RPMs from rising. This keeps AFRs more sensible. However maybe I am too worried and appearing AFRs are not what they actually are when using LC...... Any advice/thoughts/comments?

Hi Jasper,

Fuel cut means there is no fuel at all, so it's not lean but there is no combustion during the period of fuel cut! It actally makes your EGT lower. But the extra oxygen in the exhaust gasses fools the AFR sensor, so it reads leaner... If you have EGT sensor and you check no knock occurs and your mixture is O.K. at the same load and RPM without LC, it should be good.

Next was ALS. I have wired my K-type EGT sensor into the ECU for this. The ALS offers basically 3 things to play around with. Fuel cut and Ignition retard as well as target TPS. The base settings that were in the ECU when I got it seem to be VERY MILD and whilst it does sputter and pop a bit it doesn't bang and almost doesn't generate any boost. If any it reduces vacuum by a bit. I have tried to get more air into the engine by increasing the target TPS upto 20% and adding a bit of fuel as well as retarding ignition more. It works as it puts me into the 0 Bar range when idling at 2k RPM thereabouts when activated but it still doesn't generate any proper boost and/or large bangs which normally should create lots of exhaust energy to get into boost at idle. Any ideas/thoughts/comments?

Personally I feel there should be the ability to have a ignition CUT as a percentage (as a rotational cut... EG 50% = Fire cylinder every other power stroke) to get more fuel into the exhaust without increasing revs too much and have larger explosions. The same should perhaps apply to the Launch Control to have this ability.

How much (final) retard do you run with ALS on? Why would you want to have boost at idle? You have LC to build boost for a good start and afterwards the ALS should hold some positive boost when shifting or braking for a corner, but the RPM will most likely be higher than idle.

Cheers,

Mark.

[Jasper K]

Hi Mark,

All has been sorted already but thanks for the background information. LC, ALS and Gear Cut all work a charm!
I am still trying to get the Gear Blip to work and it should be OK but the largest challenge is how to get the ECU to have a proper disctinction between Gear Cut and Gear Blip.

I am thinking of using 2 switches in series which means that BOTH switches (Clutch & Brake) must be ON to get a Gear Blip.
Furthermore the Brake switch should have a Normally Open output and a Normally Closed output. NO is connected in series with Clutch signal which triggers the Gear Blip Request Input. The NC is also connected in series with the Clutch signal which triggers the Gear Cut Request input.

So when you're on the Brake it disables the Gear Cut as the Clutch signal cannot reach the ECU but it Enables the Gear Blip instead and vice versa.

Jasper.

[EMS]

Hi Jasper,

Can you shine a light on what you did? (I am mainly interested in the ALS function) More retard?

Cheers,

Mark.

[Jasper K]

Hi Mark,

I am running LOTS of retard. I have around 60* of retard in the map at 2500 rpm and higher and go back to 30* at 2000 rpm and 0* at 1500 rpm and lower.

I found after looking at the logs that the Syvecs seems to CAP Ignition FINAL timing at 30* ATDC. This is the maximum retard value which cannot be exceeded nomatter how much retard is set.

I am using around 25% Fuel Cut at the moment. At IDLE (approx. 2100 rpm) I have around 0 ~ 0.1 Bar. Turbo response is MUCH quicker when coming back on the throttle and when OFF the throttle you can hear the turbo still spinning very fast. TPS is 22% at the moment. The car pushes a bit but is it being exaggerated by the fact that I have virtually no brakes when using it since I never reach vacuum. I am thinking of getting an electric vacuum motor/pump to keep proper braking when using ALS (Any suggestions?).

Surely you should wire your EGT sensor in the ECU because with these aggressive settings EGTs can get high when off the throttle for long. I have reached 980*C when running this. If you have the EGT recovery Enabled (I have now...) then it should be OK I think.

On the LC I can easily reach 1.2~1.3 Bar with a 5k rev limit. There's probably still more to come but I haven't spent enough time on it yet.

Cheers,

Jasper.

[EMS]

O.K. Thanks. The 30 deg ATDC is that adjustable limit?

[Jasper K]

Hi Mark,

It seems the maximum of 30* ATDC is a limit which cannot be adjusted. I suspect it is a limitation in the firmware to prevent people from setting silly ATDC angles and turning their engine into a chunk of useless aluminium.

Cheers,

Jasper.

[Andrearally]

To get Vacuum you can use a pump like:

- Hella fro maudi/VW with code: 8E0 927 317A
- Complete kit like: http://www.simtekuk.co.uk/www.simtekuk. ... ?p=8&pno=0

[Jasper K]

Thanks Andrea for the link. After looking around on the web longer I often see this type of vacuum pump metioned which is made by Hella. Looks a proper bit of kit and I think I will order one to have a play with.

Cheers,

Jasper.

[pavlo]

You shouldn't need to be running 30deg ATDC to get good ALS, you need more air and to start to use some fuel cut too to bring the EGT down.