arduino & touchslide

[Chas]

you can buy the parts and make it yourself if you're so inclined

I should coco, anything electronic I touch goes :angry-extinguishflame: . . . I shall have to rely on your expertise please Jon.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Any chance of a few wiring diagrams, or maybe a Dummy's guide for those of us that get by all the electrickery, or should i say wizardry. :confusion-scratchheadyellow:

Yep, full disclosure, but unless you're in the middle of your own experiment it's of no use to you yet

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Would you offer custom settings....

Time to be more specific, what are you thinking of here? The battery split charge is all sorted so I'm moving on and now is the time to take account of other peoples ideas

I'm searching for the right temperature sensor solution(s) now.

 

[Gav Peter]

From previous discussion, I'd say the autobox temp being displayable would be a must.

If it could monitor and control the split charge system... Whoo hoo!!!

Clock... Yah... Got one...

Ref the 80's notorious oil pressure gauge?? Could it be incorporated/improved upon?

Over...

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

auto box is a definate, but yet to be determined what the best (for us) method of measuring the temp is. My OEM temp sender is in a fairly accessible spot where I can T off and make an adapter for a 2nd sensor. It's a bit of fab work on the lathe but nothing special. For a diesel 100 or 80 it's a bigger job to get an extra sensor into the cooler line. If I can get my hands on some I might have an experiment with some washer thermocouples to see how reliable the readings from those are for our purposes as they're a more generic option.

May be able to tap into the OEM oil pressure sender but I don't know if it's the gauge or the sender that's typicaly lazy on an 80. If it's the sender then you'd be into making up T pieces to add an after market sender ...

I'd be interested to rig coolant loss detection as well but I don't know how best to make that work yet from a physical point of view. The one system I've seen looks like it uses a top hose insert that must have a couple of exposed wires close together and measures the conductivity betweeen them but you can't buy the inserts seperate from their package which isn't cheap.

 

[Dave Docwra]

Hi Jon, Mecedes use a low water sensor fitted on the exterior of the header tank & has no contact with the water, if I can get one do you want me to send it to you for research?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Hi Jon, Mecedes use a low water sensor fitted on the exterior of the header tank & has no contact with the water, if I can get one do you want me to send it to you for research?

That would be interesting, yes please

 

[sae70]

Measuring the EGT seems to be a big trend these days to give an early warning of impending doom & gloom

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

EGT is on my list but not something I will be able to test myself. If someone wants to send me an EGT sensor/probe I can make them an option on the sensor configuration. For the 'sensor' spots on the UI I'll have it so you can choose sensor type and output mapping and if you tap that part of the display it will cycle through the available sensor outputs.

 

[Rob]

When you say that battery switch over voltages will be an accessible setting does this mean that you can actually set the voltage at which your charger engages and disengages? This probably means that this will not work with any old split charging system right? Or are you replacing your IBS unit with this and a solenoid so you can now set your own alarms, delays overrides etc?

 

[Rob]

Just reread your original post, where you say that this will replace the UBS unit.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

When you say that battery switch over voltages will be an accessible setting does this mean that you can actually set the voltage at which your charger engages and disengages? This probably means that this will not work with any old split charging system right? Or are you replacing your IBS unit with this and a solenoid so you can now set your own alarms, delays overrides etc?

One 'clever' thing the IBS does is notice when there is a different voltage for the main vs aux circuits even though the solenoid is linked so they should be the same. I have 2 solenoids, one that just connects main & aux, the other connects the Stirling DC-DC charger turning it on and a change over switch so either one but not both can be controlled by the IBS. When the Stirling is selected, after a short driving distance the IBS will start to beep because it sees two different voltage, alternator vs Stirling output and assumes the solenoid has failed. Gets on the nerves after a while!

To get round that this has two solenoid outputs and I can toggle which one is active using the screen and the control logic knows when the 2nd output is active it's ok for there to be different voltages.

The voltage values that are used to link and unlink in auto mode will be adjustable in the UI but it seems unlikely they'll actually need to be adjusted.

Like the IBS there are also manual link modes where it will stay linked for a set amount of time and then revert to auto. Times are 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 120. In manual mode it says MAN instead of AUTO and shows a countdown of the minutes. MAN mode can be useful for winching, to give you max winch power, but when the timer expires revert to auto so you don't have to remember. Tapping that region of the screen cycles through AUTO, MAN 30, MAN 60, MAN 120 and back to auto. Press and hold for a second turns off the battery logic and link (but not the voltage display). OFF is useful if you're going to connect an external charge source and only want to charge one of the batteries, perhaps for conditioning. Normaly in AUTO mode and link 1 selected a charge voltage on either circuit will link them so both batteries benefit. In AUTO mode with link 2 selected it only links if there's a charge voltage on the main battery circuit. There is no timer in OFF mode, it's just OFF until you set a different mode which is just a tap on that region of the screen.

Hope that's clearer than mud

 

[Gav Peter]

I'll have to read that in the tomorrow...

 

[Rob]

Sounds like you have it all covered, all we need now is a before and after circuit diagram of your battery monitoring system chargers

By the sounds of it I prefer this to my Cryix split charge system as you far more control of what is going on and all the important electrics can be put inside the cabin rather than left in the engine bay... I still haven't weatherproofed my Cryix and I doubt I will ever do it. Was this battery control software your own code?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I still have to add the sensor code to get temps working and also the trip meter code, then I'll see about sticking it into a box and installing it for field testing. Yes it's my code although it sits on top of the Arduino 'OS' code that comes with it.

 

[TonyP]

I'm impressed how quickly you have managed to write the code for this Jon... clearly skilled in this area

Hopefully you will have this field tested and production ready by the time Lincomb comes, so that we can all place our orders

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I hope to have it crossed off the list long before that Tony, we'll see

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I put a bit more time into this at the weekend, changed the layout slightly (lost the T trip box, added speed) and now the trip meter values are live:

For those of us with LPG, there's a connection for the LPG solenoid so it can sense when you're running on LPG or petrol and update the P or L trip accordingly. Should make it easier to keep track of expected range etc. The sense line is just 12v so maybe it's of use for an aux fuel tank hooked up to the change over valve as I know some aux tank gauges are not very reliable!

Tapping the P / L box gets a screen to reset them:

Tapping the Speed box gets a screen with some options (I need to work on the colour scheme though it's not as illegible as it looks) where you can choose between 2 stored calibration values (for different sets of tyres) and kph or mph display (changes trip units as well).

I've still got to add the code for changing the calibration values, either by entering a known value, or driving a known distance and letting it count the sensor pulses. I've wound the signal generator up to see where the accuracy starts to fall off and really it's solid up to 500kph and then a small error creeps in so at 823kph it's +- 0.2 kph but I can live with that

Tapping on the A/B trip box will switch to a trip meter display, still to be coded, where you can perform all the usual trip meter type functions.

Thought I'd keep you posted on the direction it's heading in.

 

[Gary Stockton]

Wow Jon - that is looking really slick now! Good work there! Looking forward to seeing it in action.

Congrats!

 

[Richard Jackaman]

Looks really interesting Jon.

How are you picking up the data for the trip meter? Is there a pulse or something from the gearbox that the speedo uses that is accessible?

Cheers