dj55b

iTrader: (2)

Well good news, today I had a good 8 hours sit down more working on the wiring and basically got done. All the stuff that were removed ar Audio wires, emmision wires, ac related wires, and cruise control wires, and ofcourse from engine bay and behind dash along with all the unused realays and chips unused.

Total weight of the wires are about 10lb (2 grocery bags full of wires basically)

With the weight of all the other stuff a total weight saving of about 35lb.

May not sound like much, but its not really about the weight saving as much as it is for how much cleaner everything looks right now. I still need to organize the wiring and get some tubes of sort to get them all in there to look better.

Now I have plenty of room on the passenger side for the MegaSquirt (which will be sitting in the location of the stock ECU) and also the computer will be sitting on a cutom braket kinda where the AC condenser unit used to sit (so a bit above the the new ducting that will replace that unit.

The computer setup that I'm looking to build will include:

MSI Fuzzy 945gm2 Mother board
Pentium M 1.6-2 ghz processor
1gb DDR2 Kingston RAM
40/60GB Hitachi Hard Drive
Lilliput 7" touchscreen 926/916 models
Track ball mouse
Mini Keyboard
Pico 120W power supply
USB FM/AM radio
Slim load DVD-/+RW Panasonic

(Maybe will add GPS and Satellite radio but thats not needed at this point)

Total cost of that would be about 700$. The reason to this "madness" is I figured if i was going to get seperate components it would be way over that and by component I mean things like:

6 Guages (because you can get them to record they would be like Nexus guages) 1200$ right there only
A good deck but to make it comparable to a computer it would have to be a DVD deck which would then cost close to 700$
Plus ontop of all that you would still need something to tune the MS so thats another 500$ easily for a laptop

So thats about 1800$ Saving and I get the added bonus of it still being a touch screen, plus the ability to upgrade my computer for fractional costs later on. Anyhow will be letting you guys know how things go with that later on.

Sam

1985GSL

iTrader: (4)

That sounds sweet! I am in the process of putting in my MS and i wanted to get rid of those exra wires in the engine bay... Ypu should make a list or something of the wires you removed and what they do.Also are you going turbo now with the MS?

Jason Guthrie

What's your initial thread entitled so I can figure out your goal. Sounds like an awesome idea, but how involved is determining what wires are needed. I've got my interior stripped out and I've been wondering about the many wires too. I don't think I'm ready to rip them mostly all out based on my lack of knowledge.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

Hey,

Plan for my cars include ITB (Individual Throttle bodies), will be running that for probably around a year or so but even those might not be in till next year and then from there, slap on a plenum and going with a totally custom made Rotrex supercharger. Might even get the 2 speed transmission for it from Antonov

Jason Guthrie

whoa! Not what I was thinking. Well, since you removed the ECU (right?), what are you putting in? I'm stripped down to tar and a small part of the heating unit and I'm minimizing everything in the interior before I put things back together. I would love to get rid of these mystery wires and possibly get an aftermarket computer to run my engine (may be over my head though...).

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

The carbed 12As do not need a computer, ECU stands for Emmisions control unit on these models. In the SE's they barely become Engine Control Units by firing the injectors. It becomes a full Engine Control Unit on the 2nd gens with the switch from a dizzy with a cap and rotor to the CAS system.

Jason Guthrie

I kind of understand. If I do DLIDFIS (or just DFIS), I still have the cap and rotor right? So, is there a way(or reason) for me, with the SE to get on to the CAS system short of swapping entirely to a TII scenario? The current agenda is to remove all the wiring in the interior of the car which is no longer in use. I still have one metal box (read somewhere it was a computer...) under the driverside bin and I'm not sure of what it controls. I got rid of the 2 factory amps (in the bin area), plus I think a third amp up front somewhere years ago. I just didn't think to remove the wire counterparts at the time. I also need to reroute all wires to the rear lights/blinkers, washer/wiper, defroster, licenseplate light, trunk light, power antenna and anything else that might be back there. Seems like I have an awful lot of factory wires going back there for so few items and they just run "stranded" like a mess. Bugs the **** out of me.

At any rate, thanks for clearing up the SE's ECU needs. I didn't realize it's major focus was simply firing injectors. Heck, if there's an ECU to learn on, that's sounds about as simplistic as it will get.

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

The box under the driver's seat bin is for cruise control. If you want to use the 2nd gen cas, toss the oem ecu and go MegaSquirt. Not sure what mods to the MS will need to be made, if any, because there is a voltage difference in the AFMs, but that can be swapped to a 2nd gen one with the MS.

Jason Guthrie

THAT POS BOX IS FOR MY CRUISE CONTROL!... which has not worked in the 12 years I've owned that BI! GAWWD! IT IS SO GONE.


Oh ok, that's what this MegaSquirt thing is I keep reading about, like some sort of injector control system. I gotta read up on that then. Probably all too over my head at this time.

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

MS is a standalone ecu system that can replace a stock one. The big forum has it's own rotary section.

http://www.msefi.com/

toxic_d

dj55b, I'm glad I'm not the only one who is headed down this road... My SE will be turbo charged running the Megasquirt and spark, along with a pc for the additional gauges and other goodies including dvd, mp3, gps, and possible wireless net connection. Keep us updated.

Toxic_d

ps what front end are you planning on using and linux or windows as the os of choice?

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

What do you mean by what front end will I be using?

As for the OS, I'm thinking just windows XP ... haven't really had any problems with the latest version that i've had. its all free either way if you know what i mean lol. What are you planning to do as for an amp for the car speakers? You can't just run the wire straigh off the computer as it only provide about 6 Watts of power on the line out. Have you purchased anything yet? If so what and how much has it cost you so far.

toxic_d

I was under the impression you wre planning on using the pc as a replacement for your head unit as well as using it for interaction with the MSEFI system... if so check this link for a listing of a few frontend (i.e. shell like windows explorer) options. It helps to easy interaction between you and the pc while on the road...

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/front-ends/

No I haven't purchased anything yet, but I am in the planning stages. I will post a list of parts that I have planned on using this evening. The MSEFI system I am expecting to have run about $300 and the car pc between $500 and $1200 depending on how feature rich I choose to go.

Toxic_d

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

hi,


Yes i will be using it for my audio ... I know that site, haven't read up much about the audio. My main focus was to hook it up first then worry about the software stuff thats the easy part. I'll probably know for sure by next week.

Sam

Jason Guthrie

I've been browsing a couple of those sites as well. Hadn't seen the rotary forum though. Anywho, do you know if they have a "kit" list for the megasquirts or recommended part list for the SE? Glensgarage and a couple of others offered "complete" kits but did not really satisfy my question of completeness. There is a megasquirt thread here (for 12a) which lists a couple of additional parts not typical of the megasquirt kits, but it seems like there would be a complete list for us as we are not reinventing the wheel.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

For more MS info did you look here:

https://www.rx7club.com/engine-management-forum-37/

There are some guys that you can send your stuff too an they would assemble fore a few coins.

toxic_d

I'm planning on running a pc with the following specs:

Commell LV-671 Mini-ITX
P4 mobile
512meg-1gig of ram
Compact flash drive for reduced boot time
200-500gig hdd
Lilliput touch screen
car pc specific power supply
custom case
Atheros wireless A,B,G wireless
GPS
Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for input while stopped and bluetooth hub functionality
Car amp with optical inputs
Possible satillite radio
External antenna for cellular and wireless satellite
Custom enclosure

Toxic_d

darkfrost

iTrader: (1)

I've done something really similiar on my T2 setup. I'm running a megasquirt - heres the pics of the screen:

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

Whats the specs on the computer that you have in there right now? What was your total cost? Also is that a 7" screen or bigger? seems a little bigger. I might have to drop by sometimes and check on your ride and meet you in person seeing you're not that far away from me. Post more day light pictures and where everything is. And I thought i would be the first to do this ... I guess not lol.

toxic_d

Oh no there have been many before us... fortunately they have worked out many issues for us as well. The 7" looks as if it will be a perfect fitfor us according to the dimensions.

Darkfrost, isn't there a msefi managment system that runs under linux as well? I haven't followed closely, but as I recall there was one developed.

Toxic_d

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

Linux can pretty much work like windows ... if not install both in there ...

darkfrost

iTrader: (1)

There is a linux version, its called megatunix I believe.

As for specs, You're right, it is a bigger screen- its an 8.4" - $200 US + ship and duties - the screen was WAY too big to mount. I had to remove all the guts and mount it all seperately, as well as shaved the center console with a dremel quite a bit. I have more pics on my home computer- but just moved back to school and haven't gotten my internet hooked up yet. So i'll add those later. Here's one daytime pic when I was test-fitting the screen:



The pc is a used one I picked up off ebay for $120 + ship - not the greatest specs, but everything runs smoothly- and megatune only needs something like 133Mhz and 16mb of ram.

its a mini-itx, via epia 800
800Mhz c3
512mb ram
40gb hd
dvd-rw

For sound, its hooked up to an old alpine 75w amp

I also had windows installed on a 4GB CF card for EXTREMELY FAST boot up times, I'm talking 15 seconds from key turn to music playing. But the card got corrupted after a couple weeks. So I'm sticking to the harddrive for now.

For software- currently I have:
- Megatune (to control the megasquirt and display gauges)
- Microsoft Streets and Trips for gps ( hooked up to a usb-gps recieved $30 + ship (ebay special))
- Media Player (for mp3s and I guess videos too)
- Virtual DJ (more for just fun, its awesome turning virtual turntables with a touchscreen )

No plans for wireless internet right now, but I will be adding a wireless usb card so I can transfer music files back and forth to my desktop as needed.

Here's a blurry pic of the pc - its now mounted vertically behind the passenger seat right in front of the storage bin.



dj55b, you're more than welcome to come check it out. I *should* have it in waterloo this sunday onwards- pending my first rebuild went okay and nothing else breaks when I start it up this saturday...

Jason Guthrie

So, when these MP3 players crash WinXP, what happens to the MegaSquirt system while cruising down the highway?

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

The computer hooked up to the Megatune does absolutely nothing ... the megasquirt runs on its self ... the computer is merely just there to monitor/ change settings on the MS itself if it need adjustments. Besides that, you can just hook up the MS with a laptops Parallel port or USb port, and from there tuen and take out the laptop.

Darkforst: I wil be about a month before I get back on the road to drive my car. But if you're ever in the neighbourgh hood before then ... PM me and we'll try to hook up.

Jason Guthrie

Whoops, ya I forgot about that.