bliffle

I'd still like to see the resulting circuit so I don't have to step thru the incremental changes.

Very nice. I spend at least a month a year near Rodez, where my wife (who is French) has a country house in Aveyron. Until a person lives there they cannot appreciate the beauty of the European countryside.
Right! Every country I've ever been in has some weird food that they always talk about and have on special occasions. Like in the Bahamas they have Conch Stew, which is made out of this ugly shellfish that is combined with powerful spices. Fois gras seems like liver sausage, to me, so I eat it and say nice things to be courteous. It's ceremonial. Salmon is another French ceremonial food. My favorites are Confit (duck marinated in duck fat and herbs) and cassoulet (white beans and duck bits and sausage in duck fat sauce with herbs).


Only 2 hours for dinner!? We take at least 3. And what do people talk about at dinner? Food! And gossip, especially about affairs. No business, no politics.

French drivers are VERY aggressive, even dangerous. We usually rent a car, very expensive, or borrow one from The Family, usually a mistake like the time we got Son#1s Lada, a jeep made in Russia! The only place you need a car is in the country, but even there a big blue van comes by every day bleeting its horn merrily with everything you need. You can bicycle most places on country roads that would be perfect for an agile 7.

You mean BUY salad dressing!!?? Every French child knows how to make vinegairette (that's their dinner assignment at age 5) from olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. It's astounding that anyone would BUY salad dressing.

But the preferred drink is Badoit sparkling water. Much better.

Very good wines at very reasonable prices (plus the dreaded 'plonk'). In our area we have 400 varieties of Rocquefort alone, not to mention Chantal, etc.
Annoying, isn't it!?

That's very interesting because I get OTA DTV here which I prefer to sat/cable, and I'll probably get a system in France, but i don't want to pay monthly fees. Can I get DTV with just a receiver and antenna, or do I need to pay a service?

Zyrano

Lol, crazy french people... bliffle, if you want to look at the actual circuit, i have it on my car and i'll be happy to show it to you (i 'm maybe 5 miles away if that, and i've actually seen no pstn? in los altos. I'd like to talk to you about the sterling carb passing smog anyway.

As for kent, glad you are doing well! i'm sure you'll get use to it over there. I have a friend that loved it so much she never came back =)

Alvin

Wodihor

Is this the latest and greatest for the circut? If so guess i will get to building one myself. Shouldn't be that hard. just will have to find the right chip... and reread this thread again and again so i know what i'm doing.

devitek

There is a more updated version of this circuit, which does not require the manual switching between modes. Somewhere in this post listed parts, which involved an MC14538B and a 74HC32, of which I currently have on order, as well as 10 resistors, a capacitor, a voltage regulator, 2 LED's, and about 4 transistors. The diagram I'm looking at now shows all of these in place, but it sounds like changes have occured to this design as well. At this point, even a crude representation of the circuit would be helpful, but what I want to know is whether or not the circuit I'm building is the one to go with.

I hate using partsearch through Radio Shack for this stuff, as they are very slow in processing my orders, but so far that's the best I could come up with.

Oh, and thanks to everyone for the input on fois gras. My fiance will undoubtedly love the stuff, if and when we get a chance to have it... (as I understand it, here in the States we can't have fresh fois gras, it has to be canned or something. Bah.)

Kent...France sounds like a true experience. I'd love to visit there one day, since I've only had about 5 years of French language classes and all. Bon soir!

gsl-se addict

iTrader: (3)

I will put up the circuit as soon as I get internet. It is pretty limited on what I can do at work. The current design is essentially the same as the most recent layout posted in the thread. The only difference is that the two transistor towards the right bottom corner, along with their resistors that go from the emitter to ground, are eliminated. I put these there originally incase the switching didn't work. It does, so you don't need them. You can build as shown, and it will work the same, though.

bliffle: All you need is a tuner and an antenna for this service. You will have to see if you have coverage in your area. About 50% of the population can get this service currently (mostly near the cities), but they are rapidly covering all of France with the service. The TNT tuners run about 90-150 euro. Then you just need a regular antenna (I think an amplified indoor one will work). Check out: http://www.tdf.fr/tnt/ and http://www.tnt-gratuite.fr for more about the service/coverage. It may be the way to go for your situation if you have coverage.

Yep, the drivers are very aggressive. It is just madness, especially in Paris. In my town, the streets are very narrow and crowded. I don't think I could handle driving in that. The public transportation is very good. It takes a bit to get used to as we are so accustomed to having a car for everything. I want to check out Nice, Corsica, and a bunch of other stuff in France. I also want to go to Italy, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, England, etc. if I get the chance. Italy is close, so that will probably come first. I am going to Grenoble in November to do some training.

Kent

Wodihor

ok will wait for the new circut post. I know how to put them togeather... guess will need to start fabricating something togeather and getting the 2nd gen ignition so that i can do this project. dman why does christmas have to be around the corner along with tax day... moving buying a car and 3 cars breaking all at once.. i would have the $$ to put into this car now.

Matty's first 1st Gen

Can we organize a distributor for professionally built boards. I'd love to be able to buy just the board, soldering and buying the parts are easy. and for under 10 dollars each it makes sense for professional quality.
Matt

devitek

Seems simple enough. Just eliminate the two transistors and resistors and the leads going to them--that I can do. I placed my order for parts on Friday, and they are still processing. It's not like it was a complicated order... I just hope it gets here before next week, since I'll be busy with a new job and getting married. When I first presented this idea to my fiance, she was apprehensive. When I told her it would improve gas mileage, she was all for it. So long as it doesn't interfere with our plans.

Wodihor

bah you got me doing research now... will get back with you all shortly on it....guess with owners permission would get production going and have the files ready for people that would like to order one or more. but i don't want it to look like i'm taking credit for everyones hard work... give me a few.

DeRFmAn

if someone could make me one i would be willing to pay them for it as i dont have the tools to do so anymore.

Wodihor

well that is kinda short lived here at work. as far as the circut i wouldn't mind doing some research on getting some boards mad up and such... just toss up the up to date schamatic(sp) and will be happy to see what some of the PCboard makers can do on a price... so far from the desing of the circut... if placed right could fit on a very small circut with out any issues... looks like about a 2x2 square inch would do it...if so might be able to get 4 on one board printed up and would just have to cut them.. would save some money that way also maybe. will do more research when i get home or something... burning work hours right now.

SF@Rx7

where can i get the tt box?
i want to get one if anyone is making it
it looks like a awesome mod on a fb

Zyrano

well, i have already done some research on this, and if you go to pcbexpress.com (or maybe expresspcb.com , one or the other, don't remember) they can make the boards for about 8 bux each. So ones kent gets back online, and with his permission, we could do this (at least just the boards), and if i get a list or components, maybe i can source those out too, just so people can enjoy this mod... but we'll see what kent thinks...

gsl-se addict

iTrader: (3)

We can do something like that. I was thinking of another company, though. The price is a bit higher than PCBExpress, but I know their quality is good. I have used the PCBExpress software before, and it wasn't that great. The current design is small (about 1.7"x2.3" or so). This was with doing a single sided homemade board. Doing it professionally with being double-sided, we could make it even smaller. THe trick is finding a box that works well with the board size. The box will always be quite a bit bigger than the board, because of the mounting posts used to hold the top on. The box I used was like 2.3"x3.3" to fit the board (just barly fit as you can see in the pics). We could put several on a board and cut out. That is what I did (4 on a 4x6 board). The problem is that is is hard to cut these boards and keep the cut accurate so that the board fits well in the box. It may not be worth the cost reduction. You have to realize putting 4 on a board also cuts down on the quanity of boards made. This is why the price difference between the two ways may not be much.

As far as parts, I have them all figured out. We may need to do a slight change if the board/box size changes, though. The only way to make it cost effective is that if someone gets all the parts and bags them into kits. It just doesn't make sense for individuals to order as devitek is seeing.

We could do something like:

- Figure out how many boards we need
- Figure the cost of a blank board, kit, or assembled unit
- Maybe do some sort of pre-payment/deposit to cover board/parts cost
- I can modify the design and have the order submitted for the boards
- Have the boards shipped to someone that would be in charge of distribution
- I can get the parts and have them shipped to someone to distribute
- Figure a commision to cover cost/time of those distributing/kitting units
- Get some people willing to make assembled units

I think we can make this work. Just need to figure the most efficient way to do it. I also worry about keeping track of everything having different people kitting, assembling, etc. I know I had to do a spreadsheet to keep track of orders, shipments, etc.

Also, with people assembling themselves, as with the MegaSquirt ECU, we need good assembly and trouble shooting instructions as well as people to ask if something is not working right. This is the main reason that I only did assembled units. It was easier for me to just build them than to do all this. Plus with the boards not being professional, you have to worry about broken traces, shorts, etc. This way I could make sure everything was good before shipping.

Kent

Kentetsu

Hell, even if the price went up to $50.00 per unit this would still be a great deal. I think that for now we need quantity/quality rather than discount house pricing. Just my 2 cents...

Zyrano

well, i would volunteer, but i'm not good at circuit board assembly. I'd advise having one person doing all of it so that it's easy to track. but if you need someone to do everything besides assembly, then i'm your man... too bad i don't work at my old place anymore, or else i could get one of the board assembly ladies to whip them out in no time.

Alvin

devitek

You see, I would be willing to assemble kits now as I am working part-time. As others have mentioned, not looking to take credit for anything, I just would like to see these things in the hands of more people. Making the boards themselves is probably the most time consuming part of the process, and the most difficult. Assembly is a breeze--I used to dismantle and reassemble boards 5 times the size in an hour. I think Paypal or the like would be our friend on something like this, too. I wouldn't be looking to make huge profits myself, but a little bit of cash for assembly and testing of the product would definitely make it more worth the while. Just need to get something agreed upon.

DeRFmAn

well I'm down, as long as it doesn't cost too much. I got like 4 tickets to take care of, so I'm gonna be broke for a bit.

mpetersrx7

I am still in for one.

gsl-se addict

iTrader: (3)

Defenitely, the person/persons assembling would get whatever the additional cost difference between the kit cost and the assembled cost to cover their time/expense. It would be nice to have it all done by one person to keep track of everything and for quality assurance, but may be too much for one person to handle. The most time consuming part is the board building/drilling/cutting, so having that done will help. The board assembly is pretty easy, but does get time consuming. I know it took me many hours even after etching/drilling to assemble the boards, wire them, test them, and ship them. It takes much longer than you would think. It may be better now as there wouldn't be such a time constraint to get these done.

It may require getting a couple people to do assembly in case one person no longer has the time or decides they don't want to do it. It mainly depends on how many people want it assembled vs. kit form or just the board.

I would like to keep the cost down as much as possible, but we keep to charge enough to cover costs. The point is having a low cost mod with good returns. We really need to compile a list of people that what this before going further. The cost of the boards and the parts depends greatly on the quanity. The more people we get, the more we can cut costs. The boards are especially expensive in low numbers. We need to get atleast 30 boards made to make it worth it. We would probably have to do a group buy sort of thing where we take orders/deposits until we have above some number of units (like 30 or 40), then we send out to have the boards made and parts ordered. This way we can better set a good price in advance. This is similar to what I did. I made a price beforehand, though and didn't require a deposit. I then got enough parts plus some extras for the last minute orders.

I'll check more into the board cost and cost of the other parts. That way we can get prices figured out for kits/boards. We then need to figure out how much extra the assembled unit should be. This is up to the people assembling (devitek, toxic_d?, etc.). The other option would be sort of a freelance assembly. The people assembling could buy a quanity of boards (probably at a discount) and then get the other parts on their own. They could then set their own prices on assembled units.

Kent

toxic_d

Yeah I'm still around to help... I haven't yet installed mine as I'm waiting for a frame rail to be repaired.

Unsupa

iTrader: (2)

I'm definitely down for a board should this thing get rolling again. Put me down, deposit or whatever, I'll rob radio shack if need be!!!

teejs

I would like to get one also. I'm working on a 2nd 1st gen.

PercentSevenC

Assuming they aren't too expensive, I'm down for one, too.

rmriggin

I am definately down for another. Whoever is keeping this thing going, or picking up in Kent's steed let me know (PM me please!) when they are available and how much. Thanks. I am selling one of my 7s that has the trick in it and I need another for my other 7.