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Text work has begun now, starting with the long, arduous task of extracting every bit of text from each diagram. Currently trudging through Section B: Engine Control, having organized everything so it's a bunch of copy/paste from the previous diagram in order to save as much work as possible. That and backporting/forwardporting descriptions as needed so everything stays consistent. 10/91 was a bit weird in spots, and a few minor errors got fixed along the way. 7/94 Engine Control will begin tomorrow.
A couple days ago, I got to take part in a new owner's first day with his Eunos Cosmo from the other side of the planet, the only one I've had the blessing of working with that had a still-functional touchscreen in it. Through a FB call, I guided him through the CCS diagnostic procedures. Most badass thing I've ever done and it solved why the CD changer wasn't working, based on the error codes presented. "Error while Communicating" was showing up on almost every CCS-connected device, so I found that one single communication wire (TXS-) is shorted to chassis somewhere, paralyzing the whole CCS sub-network in the car. Pretty sure TXS- is short for Transmit Status -, and it works very similarly to Canbus with +/- PWM pulses on two lines for error detection through redundancy.
Series 7 and 8 ECU pinout charts are all extracted and ready for translation. Might need a hand with the de-texting on everything else, we'll see how time goes.
Fun fact: Spirit R's have a Starter Interlock Switch, 1999 models don't.
Been hard at work extracting text. Section B: Engine Control is done, so I've jumped to G: Heater & A/C since it's the next largest section. I'm roughly 25% done with text extraction and about halfway through Section G, the last 16 pages of will be buttoned up tomorrow. Also got a MUCH better understanding of the optional Automatic Air Conditioner System, how it works and how one COULD retrofit it to a LHD FD...
Another fun fact: I was watching Gosei Sentai Dairanger (was adapted to become Power Rangers season 2) and saw they listed Autozam in the credits in the last episode. Watching through the entire series, I saw a CD Cosmo, a FC RX-7, and a couple Eunos Presso/Autozam AZ-3. There's probably more, but now we know that Mazda was directly responsible for all of us seeing the White Ranger.
Finally hit 50% of the text extracted a few minutes ago. Sections I, J and H are done now, with the rest being under 30 pages per section. One thing I've noticed is inconsistent naming of parts with no apparent rhyme or reason. excluding the 10/91 diagrams as "beta releases", things like the rear defroster were renamed for 1998 to the older "hot wire print" nomenclature from the FC/Cosmo manuals. So once I get it all extracted, all the goofiness will be compiled together so a master rename chart can be made to keep things consistent.
Finally hit 50% of the text extracted a few minutes ago. Sections I, J and H are done now, with the rest being under 30 pages per section. One thing I've noticed is inconsistent naming of parts with no apparent rhyme or reason. excluding the 10/91 diagrams as "beta releases", things like the rear defroster were renamed for 1998 to the older "hot wire print" nomenclature from the FC/Cosmo manuals. So once I get it all extracted, all the goofiness will be compiled together so a master rename chart can be made to keep things consistent.
Done for today, time for Ninja Sentai Kakuranger
that stuff is part of what makes it fun. if i was doing that i'd switch defroster for hot wire print, defroster is boring
that stuff is part of what makes it fun. if i was doing that i'd switch defroster for hot wire print, defroster is boring
Defroster, Defogger, Hot Wire Print. 3 names for the same device, in order of commonality. Renaming it to Defroster is the easiest way for anyone to understand, and not butcher a Japanese FD because "hot wire print ain't english". I've already seen a Eunos Cosmo be hacked up with all sorts of mods to "fix it", let's not risk that with a Spirit R.
Two more sections extracted, Section O: ABS and Section Q: Cruise Control. Both systems changed quite a bit since October 1991. Gauges are up next, 29 pages of pure joy...
So I just buttoned up extracting all of the Wiring Diagram text a few minutes ago, over a day ahead of schedule. Definitely was a long, hard push to get it here, but now all of it is easily editable for the most aggravating part of this project. That would be going through all of it and resynchronizing all of the various names for the same parts, descriptions and whatnot throughout this 450 page behemoth. Wasn't a step that I foresaw when it began, but it's something I'm going to do anyway for consistency.
At least I can be working on this while image de-texting can be outsourced.
So I took a few days off to rest, recover and recharge, playing around with a few new parts for my CNC. Had to mock up a new part in CAD last night, using cylinders of the correct size in place of bolt holes since it wasn't cooperating in rendering holes for some reason. Currently waiting on a reply from the developer about this as it might be a bug in the newest version.
To unify part names between the six different sources, everything's getting dumped into a 7-column master naming file to cover every possible variation. Just go across the row, the last column will be final names implemented in the finished product.
As for cleanup, Section A (Starter & Alternator) is de-texted now. I did this earlier today as a guideline for the rest of the project. I'll be looking for some help with this part of the project, using MSPaint or the like. If you're interested, please let me know.
Last but not least, I'll be accepting a limited number of preorders before it is completed. In exchange or preordering, you'll get it for 30% off. ETA is currently 4 months but may be subject to update.
To unify part names between the six different sources, everything's getting dumped into a 7-column master naming file to cover every possible variation. Just go across the row, the last column will be final names implemented in the finished product.
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that is a good way to do it, we did something like this at work, but it was kind of a free for all.
however if you type texas tea in you do get motor oil, lol
that is a good way to do it, we did something like this at work, but it was kind of a free for all.
however if you type texas tea in you do get motor oil, lol
What started off as a simple idea ended up being more complex than initially thought. And was starting to have to shrink windows down or have them over each other. I've been hitting the wall on my setup and working around it whenever possible, but 1680x1050 on the main screen plus a 1440x900 side screen just won't cut it anymore when needing to have multiple documents open side by side. Like it or not, I've just outgrown a 20" widescreen LCD after 15 years and no amount of shuffling things around would get me when it's time to get work done.
Had a bit of a re-think, did some homework on it and this happened after a visit to a local used computer shop.
For a single display, this is the absolute maximum that my hardware can do. 27" Main screen, 2560x1440 resolution, plus the 1440x900 19" side screen recycled from before for the project log. This weekend is going to working on the geometry of everything to get it dialed in as much as possible. Had to turn down the brightness to about 50% on the main screen to not broil my retinas every morning when checking email.
And to think, I started out with a single 800x600 CRT back in high school. Now I got almost 8x that on just the main screen, over 10x for the whole system right now, and can expand it even further. Maybe once all of this is finished, I'll see how many screens I can have running at once...
I've been busy getting everything set up for the next step of the project. Right now, 20% of the text is sorted and primed for the next phase. Kind of annoying to do, but it means unifying names and final translation can be done easily, quickly and in a single step. Got a couple weeks of work to button up priming, so I'll report back when we're closer to the goal.
In addition to the custom Hardware, it would appear you also wrote software for this task. Is that correct?
I wrote the code that operates the scanner control system. Still needs a couple adjustments to satisfy the perfectionist in me, but it's working pretty well so far.
So everything is at approximately 75% primed for translation now. Also caught a few errors and omissions I missed before, all of them are fixed now. Roughly 4 more days to finish sifting through and organizing everything, and everything is set up in advance to make it as easy as possible. Who knows, I might even take a day off for my birthday...
Took a few days off to rest up after finishing up sifting through all of the text. The last couple days were fueled by pure adrenaline and almost every boss theme from the 16-bit era.
Image work has begun now and should go reasonably quick as everything is prepped, sorted and ready to rock. Sure would be great to have this part done by the end of the week, but we'll do the best we can. Burnout is a thing and ruins a lot of projects
So I took a couple days off for my birthday to rest, recover and recharge. Made an excursion to the salvage yard, seeking an E38 fuel tank and was disappointed that all of them had holes punched in them, within 12" of their drains too. Kinda sucks that a mystery leaking factory tank is the best of the lot within 100 miles.
Anyway, back to work now. De-texting is going well, though a bit slower than expected due to Section B: Engine Control being packed rather tightly (That's what she said...). But that part is done and I'm in Section G now, working on HVAC stuff. If all goes well, it'll be about 1/3 de-texted by this weekend.
So I'm just over halfway done de-texting and most of the heavy stuff has been ironed out. Another week or so and we should be into writing the final text and then assembly. Making good progress toward the goal.
So I just finished the first pass through finalizing text and found something wrong. On the TWS Unit #1 (AKA CPU #1 in the US manuals) diagram from November 1991, they forgot to put in the main power feed for the TWS/CPU! And somehow they made the same goof a second time in July 1993 too, yet got it right the first time in the North American manuals...
Text is now ~80% finished, and I made a note of this error in the project log so it can be fixed when I get back to artwork. The next pass is all of the shared terms such as "For EC-AT cars only" since they worded it a bunch of different ways throughout the 90s. I collected those during the first pass in a dedicated file to homogenize all the wording throughout.
So the actual diagram and location text is done. And I mean completely done. Sorted, cleaned up, unified for clarity throughout and put back in the associated organizing charts. Also, I spent a couple hours separating all of the charts for ECU/EC-AT/etc pinouts, current flow charts and other blocks of text into their own files. Signed off on it, every single word is ready for the final build.
While doing so, I found that I missed a few rather important pages along the way. Things like the July 1994 update to the ABS system (AKA 1995 model in the US, same setup), I completely blanked on during the early days of the project. Alas, I'll have to go back and do those pages start to finish before proceeding further. Plus, I kind of...um...forgot to translate most of the non-diagram or location pages
Also got the last of the actual pictures back, scrubbed clean and ready for the final adjustments. Made a backup of everything just in case and we'll be pushing forward to fill in the missing pages tomorrow.
So I've been busy adding the "missing" data that I forgot earlier and went a little further than I was thinking. All of the relevant Service Codes for each section are added in from the respective Workshop Manuals.
While doing that, something strange came up. For some reason, no information exists for using the DT-S1000 Diagnostic Computer on a Series 7 FD. however, a little further digging in other sources has yielded that the DT-S1000 was made with English firmware too.
49-B099-001 is the Japanese version. 49-F088-001 is the English version. 49-B099-0A0 is the complete Japanese version set, I'd bet a "0A0" set exists in English too.
What's odd about it the F088 prefix. B099 on the Japanese one means it was made for the 323/Familia (BF platform) and completely finished in 1985. But there's no "official" F088 prefix in the RX-7 lineage, it goes from F070 (Infini IV) straight to F100 (Series 6 Japanese FD). Got a feeling the English version was made during the prototyping stage to test the turbo control system. There's an English version disk for it too. Might be interesting to take a look at what's on both of them. It could definitely open some doors
10pm update: Started chipping away at the last of the text work, translating and unifying all the charts, current flow charts, etc. The sooner I get it done, the sooner a test section can be rendered. Gonna try my best to be in that stage this week.
Last edited by Akagis_white_comet; 04-23-23 at 09:58 PM.
Reason: 10pm update
While doing that, something strange came up. For some reason, no information exists for using the DT-S1000 Diagnostic Computer on a Series 7 FD. however, a little further digging in other sources has yielded that the DT-S1000 was made with English firmware too.
49-B099-001 is the Japanese version. 49-F088-001 is the English version. 49-B099-0A0 is the complete Japanese version set, I'd bet a "0A0" set exists in English too.
What's odd about it the F088 prefix. B099 on the Japanese one means it was made for the 323/Familia (BF platform) and completely finished in 1985. But there's no "official" F088 prefix in the RX-7 lineage, it goes from F070 (Infini IV) straight to F100 (Series 6 Japanese FD). Got a feeling the English version was made during the prototyping stage to test the turbo control system. There's an English version disk for it too. Might be interesting to take a look at what's on both of them. It could definitely open some doors
yes there was for sure an English DTS-1000. the dealerships got sent them in 1992-1993 (it works on the millenia also), but it was $10,000 in 1993, so the one i know about got sent back, because it was too expensive, and the owner of the dealership doesn't understand how tools work....
yes there was for sure an English DTS-1000. the dealerships got sent them in 1992-1993 (it works on the millenia also), but it was $10,000 in 1993, so the one i know about got sent back, because it was too expensive, and the owner of the dealership doesn't understand how tools work....
Dang, $10,000??? That's 500 Super NES systems, easily Bruce Wayne money there. Too bad that DTS1000 didn't umm...get lost in the mail . Sure would be awesome to take a look at one if any dealers still have them sitting in a box in their attic. Who knows, I might even be able to adapt it to use modern media instead of floppy disks. Though I do have a box of them I got for my first computer in 2000.
I had a few Millenia FSMs awhile ago, but can't remember where they disappeared to into the digital ether. The 1996 Millenia FSM shows the Ford NGS scan tool (49-T088-0A0), so maybe the earlier ones referenced the DT-S1000? The North American NA Miata, 323 and 626 from 1990-ish all use the Disc Monitor and System Selector so no joy there. Did call in a favor to see about looking in a Japanese Eunos Roadster manual for more info.
7 files left to translate and unify now. Charts of pinouts and service codes, fun fun.
So I just started work on Section B: Engine Control. ECU pinouts, voltages, error codes, everything. Most of it is set up for go-time, but I'm kinda torn on the DTS1000 charts and if I should merge them with their respective Voltmeter/Oscilloscope charts like I did with the Cosmo. Still 15 pages of stuff to go through and translate either way.
So I just finished the last part of text translation. Everything's getting backed up as a precaution since going through ECU pinouts, DT-S1000 diagnostics, ECU Service Codes, etc took twice as long as I thought. It started out as 15 pages, ended up being 24. Even with merging charts. But it is done now.
So I took a little break after getting things sorted out and ready for the next phase. Couldn't help but do a test run to start dialing things in on formatting.
It's still a bit unfinished and might need a couple adjustments, but this is proof of concept. This is scaled for 8.5x11" paper in Landscape format with 0.5" margins all around, so it should print on the average household printer without any cutoff. The 11/91 and #4003 test is 10pt while the connector data at the bottom is 6pt. The actual diagram part is scaled down to fit the 10" wide cell. If I kept it at original scale, each page would be nearly 20 square feet (1.85 square meters) in size and it would have to be moved with a forklift. So there's plenty of room to go bigger than 8.5x11 if need be.
Threw together a quick paint mockup of what's coming to test color and contrast between elements. Text has a couple errors in it (see if you can spot them), but it's good enough to see what could use some adjustment during the final phase.
11/1991 Starter and Alternator
Start drooling now...
01-15-23, 08:21 PM
