My LCD screen project, boost, WBO2, Knock, etc

[DrGonzo]

Armond30: Give me a couple days to figure out how to implement what you want.

DrGonzo: Not sure if your sensor was responsible for locking up the LCDBC. Software update instructions are located on the last page of the user manual:
http://lcdbc.xp3.biz/EBC-Revision3.40.pdf

Or you can follow the instructions contained within the update.zip file readme. Yes the Serial/USB cable that you use to log the LCDBC with Evoscan software does work for software update for v3 firmware. Only older LCDBC units (v1 and v2 firmware) by default used the other serial port and required a null-modem cable.

Thanks, I'll try to get around to getting the software updated this weekend. Do you know of a source for a good GM 3 bar sensor? I see them ranging anywhere from $20-70 and can't really tell which are good or not. Seeing some from AC Delco and Denso for about $50 and not sure if those will work or not.

[Armond30]

Thanks BlackStealth! Oh and another quick question. I haven't seen the knock warning go off, but how long is the screen color changed once this does happen? (i.e. is it like a half a second or a full second color change with the value displayed)? What should I expect to see if/ when I do get real knock?

[BlackStealth]

DrGonzo: I think AC Delco is OEM for GM cars, I'd go with that.

Armond30: When knock threshold is exceeded, the screen will turn red with current offending knock value. If the LCDBC continues to see offending knock values, it will continue to display them. Once the knock value falls below your knock threshold, it will switch to peak knock value and flash the screen for 5 seconds before returning to the previous menu.

[Armond30]

Got my board last week, it looks really nice. I installed it this weekend and got some good news and some bad news...



At low rpm the updates seem much quicker than before, very smooth.

Higher rpms are a different story however. With the delay set a 0 it stops updating at around 2800 rpm and with the delay set to 10 it stops updating at around 4200 rpm. Same as before essentially...

We've tried 3 different converters/cables now (counting the built in one) we're and getting almost the exactly the same behavior which makes me suspect this could be a software issue. The things which have made the biggest improvements so have been the software based. I'm thinking about the updates that fixed the disconnect issues and introduced the delay option.

Is there any chance you turn a special debug version of the software for this board which focuses on just the communication and the parameter around that?

Since the problems seem to get worse and worse as the RPM increases it almost feels like the LCDBC is choking on something. Maybe we need a delay that scales with the rpm?

I'm a full time software developer so if you have the ability to share some simplified debug version of the software for this board I could some experimenting myself.

Has anybody figured out a solution for this? I am currently dealing with this issue. I went out for a quick tune run tonight, and connected the evoscan datalogger to the LCDBC, but all of my logs are garbage after 4K RPM. When I tried to change the ecu delay to 20, the LCDBC became basically unusable until I turned the whole car off and on again and reset the value back to 10. This is a major problem for me as I am primarily using the LCDBC as a knock alert (so data after 4K needs to be reliable). When I hooked the old cable back up to my computer to run Evoscan direct to the dashboard (no LCDBC) and had the baud rate set to 15625, it records rpm through the powerband beautifully. Could the LCDBC be susceptible to vibration? My car does have a lot of that. Why would the evoscan software work fine direct to the dashboard, but not work after 4K rpm in pass through mode on the LCDBC. This makes me fear (with strong certainty) that the LCDBC isn't working in that range either (at least the ecu reading functions anyway). Please help.

[fastbikes76]

Mine has always done this so I gave up. It's just a fancy boost controller for me now.


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[BlackStealth]

One user experienced the problem of "garbage data" with his vehicle at full throttle or high rpm. When he replaced his ECU with a flashable ECU the problem disappeared 100%. That is one expensive way to fix the problem.

So why is Evoscan cable not susceptible to the "garbage data"? I think the secret is the serial "FTDI chipset" contained within the Evoscan cable, it automatically rejects "garbage data" and says this is not a valid serial frame, and contains to wait for a valid serial frame. Where as the LCDBC microprocessor has no sophisticated hardware mechanism to reject an invalid serial frame, and accepts all.

I wonder if it is possible to add a second microprocessor in between the LCDBC and the ECU cable whose only purpose is to reject invalid serial frames.

Edit: Here's the "Peak Knock Filter" request you asked for. Go to config menu and enabled it. http://lcdbc.xp3.biz/updates/UPDATE342.zip

[fastbikes76]

It does it with both my cars which have LCDBC's and does it with 3 different ECU's. As soon as I get into higher rpm the logs freeze and corrupts. If I log evo scan direct through OBD port it's 100% perfect. Tried everything including different chips you sent me, different cables , every setting under the sun.... Nothing stopped the corruption so I gave up.


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[BlackStealth]

How about this scenario:

Use the USB Evoscan FTDI cable that we know works, plug that into a raspberry pi microcontroller, and have it send the "garbage free" serial data to the LCDBC.

[Armond30]

Thanks Blackstealth. I will upload the new file this afternoon. I did get the FTDI chip cable to connect the LCD Boost controller to the laptop. So All I would need to do is get a raspberry pi microcontroller to convert the USB signal to serial from my evoscan cable to send the signal to the LCDBoostcontrooler and my problem is solved? The FTDI cable I bought to connect the LCDBoostcontroller to the laptop is Serial to USB. is this the same thing? I apologize for the ignorance, but I am not the best when it comes to hardware / software configurations anymore.

[DrGonzo]

Went out for a drive today and it kept freezing on me again even without the pressure sensor hooked up. This time it looks like it recovers after a couple min. But right now it is about useless as it is freezing up so often, I can't even get a pull in to see if there is knock.