Tooth Logger Help

[Max Welton]

I am using a 36 - 1 trigger wheel on an air-cooled VW engine with a Ford F150 VR sensor. Like this:

http://www.maxwelton2k.net/squareback68 ... index.html

Problem is that while the tach signal seems fine while cranking (ignition and injectors disabled), I'm getting weird behavior when I actually start the engine. I have attached two logs, one while cranking and one running (sort of).

I'm new to this. What does that look like?

I'm running MSExtra Rel 2.1.0p

Max

[Max Welton]

Sorry ... here is my CurrentTune

Max

[kjones6039]

I'm running MSExtra Rel 2.1.0p

Man.... That is some old firmware!
You might want to update that.......

Ken

[jsmcortina]

I'm running MSExtra Rel 2.1.0p

Man.... That is some old firmware!

Depending on the exact version that's about four years old. Lots has changed since then.

James

[Max Welton]

OK, I'll update the firmware tonight and see if it changes anything.

Max

[Max Welton]

Firmware now 3.2.5. No change.

So here's what I'm seeing. The tooth-log looks normal when just cranking. Let the engine start and I start loosing the signal.

Any ideas?



Max

[Matt Cramer]

You're seeing noise pulses - the little "dips" in the screen shot posted are noise, pulses that shouldn't be there.

[Max Welton]

OK, that makes sense.

I'm using a pre-made harness from DIYAutotune from several years ago and I don't think that wire is shielded.

Thanks!

Max

[Matt Cramer]

We've used shielded wire for the crank sensor input in our harnesses for the past 8 years or so - it's possible there may have been an unshielded version sold here before I worked here.

[Max Welton]

It has worked fine using the stock coil (-) as the trigger for three years.

But I also have a very recent DIY harness that includes a bit more of the pinout that I was planning to use on an MS3 project. I may retask it to this car as it supports the spare-4 pin which I need for the 2nd coil driver output anyway.

Max

[Max Welton]

Progress. First, I misspoke about the IGN wire not being shielded. It is shielded, was just buried under some wrapping I had used when I set it up initially. I re-routed it for better separation with the HT leads and installed the 10k resister. The miss went away. But I was getting drops (visible in the trigger logger) at idle.

So I went back and read http://www.msextra.com/doc/general/toot ... mples.html some more. There is an example of what the tooth logger looks like when the VR is wired backwards. Looked a lot like mine (when cranking).



So I reversed the VR wires and my tooth-log looked normal ... and the sync-loss at idle cleaned up.

It's magic, I say. Magic!

So now I'll set about pulling out the stock coil and installing my IGN4.

This place is great!

Max

[grom_e30]

I was going to suggest that the other day lol, but when I had my vr wired backwards it looked almost identical to the diy example pick and didn't want to possibly send you on a goose chase.

[Max Welton]

So now that I've swapped out the single coil for an IGN4 coil pack, I'm having a new problem.

The engine ran fine for a few minutes, enough for me to get ~5 miles from home, then TS gave me this weird message:

error.GIF

I was able to restart by cycling the ecu, but it would die again a < 30 seconds later. I repeated this long enough to get back home.

So, the message indicates "serial noise", but the timing seems more like something that is temperature related.

This was working fine when I was driving a single coil so it's something to do with introducing the ING4 in wasted-spark mode.

PS: The engine would continue to run for several seconds after that dialog came up. The attached log shows some of the trip home. The "Time" trace shows the intervals to the stoppage.

TIA

Max

[grom_e30]

there is something up with your voltage in to the ecu its reporting up to 28v guess that will cause a reset have a look at the alternator maybe?

[kjones6039]

there is something up with your voltage in to the ecu its reporting up to 28v guess that will cause a reset have a look at the alternator maybe?

Not to mention, when Batt V goes to -1740.8!

I would be looking at grounds (and wiring in general) along with the alternator.

Ken

[Max Welton]

Wow. Good eye!

The voltage regulator is right close by where I mounted the MS and the FI harness passes close by as well. Entirely possible I dislodged something. Back out to check.

Max

[jsmcortina]

Those reported values in the datalog are serial corruption, it is impossible for them to be real.

James

[Max Welton]

OK, replaced the voltage regulator. Actual voltage now does not exceed 14.5 volts. The TS dashboard gauge and the datalog read almost a full volt higher than what my volt-meter says.

It starts right up and runs well, but still only talks to TS for a short time before the previously posted dialog comes up. Now that I know the actual bus voltage isn't dangerously high I think I'll drive it to work tomorrow and see if will halt or just stop talking to TS on my laptop.

Max

[Max Welton]

The plot thickens.

The old windows laptop I've been using in-car has been having random problems with its USB interfaces and also hanging while shutting down. So I pulled out an even older PC running Linux and TunerStudio MS v1.006 (!) Using the old Linux machine I was unable to get TS to freeze or MS to stop working. And BatV reported through TS was in agreement with measured voltage at the generator.

So my new theory is that my windows laptop has some sort of fault that is capable of taking down the ECU through the serial i/f.

I'm going to drive around like this for a while and see what happens.

Max

[maxwelton]

So I went back and read http://www.msextra.com/doc/general/toot ... mples.html some more. There is an example of what the tooth logger looks like when the VR is wired backwards.

Can someone point me to the tooth log examples? The old link doesn't work.

Max