Eurocard microsquirt motherboard

[burdickjp]

I recently had the opportunity to play with a microsquirt I'm mating to a Toyota 4A-GE 20v for a customer's Ford Cortina. I've been playing with MS3s for a long time. The more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm thinking an MS2 would fill my needs. But I'm really tired of the MS form factor.

I started a discussion over on JBPerf's forum about putting together a motherboard which would fit in a standard eurocard enclosure and house a microsquirt, JBPerf IOX, 14point7 SLC, and some circuitry for the expanded I/O capability. This would have 4 logic level ignition outputs and 4 high impedance injector outputs. I'd like this to use a more appropriate automotive connector like a JAE or Molex. I could see this being available as a 2 layer through hole PCB with a BOM from digikey or mouser.
I think this would do a lot to bring megasquirt back to the hobbyist in a way that doesn't look like someone vomited inside of your enclosure.

The discussion over at JBPerf is here: http://forum.jbperf.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 7090#p7090

What would you like to see in something like this? What connectors would you expect would be appropriate?

[kjones6039]

I am finding this to be somewhat interesting. Do you have any links to help me understand "Eurocard"? ( a cursory search didn't help me much)

Ken

[burdickjp]

I am finding this to be somewhat interesting. Do you have any links to help me understand "Eurocard"? ( a cursory search didn't help me much)

Ken

Of course!

Here's the Wikipedia article for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocard_( ... uit_board)

The big take-away is that it is a standard for PCB size, so manufacturers are used to working in that size and there are enclosures available in that size. It's 100mm wide and 160mm long. This is close to the MS main board, which is 4" (101mm) by 6" (152mm). JBPerf's I/OX is 100mm by 80mm (half as long as a eurocard). This means the final product in its enclosure will be similar to MS1 size, while allowing more flexibility in what enclosure is used.

[kjones6039]

I am finding this to be somewhat interesting. Do you have any links to help me understand "Eurocard"? ( a cursory search didn't help me much)

Ken

Of course!

Here's the Wikipedia article for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocard_( ... uit_board)

The big take-away is that it is a standard for PCB size, so manufacturers are used to working in that size and there are enclosures available in that size. It's 100mm wide and 160mm long. This is close to the MS main board, which is 4" (101mm) by 6" (152mm). JBPerf's I/OX is 100mm by 80mm (half as long as a eurocard). This means the final product in its enclosure will be similar to MS1 size, while allowing more flexibility in what enclosure is used.

I was off in cyber space googling around as you were posting! I found a similar article that told me:

Eurocard is a European standard format for PCB cards,

So I'm starting to get the idea!

Thank you sir, for helping out an old guy who is too lazy to browse for the answer!

Ken

[DaveEFI]

Normally, a Eurocard plugs into a socket in the housing. Making for an additional connector over a standard MS. Extra connectors are never a good idea.

[burdickjp]

Normally, a Eurocard plugs into a socket in the housing. Making for an additional connector over a standard MS. Extra connectors are never a good idea.

Good thing we don't have to do that if we don't want to.

[racingmini_mtl]

The Eurocard part here is only for the 160mm X 100mm PCB footprint. That has advantage of having more choices and more widely available enclosures that use that format. What is done with the board after that is open and the subject of the discussion here.

Jean

[burdickjp]

There are also proto boards available in Eurocard size, so having as much proto area as ECU area is just a card away. If things are thought through from the beginning, this can even be considered from the outset by providing a header which could interface with the proto card, bringing through 12V, 5V, ground, CAN Bus, etc. I think there's a standard eurocard connector which is usually intended for a backplane connection, but it may also be available in a vertical orientation rather than right angle, otherwise a simple 0.1" header near the back of the case could work well, Arduinos have shown that.

Being able to implement off-the-shelf realtime clocks from Sparkfun or Adafruit could reduce the necessity for development there. The same could be said for GPS if it was put on the table. JBPerf's current full size IOX is 100mmx120mm, so one of them could be fit above or below the main board as well, providing that much more I/O in the same enclosure.
The icing on the cake would be being able to add one of the aforementioned proto PCBs and have something like an Arduino micro providing EGT and other IO via CAN Bus: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/ ... 593/page1/

This same Arduino could allow SD Card logging of anything on the CAN Bus, or GPS, or ANYTHING. It's an Arduino after all. Or it could be a Teensy, or whatever would fit on the proto board. That board and the ability to talk over CAN Bus could provide SOOOO much flexibility, all in the same enclosure.

[burdickjp]

Here's what I have so far for a formal specification request.

• A through-hole Eurocard-sized PCB which acts as a motherboard for optionally a microsquirt module, an IOx basic, and a single 14point7 SLC OEM.
• IOx headers in a position which would allow it to interface with an IOx card, or an IOx basic, and existing IOx daughter boards, such as logger and SLC OEM.
• On board 5V voltage supply.
• 2 injection driving circuits, bringing the total to 4.
• 4 logic-level coil driving circuitry on motherboard.
• CAN Bus brought out to main connector
• Jumpers for enabling all inputs and outputs to the connector, similar to the IOx. This will allow more connector pinout flexibility and allows proto outs to be brought out to the main connector.
• A header bringing 12V, 5V, grounds, CAN Bus, IOx I2C and SPI to a proto card. This should be positioned to line up with the standard Eurocard connector
• 2 2.5mm serial connectors: 1 for microsquirt module programming. 1 for IOx basic to Innovative serial chain.
• A 50 pin Size 5 D-sub main connector.

What all inputs and outputs for the IOx would you suggest populating on the mother board? Here was what I thought of initially.

• 4 high current digital ouputs
• 4 digital inputs
• 2 VR conditioners
• 4 ADC inputs

That'd actually bring the pin count above 50, so there'd have to be some compromise.

The important thing to note here is that if we do this correctly we'll be use it with the IOx Basic and CAN Bus to an external Megasquirt, or plug a full IOx in and use its inputs and outputs, and can ever plug in JBPerf's logger board and/or SLC OEM board in the same enclosure. This could become the single solution with the most flexible configurations of inputs and outputs currently on the market.
What would people here like to see? Where would you suggest I go to market this further? We need to show Jean that we'd want this!