atomic 6

About a year ago I decided to see if I could be the first to get a Microsquirt to run a LSx engine, so we could have a cheap, simple standalone EMS for the LSx crowd.
It took a little bit of figuring out, but it worked, and now a bunch of other people are using it run their LS engines(ala Denmah). A big plus for getting more people aware of the Megasquirt, and it's capabilities.

This year, I am showing the use of a feature I have been bothering James(one of the megasquirt firmware developers) with adding to the MS3 firmware. This feature allows you to pre-stage, engage the transbrake, bring up boost to where ever you want, and release the transbrake enough to move into the staged beams. I know,this is not new to drag racing, but it is new to the Megasquirt hardware.

And now it is in the MS3 Alpha 5 Firmware.(Experimental code, but available to anyone wanting to try it) Here you go Matt, this could work in the Malibu Wagon with the MS3 Gold Box.

Hopefully this is as big of a hit for the Megasquirt platform, as the LSx microsquirt stuff.

This is a short video of it working on a Third gen Camaro I have a MS3pro running a L33 with twin turbos in.

This is how the standard settings in the Feature look in use. Except I increased the Mult-release to 3 as you will see in the video.
Megasquirt 3 Transbrake settings(Mine is a MS3pro but same applies to the MS3x)

Release time(s) = .050
ON time = .100
Main # moves = 3 (1 is the standard and I will have a video of what that looks like later)



Let me know what you guys think,and if you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them.

The green tape marks on the ground are the distance between the pre-stage, and stage bulbs, and the black lines are an inch apart.

TNSS

iTrader: (2)

this is awesome!!!

Compressor Surge

iTrader: (21)

Awesome! I was just thinking about this the other day when somebody was talking about putting a bump box on thier car. Chalk another one up for MS.

71 chevy

iTrader: (18)

I saw this a while back and have been meaning to post.

its awesome that they have this feature,and Im sure it will get improved.

does it simply pulse the tbrake switch? for some reason It looks like its not switching the state quickly enough, or maybe Im seeing it wrong.

is there a way you can have a second button for the pulse feature and then when you let go of that button it stops pulsing and goes to launch mode?

atomic 6

It is not switching quick enough in the video, but all of that can be changed how ever you want it. The video was of testing for the release times, and different settings. I have about 15 more videos like that with different times in the settings, that I was using to figure out what each setting looked like, and how much it moved.

That video was just one of them I grabbed to show this working.



Here you can see the settings are pretty much whatever you want to try. Yes, the time between the releases would need to be smaller, I think we will find that as more power is applied while on the brake, the smaller the time between the releases will need to be.

This takes control of the negative side of the transbrake solenoid, you can leave the positive side the normal setup. Or, you can just have the MS3 control the solenoid completely from the negative side, the way we are doing it on the Camaro.

Your idea, for holding down the TCS(TurboCarStaging) button causing releases only while the button is pressed, is interesting, and I think that is the way the old FAST creep function works. I may see if we can test that out. It may take away some of the repeatability, many like about the system, but it could give more instant control to the driver.

71 chevy

iTrader: (18)

cool. good to know its fully programmable

atomic 6

Wes's Camaro made it's first run down the track today.

(MS3pro, Stock L33 short block(even camshaft), twin 61 mm MasterPower turbos) It was about 11 lbs boost on these runs.

Very happy with how the Turbo Staging works.

I will post up one of the videos of the testing we did yesterday at the local 1/8th mile, this was during a buddy's birthday party track rental.


In the video you will see the single bump into the "staged" beam, we were also trying out acouple of things today, but this is the most relevant video.

The single bump was the standard .050 second release time.

Maybe next time we will try a multi bump, and that could make it less "jumpy"

In these runs the idea was to not get the track mad at us, because we don't have an NHRA lic. driver yet, so the goal was to stay under the 6.40 1/8th mile time.
But even hitting the brakes alittle after the 330 mark, we ran a 6.24@88 mph. Woops!! This was our last run on this day, anyway.

The tree was also set to Sportsman mode(.5 seconds between each of the three yellow lights, then .5 seconds to green light), so that is the reason that we were on the 2-step for so long. When the "real deal" is going on and we have a .400 Pro Tree(all three yellows at once, with only a .4 delay to the green), this feature is going to be great.

71 chevy

iTrader: (18)

cool update.

every time I see this freaking camaro I want a 3rd gen. What does it weigh without driver with that l33?

does ms3 allow you to put this bump on a button for full control?

atomic 6

Here is another shot showing the prestage and staged lights.



I don't know what it is without driver, but we scaled it acouple weeks ago.

And WITH driver and ready to run down the track, it is 2300 lbs, with a 47\53 weight bias to the rear.

We may end up putting some weight in the front, when it gets faster.

My buddy that I did the work for on it, has to get his NHRA lic finished before we get too crazy with it.

The squirt has a dedicated button for the bump, if that is what you asking, or if you are wondering about a bump-as-long-as the button is held in, type of setting, then that is not in there. But I think could be easily added to the Alpha code.

71 chevy

iTrader: (18)

wow, im jealous. i wish i could get mine even close to that. its gonna be a record setter im sure.

i was asking about the latter - bump-as-long-as-the button is pressed.

atomic 6

I forgot to add the video of our last run acouple of weeks ago.


Ran a 9.06 @150.8 1.27 sixty.

Was with 14.5 lbs of boost, on a stock LONG block. Stock l33 cam and all. The heads have not even been off this 120k mile bullet, Haha.

We have been looking into the implementation of a (Creep) "bump while button active" type of use for the MS3pro. It is do-able on the software side of things, but the settings, and the use of it, need to be ironed out more before we can try it out on a track.

We also use a Ramp from Launch, boost control that has been built into the Megasquirts.

And that got me thinking about what more to add to the Bump, Launch, and Run down the Track boost settings and features, and what can be realized with that flexablity.

I will keep things updated.

I really need to find some time to get a build thread done on this Camaro, also.