December 2020

Merry Christmas 2020

Stay safe and good health to all my friends, new and old.

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2021 Promotional Video

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Photo update

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Lettering

I've ordered the vinyl lettering for the car. I'm going for two sizes, using a font I downloaded called Sequel Black, which is identical to the Yokohama Advan typeface. I've also been playing with the EGT settings on the Car. Pete Goulding now has his ECU fully unlocked, and wired in a pair of Type-K thermocouples to the dedicated thermocouple inputs, hoping to just assign the inputs to the EGT1 and EGT2 channels. Sadly, the ECU reports that it doesnt have the Exhaust Gas Temperature capability, which is a surprise.



We always thought that they were capable of monitoring EGT's, but the ECU's really were built on a budget, and do not appear to have the circuitry on board to work with Type-K thermocouples. So I tried assigning two of the EGT-CAN channels that the EcuMaster EGT-CAN box provides, to the EGT channels, but alas, the unitless values that the EGT-CAN board produces, arent understood by the ECU, so its just not possible to have the ECU monitor or react to EGT's.

This is where the customisable 3D maps come in. In Lifecal, there is a feature where you can assign variables to axis, and then change values according to the values of those variables. For example, I can monitor RPM and Exhaust Gas Temperature over CAN, and reduce the DBW throttle position if the temperature exceeds a set value. This would work well to protect the engine from damage, should the temperature exceed a threshold.



In Lifecal, select View Custom, to show the Custom maps section. In this example, I edited CM301. I have assigned EGTCAN_R08 to the Y axis. This is the variable for the Turbo exhaust gas temperature. I've assigned RPM to the X axis (default) and I've selected DBW Target Limit as the value to control.

Now if we click View Custom again, the standard map view will return, and now if we look at Configurable Purpose Maps, 3D, the CM301 3D graph will allow us to set the thresholds for temperatures and DBW throttle limits. First we need to set the EGT breakpoints, and then we can edit the data table.


Now there are other things we can control, based on the Turbo EGT temperature. We can reduce the boost pressure target, to restrict the load on the engine/turbo. We can also retard the ignition to save the exhaust valves from burning out. But we cant trigger limp mode, which is a shame as that would be quite useful, and the car can still be driven to the pits without further damage.

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Pictures of the new color scheme

It rained solidly all weekend so I had to take pictures of the car in the garage rather than out on the drive, but you can still see the overall effect.



Javelin ran their first winter sprint at Cadwell yesterday, including several night time laps in the dusk/dark, and by all accounts it was a great success, despite the rather damp conditions. Well done Javelin for trying something different. What a great idea. Not suitable for open seater cars, but for the tin tops, theres never a better time for a roof, windscreen, and a heater.

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Vinyl complete

I've finished applying the red vinyl to the car, with the completion of the 2nd side pod. I bought just enough vinyl, this pod used the last big piece, and all I'm left with now are various small offcuts. Once the white lettering has been ordered and applied, I'll roll the car out of the garage and get some photos'.

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Reluctance ring used on a Force HC

Good to see customers send in photos of the reluctance rings being used on their race cars. This example is the 83mm ring fitted on a 1.0 Force HC single seater, and sensed by an XS608B reluctance sensor. The car is using two rings on the rear axle, for launch and traction control via a DTA S80 ECU

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First side pod finished

I've completed the first side pod, using the 3M finish line knifeless tape to cut and then remove the unwanted strips of vinyl. I've now marked out the opposite side pod, and I'll use the same technique to cut the vinyl.

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BSC 2021 Calendar

Drawing on the HSA Sprint Leaders 2021 dates that were published this week, whilst we wait for the BSC dates to be finalised, I'd say we're at the same rounds, so I'm pencilling these in for next year, Covid permitting of course.

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PC upgraded

I upgraded my Manor F1 desktop PC yesterday, by fitting a second Intel Xeon processor to the motherboard. Ansys is much quicker at processing the calculations now :D

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Using Powershell to start Lifemon

This Powershell script, starts Lifemon, and turns off the menu by sending the F1 key to the application. A user on the Life/Syvecs group asked if the Menu could be turned off automatically, and this is as close as we can get to that.

The sendkeys script is saved with a .ps1 extension, and can be run from powershell, by running .\sendkeys



If Windows denies access to the powershell script (which it normally does by default), then you need to run Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser from the Powershell to remove that restriction.

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