Type 4 board status update

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:53 pm

We have someone currently running one of our Type 4 boards in an S15 SR20 over last week and seems to be running well.

Bench tests for the similarly configured S14A are now being started and we are noting no dropouts, which were previously experienced

I found that the data lines on the NVRAM chips was being pulled too tight with resistors and was causing problems with those particular boards.

So this is good news for those particular ECUs and we are gradually going to start field testing those vehicles. Please contact me if you are interested in testing ... I dont have many Type 4 boards and the car ideally needs to be a daily driver so it is tested for long periods of time. Having consult via laptop connected for some times would be the ideal testing configuration.

Going back to other vehicles.... ER34/Y33/S14KA/U13KA/N15A are on my bench at the moment. These use the newer OBD-II style connector

Of these Y33 is the only one which runs stable, but STORE (burn) to the board is not successful.

The ER34 STORE is successful but drops out often.

The S14KA/U13KA/N15A just dont run at all. Even after changing pull up resistors

I'm purchasing a logic analyser to investigate those ones further this week, primarily to check timing issues and so forth. Also going to reprogram with the original GRID M37790 board logic which we based the Type3/4 boards off

iaredam · Post by **iaredam** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:41 pm

Good to hear that some success is happening with the type 4 boards. I certainly appreciate the work you are doing.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:05 am

No probs. Trying to get this all sorted finally.

Another update.... I found some issues with CPLD chips pulling lines too quick and causing spikes in the data

Got the U13 KA24DE on the bench currently. It runs if I remove one of the control lines... but needs to run with that so looking into why there is a problem. I think I'm gradually getting there now...

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:57 pm

Another update

I found the 37790 Multiboard avilable from GRID has a design flaw which results in data spikes when address/data lines are multiplexed

Have another S14 board which uses multiplexed lines but doesnt exhibit the same problems. I'm now reverse engieering that board to see what they do differently

Its mean a CPLD logic update for Type 4s as well as board layout changes to combat electrical noise and this updated design

More to follow...

Fusion Ed · Post by **Fusion Ed** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:29 pm

Matt, I'll have one of these from you shortly when you have got a bit further. They are used in the SE20VE I think?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:56 pm

I've currently got three customer ECUs here waiting for one. Once they have been confirmed working then can work from there

Type 4 will do most ECUs with 20/30 ribbon or 40 pin ribbon connectors required

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:49 pm

Reverse engineering for second board (S14/Y33 plugin type) is complete and the logic is similar to the original GRID board except inverted in places

It still has a minor spike issue but more of a ripple. Currently translating that into our CPLDs and testing this out

There will be no board design changes apart from introducing ground planes and better VCC tracks to reduce the affect of current drain of the CPLD devices which are attributing to the problems we are seeing

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:49 am

First production run of Type 4 boards is underway...

We have four working prototype boards now testing in various ECUs (waiting for adaptor boards for the 40 pin strip cable ecus at the momment)

dynowog · Post by **dynowog** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:24 am

Matt wrote:First production run of Type 4 boards is underway...

We have four working prototype boards now testing in various ECUs (waiting for adaptor boards for the 40 pin strip cable ecus at the momment)

sounds good

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:46 pm

Y33 VG30 runs all good now
ER34 all working
S14A/S15 all working
New180SX first run last night working

U13 KA24DE not working

I found a glitch causing problems on one of the lines, doing more investigation tonight, but I think the resistor drop to some lines we added on the production boards will fix this

Type 5 prototype boards received and built. Going to be testing those out too

Fusion Ed · Post by **Fusion Ed** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:55 pm

This is going to be so good... heeheh

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 1:04 am

Type 5 proving to be a bastard with programming. Have to modify the base image programmer logic firmware a little

JasonKemmerer · Post by **JasonKemmerer** » Sun May 11, 2008 7:26 am

Will there be support for the US spec 96 OBD-II Z32?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun May 11, 2008 12:27 pm

U13 KA24DE working
S14 KA24DE working
Y33 VQ30DET working
(new address file has been disassembled last night and will be up shortly)

1996 OBD-II ECUs I'm looking into. Just getting the correct install procedure worked out since theres no documentation on these ECUs at all

The Z32 96 ECU has two square onboard ROM chips. Its almost the same as a 1996 model S14 KA24DE I've got here. So if get that one working, then I can get the Z32 working

The two ROM chips connect to a single external daughterboard jumper. However when I enable that (and using standard GRID board) it doesnt run

Once I can get past that point then I'm set. I know Calum can do it with his boards, so he must have worked out the correct install procedure

JasonKemmerer · Post by **JasonKemmerer** » Sun May 11, 2008 2:45 pm

Matt wrote: 1996 OBD-II ECUs I'm looking into. Just getting the correct install procedure worked out since theres no documentation on these ECUs at all

The Z32 96 ECU has two square onboard ROM chips. Its almost the same as a 1996 model S14 KA24DE I've got here. So if get that one working, then I can get the Z32 working

The two ROM chips connect to a single external daughterboard jumper. However when I enable that (and using standard GRID board) it doesnt run

Once I can get past that point then I'm set. I know Calum can do it with his boards, so he must have worked out the correct install procedure

This sounds very promising! Please let us know how its coming long. Can't wait for that day for some of my customers.