Practical Standalone Tuning: Step 2: Trigger Setup

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Step 2: Trigger Setup

09.11

00:00	The next step of our process is to configure our trigger inputs and these are the most important inputs that the ECU relies on.
00:07	All of the calculations on fuel delivery and ignition timing are based on this information, so if it's wrong, essentially all bets are off and we're going to probably find that it's going to be impossible to get the engine to even start for the first time.
00:19	So, this information relies on two inputs, we have engine speed which on the 4G63 is derived from the crankshaft and we've got engine position which is derived from the camshaft.
00:32	So, we can find our trigger system information or settings here under our ECU configuration menu and we can see at the moment our trigger type by default with our base map is set to Mitsubishi 4G63 Lancer Evolution 9.
00:45	We can drop down this menu here and find a full list of all of the options available or we also have the option to find this using our select trigger system button here.
00:58	Now, this is actually arguably a little bit easier because you can actually filter, so if I enter here Mitsubishi, we can see we have Mitsubishi Evo 9 here and that's going to also explain what our trigger input is and what our home input is here.
01:16	So, we can see exactly what we're getting ourselves in for.
01:18	We've already got that selected, so I won't make any changes to this.
01:23	We also have here our TDC angle which we can see is set to 435 degrees.
01:30	And this is something we're going to be revisiting a little bit later, this essentially relates the timing that we're going to see on the laptop screen to the timing we're actually, going to be seeing when we put a timing light on the number one coil.
01:44	So, this is critical because if this number isn't set correctly, then essentially all bits are off and the timing could essentially be anywhere.
01:53	A little bit easier here again with our base file, given that this is set up for Mitsubishi Evo 9, this should already be pre configured, but we will still be checking this a little bit later on as we go through our worked example.
02:05	We can also choose to filter our RPM and again just like I've already mentioned with filtering our map sensor signal in our previous step, we want to be very mindful of any filtering we apply, applying the minimum amount to get a usable signal without actually dulling down the input, but we can see from our drop down menu, our options there, this is the default value, so of course I am going to leave it there.
02:31	Now, I just realised I moved a little bit out of order here and skipped over this parameter here, tooth count tool start.
02:36	By default this is zero and we should start there unless there's a reason to change this.
02:41	This defines how many teeth the ECU needs to see before it will attempt to synchronise.
02:47	This can be useful on engines that see large variations in cranking RPM.
02:52	Now, we also have this option here for quick start.
02:55	So, on engines running direct spark and sequential injection, while cranking the ECU will fire in semi sequential injection and waste spark which can help start the engine a little bit quicker.
03:08	Now, moving down to our actual trigger signal.
03:12	So, we have first of all our trigger signal itself.
03:15	So, this is our engine RPM signal.
03:18	We have the sensor type which in the case of the Mitsubishi Evo 9 is a hall sensor.
03:23	Again this is filled out by default in our base map, but we have the option to have a reluctor input as well or custom.
03:31	When we are using a hall sensor or digital sensor, we need to make sure that our pull up here is enabled as you can see.
03:38	And filter level, again we wanna start with zero unless there is a reason to change this.
03:44	On our home signal which is our engine position signal, we can see again this is a hall effect sensor.
03:51	And we've got the trigger edge for this as well.
03:54	Again by default this is a falling edge for our Evo 9 setup and we'll leave that there.
03:59	Again our filtering level is set to zero and of course our pull up is on.
04:03	Lastly we also have our synchronisation mode which is at the moment set to always.
04:09	We can also set this to until full sync or conditional.
04:13	I would recommend leaving this as always which means that it's always going to be reliant on our home signal.
04:20	If we choose until full sync, essentially once the engine has synchronised initially, then the sync signal or home signal is completely ignored.
04:30	This can be a little bit dangerous if there is any particular chance of the ECU essentially losing track of the trigger inputs, if it's started to ignore the home signal, then we can end up with a situation where our ignition timing could be completely out.
04:44	So, I would recommend leaving this set to always.
04:48	So, at this stage we've got our trigger setup to a point where the ECU should be able to recognise our cranking RPM or our engine RPM and this should be enough to get our engine up and running.
04:58	We can run a couple of little sanity checks here just to ensure that we are in fact getting reasonable information through, so I'll show you how to do that.
05:07	Come back to our fuel system momentarily, we can see here we've got a little radio button that allows us to disable the injectors and of course that's just going to stop the engine from trying to start which is what we want while we're going through this next little test.
05:21	And we can see here we've got our little red reboot button is flashing, so we need to click on that to reboot the ECU to make that change take effect.
05:31	Now, what I'm going to do is come across to our diagnostics page and I haven't made this page up, this is an existing page, the default page, so we can come through to this and what we're looking for is a couple of pieces of information.
05:44	First of all, here once we crank the engine we should see a sensible cranking RPM, that might be somewhere in the region of maybe 200, 250 RPM, maybe 150 RPM depending on our compression ratio and our battery voltage.
05:56	We want to also make sure that the number is relatively consistent, it's not jumping all over the place.
06:01	Then we can also see some information down here that is going to also give us confidence that our trigger system is working correctly.
06:09	The first one there is as it says, not supported in this trigger mode which is our home percent of travel, but the remainders are.
06:17	We've got our injection system disabled, so obviously that's the change that I've just made.
06:22	So, we've got our trigger sync level, our trigger sync state and our trigger errors.
06:28	So, let's just crank the engine briefly and we'll see what happens there.
06:34	OK, so we can see our sync level is full, sync state is running and we've got no errors, we're seeing around about 160 RPM while cranking.
06:42	So, everything's looking good there.
06:45	The no errors is really important.
06:47	If we are seeing errors then we've got some work to do and we need to figure out what's going on there before we move on from this step.
06:55	Now, a useful function for helping diagnose problems with the trigger inputs is the built in oscilloscope function.
07:01	And we can find that by clicking on this little item in our toolbar here.
07:07	And this allows us to choose four channels and in this case we've got our trigger voltage on channel one and we've got our home voltage on channel three.
07:15	So, I'm only going to display those two channels here.
07:19	And what we're going to do is click on this little radio button for run scope here, we're going to crank the engine briefly and then once we actually get a pattern from our trigger and our home inputs, we're going to just click that to turn the run scope off and that will display those values, so let's try this now.
07:42	Alright, so there we go, we can see our square wave input from our hall sensor for our trigger voltage on channel one and our home sensor voltage on channel two.
07:53	And this is the sort of input shape that we should be expecting to see from our Evo 9 trigger inputs and we can see the location of the various teeth relative to each other and this can be helpful in diagnosing problems where the teeth are kind of interfering with each other.
08:10	Another aspect, if you are setting up a trigger input that uses a variable reluctance VR sensor or magnetic sensors they're also referred to, you'll be able to visually see the shape of the input trace and that will help you select whether you should be triggering off a rising edge or a falling edge.
08:27	If you get that wrong with a magnetic sensor, you're going to see a lot of timing drift as the RPM changes.
08:33	So, at this point we've got our trigger inputs set up, but what we'll do is just close this down and what I want to do is come back to our main data page here and we'll come back to our disable injectors and we'll click on our little radio button and again do a reboot, that's just gonna save a little bit of frustration later on when we go to start the engine for the first time and we wonder why it won't start because of course there is no fuel injection.
08:59	Very easy chap to fall into, I've done that many times myself, so learn from my mistakes and save yourself some time.
09:06	Let's move on with the next step of our process now.