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Old 02-19-2019, 01:46 PM   #161
rumatt
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That is all just frigging awesome.

I want a Haltech.
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Old 02-19-2019, 01:53 PM   #162
John V
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That is all just frigging awesome.

I want a Haltech.
Fortunately they haven't had any requests for fart apps or pole position
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Old 02-19-2019, 02:41 PM   #163
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A few neat features of the Haltech...

The DBW curve is fully customizable. I could make it super soggy at low throttle openings like a Prius if I wanted, or have 10% pedal travel translate to 50% throttle opening like an E46 M3 in "Sport" mode.

It integrates with the Mazda's CAN bus, meaning it can drive the stock gauges, interface with the ABS (for determining wheel speeds for use with traction control), etc.

It supports boost trimming. I.e. I can have a position switch on the dashboard with "n" states, each translating to a different tune. I could take a run on one setting, then dial back the peak boost level if desired. Or dial it up. Kinda cool.

Flat shift. You can program it to allow shifting without lifting off the throttle. It will periodically cut spark to hold rpm while maintaining boost between shifts while not allowing the engine to over-rev.
Very cool.... At the end of this, you are becoming a pretty much fully-fledged automotive engineer. If I were an auto manufacturing company, I'd be looking for ways to recruit you.

You mentioned launch/traction earlier. Isn't that more than the ECU? So you will incorporate the ABS sensors as well. I assume no yaw, that's left to the old gray matter.
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Old 02-19-2019, 02:49 PM   #164
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Very cool.... At the end of this, you are becoming a pretty much fully-fledged automotive engineer. If I were an auto manufacturing company, I'd be looking for ways to recruit you.

You mentioned launch/traction earlier. Isn't that more than the ECU? So you will incorporate the ABS sensors as well. I assume no yaw, that's left to the old gray matter.
Car companies don't need people with this specific skill set, in general.

Yes, the ECU ties into the CAN bus so it should technically be able to read wheel speed from the ABS system. I don't desire yaw control, only for the computer to manage front-rear wheel speed differential with a method that doesn't create a bunch of turbo lag.
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Old 02-19-2019, 03:45 PM   #165
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Car companies don't need people with this specific skill set, in general.

Yes, the ECU ties into the CAN bus so it should technically be able to read wheel speed from the ABS system. I don't desire yaw control, only for the computer to manage front-rear wheel speed differential with a method that doesn't create a bunch of turbo lag.
I see... So you will set up a few levels of fuel cut or spark modification if that difference reaches certain levels.. Compared to "the loom", that should be a piece of cake.
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Old 02-19-2019, 09:00 PM   #166
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I expect the tuning of all this to be much more difficult and time consuming than the wiring, which is fairly formulaic and rote.
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Old 02-21-2019, 09:46 PM   #167
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I'd like to go on a diversion called "fun with electricity" for a moment if I may.

There are a lot of similarities between the RX-8 and the MX-5 and this includes the way the cars are wired but if you look closely there are some differences that can trip you up. Example: the thermostatically controlled fans. Here are two wiring diagrams, first from the MX-5 and second from the RX-8.





Background: I installed the radiator from the MX-5 as well as the fan from the MX-5 into my RX-8. The fuse / relay box is from the RX-8. At first glance, everything looks okay. Both cars have three fan relays and both cars have four total connections to the fans (i.e. there are two motors, each with a power and a ground). But upon closer inspection they work slightly differently.

It took me a while to understand what was going on here but here goes. The MX-5 first. There are three fan speeds. Low has half of the windings powered with +12V switched through Relay 1 and the fixed ground wire. Medium is the same, +12V switched through relay 1, but relay 3 is also energized, shorting the second set of windings (presumably higher current) to ground. High energizes all three relays, so Relays 1 and 2 energize the high-side windings and relay 3 grounds the low side winding. Blue is "low", green is "medium" and red is "high"



Looking at the RX-8 diagram, it's a bit different. Relay 3 is actually a SPDT relay. Just wiring in the MX-5 fans with this configuration won't work, because if you look closely, just energizing relay 1 won't give motor 1 a path to ground. Well there is one, but it's in series with motor 2. Follow the green wire from the low side of motor 1 and it goes to the high side of relays 2 and 3. Relay 3's low side connects to the second cooling fan motor. You'll also notice that the RX-8 only has two control wires going to the relays, whereas the MX-5 has three. I really didn't want to add a control wire, and I didn't need to.

What I did was actually very simple. I cut the green wire where it exited the fan motor and connected it to ground. This means when relay 1 is energized, it will drive the first set of windings and run the motor on low speed. Then when Relay 3 is energized, the second set of windings will be powered and the motor will run on high. I've lost the medium speed setting, but I don't see this being a problem.

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Old 02-21-2019, 10:42 PM   #168
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Non-insulated crimp terminals. Basically a barrel sized for whatever gauge wiring you're working with. Peter suggested to me that he's used these for years and they're very robust. I don't like soldered connections for automotive use because they are brittle. Ballenger sells these. So does Digi-Key.



https://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/pr...3nunug5gc0niq0



The wiring is needed for the Haltech. Once I had the car running on the stock Mazda ECU I could have just used that as the basis for tuning the engine, but it lacks a few features that I wanted. First being flex fuel capability (E85 or a blend of it). Second being anti-lag for the turbo and third being launch / traction control. I ended up picking the Haltech because it has all of those features natively built-in.



It's a universal harness and a universal ECU. Meaning, it has 'X' available analog inputs, 'Y' available digital outputs, and requires certain voltage and trigger inputs to work, like a crank angle sensor, cam angle sensor, water temp, TPS, etc. The end user determines how many widgets they want to control (like wastegate solenoids, the alternator, etc) and how many additional inputs they want (like oil temp and pressure sensors, fuel composition sensors, etc). The end user then wires them up appropriately, configures them in the software, loads that tune to the ECU and goes from there.
Ah. I was wondering if there was a specific one that he particularly likes. Is there a meaningful advantage to these vs. ones with the heat shrink already on? That’s what I generally live with.
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Old 02-21-2019, 11:13 PM   #169
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Can you explain the non-insulated part? Don't you need to then insulate them?
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Old 02-22-2019, 07:12 AM   #170
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Yes, you insulate them with shrink wrap.

The reason I don't like the ones that have plastic surrounding them (i.e. insulated butt splices) is they're too fat and as a result make the harness bulky. These are hardly bigger than the insulated wire, even after shrink wrapping them.
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