RhinoPower Ltd

fordem · Senior Member

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Rhinoview 0.5 is released

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Latest news

fordem · Senior Member

I LIKE it!! - don't make me wait too long now. biggrin

One question - the old display has several "LCDs" for fault codes, which I never used, because I didn't know how, and I was more interested in a dashboard display - shouldn't there be at least one somewhere?

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There will be another release coming soon, I plan on testing this at the weekend. My Ostrich emulator is not working so modifications to the temperature code are still outstanding. Sneak preview of new layout below.

I have tweaked the MPG software to show 0 while stationary and 50 at fuel cut (this is the new max. displayed). Hopefully this change will also eliminate the div by zero error.

I have added code to store the window position and the com port settings, this is a change I have been meaning to implement for a long time. The existing rather tortuous connection method is really just a left over from debugging. There is only one connect button, on connection the software will send a request for the ECU ID, if an ID is received correctly then the software will immediately start polling the ECU.

With a few less buttons I had to reorganise the dashboard window, the gauges that I designed seem to work OK so I dropped a few more on and lost a few of the 'LCDs'.

Rhinoview Dashboard

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Thursday 28th of January 2010 10:51:08 PM

fordem · Senior Member

This might be a little hard to verify without a portable battery operated scope (and the battery in my Fluke has been dead for a while now), but do you know if the ECU actually pulses the injector with a "too short' pulse?

I assumed that mine does not, simply because the injector pulsewidth display in the the software drops to a 0.00 when I expect it to.

I may have to look into getting a battery for that scope.

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fordem wrote:

Would that mean that your ECU
does not have a "fuel cut" when the engine is on the over-run?

At the start of the fuel calculations the base value 0x100 is loaded and then all fuel calculations add to this value toget the final value. If the ECU is in fuel cut then it simply skips the calculations and loads the base value (0x100).
Fuel is cut because although there is a pulse it is too short to open the injector. I presume that it is done this way because it is a little more efficient to start by loading the injector dead time value rather than loading zero and then adding the dead time number.

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Wednesday 27th of January 2010 09:42:04 AM

fordem · Senior Member

Would that mean that your ECU does not have a "fuel cut" when the engine is on the over-run?

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Ok thanks, no error message indicates that the problem is not in the MPG code, I will have to trawl through the rest of the code.
On my Vit the injector pulse width doesn't go below 100, this is fixed in the code as the minimum on time which I presume is also the injector dead time. If yours goes to zero then that probably explains why you see the problem and I don't.
The datalogger currently defaults to raw data mode, the addresses are the addresses that Rhinoview uses, to see raw data at the actual addresses the ECU uses you still have to select "0000" as the ECU ID. If you open the dataviewer and toggle the format then when you go back to the datalogger and select a function from the drop down menus you will get function descriptions. Its not very user friendly but I have a rework in mind, I need to read up on the Windows MDI before I attempt it because I don't know how much work it will entail.

fordem · Senior Member

Ok - with a fresh copy of the software, downloaded yesterday evening and the edited config file - here's what's happening.

The injector pulsewidth is displayed and varies as I expect it to - increases with load, etc. - I still get the "floating point divide by zero" error, at which point the software freezes.

Now - my injector pulsewidth does go to zero - as I believe do most, under specific conditions, eg. if the engine is on the "over run" (ie. the vehicle is decellerating in gear) and the engine is over a particular rpm number (I believe it's 1500) - I can prevent this from happening by disengaging the clutch (depressing the pedal) when lifting off the throttle, and after doing this a few times I can replicate the error at will and so I'm pretty certain that this is what triggers the "divide by zero" error.

Error numbers - I saw an error message other than the divide by zero dialog only once, directly after taking the laptop out of hibernation, and so I suspect that was the cause - there was no error message other than the "divide by zero error" on any of the "provoked errors".

With regard the mpg display itself - I think something is not right here also - the indicated mpg drops from 99 as the vehicle moves off and keeps on reducing until it gets to zero and stays there - I would have expected it to be low with the vehicle accelerating and then rise somewhat if the vehicle is at a constant speed - 3000 rpm in second gear produces roughly 25 mph and an indicated 0 mpg, 2500 rpm in third produces close to 30 mph, but still a 0 mpg indication.

I also took a look at the datalogger function and I'm not certain if I'm doing things correctly here, but if I select the address that corresponds to, for example, VSS (#9) and injector pulsewidth (15 & 16), and hit start - I get no data logged - selecting addresses 18 & 19 did produce a stepped wave, so I know it does retrieve data, but, am I setting it correctly to reteieve the data of interest? If I am, then it's not getting the data.

-- Edited by fordem on Tuesday 26th of January 2010 03:57:39 PM

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I rebuilt the software on Saturday with some extra code to try and track down the problem.

fordem · Senior Member

Are you saying that you updated the 0.4 code after posting it on Thursday? If that's the case, then NO, I'm still using the Thursday release - sorry about that - I'll get the updated code right away.

TechSupport · Guru

Have you tried the updated software? I have added some error messages that should give an error number if the problem occurs within the MPG calculations.
I never see injector pulsewidth go to zero, only to the dead time value (100uS),. It would be helpful if you could plot VSS and injector pulse width so we can see what numbers are being displayed?
If there are no erors in the formula then the injector flow rate or vehicle speed must be wrong. I have the flow rate as 232cc at 3 bar, I have no data on whether this is 100% duty cycle.

fordem · Senior Member

OK - I did need to edit the config file - to set the injector pulsewidth addresses, and the symptoms have changed slightly.

I see injector pulsewidth displayed now, and when the vehicle starts to roll the MPG display drops from 99, but seems to go way lower than I would expect, and in fact at one point seemed to be going in the opposite direction - on a very slow drive around the neighbourhood, (never got above second gear), it went all the way down to zero, and then I got the divide by zero error - I think it happened on decelleration approaching a turn, when I believe the injectors should cut off.

When I get a second driver I'll take out on a longer run and see if the displayed consumption looks realistic.

fordem · Senior Member

Regarding the address for my VSS - I believe I have - at least the speedometer works now.

The MPG does display 99 with the vehicle stationary, on earlier versions it would jump to zero as soon as the vehicle moves.

If I might suggest - that should be zero - my proposed logic would display zero if VSS is zero, and 99 if the injector pulse width is zero. Primarily it's because it's what I saw on a rental sometime last year, and it also made sense at the time - engine running vehicle stationary your mpg is going to be zero, and if the vehicle is moving with the fuel cut active (decelleration or rolling downhill) then the mpg would be infinitely high - which on a two digit display would be 99.

Hopefully I'll have enough time today to take a look at the config file differences and see if there any edits I need to bring forward to the new config file.

TechSupport · Guru

I suspect that your injector PW problem is an error in the config file. Are your addresses 15 = High byte, 16 = Low Byte?
I get a div by zero error when I switch to ECU ID "0000", I've added some extra code to try and find out where this is occurring. If you get a chance try that and report back
Thanks
James

TechSupport · Guru

There have been a number of changes to the code and the way that the code is structured, most of these should be invisible but a couple of bugs may have crept in. You're a couple of hours ahead of me with testing and my brakes don't work so I can't test the MPG code properly.

Divide by zero error must be in the MPG code, all other code is written such that it can't happen. The code should diplay 99 if the VSS or injector pulse width are zero. I may have fixed it, I did have a bitwise AND (|) instead of a logical AND (||) in the code that should have trapped the problem. Have you found the address for your VSS yet?

Injector pulse width changed in the last release to include a scaling factor in the config file, it is currently set to 1, I have just tidied up the code a little and it works for me. There was also changed to include two injector values for bank 1 and bank 2 to support V6 models. An in-line four will always be bank1

I forget to mention that the graphing function display mode has to be set from the dataviewer page so if the dataviewer is displaying raw data so will the graphs, if the dataviewer is displaying functions so will the graphs.

I'm not getting air temperature at the moment so I'll look into that.

Cheers
James

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Saturday 23rd of January 2010 04:41:30 PM

fordem · Senior Member

OK - first glance impression - something's broke.

The first thing I noticed was that I no longer see a value for injector pulse width displayed, and the second thing I noticed was as soon as the vehicle starts to roll, RV spits out a "divide by zero" error.

I'm not certain if this is something in the new code, or a config file issue.

What I did next is backup a few revisions and noticed that there was no injector pulsewidth display with previous release (0.4b), but it is displayed with the version before, so I copied the config file from that folder over to the new one and tried again - with the exact same results.

I have not found the time to sit down and take a close look at the config files yet, but you can let me know if there's anything specific you want me to look for.

fordem · Senior Member

Much obliged - tomorrow looks like a bad day for this - going to be out of town for the first half of the day and then playing catch up for the remainder - but - it's Friday, so I should have the weekend to take a look at it.

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I'm releasing v0.4c. The fix for the temperature scaling is still outstanding but I'm planning to have a debugging session at the weekend. I think I've fixed the scaling problems on the graph functions and I've modified the MPG calculations so I'm putting it out for feedback.

If the graphing looks OK then I'll add the log to file function and then concentrate on ironing out all the bugs.

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I've finished writing the graphing code, hopefully I'll get to test it at the weekend (I need the daylight).
I braved the snow last night to try and do some temperature tests but it was impossible to get good temperature readings using the IR gun in the dark, I was getting between 30F and 110F depending on where abouts on the engine the gun was pointing! I have now found the linearisation tables for the ATS and WTS in the Baleno code so I can look at that one as well when I find the time.

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Wednesday 13th of January 2010 08:48:17 PM

fordem · Senior Member

I will be waiting - but not holding my breath biggrin

I myself have been busy elsewhere, and not yet gotten around to installing that pot in place of the CO resistor to determine the "swing" of the mixture control - maybe on the weekend.

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I finally got round to writing some code today. I've done a lot of work towards completing the software for the graphing function, hopefully I'll have a release of this either later this week or next week.
The Vit is once again covered in snow.

TechSupport · Guru

I had to spend a lot of time travelling around Europe before Christmas so this project has been shelved for a while. I managed to do a little more work on the Swift GTI and Baleno ECUs but haven't yet got into the temperature scaling.
It is now cold enough for me to get some really good results from my ECU so I'm going to try that one again. Unfortunately my emultor is broken so I can't use the map trace facility which is a pit but I'll try and get that fixed this week.

TechSupport · Guru

I've been a bit quiet on here lately so I thought I'd post a quick update. A guy in Greece has been developing a free Windows package to read and write to the Suzuki motorcycle ECUs with the 68HC16 processor. This is the same processor that is used in the Baleno and later Swift ECUs. I've been trying to help them with the disassembly of the bike ECU and in return the package is being modified to work with our HC16 ECUs.
The Baleno ECU is resisting attempts to read it but hopefully it will be cracked soon and I will update the Rhinoview software to include the Baleno definitions. I also hope that I will gain some more insight into the temperature scaling problems.

TechSupport · Guru

Version 4.0b is released with revised scaling on the temperture sensors.

fordem · Senior Member

Alright - I think I got it now - it's not the software that can't parse the config file, it's me

I shifted the rpm down one cell and got that working and entered the injector pulse width addresses - I haven't scoped it for verification but the values displayed match my notes for warm idle.

I also flipped the throttle angle & throttle raw entries, it kind of looks better, but maybe that's a personal preference - one thing I did note is that with the throttle closed it shows 0% but with the throttle floored it's at 190%, so that would need a 0.5 or similar scaling factor.

The temperature sensors will need some sort of scaling - but I don't think it'll be a linear correction, there's a little chart over in the ECU thread that I had done for the coolant temp that might help here.

I also noticed the mpg indicator shows 99 mpg with the vehicle stationary, dropping to 0 as soon as it starts to move.

TechSupport · Guru

VSS - The scaling factor is applied to the raw data which is in km/h, it is then converted to MPH in the software.
There should be an option to switch to km/h from the Options menu but this is not yet implemented.

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Maybe it will be easier to understand if I change the file format to that shown below.
The parser determines which map to use by searching the top line for a string that matches the ID, it stops searching when it reaches an empty cell or carriage return so as long as the first cells have some sort of string in them it shouldn't affect the operation of the parser.

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Monday 12th of October 2009 11:19:34 PM

TechSupport · Guru

Let me try and explain it again. In the screenshot below the addresses are bordered in green, the function number is bordered in red. In blue is the entry at address 29, under the column for 1902 it says (function) 8 which is the ATS so a 1902 ECU has the ATS at address 29.

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Monday 12th of October 2009 11:16:00 PM

fordem · Senior Member

Rhinoman

I find the document quite clear, and I think for the most part I'm in agreement with the addresses in your last post - however - if you compare these to the config file from the 0.4a archive, you should see the discrepancies.

The config file has

Address    Function     Function Number
                 RPM(H)                    4
4               RPM(L)                     5
5               VSS                          6
                 WTS                         7
13             TPS (Angle)              12
                 TPS (Raw)                13
7               MAF(H)                     10
12             MAF(L)                      11
                 ISC(DC)                    18
8               Battery Voltage        29
                 ATS                           8
                 Status                       31

What puzzles me here is that some of these functions appear to work, even though the address shown in the table is incorrect.

The battery voltage function in the config file is showing 8 when it needs to be 25, yet the battery voltage displayed is within reasonable expectation - a nominal 12V with the engine off and a nominal 14V with the engine running.

The speedometer function (VSS) in the config file is showing 5 when it needs to be 9, but the speedometer works and displays a speed matching the dashboard speedometer in miles per hour

I edited the configuration file and removed the VSS entries column, by column, saving the file, and quitting an restarting the application after each edit and with columns C,D,E,F,G & H empty, the speedometer still worked.

TechSupport · Guru

Lets compare notes, what I have for the 1902 ECU

Address        Function      Function Number
6                   RPM (H)                  4
7                   RPM(L)                    5
9                   VSS                         6
10                 WTS                        7
11                 TPS(Angle)              13
12                 TPS(Raw)                12
15                 MAF(H)                    10
16                 MAF(L)                    11
20                 ISC DC                    18
25                 Battery Volts           29
29                 ATS                         8
38                 Status                     31

RPMH and L are shifted up one cell in the config file. TPS (Angle) and TPS(Raw) may be reversed, I wasn't sure about those.
Battery voltage is at address 25 and is function 29.
WTS is at address 10 and is function 7.
ATS is at address 29 and is function 8.
Did you read the document that I posted? if it isn't clear then maybe you can suggest improvements, it is a little basic.
I can add whatever scaling factors are required.

fordem · Senior Member

Something is still not right, and I'm still thinking it's in the parsing of the config file, but I could be wrong.

Initial tests with the unedited file were very promising, but, on attempting to edit the file to get the tach functional, here's what I've noticed.

With the default v0.4a config file...

- the speedometer works, but, the config file shows an entry of 5 for the VSS, wheras my notes show it should be 9
- battery voltage works, but the config file shows an entry of 8 and my notes show 25
- both water & air temperature appear to work, albiet with incorrect scaling, but the config file has no entry in either field, my notes show 10 & 29 respectively.
- entering 6 & 7 for the high-byte & low-byte RPM fields to match my notes did not provide an rpm display, as it should.

What are your thoughts?

-- Edited by fordem on Monday 12th of October 2009 02:46:28 PM

fordem · Senior Member

I thought I'd post an early update biggrin

.

Looking at the config file yesterday I had noticed a couple of the entried under the 1902 column did not match my notes, but I opted not to change them before the first run.

Key on, engine off, unmodified config file.

Battery voltage looks good (indicated 12.01, actual 12.16), and I have numbers in both IAT & ECT showing 118*F & 111*F, respectively - the actual temp is not known but ambient is around 87*F so these numbers look high. Throttle display works but scaling is off.

Engine on, unmodified config file

Battery voltage has increased (indicated 14.21, actual 14.4) water temp rises as it should, eventually topping out at 178*F, tach does not work (this is one of the addresses that did not match, so I will fiddle there) and with the vehicle in motion, the speedometer indicates speed in miles.

So - at first glance - great progress, scaling is off in the throttle & temp areas - I don't know how much of a headache it would be, but perhaps the config file could be further modifed to permit scaling on all the sensors.

More after I edit the config file to match my notes.

biggrin

fordem · Senior Member

Thanks much, I will see how this works in the morning.

TechSupport · Guru

Rhinoview v0.4a

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Latest news

TechSupport · Guru

Just checked the code for the Speedo, thereis a problem there and it won't work.
It will be at least a couple of days before I can check it on a vehicle, I need to spray my new battery tray and remove half of one of the mounting bolts before I can get it running again.
Cheers
James

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Thursday 8th of October 2009 08:18:42 PM

TechSupport · Guru

Obviously not right then. I have now got a Baleno ECU running on the bench so I'll run some checks on that

fordem · Senior Member

With the engine running I get this - note there is no rpm indication, the water temperature is lower, we now have an O2 reading (even though the O2 field under 1902 in the config file is blank).

I have verified that the rpm fields are correct and that there is a scaling factor of 1.

With the vehicle in motion I have discovered that the water temperature decrements as the engine warms up, the air temperature displays the vehicle speed (in kmh divided by 2) and the O2 indicator seems to relate to injector pulse width - notably it drops to 0.00 and changes color to yellow with the vehicle on the over run.

I have entered the contents of the air temp field in to the VSS field of the config file in an attempt to get the speed to display "on the speedometer" and changed the VSS scaling to 2, saving the config file & restarting RV each time, but it has no effect, nothing changes.

fordem · Senior Member

I still think something's not right with the parsing of that config file.

Using only the contents of the 0.4 zip archive here's what I've seen.

Key-on, engine-off, start RV0.4, click connect, get, start.

Water temp & battery voltage are both high, air temp is zero, and I cannot vary the throttle indicator.

-- Edited by fordem on Thursday 8th of October 2009 04:26:31 PM

-- Edited by fordem on Thursday 8th of October 2009 04:38:57 PM

TechSupport · Guru

Please ensure that you have the latest config. file which is included with the v0.4 release. The question mark ahould not be there, there should be a number, a blank or "none". None will be used to tell the software not to poll that address. All constants must have a value so set to one if there is no scaling required, I suspect that you have null values which are multiplying the actual value with zero so your RPM is zeroed out.
The software will automatically load the correct table based on the ID read from the ECU. I haven't changed the manual select, I need to modify that so it reads the strings from the config file, I'll stick that on the list of jobs to be done.
"0000" will throw up a warning, ignore it, 0000 is the default table.
Cheers
James

fordem · Senior Member

Unfortunately the afternoon did not go as hoped - I did look very briefly at this - and it did not go well - I'm not certain that the config file is being correctly parsed.

First - should the software "auto-select" the correct parameters in the config file (so to speak, the correct column) based on the ECU ID that is returned when GET is clicked, or do I need to manually set this using the ECU ID?

What I have noticed is that the choices in ECU ID are limited to 1112, 1701 & 0000

if I select 1112 I get an error to the effect that ? is not a valid integer value (there is a ? in the VSS location of that column)

if I select 0000 I get a message that the ECU is not supported and default mapping will be used.

if I select 1701 - I would have expected the display to perhaps behave as it did for a 1701 setting in the 0.3 version, but it doesn't - for example 1701 in 0.3 reports the RPM with a x4 factor (3200rpm at an actual idle of 800), 1701 in 0.4 does not report RPM at all.

if I don't select anything - in effect leaving it at 1902 (assuming that is auto-selected when I press GET) - again RPM is not reported.

-- Edited by fordem on Thursday 8th of October 2009 04:06:24 AM

fordem · Senior Member

Much obliged - things are on the slow side today, so I should be able to fiddle with this directly after lunch.

TechSupport · Guru

Following my little crash I have now managed to restore the software, fortunately I backed it up a couple of days ago so it was a straightforward task. I haven't been able to test this on a vehicle so I've only done a very basic bench test. Let me know how you get on.

http://www.rhinopower.org/Rhinoview/Rhinoview.html

The new configuration file is Rhinoview.csv and is in the bin folder. This new format will allow me to mask off any unused addresses, this will lead to much faster polling rates in future releases.
The MPG display, shows instantaneous mpg in imperial gallons only, this will be changed in a later release to allow selection of US gallons and l/km . The displayed value can be adjusted to make allowances for different injector flow rates and pressures by altering the injector flow rate constant in the config file.

-- Edited by Rhinoman on Wednesday 7th of October 2009 04:03:02 PM

fordem · Senior Member

I'm looking forward to it smile

Once I have this GV in some semblance of functionality, I plan to tackle my brother-in-law's H20A engined V6 Vitara, if he'll let me.

Like mine it has no cats and no O2 sensors.

TechSupport · Guru

I'm currently working to restore the software following a crash. Hopefully v0.4 will still be released this week, this version will read the ECU addressing and scaling factors from the configuration file.

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Rhinoview v0.3

fordem · Senior Member

RE: Latest news

TechSupport · Guru

Rhinoview 0.2