Katana

Hehe, he sends stuff away as soon as he could. Wait a sec, what clear indicator group buy?

Tone Loc

iTrader: (1)

Katana YHM .

Probably get it in a weeks time tho, works e-mails seem to take for ever to be delivered!

Tony.

Katana

When I ordered my brake pads and MBC, it literally came the next day. But dueto my extreme laziness, the pads are still in the garage as is my cam belts.

Pavlo

<RAMBLE>
Might I suggest, that if you are getting hung up about grounding, that running a fairly chunky grounding wire direct from the battery -ve (negative) to the ECU ground.

It is entirely possible for the grounds to vary if there is a hint of resistance between them. And as soon as any current flows, it will flow around the whole circuit, ground and +ve line. In our case this will be the chassis, and any power feeds.

So when you put you lights on current will flow through the chassis, and the resistance will cause a voltage chage, one that will not be as noticeable at the battery terminal, (it will exist to an extent due to internal resistance in battery).

It is a common practice to use dedicated sensing lines when measuering voltage, in other words, you connect a seperate pair of wires direct to the source, and since voltage sensing equipment is high impedance (very low current draw) the high currents and resistances in the supply lines to the "thing" will not affect the voltage readings.

Eg, measure voltage at battery, measure voltage at alternator, there will be a little difference. So you would connect sensing probes direct to the alternator if you wanted to accurately measure *its* voltage.

Ground fluctuations would probably be more prevalent in older cars due to the affects of corrosion and oxidisation build up in joints in the body and wiring.
</RAMBLE>

Cheers

Paul

paulwadams_my99

right theres a pic of the install its a bit blurry but you get the idea. Just need to make sure its working . I was having a chat with T-UK and IanW last night and they suggested that my Lambda sensor may be failing? I need a select monitor run i think to tally up my afr readings. One thing though that was mentioned was the fact that my car idles quite low I reckon is about 500-550rpm. It always has though and doesn't feel lumpy so never thought about it. I am now lead to believe that this may be too low? Is it the Mafs job or the lambda to control idle, both or another sensor? Or am i barking up the wrong tree?

Cheers

Paul

[Edited by paulwadams_my99 - 3/7/2002 10:07:19 PM]

paulwadams_my99

I am half tempted to just buy a new lambda sensor from halfords and see if it makes a differnce. If it doesn't i'll just keep a spare. I wonder what the average shelf life is for one? Does anyone think i would have to remove the intercooler to fit? There isn't much room for a spanner.

The reason I think something is up is because on first WOT its 4th light then generally 3rd on WOT then sometimes 2nd on WOT, its just so inconsistent.

Cheers

Paul

[Edited by paulwadams_my99 - 3/7/2002 10:19:44 PM]

paulwadams_my99

Will it drain the power if there is no signal?

And fitted the dawes v impressive!

[Edited by paulwadams_my99 - 3/9/2002 10:28:25 PM]

john banks

y prob will be tiny though - measure it.

[Edited by john banks - 3/9/2002 10:36:14 PM]

catflap

hay paul, just fitted my afr, im geting same problam as you.

So ill rewore t as you have indicated above to see if its better.

You fused the live, dasft question, what fuse did you use?

Cheers

Are the lights suposed to stay lit all the time? as mine simply flash red every once n a while?

I also get a lot of red flashes driving around town (between 2000 and 3000 rpm, on the spool up?)

HELLLPPP !!!!!!


[Edited by catflap - 3/10/2002 3:24:04 PM]

paulwadams_my99

Otis, it sounds like you have got the wrong signal wire from the ecu. You wired it into the blue plug? Third wire from end middle row, its white with some silver dabs down it. It shouldn't stay on all the time. Little flickers at cruise and fully on on WOT.

I used a 2amp fuse for the live. Better than the 20amp one or whatever it is on the cigarette lighter. If you do wire to the live then u might aswell put a switch in whilst you do it for the reasons T-uk stated just in case you are going to leave the car for a long period. At least you know you have a true clean circuit. I think Dawes says you can pick up the live from anywhere but hes very insistent that you earth at battery.

cheers Paul

[Edited by paulwadams_my99 - 3/10/2002 6:45:44 PM]

paulwadams_my99

John,

the closer you are to the battery on both the earth and the live the less varaition in demand u will see. I agree with what u r saying dont get me wrong and this will work perfectly if u are always presented with a good earth. If anything affects the lamda earth then both the eliments will work incorrectly. By going to the battery u will always know that your equipment is measuring correctly. By connecting to the lambda eart u are adding more power loss at that point,I squared r, going to the battery eliminates any downgrading performance at the lambda eath. In theroy to the ecu ground is fine providing the earth connection has zero resistance. Over a period of time this may degrade. Do u see what i am saying. I am not arguing for the sake of arguing. But therotically its best always to go back to the battery. If it was practical to do so manafactures would take all electrical earths to the battery but its not. Then people wouldnt get dodgy lights etc due to bad earths.

Cheers

Paul.

P.S. i have been doing my research and also have an electrical engineer friend


[Edited by paulwadams_my99 - 3/10/2002 9:31:41 PM]

john banks

I am not arguing as well trying to understand the technicalities, especially of a circuit which is virtually identical to the one I designed. I want to know WHY I am wrong, otherwise I won't be convinced.

For every sensor I want to read I want to know what that sensor is doing relative to its earth, so for analogue ground I will use sensor earth wherever possible, not another earth which may have an offset. The measuring device to measure a proportional difference should also use the same earth. But I can see what you mean about degrading an earth further by using it as a supply.

Are you forgetting that the LM3914N has an integrated precision reference which means that within a very broad range of supply voltages (including fluctuations) it will read correctly? Hence I really want to know what the sensor is producing, not the sensor +- any offsets in its ground compared with the battery. I care not what the ground is relative to battery ground, all I want to know is what that sensor is doing relative to its own ground. If that ground moves then fine. The signal will still be relative to its own ground.

Am I missing something?

Oh, BTW, nothing more I like than arguing with engineers I learn more that way, sometimes I am right, sometimes they are.

In principle if the sensor could be grounded at the battery that would be very nice, but since it isn't I want the sensor ground?

If there is a 5mV (variable) offset between the sensor ground and the battery ground because of resistance, then the signal I read from my circuit will also be affected by this offset. The only way to remove this is to read from the sensor ground. Engineer or not this is pure logic?

[Edited by john banks - 3/10/2002 9:46:37 PM]