Ryan's Truck

[Gary Lewis]

Great details Paul!

Agreed, thanks for sharing! I think James said that he had a source for the engine mounts, so while they may still be homemade brackets, they won't be made in his home.

Speaking of my brother, I had him pull the TPS from the diesel and drop it off with me yesterday - he lives about 50 miles from here, but his work takes him by my house on Wednesdays. I've never thought about a TPS before, but it's just a simple potentiometer which makes it super easy to connect to an Arduino. Even better, that means it can be completely powered by the Arduino so we don't have to figure out how to connect it to the vehicle electrical system.

That's one pin on the TPS to ground, one to +5V, and the third to an analog pin to read the resulting voltage when the pot is twisted with a screwdriver. The relay board to the right of the Arduino is what we'll likely use to switch vehicle power to the torque converter lockup and to the overdrive module.

The code (so far) is very easy, it's just reading the TPS voltage on the A0 analog pin, scaling it to a 0% - 100% range, and then printing the resulting value. This is just test code to prove I can read the TPS, but something very close will find its way into the final software.

That's cool, Matthew! The Arduino makes things like that simple. :nabble_smiley_good:I'm actually looking forward to working on my Arduino project. I haven't even selected the Arduino much less the daughter board, which has to be able to sink 1 amp as I'm going to use PWM to drive the fuel gauge.So if you have suggestions on hardware, please let me know.

[Dorsai]

That's cool, Matthew! The Arduino makes things like that simple.

I'm actually looking forward to working on my Arduino project. I haven't even selected the Arduino much less the daughter board, which has to be able to sink 1 amp as I'm going to use PWM to drive the fuel gauge.

So if you have suggestions on hardware, please let me know.

I'll be happy to share anything I learn, but I suspect that won't be much - we're going with an Uno because that's what I have laying around, and we chose the Sunfounder relay module because it claims it can handle the load and is CHEAP. Now...if either of those turn out to be poor decisions you will be the first to know.

[Gary Lewis]

I'll be happy to share anything I learn, but I suspect that won't be much - we're going with an Uno because that's what I have laying around, and we chose the Sunfounder relay module because it claims it can handle the load and is CHEAP. Now...if either of those turn out to be poor decisions you will be the first to know.

Matthew - The Uno is what I've been thinking of using. But I've not found an output transistor shield/board that I like yet., although I've not looked in quite a while. Anyway, if you run across one please let me know. And, good luck!

[Dorsai]

Matthew - The Uno is what I've been thinking of using. But I've not found an output transistor shield/board that I like yet., although I've not looked in quite a while. Anyway, if you run across one please let me know. And, good luck!

Will do!

[Dorsai]

Will do!

Nothing big to report as far as progress goes, just some minor updates:

• Well, this is big - the fine folks at Diesel Conversion Specialists, in light of the broader situation around this truck, have donated about $2K in conversion parts. These are some seriously good people, and are going to help this project go a LOT more smoothly.
• Given the uncertainties around integrating the available (probably 12v) vehicle speed sensor with a 5v Arduino, we've decided to instead use a pressure transducer to monitor line pressure inside the transmission, which supposedly varies somewhat linearly with vehicle speed. Assuming the Arduino can power both this as well as the TPS, we won't have to integrate with the vehicle electrical system at all aside from the power connection to the Arduino.

The transducer is on order from Amazon and should be here this week, hopefully over the weekend I can start writing the code to read it.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Nothing big to report as far as progress goes, just some minor updates:

• Well, this is big - the fine folks at Diesel Conversion Specialists, in light of the broader situation around this truck, have donated about $2K in conversion parts. These are some seriously good people, and are going to help this project go a LOT more smoothly.
• Given the uncertainties around integrating the available (probably 12v) vehicle speed sensor with a 5v Arduino, we've decided to instead use a pressure transducer to monitor line pressure inside the transmission, which supposedly varies somewhat linearly with vehicle speed. Assuming the Arduino can power both this as well as the TPS, we won't have to integrate with the vehicle electrical system at all aside from the power connection to the Arduino.

The transducer is on order from Amazon and should be here this week, hopefully over the weekend I can start writing the code to read it.

What rear axle or VSS is in a '95 250?I was under the impression it just created a pulse by sweeping a magnet past a pickup, like a distributor.At least I know that's how my RABS works....

[Dorsai]

What rear axle or VSS is in a '95 250?

I was under the impression it just created a pulse by sweeping a magnet past a pickup, like a distributor.

At least I know that's how my RABS works....

We didn't get into huge detail, but my understanding of the VSS that's in the truck now is that it provides a variable voltage signal depending on speed - very different than the more common pulse one that you describe. I don't know how that voltage is generated or anything, but it sounded like more trouble than it is worth, especially when getting a pressure signal from the transmission is so easy.

[ArdWrknTrk]

What rear axle or VSS is in a '95 250?

I was under the impression it just created a pulse by sweeping a magnet past a pickup, like a distributor.

At least I know that's how my RABS works....

We didn't get into huge detail, but my understanding of the VSS that's in the truck now is that it provides a variable voltage signal depending on speed - very different than the more common pulse one that you describe. I don't know how that voltage is generated or anything, but it sounded like more trouble than it is worth, especially when getting a pressure signal from the transmission is so easy.

That's interesting Matthew.

I'll have to look into it.

For now you have an apparently more workable approach.

I'll be interested to see how you integrate it into your shift mechanism.

[Dorsai]

That's interesting Matthew.I'll have to look into it.For now you have an apparently more workable approach.I'll be interested to see how you integrate it into your shift mechanism.

Been thinking a bit about the operational environment of the Arduino, and those delicate pins and plugs that it has. I got to wondering if there was something more heavy duty out there and, sure enough, there is.

Behold...the Ruggeduino-ET ST!

Some nice features it has:

 

• Operational temperature range of -40C to +85C
• Input voltage can be as high as 30VDC, as opposed to 12VDC for the standard Arduino
• Screw terminals for everything instead of pins

I'll need to do a little more research before committing to this, but it sure looks like the way to go. I thought others considering Arduino projects might be interested in this (or any of the other ruggedized Arduinos they offer) as well.

[Gary Lewis]

Been thinking a bit about the operational environment of the Arduino, and those delicate pins and plugs that it has. I got to wondering if there was something more heavy duty out there and, sure enough, there is.

Behold...the Ruggeduino-ET ST!

Some nice features it has:

 

• Operational temperature range of -40C to +85C
• Input voltage can be as high as 30VDC, as opposed to 12VDC for the standard Arduino
• Screw terminals for everything instead of pins

I'll need to do a little more research before committing to this, but it sure looks like the way to go. I thought others considering Arduino projects might be interested in this (or any of the other ruggedized Arduinos they offer) as well.

That's a great find! That is a much better solution that trying to interface vehicle wires to little bitty connections. :nabble_smiley_good:If you run across one of those, or something like it, that has the ability inherently of sinking 500 ma, meaning w/o a shield, please let me know. But I'm sure I'll need a shield to do that.Fortunately they say the Ruggeduino-ET ST "Screw Terminal" "Works with the Arduino GUI and is compatible with Arduino shields and libraries." So a MOSFET shield should do the trick.