Tickover - gone, then fixed itself

More fine weather, warm too - so took the Zero into work;

The M25 was horrible this evening, 30+ minute crawling along, then the odd thing & reason for this post; I lost tickover - the car was running fine just stopped when I took my foot of the gas.

I stuck with it back to Maidstone, and once in town tickover was  back - must have fixed itself...

                                     SAM
                         I mean it fixed itself.

                                     SPOOR
                         Fixed itself.

                                     DOWSER
                         ... ixed itself.

                                     SPOOR
                         Machines don't fix themselves.

                                     DOWSER
                         ... fix themselves.

                                     SPOOR
                         He's tampered with it, Dowser.

(c) BRAZIL  (Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard & Charles McKeown)

hmmm...

I don't think it was fuel - that should have made running lumpy, nothing got particularly hot, perhaps a bad connection to the IACV?

The headlights were on, and volts a little low, I guess due to the load + tickover - possibly lose alternator belt?

Something to mull over

Update 26/9/13 - I caused the same effect today, clear run 80+ miles round trip, then sitting in traffic had the main beam lights on - switched on the heater fan, volts dropped to 12.2v and tick-over went lumpy.

Update 17/2/14 - Has not re-occured, tick over is rock solid. Battery has been fully charged (if it was that), IACV 12v feed now taken from a different source (if it was that). nothing conclusive.

Half hood - less than perfect

No more stalling, time to actually cut some cloth and at least have a go, First up a mock up with an old sheet which let me think through some decisions around the sides & provides a rough pattern for cutting the roof fabric:

I decided to velcro the roof to the supporting straps, hopefully this will give me some flexibility on fit:

Wrinkly!  Probably the wrong tension on the sewing machine.

The sag in the middle is ok, this is just sitting on the velcro straps with no attachment at the back & no
tension in the roof itself:

The windscreen is the most complex part, and partly a problem of my own doing since I dont want a line of poppers around the front edge. The webbing is stitched into the front hem which locates the hooks and 2mm aluminium bar  - the whole thing is meant to give the front edge stability and stop it lifting in wind - not there yet though its still very flexible at the moment:

I'm using 2mm round aluminium bar along the front edge - it might work better with a 10mm flat bar sitting flush on the top or front of the windscreen surround...

Not sure yet - the result isn't great - still good enough to keep going but this might be the first try which is a learning exercise for doing it properly a second time.

Half hood - small steps

A little work on the half hood, theres no real plan here;

First up some 40mm webbing straps that will run from the windscreen to the back panel, lift the dot fasteners rather than poppers give a rock solid fastening. At the back these straps sit under the lip of the boot cover so nothing is visible: 

I created a couple more of the 'hooks' - these clip on to the catches on the back of the windscreen and dive over the top to hold the front edge of the hood in place:

All fine so far - the basic hood structure looks fine. Once the roof panel is in place there will be extra lateral webbing too holding the sides near the wheel arch on the back. I have the central fixing point on the windscreen too - it may just have a hook assembly to stop the middle lifting under air pressure.

...and another couple of lift the dot fasteners on the windscreen pillars at the front will provide tension around the leading edge:

I have mocked up the front section of hood to practice my stiching. There is an aluminium rod running along this front edge to give it shape & the plan is the hooks above will sit in the front seam and give everything structure:

Needs some thought before I do any more - to think through:

1. Front seam assembly so I get a neat visible seam on the outside, hold the shaping aluminium bar inside the seam and provide pockets for the webbing hooks underneath.

2. Hood panels themselves, the mock up windscreen part emphasises this is a 3D rather than flat shape - I need to decide whether I'm going for a single panel or the multiple panels as per the paper model. More panels in theory will allow the correct shape, on the other hand its also more complex so will highlight poor tailoring skills.

3. Hood panel fixing to the webbing structure - sew directly or loops & velcro so it can be adjusted/tensioned independently.


This feels like the sort of job that needs doing twice - i.e. first go to get 80% of the way there, and then re-do the whole thing to get a half decent result.

Designed and Built in Britain

This really is just vanity - a couple of enamelled Union Flags to show her origins:

Immobiliser

Everything back together for a test  - the circuit I have been adding was a simple immobiliser which cuts some circuits unless another electronic key is used to disable it. It is auto arming, as soon as the ignition is turned off it arms itself and has the ubiquitous flashing led to show its presence:

The intention is to guard against simple hot wiring of the ignition. If someone starts to take the bonnet off or get in the back of the fusebox (good luck with that rats nest), or simply tow the car then all bets are off.

Hopefully though it will stop a passing opportunist joyride attempt and give me a little more protection than the stock Ford ignition key barrel.

I'm not posting installation details for obvious reasons.

Fuse and Relay identification

Back from summer holidays;

Theres no circuit diagram, even for the stock GBS Zero loom, that I know of - so to add my couple of circuits & while the fuse box was disassembled I took some time to trace out fuse and relay functions. The relay functions were cribbed from a picture on DC Tough's pictures then confirmed with circuit testing:

My fuse box is mounted upside down with fuses on top, so flip this if using it on the standard layout. The lighting circuits are not of interest so I didn't fully trace everything.

Top 3 rows of fuses are permanent live feed, the bottom row controlled by the Aux relay. All 4 left hand columns are fed by a bus bar so is straightforward to use some of the spare slots.

This is the ECU power arrangement, pin 11 is driven directly from the ignition switch, pin 28 via the ECU relay which in itself is also controlled by the ECU from Pin 4:

Touch wood everything will still work when I put it back together!

Upadate - Some re-identification and extra circuits added later.

Fuse box - adding circuits - found the part numbers

I decided to take the dash off once more to:

1. remove/replace the wiper motor cir-clip which I weakened when switching the park position (twice :)
2. Add a couple of circuits for my speedo project and engine immobiliser

For the second of these I really wanted to add the circuits into the existing GBS Loom fusebox rather than inline fuses. There are plenty of spare sockets with live feeds from the bus bar, they just need fuses and the right sort of spade socket on the other side of the fuse to take the live line.

This is my fusebox - mounted upside down vs. normal builds due to my slightly different wiring route under my heater. In the fuse area you can see plenty of spare slots many already with 12v feeds on the right hand side of each fuse socket:

Its stumped me for months finding the right part (even consulting GBS didn't turn up a clue)  - but just as I was deciding to jury rig a normal spade connector I chanced upon a picture of the box on someones unrelated forum from a circa 2010 entry, he had a screen shot of the catalogue page...

The GBS stock fusebox is a Delphi part a 'modular fusebox' on/around page 7.2 of the Catalogue

I need to double check but it looks like:

   Fusebox is part #12191544 on page 7.8

   Fuse cover is part #15324032 on page 7.8 

   Pins are part  #12160636 on page 7.4 15mm centreline

Result!

Update - Ordered from Mouser (I couldn't find the part anywhere else), + a locking bar and fuse cover, just to mitigate their high shipping costs.

Update - Order arrived, I can confirm the above part numbers are correct.

Bonnet vents

Miles on the clock

My round trip to work is 84 miles, so over the last couple of weeks taking in the Zero now and again plus some spins out with colleagues at lunchtime has helped push the total milage past 1000 miles.

Good testing - need to keep an eye on the limited milage insurance though...

Everything has been fine, even in the summer heat & stop start of the M25; engine seems happy and the cooling system is just about able to hold the temperature when in standing traffic. The one big notice though is the engine heat has nowhere to go except finding holes in the pedal box into the footwells and down through the transmission tunnel to slowly cook the driver.

Vents

I'm fitting some bonnet vents to try and give the hot air an escape route and hopefully make things a little more comfortable when driving. I mocked up some options:

Eventually deciding on the last option: two or three small discrete vents on the trailing edge to also have mesh behind when I find the right product.

The sheet metal punch ordered and arrived from Ebay, it winds up with an allen key & punches through the stainless as if it was paper. First up a test on the bonnet cutout to check/confirm which way produces   a clean cut & that I'll end up with a half decent job. 20mm punched holes joined to make the slots:

Then on to marking up the offside. The slots are 20mm high with 10mm spacing. 

Drilling pattern is 4mm pilot holes, widened to 10mm then followed by the punch itself:

Holes all set:

Joined the dots with the Dremel cutting disc & then tidied & de-burred  with one of the Dremel stone wheels & sanding drum. Looks pretty much as expected, this has just been wiped with WD40 to take off the masking tape glue - it will get a proper clean when back on the car:

Both sides done & bonnet back on - all set pending some grille arriving to sit behind the holes. They're not right at the top so won't directly let the hottest air out but might setup a flow under the bonnet from the radiator and at least start moving air through:

Update - I've been out a couple of times in similar heat - nothing definitive, the holes make a some difference - nothing dramatic - good job they look good! I think the next step will be wrapping the exhaust under the bonnet and/or even a vent in the top of the nose just behind the radiator.

Debugging the digital speedo

Its Sunny !

The British summer turned up and the weather has been good for driving, so while there are over 800 miles on the clock now I've made no progress on the roof. 

Reminds me of an old cartoon in my favourite childhood book: Story Book Dictionary -now- Best Picture Dictionary Ever  by Richard Scarry. 

One of the Busy Town animals has a large hole in his roof:

Wow - just thought - theres my '80/20' rule or 'Good enough' lifestyle choice right there - learnt probably before I was 5 years old ha!

Digital Speedo Circuit Design

The circuit itself is cribbed from a number of forums existing projects etc & I found some great online tools for checking & drawing circuits:

  Circuit Lab allows full simulation over time & 30 day free trial

  Digikey Scheme It allows diagramming for free\

My current circuit intention is something like this:

S1,S2 - Front panel momentary select & reset buttons

R1,R2 - 5k6 pull-ups for the I2C bus

R3,R4 - 10k pull-downs on the switch inputs

R5,R6 - 200R current limiting on the 12v sensor inputs

D1,D2 - 5.1V voltage limiting Zener Diodes on the 12v sensor inputs

Mocked up currently looking like this:

+5v will be via a solid state regulator to drop me down from the car's 12v line

Inputs are 12v current and voltage protected with resistors & Zener diodes.

The illumination input will be to turn the brightness down rather than up - i.e. when instrument illumination is on its dark outside so I want to avoid glare from the LED display; not yet even mocked up.

The display is from ByVac and accepts an I2C/Serial input so I don't need a rats nest of wires/pull-ups to multiplex the 4x digits or continuously refresh it. In theory I2C bus can support multiple devices on its two wires so I could upgrade to a small LCD, Multiline or any I2C output device.

How long does debugging take...

Its been a while since I coded anything, its pretty good fun though;

I think I read somewhere (I could have the numbers completely wrong) you can write about 4 lines of bug free code a day - not through slow typing, just because debugging takes time. Arduino tools are pretty basic too, the debug cycle is to embed print statements in the code, download, run, monitor the serial output - no single stepping :/

Some progress though - the project has expanded & I now have basic menu code working for functions with two input buttons: select & reset. The functionality will be:

• Speed - to 10ths of MPH
• Selectable speed warnings at 30, 50 & 70 mph
• Trip 1 & 2 - to 100ths & 10ths of a mile respectively
• 0-60 timer - starts when the car starts moving or red button pushed
• 1/4 mile timer - starts when the car starts moving or red button pushed
• Calibration - on the fly tweak speed up/down & entry of pulses per mile - could even drive this via the USB/Serial input i.e. console base calibration.
• Sense instrument illumination to adjust brightness

I'm trying to tidy up the timing code for measuring speed based on the time between bolts passing the speedo sensor but its been hit & miss without a proper function generator to test it. I have this rudimentary pulse generating code creating an output on one pin which I feed back into the sensor pin - hence that flying wire on the picture above taking the output back to the sensor input.

Unfortunately - up to a point - I am a perfectionist with code, keep tinkering, re-arranging, checking until it both works and looks pretty.


Update - the digital speedo is on hold until the dash next comes off and I add circuits - which wont be while the weather is so good!

Hood fittings

Just a little progress, some practice with the fabric I picked up; 1000D PU Cordura & M75 thread.

The seam of choice would appear to be a 'flat felled seam' same as on jeans etc & my practice runs came out ok. This shows the detail on the fabric; matt Cordura finish on the good side with a waterproofing coating on the back:

I made my life a little difficult by not wanting poppers on the front edge of the screen - the leading edge of the hood will have a 4mm ali rod through it and held in place at three points by smaller brackets. The progress today was to work through the design of the bracket to hood fixing; with a couple of mockups and final paper pattern:

These pockets will sit just under the hem (upside down in this picture) which has the leading edge ali rod & stop it riding up:

Still not quite decided if I need a separate cut for the windscreen surround or try and make it out of a single piece,  no rush, just solve it one piece at a time.

Using contrasting thread might come back to bite me, but its got to be worth a go; provided I'm reasonably neat with the sewing it will look great.

Update - the half hood is on hold until the weather gets worse - too busy driving the car at the moment!