Mailing List flyrotary@lancaironline.net Message #64304
From: Todd Bartrim bartrim@gmail.com <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] ECU - Megasquirt geared towards planes
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2018 00:05:30 -0700
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Matt;
  This is quite impressive. Please keep the list updated as this proceeds.

Todd

Todd Bartrim

On Mon, Sep 17, 2018 at 8:56 PM, Matt Boiteau mattboiteau@gmail.com <flyrotary@lancaironline.net> wrote:
Over the years of building my plane (still ongoing), I’ve been designing a megasquirt ECU board geared towards us in aviation. I only did this as a hobby, but a few people have inquired about it going forwards.
For all intents and purpose, it’s still a factory built Megasquirt board with all the standard bells and whistles. Which is a lot btw! But I’ve expanded the base it plugs into, to allow for greater possibilities and improvements.

-2x power inputs, like most EFIS’s have. Main and backup always on
-Controls main fuel pump, and backup fuel pump when fuel pressure drops
-Baro pressure sensor (changing in altitude will self adjust fuel)
-2x MAP pressure sensors (only 1 drives the calculations, the other is just nice to know what the other rotor is doing)
-Check engine & battery light
-Switch between fuel tables (mogas vs 100ll)
-Controls two servo motors. I’m thinking of having louvers outlets for oil and coolant that can open and close to regulate temperature.
-CAN bus out, for future interfaces
-4x EGTs 
-8x temperate inputs (ex, Manifold, intake, oil pan, oil cooler, coolant in, coolant out, fuel rail, psru)
-Flex fuel sensor that gives you ethanol % (along with another fuel temp)
-2x knock sensors
-Coolant, Fuel and Oil pressures
-Controls RX8 alternator (PWM style, no regulators to mess with)
-Push button start / stop engine (Can even remotely start engine, for those cold mornings! Jk! (but not really))
-Wideband sensor for tuning
-4x Low/High sensors (ex, low coolant, oil, fuel)
-Serial out to interface data to display on GRT EFIS. I don’t know if Dynon / MGL are open source like GRT is. I’m willing to try if people send me their EFIS to test with.
-Bluetooth to interface with tablet / laptop to tune the engine

I’m missing a bunch of things, but this is just off the top of my head. Realistically, I have the hardware built and I’ve run my RX8 engine a bunch of times on the ground. Plane won’t be flying until spring time (I hope), so there is a ton of bugs to work out. Plus, I’d want to fly with it for awhile, before I’d even dare to let someone else.

The two biggest questions I get is, why is there only 1 ECU and where is my fuel mixture knob. With the right protection of circuits and power supplies, barely rarely does the actual ECU fail. I’m confident with just 1. And I still haven’t been convinced of a mixture knob. Let the ECU talk with the wideband & baro and do the work for you.

Here's a video of it running.


- Matt Boiteau

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