RS232 Output to Datalogger?

kmrobinson · Post by **kmrobinson** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:01 am

Hi, I'm currently trying to decide whether μSquirt is appropriate for a Formula SAE project and the only hitch I've found is the RS232 apparently doesn't play nice with dataloggers. Has anyone tried to hook up μSquirt to a datalogger via the serial connection?

Thanks in advance!

Post by **Bruce Bowling** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:07 am

kmrobinson wrote:Hi, I'm currently trying to decide whether μSquirt is appropriate for a Formula SAE project and the only hitch I've found is the RS232 apparently doesn't play nice with dataloggers. Has anyone tried to hook up μSquirt to a datalogger via the serial connection?

Thanks in advance!

The serial connection is the same as used in MS, so if the datalogger works for MS it should work for the datalogger.

Is this a noise issue, a protocol issue, a wiring issue, etc?

- Bruce

kmrobinson · Post by **kmrobinson** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:23 am

Well, right now it's just conceptual design. Our team has a Race-Technology DL-2 unit which takes RS232 RX/TX signals from some types of ECU (MoTeC M4, etc) but doesn't have a standard 9-pin serial port. So plugging directly in to the datalogger isn't going to happen, but that's fine.

I guess my question is if the serial output from the μSquirt is similar to that of the M4. That way, it'd be easier to connect to. If not, I don't think it'd be a deal-breaker, since we can probably figure out some way to twin signals.

This is the data sheet on the particular device in question

We're hoping to use μSquirt because it offers all the features of the MoTeC units but at a fraction of the cost.

Bill Shurvinton · Post by **Bill Shurvinton** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:55 pm

Your problem is that most dataloggers, including the race technology one expect a continuous datastream where as MS only outputs when requested.

It would not be hard to mod the code so that you have a logger mode, but at the moment it won't work.

Bill

kmrobinson · Post by **kmrobinson** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:20 pm

If that's the case, we'll take a look at the code. We're all mechanical engineers but we can probably get a computer science-y type to take a look and see what it would take.

That would be the best solution, since having to signal twin wouldn't be the best solution (Which unit's +5Vref do you use? MS or DL-2? Noise? etc.)

Hopefully we can get that to work, it'd give a wealth of information we can use to make vehicle tuning decisions. Just using the basic feedback from the DL-2 gives a ton of information about suspension setup, and as we have it currently envisioned, we'd take even more data and tie it into engine performance. Probably, there wouldn't be anything, but we've noticed that vehicle dynamics and engine performance can be a closely coupled system. Having the data from both systems synchonized would make tuning (troubleshooting) much easier.

kmrobinson · Post by **kmrobinson** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:34 pm

Does uS output to CAN continuously? We might be able communicate with the datalogger via that method if possible.

We're planning on getting it (Aprilia SXV 550) running by the end of December.

Post by **Bruce Bowling** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:44 pm

kmrobinson wrote:Does uS output to CAN continuously? We might be able communicate with the datalogger via that method if possible.

We're planning on getting it (Aprilia SXV 550) running by the end of December.

The CAN comms are triggered by a request CAN packet. If you send this over you can retrieve CAN messages.

- Bruce

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RS232 Output to Datalogger?

RS232 Output to Datalogger?

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