Ecotrons Engine Management

[speedpro]

#6 FZR125/2 running with the Ecotron EFI. First run after setting the engine capacity to 125cc from 62.5cc and reverting to default VE and TPS maps. Only made one change to the warmup table and changed one small block on the VE table to reduce the fuel being injected. It was really obvious there was way more fuel being injected with the new engine capacity as the injector pulse widths were up. Plenty to do but very encouraging.

http://youtu.be/x0quPqr3wkE

[speedpro]

More time on the dyno and a very important reminder of how the tables work. The dyno does not record engine rpm so I wanted to match 10,000rpm to a particular speed. To do this I set the TPS/RPM table value at 10,000rpm and 32% throttle to about 1/2 what seemed a good value, as tested. The next run should have seen it fall flat on it's face at 10,000rpm. What actually happened was not much. It ran through the load cell as if nothing happened. I then set the values at 10,000rpm for the TPS settings above and below 32% to the same value and did the run again. This time it ran into a wall at 10,000rpm.

This was a good reminder that the software does not read the value "only" at the highlighted cell but blends the values in the cells around to determine the correct fuel requirement. It was interesting to see the fuel pulse width slowly decrease as the load cell with the seriously reduced value was approached.

So all the effort so far has just been tossed. That is because I have only been altering the one row for 32% throttle. The rows above and below are markedly different. I copied the values from the 32% row to the rows above and below and the engine would not run at 32% throttle. I have to think of a new tuning strategy. I'm thinking of concentrating on a particular cell, say 32% TPS at 10,000rpm, and altering all adjacent cells to the exact same value initially and testing until I have the optimum value then picking another cell and so on. Once I have a few cells mapped I can blend the intermediate cells after which it would need to be done again. It's going to be a mission.

[TZ350]

Very interesting, thanks. The Ecotrons system looks to be quite technically proficient.

[speedpro]

As per the #6 thread I have fitted a Wideband(WB) O2 sensor. This is a Link Electrosystems standalone system that indicates mixture on a LED scale. Previously I had done a few dyno runs at small throttle settings and determined that I needed to reduce fuel at those low settings. This time when first fired up from cold it was quite lean and difficult to start and keep running, due to the base VE map fuel having been reduced which meant the "warmup" table multiplication factor had to be increased. I did that and the motor immediately settled down. Once warmed up I just held the throttle at small settings and adjusted the table to get a good indication. I spent about an hour doing this and finally ran it up in 6th gear on the dyno, but still at small throttle openings so it took longer to progress through the VE table load cells. I kept making adjustments making sure I blended in adjacent cell values. The end result is that it is pretty sweet up to about 12,000rpm and up to about 20% throttle. Any values I've adjusted in the VE table have all been reduced from the default so before further testing I will reduce the remaining values a similar amount. A couple of times I ran it further up the scales it blubbered and I got a rich indication on the O2 sensor.

One thing that became obvious last time on the dyno and which was also causing grief in this session is that if the ignition timing retards for any reason with very small throttle openings then the mixture indication goes rich. This is probably due to poor combustion with ignition sometimes being ATDC and therefore reduced swirl, and therefore flame propagation, resulting in higher emissions. If you don't notice the timing retarding it makes tuning difficult. I will look to stop that for future sessions.

The WB sensor is a must I would say if you are fitting one of these systems. Ideally you would record the WB output with the Ecotrons software so you could play it back and make adjustments. So far though it looks entirely doable without recording the output.

[speedpro]

I've been running the bike on the dyno and monitoring mixtures with a Link WB O2 sensor. I've been making adjustments to the VE table for the small throttle settings at lower revs, up to about 10,000rpm. It was coming along nicely with the motor reacting to throttle movement very nicely at any revs and the Lambda indicator fluctuating back and forth but in a good range. This afternoon I decided to try tuning at the 32% throttle position where it transitions to the TPS table over 4000rpm. The motor was revving out OK but the Lambda indicator was out of range and it wasn't obvious in which direction. Because of that I decided to install the Ecotron NarrowBand(NB) Lambda sensor as that would give an indication on the gauge on screen which direction the fuel was in, rich or lean. This worked WAY better than expected. The gauge indicator transitioned back and forth as expected but even though it is a NB sensor and not supposed to be progressive it clearly is. Small adjustments resulted in small changes to the indication so I could see when adjustments were approaching ideal.

I only have one bung fitted to the exhaust pipe and therefore only fitted one O2 sensor. My son spotted that the fuel injection pulsewidths were different. We figured out that this is because the #2 O2 sensor input "without" the sensor fitted is dragged to .45 which is seen as optimum but the #1 input was seeing rich or lean signals and the ECU was trying to compensate by adjusting the injector pulse width. It seems it can only adjust it by up to .3mS but that is enough. I've been making changes manually of .1 to adjust the mixture. It also means individual channels are monitored and adjusted individually. Pretty cool.

An annoying problem that was affecting efforts to tune the lower load settings and revs was the systems habit of backing the timing right off, 15deg ATDC sometimes, which made the revs drop off and the motor struggle and then when you gave it a bit more throttle it'd rev above where I was interested. This is the systems attempt to control the idle speed with ignition advance. There is a ignition table for the minimum advance/retard setting according to load and RPM. I set it so that the minimum timing possible was 7.5deg advance, the same as the default advance at idle. Now even though it backs off at times the revs can still be controlled by the throttle making it possible to monitor and adjust.

[TZ350]

http://www.vemssupport.com/forum/ind...opic,97.0.html

Before calibrating an engine, it is first useful to have some concept of what you are trying to control. The following is a fairly brief overview of the internal combustion engine, which will hopefully give you a basic understanding of some fundamental principles and terminology, so that when you change a number in a box on your laptop, you have some idea of the effect it is having on the engine.

""Fuelling Theory ... Lets start with the theory then. We are concerned with spark ignition gasoline engines here. I am only going to cover gasoline, since Diesel is for trucks and diggers, and alcohol is for drinking and drag racing.""

http://195.159.109.134/vemsuk/forum/index.php/topic,97.0.html

[TZ350]

Ecotrons has a very clever self tuning feature where you tell the map what Lambda you want at what RPM and the ECU will read the ALM O2 sensor and adjust the mixture for you.

But you do have to ask for the right Lambda value for the engine. And this is where I went wrong tonight, I made the lower end to rich and eventually after a lot of auto tuning work the motor could not pull the skin of a rice pudding and drag itself into the power band.

My mistake was asking for too rich a Lambda at low throttle settings, and having the bike struggling to pickup on the dyno. I had made the map 0.85 Lambda everywhere, I should have stuck with the default map that had Lambda 1 at low RPM and dropping to Lambda 0.85 - 0.82 at max power.

Do you mean low throttle settings or full throttle low rpm? Regarding the latter, you should be able to run Lambda 0,85 (and richer) without 4-stroking from about 3000 rpm to top rpm if ignition timing is in the right ballpark. Also, a properly designed combustion chamber (high msv type) should make tuning the EFI easier for you as it's less sensitive to 4-stroking.

I know it and you know it, but I can't repeat it often enough: lambda does not tell you rich or lean; it only tells you how much oxygen it sees in the exhaust gases.

At low throttle settings the engine will occasionally miss a combustion cycle, which sends all inhaled oxygen straight into the exhaust.

If you try to adjust the resulting lambda readout by jetting richer, you will smother the engine wit a very rich mixture (and cause even more misfiring).

Haufen and Frits, Thanks for the Heads-Up.

[speedpro]

I've had it explained by a support guy and Matt and this is how it works. You use the ALM WB lambda device in conjunction with their "autotune" function to tune the engine in ECO mode. In ECO mode the target lambda is "1". The system makes adjustments until it determines what fuel injector pulsewidth is required to deliver the correct amount of fuel so the engine runs at lambda=1. When you switch to POWER the system looks to the "desired lambda" table. The fuel pulsewidth calculated in ECO is divided by the value in the "desired lambda" table and the new fuel pulsewidth is found.

Example: In ECO mode at a certain load it is found that the fuel pulsewidth needs to be 3mS to obtain a lambda of 1. In POWER mode at this load there is a value of .9 in the desired lambda table. 3/.9=3.33. 3.33 is the pulsewidth for a lambda of .9 at this load. POWER is open loop and relies on the tuning being right in ECO for a lambda=1.

I have also been getting annoyed when using small throttle settings where the system seemed to be trying to get the motor to idle. Turns out that there was a value where if the TPS was at less than 2.5% the system thought you wanted the engine at idle. I've set it to 0% TPS for idle. Now when I give it even .1% TPS it runs sweetly to some rpm without the timing backing off trying to reduce the engine rpm to idle. Makes it easy to set the low rpm, low load mixtures.

With the NB sensor connected to the ECU it still trys to autoadjust with the result that it cycles back and forth rich to lean. With the standalone WB sensor and no NB sensor it isn't a problem. Only trouble is I've figured that the WB sensor is not ideal. Hopefully Ecotrons can tell me how to disable the autoadjust feature.

[speedpro]

It's taken a while but I've decided that I need to use the "autotune" feature. The difficulty is holding the engine at a particular load and rpm for the 10 seconds or so required for autotune to determine the correct fuel load. An Eddy current dyno would do it but they're a bit pricey to buy/build/borrow. So tomorrow I'm going to pick-a-part to see about getting a rear hub assembly from maybe a TX5i or similar. I just need to have a roller/wheel to sit the bike on and be able to put the brake on to load the engine. There is no real need to measure the power. The only thing I haven't decided is just what I'm going to bolt to the hub that the bikes rear wheel will sit on. Any ideas?

Hopefully this will enable the maps to be tuned for Lambda=1 and then I can switch to POWER mode and adjust the "desired lambda" values for best power on the dyno.

Hopefully I'll get an order for the ALM, meter, and a 3bar MAP sensor off to Ecotrons tomorrow.

[speedpro]

On the dyno, with one NB O2 sensor installed and connected to the ECU one cylinder pulse width was always being altered by the closed loop feedback. This was a real pain for me as it made it nearly impossible to determine what was the ideal value in the tables. One thing I asked for and Ecotrons helped with was having one O2 sensor connected but having both pulsewidths adjusted by the feedback. This was better but the system still cycled the fuel pulsewidths back and forth between rich and lean. So I asked how to disable the feedback whilst still monitoring the sensor output. They sent a new ".cal" file with the feedback disabled. By doing a comparison with the last ".cal" file they sent I can see which 2 values they have changed. It's easy enough. What is annoying is that the 2 values descriptions don't indicate they would have this effect at all. I haven't tried it on the dyno yet but it should be a lot easier to tune now.

Things I've done -
changed the " ignition advance" maximum retard from about 15deg"A"TDC to 7.5deg BTDC(used to control idle speed),
changed the minimum throttle position below which it expects I want idle speed from 2.5% to 0%(to stop it backing the ignition off at small throttle settings),
enabled one O2 sensor to provide feedback for both cylinders,
then disabled O2 sensor feedback.
increased the maximum speed the software will allow the engine to run from 14,000rpm to 16,000rpm.

I'm hoping it'll be easier to tune as the features that alter the fuel injected, or the lambda reading, have been disabled. Time will tell, hopefully next weekend.

A water pipe under the bathroom handbasin decided to spring a leak Sat night so I spent Sunday sorting it out properly. Waste of a good Sunday.

[TZ350]

A guide to installing and using the Ecotrons electronic fuel injection ProCal tuning software based on the experiences of a complete newbee with no previous EFI experience.



The Ecotrons fuel injection system is my first experience with EFI. Sure, I had seen fuel injectors and mass air flow meters before and had some idea of how they worked but I was really a total newbee to EFI when it comes to installing one and setting it up.



I brought the Ecotrons single cylinder Small Engine Kit with two fuel injectors, the kit is easy to put together as it comes with its own wiring loom and everything is labeled.

Hardware installation is covered in the manual very well but I found getting started with the software fragmented and a bit confusing.

My kit was for a 2T - two stroke and I started with the VE table as you do, after two weeks of frustration it was pointed out to me that 2T's dont use the VE table.

One obscure line in the 100+page installation manual about 2T's not using the VE table was a bit inadequate I think and it was very annoying wasting so much time with a map that in every way looked like it worked but was internally disconnected.

If the VE map was not to be used it should have not been accessible or at least I should have been better advised when I received the kit.



This little gem is all that there was in the manual about 2T's only using the Alpha-N or TPS based Load map.

Anyway having had a winge, I now have to say that the Ecotrons Support Team have been very helpful.

I don’t have any experience with any other good EFI units like Mega Squirt or the Link, to compare the Ecotrons system too, the others I have been told, have software that is less confusing and easier to use.

But my impression is, that while the other EFI systems have a simpler and more polished user interfaces the Ecotrons system goes much further and allows you to really get your hands dirty with a myriad of tuning detail that the others don’t allow you access to.

There is much more to EFI than just VE tables and Alpha-N maps, and I think a student of EFI could learn a great deal with the Ecotrons system.

Being an EFI newbee and not so hot with computers either, the first confusing thing I encountered was, when trying to run the Ecotrons ProCal install Wizard, it had the “D/ drive as their default drive. I had to change this to the more normal “C/, sure its simple but the error messages about insufficient disk space were a little confusing at the time.



Once ProCal is installed there are two important files to know about, the “a2l” file which I think is the software for running the EFI’s CPU and “cal” files which hold all the calibration information like the tables for the VE and Alpha-N maps and advanced calibration information like the minimum injection time allowed.

There are different a2l files for the different hardware setups like the EFI system for twin cylinder 4T’s has different hardware and a2l file compared to a single cylinder 2T.

ProCal which I guess means professional tuning software works with any of the different Ecotrons "a2l" files and hardware options in conjuction with a calibration "cal" file for that particular EFI/hardware setup.



Having installed ProCal you get going in the normal way. Ctrl O to open a file and Ctrl S to save your tuning work.



First step is to load the a2l hardware file that came from Ecotrons with your EFI kit.



Second step is to load the calibration cal file that came with the kit. There may be just a plain cal file or there may also be cal files for Start Auto Tuning and Auto Tuning Finished. Anyway this is where you load the appropriate cal file.



You can save your tuning work



and give it a unique name or save it to an existing file.



It will appear in the directory structure. Later you can combine them but I have not done that yet.



After you have done a bit of tuning work you may have saved some different tuning options for your EFI setup.

You can have quite a few different cal files.




Hopefully all this will be a help to anyone else trying to get their head around the ProCal file and directory structure.

[TZ350]

Maps and Tables



The two big tables are the VE (volumetric efficiency) table and TPS based load mapping (Alpha-N) table.



4T’s - four strokes, mostly use the VE table in conjunction with the TPS table. One of the VE tables inputs is from the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor and the VE table is utilized at low throttle openings.

The Load Prediction Weighting table defines at what RPM and TPS that the EFI system swaps from using the VE table to the TPS table.



2T’s – two strokes have such highly fluctuating pressures in the inlet tract that it confuses the MAP sensor. So a 2T can’t utilize the VE table and so only runs the TPS load based (Alpha-N) table.

Ecotrons ships its 2T – two stroke EFI systems with the VE table disabled. It can be a bit of a trap because you can still access the VE table and make changes to it but they have no effect. It can be a bit confusing.



Add Advanced Calibrations. This is where you get to play with things like injection end time and control the way a staged injection system swaps between injectors.

You can build and save your own selection of variables from the vast array of variables and their default values that make up the EFI control software.



Click on a variable to see a description of its function.

This one defines where the injection cycle is to finish while cranking over to start. There is an endpoint during start and an end point map. Ecotrons works backwards from that point and calculates where to start injecting. This is handy because on a transfer port injected 2T – two stroke you want to end the injection cycle as the port is closing.

Click OK to access the calibration variables.



Minimum injection times and breaks between injection cycles can be manipulated to change the point where the injectors swap over and then work together, ie, 1 swaps to 2 then 1 and 2 work together.

The Fuel System



Start Conditions:- defines at what RPM the Start Fuel Factor ends, I set mine at 3,000 rpm for starting my 2T which idles at 3.5k.

Start Fuel Factor:- is the enrichment multiplier used during cranking when starting the engine. So things don’t get to rich during development I set this to 1 throughout. Makes things a bit hard to start but with it set to 1 it does not confuse development of the main map. Same with After Start and Warm Up, which I initially set to 0.

[TZ350]

If you have not broken any nails getting here then its time to record and playback data to see what is going on and where we can improve things.

To record any data we need to be connected, the bottom left red thing needs to be green



F8 measures various inputs like RPM, TPS and Engine Temperature, the gauges display the results. F9 records data from a pre determined list of variables and F11 stops the measuring and recording process.

The recorded data files are held in the “Record” sub directory.



Each time you record some data ProCal creates a new time/date stamped sub directory



PlayBack



Whenever you go to play back data, ProCal opens in the last directory to be played back.



So if you have recorded some new data you will have to go back up a level



and select the latest directory.



There are three data files, one for data recorded Syn (continuously), and at 20ms and 100ms intervals.

Open a data file and everything recorded in the file will be displayed, it can be a bit of a jumble.



Top right you can define a time window, I use 0 to 20



0 to 20 really spreads the plotted data out and covers a little more than the area of one dyno pull.



You use the slider in the middle top to select an interesting part of the plot.



Use the Clear/Show all Signals button to clear all the data then click the variables you want to study. A “V” will appear against the variables being displayed.

You can also use the cursor just like in an Xl spread sheet to re size the display area and data field columns so you can read the variable names.

Use the Show/Hide Cursor button to display two cursors. The cursors can be moved around to measure and compare different parts of the plot. The different variable values are displayed as the cursors are moved.



You don’t have to be stuck with the default variables to record and display, you can make up your own list, There are 100’s to chose from.



Click on a variable and its description will be displayed in the bottom left corner. You can add or delete as many variables as you like but there are processing time/band width limitations to the total amount of data that can be processed at once. The manual explains this point in detail.



When you have built up your own data variables list it can be saved under its own unique name. You can have as many data variable lists as you like to record things in different ways.

[TZ350]

Exporting map data to Excel and re Importing the Data file.

All the maps can be exported to Excel as a CSV (comma separated variable) file. When data is imported back into ProCal it has to be in the CSV format. It’s the same method for Start – After Start – Warm Up – VE and Alpha-N or any other table.



Exporting the Alpha-N or as ProCal calls it, the Tps Based Load Map which they call Ram_Map_LdTp_Tps_N map



Double Left Click



And by default it will be saved into the C/Program Files/Procal directory



And automatically opened in Excel in CVS format. CVS is a Comma Delimited format.



You can use the normal Excel math functions to manipulate the data.



But when you have finished you have to be careful to delete all the extra cells as ProCal is expecting a certain table size and will chuck up if there is any extra or missing data.



Save the file in CVS format. Now this is where it gets a bit tricky as Excel tries to save the file in “My Documents” and it really needs to go back into the sub directory “C/Program Files/Procal so you will just have to change directories.

Once its saved and Excel is closed you will be back in ProCal.



Double left click



And Import the modified map file.



The area you changed will show in Red.



Save the new map.



Now when you save the new map, the old Excel CSV file is visible in the ProCal Director but the new Tps Based Load Mapping data you created goes into the Beast-3 2ing Cal File that all the calibration changes have been saved to on my project.



To change a single value, double left click its cell.



Change its value and hit “Enter”. The new value will show in Red.

Save the change with Ctrl S or the Disk symbol at the top left corner.





Lastly "Burn" your new changes to the ECU. Well you will need to connect first of course.

[husaberg]

That's a damn nice set of posts Rob.......