rusefi.com

Hi guys!

I am Andrew from China, looking forward to build an ECU by myself.

Now the first problem is, which car may I choose: One of my friend owns a junkyard and he got a 1994 Toyota Avalon (MCX10, 1MZ-FE Engine) and a 1996 Lexus LS400(UCF20, 1UZ-FE Engine). These two cars both starts and runs well, and my friend is happy if any one of them can be used as a test mule for my rusefi project.

And about the ECU itself, I am planning to use the Frankenso as a base and cut those parts that I won't need and build my own PCB, assemble it,and have a try.

Now my schedule is to choose which car should I buy, then buy it, test the original car, build the ECU, and hope to test it on the car before March 2020.

Thank all your replys in advance!

Hello and welcome!

ANDREW00452 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:49 am

planning to use the Frankenso as a base and cut those parts that I won't need and build my own PCB, assemble it,and have a try.

Why bother cutting anything, why not use Frankenso or microRusEfi as is? We have too many boards, we mostly need people to develop the firwmare really at this point

Why do you want to buy any cars any why do you want to rusEfi those, what's the end goal?

Hi Russian,

My end goal is to build a low-cost and easy tuning system for my friends, who are mostly Toyota lovers. In China, if we want to tune a JZ or UZ engine, the only way now is to buy those expensive close-source systems like MoTec and LINK ones, either of them is more expensive than a 2JZ-GTE in China. So it will of course be good news if I can got some low-cost solution for them.

Frankenso is actually a little hard to build in China as many chips on it like the MAX9926 are rather uncommon in China but it's also a good choice. Very awesome product

ANDREW00452 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 16, 2019 6:57 am

many chips on it like the MAX9926 are rather uncommon in China but it's also a good choice.

aliexpress seems to have MAX9926 but I see your point, you want simpler-to-acquire bill of material, not just remove things but more like replace for what you have available locally.

PS: we have a chat at Slack - see https://rusefi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1198

Yes they have, but...
As my father owns an electronic factory in China and was familiar with all these things on the BOM, we can surely tell almost all those "brand new" chips on Aliexpress are used and refurbished and may have some awkward issues.

In a word, you are right, I wanna replace them for what I can get at here without much effort or money, because most things that are common in China like the STM32F407VG are much cheaper here even by the reliable supplier, and I got experienced workers that can assembly them for about $5/hour of work, so I am really willing to bring the cost down on the material side.

BTW, PCBs are also very cheap in China-Frankenso bare PCB cost about $7/each:)

Cool to hear.

What VR sensing chips are available locally?

Frankenso was after Frankenstein. Frankenso was intended to be very flexible, and low enough cost. It's not designed for manufacture-ability, and it has many chips. A more PNP style of layout could greatly reduce much of the assembly time. As well using special chips can greatly reduce the complexity of the circuits. The two places that get most effected by these special chips are the VR and voltage supply.

Hi kb1gtt,

Sadly, almost all VR sensing chips are NOT easy to find on the market due to no DIYers or small companies in this region. But the good news is, here in China I still can get all those chips, just need to take the risk of getting a used and/or refurbished one.
So it's not THAT hard to make a Frankenso by myself here as you may think:)

And about the voltage supply, your original design is also common in China, so that's not a problem actually.

May I ask is there anyone has ever tried to fire an 1UZ-FE or 1MZ-FE up with rusEFI, whether succeeded or failed?

ANDREW00452 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:01 pm

May I ask is there anyone has ever tried to fire an 1UZ-FE or 1MZ-FE up with rusEFI, whether succeeded or failed?

I am not aware of anyone running these specific engines, what do they have exactly?
Electronic or mechanical throttle body? How many variable valve timing? Stepper idle or solenoid idle?

There are some gaps in the firmware potentially, for instance only one variable camshaft supported at the moment. No reason not to add it, just that someone would have to make an effort and add

Both of those engines - 1994 1mzfe and 1996 1uzfe are both cable throttle, non-VVT (though the 1uz and 1mz both did come in vvt variants, those applications aren't them).

I've also recently designed a board, https://rusefi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1646, that should have no trouble running either of those engines. There's some errata so far, so I wouldn't order a v0.1

Hi mck1117,

Awesome design! I will check for it.

Which ECU connector do those cars use?

I have a footprint for the 100 pin 4 pocket 4 row connector 1-5178203-6 used with some of those engines (generally the automatic transmission models, which required more pins).

DonaldBecker wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 19, 2019 2:18 am

I have a footprint for the 100 pin 4 pocket 4 row connector 1-5178203-6 used with some of those engines (generally the automatic transmission models, which required more pins).

Kicad? Can you share it as a file or as a PR or as anything?

Got another problem: both the Avalon and the Lexus are AT models-will that get in my way of rusEFI conversion?

ANDREW00452 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 19, 2019 9:29 am

Got another problem: both the Avalon and the Lexus are AT models-will that get in my way of rusEFI conversion?

In many older Toyotas the engine ECU also controls the automatic transmission. Specifying the year, body and engine doesn't tell you which wiring harness and ECU connector you have.

Basic automatic transmission control isn't especially difficult in theory. It requires enough coil drivers (3-5 solenoid valves). additional VR channels (1-2 extra), and digital input channels for the shift position. But rusEFI doesn't support transmission control yet.