Why make your own custom board?

[zed65]

I see the question come up now and then "Why do you make your own board when we have X or Y"?

I'll try to explain MY take on the matter.
First and foremost I enjoy making my own boards, CAD, designing, routing is something I love.
Anyway here are some point that I see beneficial to make my own board.

1. I want every option that the software can deliver to me, minimum 8cyl seq. minimum 2 EGT, MEMS, SD-card, 4 wheel-speed, etc on one single board.
2. In TS (TunerStudio) I want the inputs/outputs to be labeled "PA0" and not "INJ1/IGN1", if someone wants to add a shift-light I'll bet you the question will arise if he/she could really connect it to a output that is labeled "INJ7".
3. Good connectors that has the pins placed in a somewhat thoughtful way.
4. I don't like the use of ASIC that has as life-span way to short or are hard/expensive to get.
5. Troubleshooting is much easier for me when I've done it myself.

That said, this is only my personal thought.

/Alex

[AndreyB]

I note that you say "custom board (hardware)" not "custom ECU (hardware+firmware)".

Cannot agree on PA0 being the best label for a pin but I guess it's a question of preference. ASIC and life-span is a risk but fully protected and diagnostics is so cool! Where do you draw the ASCI line? Do you reject TLE9201?

[zed65]

I note that you say "custom board (hardware)" not "custom ECU (hardware+firmware)".

I agree that have to make some changes to the firmware is a unwanted step.

The ASIC problem is very complex. Even the simplest IC such as a MAX9924/25 can be seen as a ASIC.
TLE9201 is a awesome chip and it's inexpensive so I'll use that for sure, but look at the TLE8888, price vs performance is not what I look for.
So I tend to keep the "ASIC's" to a minimum if possible.