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Designing new Aviation ECU

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MolsonB

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2014
Messages
46
Location
Ontario, Canada
Hi Homebuilders...

In my conquest to build my first airplane, RAI-1 XR “Tango XR”, | Revolution Aviation Inc., why not go all out and build your own engine (Rx8) and ECU.

This thread will be the R&D of an ECU designed for the aviation rotary. We honestly don't have many options out there. Tracey Crook was the only one, which is no longer in production and Megasquirt which isn't geared towards aviation (no redundancy, and limited analog inputs). My goal is to have dual redundancy on everything from sensors, power supplies to the microchip itself.

My micro-controller of choice is the PIC32MX470F512H. 120MHz, 512KB program memory, 128KB RAM, 12KB flash, 28 Analog/Digital converters. 5 16bit timers
PIC32MX470F512H - 32-bit PIC Microcontrollers

Inputs
Tach 1
Tach 2 *
Manifold Absolute Pressure 1 - Front rotor
Manifold Absolute Pressure 2 - Rear rotor
Intake Air Temp 1
Intake Air Temp 2
Coolant Temp 1 - Before radiator
Coolant Temp 2 - After radiator
Coolant pressure
Oil Temp 1 - Before radiator
Oil Temp 2 - After radiator
Oil pressure
Fuel Pressure
Mass Air flow Sensor 1
Mass Air flow Sensor 2
O2 Wideband Sensor 1 - Front rotor
O2 Wideband Sensor 2 - Rear rotor
Exhaust Gas Temp 1 - Front rotor
Exhaust Gas Temp 2 - Rear rotor
Exhaust Gas Temp 3 - After collector
Exhaust Gas Temp 4 - Near exit
Cylinder Head Temp 1 - Front leading
Cylinder Head Temp 2 - Front trailing
Cylinder Head Temp 3 - Rear leading
Cylinder Head Temp 4 - Rear trailing
Knock Sensor 1
Knock Sensor 2

*Tach 2 = currently RX8 only has 1 Tach, but if someone could come up a bracket to have another Tach 180degrees would be nice)

Outputs
Injector Front A
Injector Front B
Injector Rear A
Injector Rear B

Coil Front leading
Coil Front trailing
Coil Rear leading
Coil Rear trailing

Oil Metering Pump - Remove OEM unit and build DYI *

*With RX8 having side exhaust, along with premixing oil in the fuel, I want to create my own 2 stroke oil reservoir that will inject oil onto the side seals based on RPM.

Operations
For engine operation, we only need 1 tach, MAP, IAT, CLT. The rest will be used for logging / display purposes. Have control of each spark plug and coil. Speed-Density and/or Mass Air flow will be used to calculate fueling. The PIC should have enough room for ignition tables 16 x 16. The human interface will be from Android tablet program via bluetooth. Allowing to change fuel and timing in real-time and monitoring all sensors.

This will be a huge endeavor, but I believe the Rotary engine is the future for GA planes. Anyone with C programming or hardware design, by all means help out.
Also on the hardware side of things, keep on eye out at cimarron for CNC products.
 
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