Programmable Ignition

Digital Ignition Controller

The digital ignition controller, called the FireFly Mini, uses the stock Variable Reluctor (VR) pickup and is the typical retard only system. However, I also include (2) K-type thermocouple inputs for Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) and Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT). The goal is to provide a programmable ignition controller that dynamically adjusts based on EGT and CHT values. The whole idea is to run fast and save your top end. To support programming the ignition curves and log data, I've created a little windows app. It allows you to program your ignition curve over USB, log the RPM, CHT, and EGT values, and flash the firmware. You can save maps, read the map that is loaded, the usual. I've also created an android app that displays the RPM, CHT, and EGT values. The windows and android apps that I created will be totally open source. But, my favorite feature is I simulate the popular OBDII ELM327 interface. This allows my old Vespa to have an "OBD II ecu", so now I have access to tons of awesome apps! My favorite is the Torque app. For a few bucks, the Torque app gives you awesome gauges, data logging, access to the phones GPS and accelerometers, etc etc. The gauges are all configurable, you can set the style, the min/max values, set high/low alarms, and more.

The log files can be exported as CSV, or Google Earth KML files. You can play back your route with the sensor data embedded. This allows you to pick a route to re-use when tuning and then compare how the scooter felt vs. what the sensor data shows. The Torque app also allows you to auto upload log files. So you can set it all up, ride your scooter, and then it will auto upload your log files for you to an email account, or Facebook, Twitter, etc. Yeh, I know, the Facebook and Twitter part is stupid, but the auto email part is awesome for keeping logs of different runs, especially while tuning. You get all the atmospheric data for that day, the elevation, speed, rpm, egt, cht, etc. Nice! On the down side, Torque is not open source. You just buy it from Google play store or use the free Lite version. Here are some links for Torque app. Not my app, dont know the guy, dont get no money from him, I just use and abuse his app for awesome gauges and data logging.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.prowl.torque

http://torque-bhp.com/

The circuit card was designed to fit into a Polycase LP-11F enclosure.  The design uses an atmega16u2 and the source code was developed in Atmel Studio 6.1.  The windows GUI to interface and log data was written in C#. The USB stack is based on the LUFA USB Library.

All of the HW/SW can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B128qQVJwMNXZmhVeGl0akYzSGc&usp=sharing