DIYEFI.org, FreeEMS and the future of TRUE DIY engine manage

Hi,

This thread is here to introduce and discuss DIYEFI.org, a new community with a difference.

For those of you who don't know who I am, I've been keeping a close eye on DIY EFI stuff since the late 90's and been involved with MegaSquirt for the last 3 years or so to some degree or other. Many things have come and gone and many things have changed in that time. The time has come for an even bigger change. Those of you who "just use" MegaSquirt and don't get too involved won't really care too much about this site for at least a few more months. On the other hand, if you like to participate and get involved, this site is probably for you.

As a way of testing whether you might be interested, I have assembled some questions here :


[*:1fzgnej2]Do you use GNU/Linux?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Does engine management interest you?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Are you a fan of Open Source Software?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Do you enjoy printing your own boards?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]How about designing your own boards?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Do you dislike closed door development?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Sick of Lance deleting your posts on msefi.com?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Sick of waiting for UMS, PWC, MS3, Router board, GPIO or Sequencer?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Willing to put in the hard work to have the engine management system of your hearts desire?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]
[*:1fzgnej2]Clever with electronics or code and willing to work on an open source project for the greater good and benefit to all?[/*:m:1fzgnej2]

If you answered yes to any of those you may want to take a look at my new site, if not, there is no need to bother :-)

The site is totally non-profit. There aren't even any adverts (yet, probably never if I can help it). The designs will be community produced and available for free download just like FireFox and Linux etc. There are no businesses or companies behind it. Just me and a group of like minded individuals who want to make the DIY engine management world a better place for everyone.

If you are wondering why I have gone and put this much time, effort and money into apparently reinventing the wheel, take a look here

If you are wondering who else is involved in the project, or indeed who has made MegaSquirt the runaway success that it has become, please see the appropriate sections of this page

If you are wondering about some of the details of the history of Do It Yourself fuel injection, have a read through this partly incomplete history page

If you want to dig straight in then have a of this thread

The code is nothing special just yet, but some of the foundations are there and working flawlessly

It will be some time before it runs an engine, but that doesn't mean you should wait till then to get involved. If you express your opinion in a constructive way now, you will be happier with the end result when it finally arrives.

It was recently suggested to me that I was trying to recruit the type of people that complain a lot :


This is NOT the case. In fact, that is the LAST thing that I want. If you are just going to whinge, whine and complain about the past, please stay away. If on the other hand you have something positive to offer about the future, please sign up!

The forum is here if you would like to join our efforts :

However, before joining, I recommend that you have a read of this first

If you want to see some of my work that is more or less completed and you have DSL have a look here

If you are wondering more about me, some would say that one word sums me up nicely



though, I prefer to prefix it with 'car-' ;-)

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy what you find :-)

Fred.

I just wanted to point out that James and Ken are NOT working on my project with me. The original contributors page may have been a little misleading in that regard, I have updated it now to be more clear. My most humble apologies for that misunderstanding.

Fred.

Pretty work, Fred!

I had a look at the site last night and I like where you're going with this. I have read through most of your thread with the ute and it's been a huge inspiration. From what I see, your understanding of these systems has surpassed it's originators. I look forward to seeing the project evolve.

Thanks man I'm glad my ute thread has inspired! OddBallRacings cardomain page has been an inspiration to me over the last 5 years or so. I felt that sharing what I did was the least that I could do to repay those that helped inspire me. Good to hear.



I would like to think that you are right about that, but I strongly doubt it. While I disagree with some of the decisions made by the MS crew, and dislike some of their work, they are an extremely clever, talented bunch of people indeed. If I can achieve similarly, I'll be most pleased. What I don't like is the future of the project for DIY type people. Effectively it looked as though we would be left with the same old stuff whilst $$ decided which products were made available to the community and at what price. For that reason I have done this. I think you will find that if I do enough ground work, my site should really grow wings. Here's hoping that I'm right about that

The future is looking bright

Fred.

well fred by your checklist i dont even know what a lot of that means, but am very interested in learning. just needed a good starting point. so ill be checking out the site. i love electronics and have a minimal understanding of them but they do interest me and would love to learn more just need a good teacher.

[*:177xrck1]Do you use GNU/Linux? = Like windows but better and free :-)[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Does engine management interest you? = ECU/EMS/standalone[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Are you a fan of Open Source Software? = Where you can read the source code of the software and change it and share it without restriction[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Do you enjoy printing your own boards? = Circuit boards, you can get them blank, print a protectant on and desolve the rest of the copper off with a chemical. voila, home printed board, quite fun if you ask me.[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]How about designing your own boards? = Using a software program to layout the bits of copper you want to keep and solder things off.[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Do you dislike closed door development? = When people work on a project for 6 months without telling you a damn thing and then go "here it is" at the end without asking you up front what you thought might be a good idea or bad idea.[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Sick of Lance deleting your posts on msefi.com? = Lance is trigger happy with the delete post button on msefi.com, just mention "gerbers" or "msextra" to find out how fast your post will vanish ;-)[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Sick of waiting for UMS, PWC, MS3, Router board, GPIO or Sequencer? = A string of products touted to be the next great thing from B&G/megasquirt that to this day have not materialised on the shelves/website[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Willing to put in the hard work to have the engine management system of your hearts desire? = you help me design and create it and then build it yourself[/*:m:177xrck1]
[*:177xrck1]Clever with electronics or code and willing to work on an open source project for the greater good and benefit to all? = speaks for itself[/*:m:177xrck1]

I think you have found the right place to learn about EFI. Just follow what we are doing and ask questions as best you can after doing as much homework on the subject as you can and we'll go from there :-)

I don't make a very good teacher, but I'll try my best for you all.

Fred.

It has come to my attention today that one of our members has been banned from msefi.com just by being a member on my site. Please, if you are signed to my site, or intending to, and also need assistance on msefi.com read this :



It is highly unfortunate that I have to post about this publicly, but I feel that not doing so would be irresponsible to my users.

Fred.

Double post, please remove.

hey fred just registered on your site, and nice work man. i appreciated you taking time to explain some of the first things you posted. ive always been interested in electronics but like i said i dont know as much about it as i would like too. and especially engine managment altough i dont have a lot of experience in standalone systems i would love to learn. building an engine isnt that hard but making your own system to run it with built to your specs is very nice. and im all aboard on your new site. i look forward to learning a lot. see and all this snowballed when you made that comment about sds on mx6.com haha i told you that that wasnt the case with me i do want to learn, i just need help along the way. good luck with the site and all although im sure it will take off like no other.

Hi, No problem, glad to try to explain, I realise my writings can be quite obtuse sometimes

If you bought an SDS, don't worry, they can be tuned well like any other. You just have to understand what you are doing, and bother to do it

If not, one difference between SDS and the rest is that afaik SDS has no 3d map viewing facility. Many people find this very helpful indeed as you can ensure that adjacent cells are reasonably close in value to the ones around.

I have to go away for a few days, I'll be back fairly shortly to answer any more questions etc.

Fred.