Talk:Engine control unit/Archive 1

Rewritten
Edited the page. Rewrote the first paragraph to better explain what an ECU was. Relabeled the section on 'Race ECUs' to 'Programmable ECUs' Shifted history, and 'other applications' to the end of the article. The description of what an ECU actually does I thought was more primary than the historical development.

Is the new term for these now Powertrain Control Modules, after OBD-II? -- Karada 08:53, 7 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes. I added a note to that effect. However, "ECU" is still used as a generic term outside the OBD-II world, so I don't think we should rename this article. --Heron 11:42, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

I think the article needs to be edited. It claims "It was not until around 1987 that digital electronics and embedded microprocessor systems became fast enough to process engine parameters in real time."

This article ais not correct. Even back in the early 1970's some cars had ECUs which were fast enough to process engine parameters in real time. ECUs like this were widely available in the market, it was not difficult for a car manufacturer to incorporate one into their car. The only reason they didn't is cost. The law didn't require such engine controls, the manufacturer felt the car didn't need it, and they didn't feel justified spending the money.

This article is way off.
Ford introduced solid state electronic engine controls in the 1978 Lincoln Versailles. Chrysler was one or two years earlier, I believe. By 1987 Ford was across the board with electronics in the form of the EEC-IV, utilizing the Motorola 68000 series chip, which was the same family as the Mac. Many of these has sequential electronic fuel injection (SEFI -- one injector per cylinder controlled on a per cylinder basis), and the rest with central fuel injection ( CFI -- one injector per engine). Here is a press release from that time. You can search the web for some of the below keywords and find the article on-line. Alternately look at old Chiltons manuals.

''Feb. 8, 1977: Ford to Pilot Electronic Engine Controls Reader:

On Feb. 8, 1977, Ford Motor Company announced that 60,000 selected 1978 cars would be used to pilot two new electronic systems for improved fuel economy, emissions and performance on future Ford vehicles. About 30,000 cars with Ford’s 302-cubic inch V-8 would have a new electronic engine control system to regulate the engines spark timing and exhaust gas recirculation. Another 30,000 cars sold in California with Ford’s 2.3-liter four cylinder engine would be used to evaluate a system linking an electronic carburetor control to a new three-way catalytic converter.''

Open Source Engine Management Systems
I'm trying to figure out if there should be a section on open source engine management systems instead of just having a link as well as a quick summary of each of them and a link to their article. Would that make sense? Firegryphon 08:16, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Programming ECU's
Please describe a dataset which is progammed into ECU.

Maps/Curves.

Engine Related Maps/ Vehicle related maps.


 * I think this would get out of hand fast. Perhaps it would make more sense to have articles on tuning.  The dataset a given car might use will vary a lot from model to model.  Even if most have a timing table, there are widely varying compensations applied, and the way they're built varies a lot.--Freonr2 16:41, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:EcuEdit dbw tuning.png
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BetacommandBot (talk) 07:48, 2 January 2008 (UTC)