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This is why Pat has impressed me more than any other technician in 2 decades...
He has designed and fabricated what appears to be a Godzilla fan controller that has wide ranging application (not just Miata) and completely shares and explains what he has done.
BAD ***....
When he comes to his senses he will change the platform he is working with (Miata) and move on to another (Porsche, Mustang, LS variants, who knows) and we will lose him.
He will end up going DEEP in the automotive fabrication and design world.
This guy is an engineer that can wrench.
Massive potential, the force is strong in this one...
This is why Pat has impressed me more than any other technician in 2 decades...
He has designed and fabricated what appears to be a Godzilla fan controller that has wide ranging application (not just Miata) and completely shares and explains what he has done.
BAD ***....
When he comes to his senses he will change the platform he is working with (Miata) and move on to another (Porsche, Mustang, LS variants, who knows) and we will lose him.
He will end up going DEEP in the automotive fabrication and design world.
This guy is an engineer that can wrench.
Massive potential, the force is strong in this one...
Thanks for the awesome compliment!
I can't say if this will be a Godzilla fan controller yet. But I hope I can when it's finished! That is my goal more or less, build a PWM fan controller that will never break and has the features I want. The most popular one on amazon has 52% 1 star reviews.... Lots of people complain of them working for a few days, a few weeks, a couple months, and then dying. Going to do my best to build one that will last. Maybe I'll use that name, the Godzilla PWM fan controller?! I kinda like it.
I did get a diagram made to allow me to populate the board, but I didn't get it assembled. Had to do another board this weekend and didn't get to this one. Good news is that other board is working as designed, so I'm done with it and can now focus on the fan controller.
Are you planning to pot it? The correct material will help with heat removal, and also protect against vibration and the elements. I am presuming this will mount under the hood.
Are you planning to pot it? The correct material will help with heat removal, and also protect against vibration and the elements. I am presuming this will mount under the hood.
DNM
I may. The current design has a dip switch for adjusting the temp setting, and enabling/disabling a couple features. I couldn't pot completely over that. For now it's a dip switch, but maybe I'll find a better way down the road. It's intended to be mounted in the engine bay.
Fan controller update time! I did a soft power up and some very limited testing. So far, nothing terrible has been found. Did get a pin mixed up and had to make a small mod to the board. Overall pretty happy so far.
Tomorrow I will get into more testing, but here's a vid showing what I got tested so far. I mixed up a couple words. Note to self, don't film things at 1am.
Gotta be very very careful with LDOs. I assume you run it off 15V? It's rated for 16+V or whatever maybe even 500mA, but if you actually asked that of it it'll go out in a ball of fire. Vin - Vout * Iout = Dissipated heat in watts. So assuming 15-3.3*0.3 = 3.5W. those sot packages won't move much heat at all, really only good for low voltage or very low current.
Switching regulators aren't too hard, but building one with low ripple and good transient response across a wide output current range is way above my pay grade. TI has a online "power designer" that's pretty dang useful though.
I think you want to search for a LDO with a high PSRR around the switching frequency of the buck converter if that's the plan, otherwise most all of the ripple will ripple right on through.
Most LDO have about none at the 1MHz+ range, but some do. Just a real bitch (for me) finding them without opening every damn datasheet. Since size isn't an issue for you a slower 100K switching frequency might be better? I like tiny little inductors and capacitors though, so I've been using the 1.2MHz+ converters.
Let me know if you want to integrate that micro onboard, maybe add canbus. I'm gonna be buying a second ms3 daughter board to try and figure out passthru so you could configure that board entirely through canbus and tunerstudio, no dips. Recently started messing with a CP2102N 20 pin package and have a good cheap TTL to usb converter working. Replace the max2322 with one of those and you could program it through usb, too. Probably not cheaper than a china nano, but it looks a lot better IMO. 328PB is ~1.50, uart bridge ~1.50, MCP2515 ~2.00, 2551 ~1.00. Can toss a lot of cool hardware in real cheap, if your time is worthless...
Been busy, haven't had time to work on the miata lately. But!
I now haz a shop! Been working on getting it put together for the last month or so. Got 45' of commercial shelves, 32' of work benches, a small 3 axis CNC mill, TIG, MIG, 2 post lift, various tools. Added 70k lumens of lighting cause I'm picky about lighting.
Have worked on other cars but not mine yet, but I can already tell efficiency is much higher when you have a shop vs a carport!
Updates and progress on the miata is imminent! Trying to decide what i want to do.
A. Put it together as I planned before.
B. Same as above, but with a different turbo.
C. Same as above, but new turbo/manifold.
D. I need to stop, but other ideas have been rolling around that would delay the drive date by months.
I have almost everything for Plan A, so I should prob do that. Just afraid the 7670 is not going to be enough on its own.
Welcome to the dark side...
You will spend far more time in the shop than the house.
You will do more shop improvement projects than home improvement.
The shop will never be big enough, will never have enough equipment, and you have entered a self perpetuating cycle that will continue to repeat until death.
At which point your stuff will fill a 25K foot shop and your decedents will have to go through it all with no idea of its worth or what most of it is...
We are strange hoarders - we hoard tools and materials.
You and only you will be able to find everything in your shop.
Once you have a shop with central heat and air you will never revert.
Once you have a stand alone shop you will never revert.
Welcome to the club. That looks like a nice starter shop.
How many sq feet?
I wish I had your head room. My shop is 14' in the center and it is tight on my lift. I'm pushing 2400 sq feet now and the next one will be 3500+
My next shop will be on my property (8 acres) that was purchased with the intentions of owning my own shop. Been renting way to long.
One suggestion that I don't see yet is cardboard panels to throw under projects to keep the floor clean; save and cut up big boxes.
they can absorb a surprising amount of crap.
Are you staying hobbyist or going professional?
Wrenching for your meals is a hard road, better to design and sell stuff IMO (and I'm wrenching for dinner).
Welcome to the dark side...
You will spend far more time in the shop than the house.
You will do more shop improvement projects than home improvement.
The shop will never be big enough, will never have enough equipment, and you have entered a self perpetuating cycle that will continue to repeat until death.
At which point your stuff will fill a 25K foot shop and your decedents will have to go through it all with no idea of its worth or what most of it is...
We are strange hoarders - we hoard tools and materials.
You and only you will be able to find everything in your shop.
Once you have a shop with central heat and air you will never revert.
Once you have a stand alone shop you will never revert.
Welcome to the club. That looks like a nice starter shop.
How many sq feet?
I wish I had your head room. My shop is 14' in the center and it is tight on my lift. I'm pushing 2400 sq feet now and the next one will be 3500+
My next shop will be on my property (8 acres) that was purchased with the intentions of owning my own shop. Been renting way to long.
One suggestion that I don't see yet is cardboard panels to throw under projects to keep the floor clean; save and cut up big boxes.
they can absorb a surprising amount of crap.
Are you staying hobbyist or going professional?
Wrenching for your meals is a hard road, better to design and sell stuff IMO (and I'm wrenching for dinner).
Not sure what the future holds! I will likely make/sell a few things down the road. Will work on high end cars here and there as opportunities pop up. Had a couple 1k+ hp cars in the shop so far!
I have almost everything for Plan A, so I should prob do that. Just afraid the 7670 is not going to be enough on its own.
I would bet money with your tranny and converter if you can leave on the tbrake with 20lbs+ boost and ramp to low-mid 30s within a 1/2 second or so that turbo will net you 6.40s. Maybe even better.
I would bet money with your tranny and converter if you can leave on the tbrake with 20lbs+ boost and ramp to low-mid 30s within a 1/2 second or so that turbo will net you 6.40s. Maybe even better.
Maybe so, and I may just run it to see how it does.
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