Software setup - Part I

Now we are onto the engine software and hardware set-up bit. Sensor calibrations, strategy writing and ultimately engine firing for the first time hopefully. 

The software we are using is CalTool from Pi (Cosworth).

There are literally thousands and thousands of functions, 90% are not needed for my application.  Here's just a few screengrabs to give you an idea of what we are working with at the moment...

We have sucessfully tested the PWM fuel pump control. Here's an overview of the parameters!!

Chassis, Dash & Comms - Part II

So following on from the last post, here's pics of all the loom forward of the bulkhead fitted to the car. 

It all went together exactly as planned which is nice.

 Main bulkhead connector from rear.

Bulkhead connector, ECU, starter and fuel pump driver module relays mounted to front of bulkhead.

Dash area starting to look neater now..

Powering up for the first time:

Chassis, Dash & Comms loom - Part I

Will be spending all weekend fitting the chassis loom, relays and ECU to the cockpit. the ECU and three relays pictured in the first image below will live on the inside of the bulkhead.

The other 3 relays will live in the space under the standard S1 dash top, which is rather cavernous. 

Sub-loom for Omega Digital Dash (means that future upgrade/change of dash type is more straightforward)

New Year's day updates!

Happy New Year everyone. I'm looking forward to 2016 as the year to finally get the car finished and go out and enjoy using it! :-)

I've had a very productive couple of weeks on the car, in no particular order:

• Engine loom installed. Hole drilled for bulkhead connector to chassis/cockpit side loom.

• Brakes bled. Initially we had a slightly spongy pedal but tracked this down to some slight play in the hydraulic handbrake mech. Once I rectified this the pedal feels great. I am hopeful the brake performance and bias will be pretty good out of the box.

• Clutch bled. Got lucky with this one and the matching of standard S1 lotus master cylinder to standard Ferrari slave cylinder has turned out to give an almost perfect pedal feel and weight. The clutch seems to engage and disengage smoothly. I believe the plates have only 17,000 miles on so hopefully there is a goo bit of life left in it yet.

• Rear wing endplates made. I had been holding off on this as I couldn't decide what to make these out of. In the end I plumped for the same ABS-based material I've used for the side skirts. The only downside of this material is I can't quite figure out how I'm going to create the louvres we want. More thinking required..!! (but they will do for now!). The geometry of the endplates has been suggested by a friend of mine who is an aerodynamicist for Williams F1 team.

• Diffuser consctuction. Started out by extending the standard S1 elise diffuser and using that as template. Will do a full post on the diffuser once it's complete...