[Gasification] Was: OBD-II extension for gasifier self-diagnosis Now: cheap sensing and control

[Pete&Sheri]

This is a follow up to the "OBD-II" posts, but from a slightly different 
perspective.
   Currently I am trying to bring a 1990 chevy V6 engine back to life 
and am having to learn enough about the electronics of the vehicle to 
accomplish it.
In doing so, I have become impressed with the whole electronic control 
setup for the TBI (Throttle Body Injection) system (okay, so I am easily 
impressed).
  Anyway, it has a lot of  features that might make it a "poor man's 
(woman's)"  controller for some things gasifier related.   In addition 
to the many sensors, some of which seem to relate pretty  closely to 
gasifier needs, there's a stepper motor-driven  device called the "IAC" 
(Idle air control) which could  do some useful output work.
  I read that one can burn their own chips for the "computer", too.
Maybe it's all too far off to be useful, but maybe its worth a thought.

Sensors:
rpm
oxygen
Throttle position
Manifold pressure
Coolant temperature

Outputs:
Drive for 2 separate injectors
Idle air control motor
Fuel pump control

And, they tell me the whole setup costs about $100 US at the junk yard.


While I am on the subject of data gathering, I have been using an 
inexpensive Data Acquisition Unit that I bought from Dataq.com  several 
years ago.The deivice connects to a PC.  My old serial bus unit cost 
about $25 US.     Currently, the USB version (DI-148U) costs about $50 
US.  It has 4 channels of analog input in the -10 to +10 volt range, and 
3 channels of digital input.  The device comes with basic software for 
capturing the data and for displaying it in real time in graphical 
format.  I used it for about 1 1/4 years to conduct my own solar pv 
assessment at our home, making simple passive circuitry to adapt my 
ouptuts to this DAU,   You can see how I used it at:

http://www.spaco.org/PV/PVSolar.htm

Pete Stanaitis
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