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How fast does a PC have to be

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H

Howard

Lifer
In order to adequately emulate a good ECU?

Let's say I had a crate engine but wasn't satisfied with any of the available ECU options. Could I hook up a laptop with some sort of custom transceiver (for the proper voltage I/O and wiring) and control it using PC software?
 
I believe people have made custom ECUs before with an arduino, though modern cars probably have more going on, higher polling rates, etc. and likely require some extra processing power.
 
Any modern PC can handle the duties, the problem is the OS and software. You would not want processing to be waiting on the OS to complete a back ground task of some sort. A car will have a dedicated sub-system with built in redundancy. A system "stutter" is not something you want to see when knock is being detected 🙂
 
Windows is not a realtime operating system. It doesn't matter how fast the computer is practically speaking.
 
KentState said:
Any modern PC can handle the duties, the problem is the OS and software. You would not want processing to be waiting on the OS to complete a back ground task of some sort. A car will have a dedicated sub-system with built in redundancy. A system "stutter" is not something you want to see when knock is being detected 🙂
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Do PC processors have PWMs, DACs, ADCs, programmable GPIOs, etc? Even if you had a RTOS, you'd need to have those analog interfaces to control injectors, read throttle position and such.
 
The amount of processing power is trivial by today's PC standards. The real issue is interface and OS. You'd probably get more mileage out of a dedicated ECU with PC software. I had a link ECU over a decade ago that did that.
 
JCH13 said:
A PLC would likely be the way to go.

Why aren't the available ECU options satisfactory?
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I'm sure they are. The question is academic.

Don't PLCs have a scanning rate of only up to 10 Hz or so? I expect that to be too slow for what an engine needs.
 
Howard said:
I'm sure they are. The question is academic.

Don't PLCs have a scanning rate of only up to 10 Hz or so? I expect that to be too slow for what an engine needs.
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Rodger that.

Here's a random article I found that references 'typical' scan times of PLCs: http://www.electrocam.com/pdf/tech/SCANTIME.PDF

It notes 3-100ms, or 333-100hz. Not amazingly fast, but I imagine that faster PLCs exist. As long as the resolution of the timing in the PLC is good enough 333hz should be a plenty-fast scan rate (I would think).

Edit: A micro-controller, like an arduino, would also work. This is essentially what a Megasquirt is: a microcontroller with code and accessory hardware to run an engine.

I would be hesitant to use a PC to control an ECU, PLCs and microcontrollers are used for this type of application IRL for reasons beyond computing power, of which they have plenty.
 
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