Jaycar Boost Controller, Hand Controller, Fuel Adjuster

[StockyMcStock]

also got mine - cheers shan!

[Angry]

anyone in melbourne able to help me out with my iEBC ....check and tried just about everything ..and nothing...much appreciated.

Matt

[WhO]

Anyone had problems with their DFA's?

I've got mine all done, got a yr 12 electronics teacher to check it over and its not working!

Power the unit up and the display on the hand controller lights up and looks normal. The problem is that i cant calibrate the dfa! No matter what i do the voltage at tp2 is around -4.8v @ 12v supply or up to -6v at 13.8v supply. I can play with the adjustments at VR1 till the cow's come home but the voltage at tp2 doesnt change at all.

The output voltage also refuses to budge from -.68v. Again i can play with the trimpots all day with no effect on anything there. Adjusting the values in the hand controller also net no change in output voltage!

Changing the input voltage also doesnt make the hand controller change its input position, it wont budge from 1!

HELP this is driving me nuts, i spent 3 hours last night double checking every single connection, i've had my old electronics teacher check it over and we cant figure out what the hell is screwing up!!!

He suggested either its a dud and possibly has a stuffed ic but how on earth would've that happened! im always very carefull handling ic's and have never killed one!

Please save my sanity!

Rob

[WhO]

Hmm would it be worth replacing all the ic's? just incase one is dodgy? im sure the main ic (IC3) is ok because the hand controller turns on fine and comes up with all the text etc so i wouldnt replace that.

Good/Bad idea?

Cheers,

Rob

[cameron]

Got mine today aswel,

Thanks shan

[resonance]

For all those who are having issues with their kits and have already gone and checked all their solder points, you'll be best to go back and check that you've build it according to instructions exactly. But don't fret too much because most of the time you will find a problem and it will magically start working. Electronics is not for the impatient, so if you feel you're getting jacked off at it, just leave it and come back to it tomorrow.

1) Check all the links you have installed are as per the instructions. A missing link can be the difference between it working and not. I found looking at the back of the PCB for unsoldered 'pads' was useful, because pretty much there shouldn't be any ('cept for 1 or 2 unused ones). But look for the white printed lines on the top of the PCB, they show where the links go. The DFA is more straight forward when it comes to this because the IEBC has a few links which are 'configuration options' - read the 'The Links' section of the article to understand where they go.

2. Check you have put in the jumpers (little black things which connect up 2 of the jumper pins). These are as important as links, the article text explains exactly where these go.

3. Check you have no leftover bits. Pretty much I found all I had leftover were maybe some screws and wire and solder. Even the black jumper pins and stuff were all used up.

4. Check you have the diodes in the right places and in the correct orientation. Diodes are little tubular components with pins out each end, and always have a single little white band towards one end and their model printed on them. It is very important that these are both the correct ones in the correct spots, and that they are the right way around. This is because diodes only conduct electricity in one direction (indicated by the band), so if they are the wrong way around, it is as if they aren't there at all. The 'band end' is shown on the PCB in the white print. From memory, the 1N4004/1N4148 (power) diodes are black and have sharp ends. The zener and signal diodes are a reddish/orange/brownish or a silvery/grey colour.

5. Check transistors, ICs, polarised capacitors are in the right way. The two PIC ICs on the IEBC are marked with white paint - one has a stripe and one has a dot. That's how they are differentiated and the black/white printed instructions show where each goes. The transistors are like a [) shape, they are pretty straight forward because the board shows which way they go, just make sure you put in the correct model where it belongs. Capacitors come in many different varieties and the polarised ones are (in these kits) the Electrolytic ones, which are tubular shaped and have lot more text printed on the side than other capacitors. They usually state the actual value (eg. 10uF) rather than an abbreviated value (eg. 104K = 0.1uF). It is not vital, but quite important (hence make sure of this) that they are the right way around. It has been known of electrolytics to explode when connected the wrong way around. Most other components don't just explode but these can I hear. One side of these (on their 'tube') has a marking like - > -. This is basically a pointer to the pin on that side (on the bottom of the 'tube') saying it's the negative pin, thus the other pin is the +, and so should be soldered onto the board that way.

6. If you still have problems, check all your resistors and solder connections. OMG WTF check all the resistors?!, I hear you say? Yeah, it is tedious, but it is again, very important that these are the correct values. Incorrect values can mean that a transistor doesn't 'turn on' and this can result in the whole circuit not being powered up, or not functioning anywhere near correct. The instructions show how to read these resistors - they are 1% ones with 5 bands. There is a tiny, but larger than others, gap between one of the end colour bands and the next one on these resistors. This means that it is the 'tolerance' band and it's always brown on these resistors. Basically just ignore that band, and read the resistor from the other side towards the 'larger gap'. Eg it will be: -(_|_|_|_|__|_)- the right-most band is the 'tolerance' band, so read it from left to right. Get me?

Phew.

Anyway, I hope this has helped. And I just decided what may be a help is for me to take nice big clear and colourful photos of my (working) IEBC board so you can use it to help with where components go and their orientations. I've already put up closeup photos of the DFA board earlier, so check that as well.

Here's the top and bottom:

But well done guys, it's rewarding to know 'you built it yourself and saved a shitload of money'.

[Angry]

ok.... blah.. the marked IC's were in the wrong positions....... check

with the resistors....is the orientation important? or as long as they are in the right position also they'll work all the same?

and same with the "grey things" lol ..sorry i'm not that electronically inclined.

is soldiering points to the 10mhz and 20mhz crystal units important as well?

as i followed the picture and overlay diagrams. which is different to the way uve done yours...... i'd assume yours works?

also .. LK5 on yours is as per the print on the board... where as the instructions say other wise....as did XRhettX

thanks for the picture....... says a thousand words alone lol

Matt

[WhO]

Ahh shit closer inspection has revealed i missed a link! i put in a resistor and it was off to one side hiding the spot where the link goes! Found it by checking the underside of the board

THANKYOU!!!!

Now to solder it up and see if it works!

[WhO]

Damnn i feel like such an ass! it works now :D:D

Again BIG THANKS to Resonance for the tip to look underneath the board!

Dammit if you lived in S.A. i'd be buying you a few beers!

Cheers,

Rob

[WhO]

ok.... blah.. the marked IC's were in the wrong positions....... check

with the resistors....is the orientation important? or as long as they are in the right position also they'll work all the same?

and same with the "grey things" lol ..sorry i'm not that electronically inclined.

Matt

Nup with resistors and the "grey things" orientation doesnt matter (by grey things are you referring to the little rectangular ones marked like "104k100" ?)

Cheers,

Rob

[Angry]

yep .. them ones ..lol

had a little bit of progress just now ....but still not working.. nothing on the hand controller what so ever.. not even light.

But ....if i put the positive wire of the soleniod to the GND wire on the unit .. the 3rd led lights up .. but the soleniod doesnt shut .... maybe i should get a soleniod they reccommend to use ....but i dont see how different they can be...

Matt

[predator]

them grey things are capacitors.. the small ones don't matter orientation.. but the larger can sized ones (black) will go pop if installed incorrectly as they have polarity (negative is the smaller lead, with the white arrow)

Anybody about to commence doing the kit.. I reckon start with the hand controller as its nice and simple - and good practice or dust off of the soldering skills. Mine is together, took about 60mins I guess.

After that move onto the other stuff.. I'm doing the DFA and its about 3 times the complexity of the hand controller, but its coming together. Doing the links is so tedious! You'll need some wire cutters and some small pliers to bend em. I found staples to be nice pre-bent ones

[amokrp513]

Can't we get the kits anymore from Funkymonkey in group buy? I'll be hell disappointed if we can't cos I just missed out.

[predator]

Pretty much finished the DFA.. What is the spare POT for though ???

ignore the circle there

[xRHETTx]

The spare pot is for calibrating the DFA, so you can imitate the signal from the airflow meter (variable voltage).

Good news is after braking my mosfet amplifier on the IEBC, it only cost me $2 to get a new one. So much easier than trying to solder the pins back in, and jaycar had it in stock too.

[resonance]

Yeah, pretty much you can go and buy any of the replacement parts for this project from Jaycar, if you bust or lose any. The only ones I think might be hard would be the PIC chips because they have software burnt on them -- you could buy them but they won't be programmed as required.

[BLakniTE]

Still waiting to know when the next group buy will be starting

[Restless 33]

wondering the same as blaknite

[funkymonkey]

ah crap i've been a slack arse... gimme 5 mins I'll put up another thread