Well Joesixpack nira plays a part in the development of the Adaptronic DI ECU. DI stands for direct injection.
I think this all need to be explained to understand the origin and need of this ECU system.
I run an engineering company run all sorts of projects for internal combustion engines on a commercial base so tuning is only a small (fun) bit of this.
We had the request in from a customer to build an engine control system that could run all diesel engines.
Knowing almost every fuel system used on commercial diesel engines I start investigating what is needed to get this done and set specifications.
Reprogramming all of the OEM ECU system would take to long or be too expensive so the best option was one box must do it all.
Also the system must be able to withstand a short circuit on the injector control part.
The fist thing I did is start investigating what on the marked and soon I found out that the ECU was too expensive or not having the I/O (inputs/outputs) to run the engines or to limited on options.
I also find out it’s difficult to get information from ECU builders for non commercial use or they have no idea how to run the fuel systems so that was a no go for me.
On the commercial side it’s a lot better as you can bay development ECU systems but they come with a big price tag for software and licenses. Example of this is MOTORTRON used on some Cummins QSB or ISB where you can build the control strategy from the ground up with a combination from madlab and motor hawk.
Problems with these ECU is the I/O needed to run some of the engines.
Begin of year 2009 I did some background support on a nira commonrail project for tractor pulling. At first it seems a lack on support from nira was holding up this project but later on doing some reversed engineering it came out that this ECU was having a load of problems and being unpredictable and to limited on options to get the result needed for this application.
From that point onward having to face limitations on both hardware and software I decided to build my own DI ECU system.
At the same time the 1280ECU from Adaptronic was in a test phase still needed a lot of work so it took me a year to get the software and new hardware going.
The 1280ECU is an open structure ECU, same as a development ECU so your able to write your own control strategy not having limitations other than I/O.
The ECU can run up to 20 cylinders and we everything from Bosch to the Delphi F2 systems and even Cummins HPI.
Also a big plus is that the ECU uses multiple processor and a FPGA as main processor that makes this box the fastest aftermarket ECU as far as I know.
The last part are the injector drivers that can be set-up in many ways to optimize coil performance if needed.
This all was the base for the diesel test system we build today for commercial use and R&D.
Picture of the advanced mode of the ECU.
Motor sports:
I never intended to use this system for motorsport until team de Manne van Janne ask me if I could build an ECU system for there truck puller as they where fighting the OEM ECU for almost 2 years not getting the RPM and performance needed promised by so many chip tuners. Seems like fun and a challenge to take on this project not only building the ECU system for this truck but also do the development on the engine and injectors and so on trying to gain progress by data logging over 60 channels of ECU data.
Example of the data using winlogview as the ECU produces CSV files.
Adaptronic ECU data logging semi truckpuller Manne van Janne 2 on display. - YouTube
This truck puller also gave me the chance to try ALS (anti lag control) used on rally cars to spoolup the turbochargers.
Problems with these modern engines is they run very efficient and hitting the 2900Rpm mark will only give 40Kpa boost with no engine load so you need the clutch a lot more to get the boost needed.
As I have all the freedom to do what I want on engine controls is that I set half the cylinders on retard timing near to max RPM allowed to burn of fuel when the exhaust valve is open building up controlled boost up to 100Kpa of 15PSI, more will be possible but I don’t think the gearbox will hold the amount of torque if you drop the clutch to fast.
@ Joesixpack I think your referring to a license build Cummins QSB or ISB Iveco engine?
Yes I know some people from Iveco development department. Drop me a PM or e-mail if you like.