Baby steps... a draft of the above code change for V1 Manipulator is complete, I still need to test it. And then hopefully @jonofmac can test it as well. To me "success" would be a zone shift that occurs without triggering an EBCM fault.
And these changes should apply directly to V2.

Managed progress on the items in my previous post, including: 1) full wire harness for my V2 with programming capabilities added through the ash tray mount; 2) made another iteration of the V2 3D-printed ash tray mount; 3) successfully programmed the V2 with the harness and the OLED is displaying. I still have plenty of OLED code to troubleshoot, though.

Of course this is all just gibberish without pictures! I'll have to work on that...

Lastly, I've been working through a "SWPS Health Check" routine. The SWPS is a simple device that can fail and the EBCM has its own methods for detecting that. The Manipulator kinda needs this capability as well; enter the "Health Check". This is especially pertinent to me because an old SWPS on my '01 Z06 had a soft failure where it still mostly worked but the output wasn't good, and I believe this actually caused the car to dart off the road once (thankfully with minimal consequence).

I may have posted this years ago, but below is a plot of the old SWPS's output of A vs B. Red line is theoretical perfect, blue is measured output. My goal with the Health Check would be to detect this condition, and if found, turn off the Manipulator's output so the EBCM will just disable ABS / stability control (which would of course alert the driver).

 

Exciting!
For once throughout this project I can say that my C5 is actually together and running without issues so I can test whenever!

I don't drive the car much on the street because it's 100F outside and I don't have AC, but I would gladly do some testing.

 

I aspire to meet the same credentials of seeing my car together for once this year. And notably before the baby comes. It is going to be a thrash party once the heat waves leave off.

 

Progress on the zone shift code!
Had a weird curveball, of course: while testing the code, the EBCM seemed to be throwing a fault once the Manipulator's output reached/exceeded around +540° (this condition occurred when I intentionally powered up the Manipulator with the steering wheel turned left more than 180°, so that it was "zone shifted" by 360°). It was strange because this issue didn't specifically correlate with the code changes I was testing, and I didn't think it ever occurred before.
So I started digging deep into the code and compared it to my SWPS/manipulation spreadsheet, and found it! In the output section of code I have a series of calculations based on output "zone", and lo and behold the equation for output values greater than 540° had an incorrect value. Went back through ALL of my old code files and it turns out this error started in the beginning.

Anyways, so far the new Zone Shift code is looking good. Haven't tested it during a drive cycle, but the EBCM has yet to produce any faults with the car stationary.

Video of this in operation and showing how Zone Shift works, plus the current lack of EBCM codes shown below.

Great news! We'll be in touch soon.

At this point there's a 3-way race:

• SWPS Manipulator V2 being complete enough to ship
• Oklahoma Z build driving
• Baby Tusc arrival

 

The car will likely not beat the baby arrival. But who knows? What focus I have available to me during these heat waves has been devoted to secondary income attempts. Once the garage comes down into the 80s I'll pit time out there again. I'm also shoring up the coupe after some shakedown runs. The only conflict there has been the corrosion of all the O-rings from the ethanol which I will never run on a car a gain after this. So much for all that flex fuel planning on the Z06! Ha! With the fuel leaks addressed that car with a plug and oil change will be deemed ready to start winding it out a bit.

 

Moving along...

Updates to V1 code ("V1.1") have just been completed and forwarded to @jonofmac for additional testing. These changes will directly translate to V2 as well.

OLED case designs for V2 are in great shape as you see below:

• Ash tray integration, which includes USB port connected to programmer
• Standalone, tiny unit just with screen and button/switch (on right side).
  • Attaching this will be interesting, as-is could be secured with something like adhesive-backed velcro. Alternatively I could model the bottom case portion larger with holes for mounting using screws or zip ties. Keep in mind, though, that once the Manipulator is set up (using the screen & button) it's not really needed any more and it plus wiring harness can be removed altogether.

 

Just lower the bar until the goal line reaches you.

 

LOL

My full focus is on trying to earn an income. After that comes baby prep for the house. Then cars. And if my back hasn't gone out by then, I occasionally get stuff done.

It will help now that the nights are beginning to get cooler. If I rob myself of more sleep then I can hang out in the garage and get stuff done. I'm actually heading out to go de-corrode a brand new accessory bracket from GM which shipped without the alternator spacers (I'll just reuse what I've got) but I had left it on the floor of my garage over the winter and it oxidized something fierce. Time to clean it up! And maybe get a few bolts loose on the blower head unit.

 

I seriously don't know how time slips by so much... just installed the darn thing which means it took almost 6 months to do so...

Since then at least I made some code changes:

• Added a "disabled" mode where the device simply outputs 0V on A & B. This could be useful for people drifting/racing where they want to disable Active Handling, but it's much less effort than unplugging the SWPS under the dash.
• Increased the angle which can be outputted. For my use case I only need the equivalent of ~540° of steering wheel angle, but somebody seriously drifting the car might need much more. It can now output up to 900° of equivalent steering wheel angle. For reference stock is somewhere around 450-480°.

Anyways, finally a real installed picture. Initial checks look good, and first drive on V2 is coming in 40 minutes. Hopefully this drive and several subsequent drives go well so that the V2 can start making it into more C5s.

 

really like the bypass mode idea.


thanks for the update.

 

Well that was frustrating. I ended up needing to unplug the SWPS to manually disable the V2 just to get home.

What's happening... starting out the drive things are okay. Did the center calibration, made the angle kit selection. Both of these get written to EEPROM so that from a power cycle (i.e. key-off, then back on later) the Manipulator remembers center calibration and which angle kit is being used.
After several minutes of driving the V2 display seems to freeze, and it ends up resetting. Doesn't just reboot, but resets such that center cal & angle kit selection is wiped out / reset to default. And when it powers back up it's reporting the steering wheel is 180° off... no idea how that happens (never seen it before with V1). And then if I turn the wheel just a little Active Handling majorly kicks in. Fortunately the last time it happened was right before I got on the freeway.

Needless to say there's a lot more testing/debugging in my future.

 

Progress is good. Even if you learn what doesn't work.

I wonder what's causing the issue. That one is unfortunate.

As a note on my car. I broke my angle kit drifting at an event. Ended up going wisefab, so I have their "big" angle kit now (70* they claim). I unfortunately will need to re-measure the angles. Bypass mode is certain a nice idea. I am one of hte weird people that do keep it up for drifting because I like collecting the steering wheel *.

 

At least it presented early in the process instead of creeping up as you think you're wrapping it up.

 

I've seen a few of your comments on the Corvette Drift Facebook, I have a FDF Mini Mantis kit on my C5 I'd love to try out a V2 when you manage to debug enough for some proper testing. The angle kit definitely makes the active handling do some weird stuff

 

Thanks for your interest! I'm looking forward to having the time to debug V2.
Are you running your Mini Mantis on the inner hole for maximum steering angle?

 

I still haven't installed the one you sent me, what in 2023?

 

I've had a string of bad luck this year. broke my angle kit. Got new angle kit. Things didn't fit. Then I broke my transmission output shaft in half at a shake down event. Got it back together and had my first real event last weekend. Car did beautifully. but now I need to find time to get it back in the car and measure the new angles so I can street drive it with the nannies.

Since I just hit 25 years in this car, I actually bought a motec m150 and a planning to do a parallel install so I can keep the rest of the factory electronics. Currently trying to figure out if there's a way to do it with some intermediate harness instead of cutting up the factory ECU connector/wiring. I know tusc is on haltech.

Tldr: car was broke. Car finally running again. Need to measure angles 😂

 

I'm running the lower angle setting, and rack spacers to limit wheel contact with control arms at full lock. My z06 reps that came on the car when I bought it are not ideal for adding angle, but I'm getting some different wheels soon that'll hopefully clear everything a bit better.

 

Wow! Well there have been code updates/improvements so if/when you plan to install everything we can work together to get you the latest version.

Cool, I was worried that you might be on the inner hole which would mean more development. Once V2 is running properly on my car it would then be plug-and-play for you.

 

I have certainly considered making some suspension changes to the car while she is in the air right now. Maybe I will follow thru and install the rear bump steer kit and the mini mantis and we can iron out some stuff!

Thank you for your continued support