I'm a pilot of an Experimental aircraft and needed a good engine monitor - around 6 or 7 years ago I started with an Arduino and a 2.8" display and a 8 channel thermocouple board... Struggled along, slow screen updates, integer math, etc... Then I found paradise when I ran across the Teensy and Paul's (and all of the contributors) INCREDIBLE work here.
Current version has a Teensy 3.6 mounted near the engine with 23 inputs: 8 K type thermocouple, analog pressures and temperatures (Oil Temp, pressure, manifold pressure, engine timing and RPM, etc... and some spares, along with a spare RS232 input. This board communicates via RS232 to the display module.
The display module has a 3.5" cap touch screen, 8 more inputs (2nd RPM, Fuel flow, airspeed and altitude, temperature, volt and ammeter...) 6 outputs (warning lights, dimmer and spare) and 3 RS232 channels to share information with my GPS for fuel estimation at the destination, etc... It also records data to a uSD card, stores a variety of settings in flash, and monitors for any out of limits conditions.
Boards were designed in Upverter and procured through OshPark, housings designed in OnShape and printed on my Prusa Mk3. I did add a Teensy 3.6 and a 4.1 model in Upverter so that is now available if anyone needs it.
I have an engineering degree, but never did board design or EE design until this project, and it flies! Anyone who questions what they can do - give it a try - you'll learn a ton along the way, have a lot of fun, experience frustration when things don't go right (or you swap an Rx and a Tx line - which the engineers I work with on NASA programs do routinely as well), and get to make cool things work! If you're interested in checking out the Upverter designs, drop me a note and I'll get you access. I'm open to suggestions in making the designs better as well.
Dude, that is some serious high quality work. Impressive UI, board, and packaging. I too started with Arduino for a similar system but ran into the same issues. I moved to Teensy and never looked back.
Dude, that is some serious high quality work. Impressive UI, board, and packaging. I too started with Arduino for a similar system but ran into the same issues. I moved to Teensy and never looked back.
Well done!
Kris,
Thank you! It's been a long time coming, and I want to do even more with it... Crank velocity measurement, vibration measurement... A lot of folks see it and don't know what to think, I appreciate your remarks.
Probably my biggest hurdle, and I don't think it's a hard one, is if we had a library of exemplar circuits with a little verbiage on how to implement them. Might be something that could exist in the forums or on Paul's page. A starter list might include:
Voltage divider with Zener protection.
RS232 implementation
Open Collector frequency input
12V to Teensy power supply
120V to Teensy power supply
Multi LED Driver
Servo Control
Temperature sensing - thermocouple, RTD's and other common sensors
Ethernet Interfacing
I think this would ease a lot of fears of how to jump in and really do cool things with Teensy. The library would grow as a few moderators watched the project lists, etc... Then, many projects become building blocks instead of research projects. I probably spent half my time and 2/3rd of my mistakes could have been solved with exemplar circuits of the above. We have great code libraries, why not matching circuit libraries?
...
Probably my biggest hurdle, and I don't think it's a hard one, is if we had a library of exemplar circuits with a little verbiage on how to implement them. Might be something that could exist in the forums or on Paul's page. A starter list might include:
...
Hi there, I have a diesel that runs the air cart on my drill and this is more or less exactly what I was looking to do to monitor it. Currently there is nothing other than a RPM reading for the fan that it runs on the implement monitor. Any chance you would share the files? Only other thing I would have to add is a PWM controller to run the throttle
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Originally Posted by KrisKasprzak
