It's a big learning curve for me and I joke that I'm learning MS at a geometric rate!
MS is a DIY style of electronic fuel injection. We have a huge variety of sensors and components to choose from. The goal is to build the system with the same lightweight approach as the bike had last year.
It will add at least 2kg (4.4lb) or more.
Will the motor develop more HP? I reason that we should be able to utilize the benefit of all the forced induction and adapt the fuel charge to suit. Also datalogging will be employed from Innovates DL-32 module.
The install presents its' share of challenges. Firstly methanol isn't particularly suited to most fuel pumps so I plan to flush it out after each meeting. I'm hoping it'll last a season.
The battery needs to be upgraded to approx 11A current draw and I'm budgeting on 3 -5mins runtime.
Also running total loss battery has presented the issue of diminishing voltage, so I'm trialing a solution to maintain a constant 13.8v.
Fuel pump came from a CBR600RR and the housing was turned from pipe and plate.
The engine was run briefly though there's quite some fine tuning to do. The Amal carbs were refitted for competition 1 meeting & Spring Nationals
MS needs a USB-serial adaptor which was proving troublesome. Mine worked for a week, then after that it couldn't be revived. It seems like a lot of people are complaining. There's a sticky thread on the Innovate forum dedicated to the subject. I borrowed one which instantly worked without issue.
The chip in the cable is FTDI and is thought to be the best compared to Prolific chipsets.
27Nov2012
The Microsquirt adaption is proving to be difficult. The bikes' Boyer pickup is a variable reluctor so consequently the signal needs rendering into a square wave for MS to be happy with it. A hall sensor and rotor from a Harley Evo is currently being tested. It works but the spark isn't great and the tach in Tuner studios reads 1rpm only. Google suggests there's a problem for MS in reading the trigger signal. I'm continuing to push ahead with this project as I really want the shift light and air shifter working soon.
7Dec2012
The issue with Microsquirt and the spark turned out to be the noise filtering settings needed to be turned off. As part of trying to get the variable reluctor to work earlier, this setting must have been turned on. The Harley hall sensor plate and rotor weren't a direct bolt-on so adapting has been planned. The rotor was too big to spin in the T140 cover so a complete alternative one is having to be made. The pickup plate had to be offset by 1-2mm and reduced in diameter. This hopefully will give us the basis to get the bike running under Microsquirt control.
18Dec2012
This is the adapted Harley hall effect pickup. The mounting plate has been reduced in diameter and also offset to suit a slightly smaller custom made rotor. This rotor is fabricated from an original Triumph advance/retard so it has the correct tapered coupling.
22 Feb2013
Finally I appear to have the spark sorted. I had to modify the rotor (see below).
The Harley hall effect switches to ground when it sees a gap. Harley use 5v as the trigger voltage and MS is happy with it.
Firing is set on "falling edge" which is at the end of the long tooth at the 9o'clock position as you see it. Plus it fires the other cylinder at the end of the 3rd tooth when rotated clockwise.
3 March 2013
Great news, the Microsquirt ignition finally works! The parts above are the final iteration. Testing at a competiton drag meeting (Comp4) gave an all time best of 11.07 E.T.
Ignition only.
MS settings:
Shift light 6000rpm
Timing 38'
Rev limit soft cut 7000
Rev limit hard cut 7200
9June2013
The engine ran well enough to set the new record of 10.98ET @119mph.
Shift light 6100rpm.
There was some minor backfiring at start up and I think I have found the cause/s. According to Dyna help, the dwell for the green Dyna coil should be 12-14ms whereas it was set at 3.7ms. This would also account for the low battery usage. Trigger offset will be looked at again as I don't think those settings are optimal. It's a wonder it went as well as it did!
I think for the fuel injection to be reliably fitted, it would first need putting on a roadbike and sorted through for some weeks. A decision will be made soon.
18Feb2014
The fuel injection side of Microsquirt is postponed indefinitely. I have made progress on the ignition by using LS2 Chev coils which have inbuilt ignitors. Also a shift light and air shifter are being controlled by MS.
Because the coils are extremely fast charging, dwell is 4Ms with cranking at 4.5Ms. Note, these coils will auto-discharge at over current situations. Cranking timing was also reduced to 5BTDC. This compares to the redundant green Dyna coil requiring 14Ms. Most notable was the fact that Microsquirt doesn't cater for such large dwell settings so is regarded as old school.
