ECU protector for jumpstart/alternator probs

Mosaic · Postby **Mosaic** » February 23rd, 2016, 8:40 am

Hi All:
Problem statement: ECUs have their 'own' protection but not enough when a vehicle has alternator, harness, loom or battery problems. After a while these defects beat the ECU into early retirement.
Even improperly wired, high power, Sub woofers can transient kill an ECU via inductive or transmitted transients on the power rail. :shock:

Jump starting incorrectly or battery swapping with the engine running is also a good way to push your ECU over the edge. It happens all too often. :roll:

1) I am developing :idea:

a 3 tiered product to replace the ECU fuse that is meant to BLOCK all surges and transients via active electronic control down to picosecond response times.

2) As a monitoring device I hope to add an optional plugin display counter that will count the 'surge' events to allow proper evaluation of a car's voltage/alternator/loom while driving etc. Good for evaluating a used car purchase or for checking the surge condition of the alternator voltage. Also useful for RORO sellers to ensure the ECU does not fail during warranty and to inform if there is a problem at all. Useful for fleet rentals when customers do improper jump starting from or to the vehicle.

3) Then an option to bluetooth or wifi access point link to your smartphone for wireless, in cabin notification of such problems.

So I am placing this into the forum for any comments or interest you may have. This isn't commercial, yet. When it does go commercial, tuner members who were a useful part of the thread discussion get a discount or early access. :bday:

trini iceman · Postby **trini iceman** » February 23rd, 2016, 6:07 pm

Good luck but it's pretty difficult to kill ECU'S. You can cut a power switch wire and run it to ground and once you repair wire you good. I say with the right marketing thing will sell. All the best.

VexXx Dogg · Postby **VexXx Dogg** » February 26th, 2016, 9:37 pm

Do you have data to back up the claims made in your problem statement?

Is it just observational or anecdotal evidence?

supercharged turbo · Postby **supercharged turbo** » February 27th, 2016, 12:20 am

So if your product pulls through,what are your plans in terms of production?

Mosaic · Postby **Mosaic** » February 29th, 2016, 3:44 pm

VexXx Dogg wrote:Do you have data to back up the claims made in your problem statement?

Is it just observational or anecdotal evidence?

It's engineering, plain and simple. If I hit your ECU with a load dump, ISO 7637 (2011) it will die.

Many ECUs are equipped with MOVs for basic protection, they wear out after some time leaving the ECU without sufficient protection. Usually they last long enough to get past warranties, unless you do something foolish like remove a weak battery (engine running) after jump starting the car, or mix up the polarity of the jumper cables.
More modern ECUs are even more susceptible due to lower operating voltage (more energy efficient) MOS based processors which are (unfortunately) more sensitive to transient voltages.

A poorly operating or degrading alternator regulator will cause excessive transients eventually getting to the amplitude of killing the ECU as well. Usually the battery absorbs a lot of these by acting as a low ESR capacitor. However, as a battery ages, its ESR rises and permits larger transients in the harness....this couples to the ECU and can damage it.

Fusible links, aka Fuses operate far to slowly (milliseconds) to protect electronics (which needs nano second response speed), fuses protect against short circuits that can cause fires.

Mosaic · Postby **Mosaic** » February 29th, 2016, 3:51 pm

supercharged turbo wrote:So if your product pulls through,what are your plans in terms of production?

Local prototype assembly and stress testing for durability and function and installation issues.

Then packaging as a DIY kit to sidestep the myriad ESA certifications.

Sourcing turnkey PCBA in the far east.

Marketing, promotions, advertising and distribution.
I already have interest out of Brazil, they will do their own franchised assembly ...they have 50 Million cars on the road.

Trinidad is just a drop in the ocean in this market.

Wolfstein · Postby **Wolfstein** » March 31st, 2016, 7:44 pm

question. this will work to protect from spikes in voltages from what i have read in your post. what about "brown outs" low voltage. so in theory its like a CCR.