[Shaker666]

I was not thinking of attempting to emulate the processor in the EEC. I was thinking of modernizing the FPGA/CPLD implementation the Tweecer and Quarterhorse used - ROM emulation via the J3 interface. I'm fairly certain that most run of the mill ARM Cortex microprocessors with enough peripherals and pins to serve the physical interface are up to the task. For example, I bet a TI MSP432 processor has enough pins and clock speed to do this. Programming is accomplished in the bare metal domain using a JTAG interface for debugging. Please, poke some holes in my approach.

[tvrfan]

Well I'm not going to - it's a perfectly good approach.

For monitoring and tuning though, you need some way of getting at the tune (=ROM) via the CPU. As I understand it, the existing solutions add a code 'hook' so that the original CPU writes selected register contents to somewhere else. This invalidates the checksum. It also adds a (small) load the the CPU, so you have to be careful of timing effects (and possibly interrupts too). This isn't a big deal, but the hooks I've seen posted here aren't all that robust, and could cause a crash. So even this simple approach needs a little care.
I see some here have said the BE/QH etc. has only very limited monitor capability.

If you can monitor/modify the tune separately via new external CPU, which I think is what you are saying, then you have solved that problem.

NB. Not knocking or attacking anything, after all they worked and did the job, just making the point for future designs.

[Shaker666]

What is the most comprehensive resource we have for the physical pinout of the J3 port and the related communications protocol used to communicate with the EEC processor? I've read the GUFB and CDAN4 strategy documents, but don't recall whether there is enough detail in there to develop a new communications interface.

[jsa]

There is a lot of protocol detail in the Hardware reference, which is in openeec on github.
EEC Tech docs have some info in pinouts, though limited to earlier boxes.
The EECSucka supporting documents are helpful as well. Also on Github.

[pierkotzen94]

I got a burner from boostednw.com I asked and they are going to be making an emulator as well, and also they said ford stuff is on the roadmap

[David Claflin]

So, for right now there's no new chips available, unless a used one is bought online?

[pierkotzen94]

So, for right now there's no new chips available, unless a used one is bought online?

There are several places that bought stock from the real supply in the past, that still have stock. One of them being where I got the burner, https://boostednw.com and there has been a few other places that used to purchase from moates.. So there are still genuine SST 27SF512 chips out there.

[David Claflin]

Those plug into the J3 port?

[ismailkho]

The Hardware Reference on GitHub's OpenEEC contains a wealth of protocol information. While the EEC Tech documents provide some pinout information, it is limited to earlier boxes. The supporting documents for EECSucka are also available on GitHub and can be quite helpful.

[CobraRTP]

Heads up.. From their site. Need to grab some SCT 6600's while you can if J3 is your thing.

Holiday Greetings!

As we move into the end of 2022, we sincerely want to say "THANK YOU ALL" for support and patronage. It's been a thrill helping folks with their efforts, and we've truly appreciated the opportunities to socialize, exchange ideas, learn, teach, and facilitate along the way.

We're closing down the webstore and related operations so that we can pursue the balance of our lives in different areas. There are several challenges that have led us to this decision, and we hope you can all appreciate the following:

The headwinds of production supply shortages have cut our supply lines to the marrow. Many components we've used have lead times of a year or more, with costs having increased significantly along the way. There's no end in sight, and we don't want to sacrifice quality with questionable sourcing or chase the costs by increasing prices.

We've been doing this for a while now, and we're tired and getting older. It's time for us to take a step back and focus on health, family, and overall wellness. Running Moates.net has taken a tremendous amount of time, which is a limited resource and in short supply. Between arthritis and chronic pain of hands, backs, and other various injuries of body parts, it is a challenge to physically perform tasks needed to keep things going and we need to change what we are doing to improve our quality of life.

We wish you the best on all your projects, whatever they may become. It's been an amazing experience, and again, we truly appreciate you all as we take this step!


Giving thanks,


Craig, Bonnie, and Dave

Hi all!
I represent the CobraRTP team, and I noticed that many are still looking for a replacement for Moates products.
I think we can offer a replacement for their main products, such as Ostrich 2, RoadRunner, Demon 2, more info on our website: https://cobrartp.com/en/replacement-for-moates-net/
Thank you for your attention!

[Shaker666]

Is there a plan to physically adapt the Motronic RT to the Ford EEC's J3 port and emulate or is it not intended for that application?