Spark setup/ no longer getting spark.

[AjRose]

I'm Having a bit of trouble with my ignition setup in vems. I have a Bmw e30 325i and I'm using Danmartins old vems setup.

The Firing order is 153624

I have it wired like this:

Pin 35 -> Coil 1 -> Cylinders 1 & 6
Pin 33 -> Coil 2 -> Cylinders 5 & 2
Pin 34 -> Coil 3 -> Cylinders 3 & 4

Megatune reads:

05..00

0    2
1    1
2    0
3    2
4    1
5    0

I believe this is right. But I'm not 100% sure. ( I was getting spark at this time)

I had also blown a few 7.5A Fuses while checking the spark.  My dwell Is set at ~2.0ms. And they seemed to blow randomly. I replaced 3 fuses one for each coil. After that I got spark without blowing the fuses.  I stopped getting spark after disconnected the injectors to check that I had them wired correctly.  I used a mulitmeter since I had already wrapped the wires(stupid ) After that I tried to reload the origional .msq and I'm stuck with the warnings below.


Also when I try to load the origional .msq that I saved I get a warning that is written to the audit log. Also when I start up megatune and connect to the VEMS unit the Blue ALS light is on but It appears to be disabled in the menu.  I'll post a screenshot of the menu shortly.

Documents\NewVEMSfolder\VemsMT1.0.73Final\VEMS Genboard V3 16x14 High-boost\megasquirt200902041741.msq:Open
   WARNING(03): Value from option list "h2d2" = "INVALID" not found.

   WARNING(03): Value from option list "h2d5" = "INVALID" not found.

   WARNING(03): Value from option list "h2d6" = "INVALID" not found.

   WARNING(03): Value from option list "h2d7" = "INVALID" not found.

   WARNING(03): Value from option list "boost_conf_pwm" = "INVALID" not found.


Warning Details
---------------

   WARNING(03) means that the value expressed in the file for the
               constant was not found one of the options listed in the
               current configuration.  The constant was not altered, so
               you probably want to look more closely at this one and
               see what caused the mismatch.

Thanks for any help.

[rob@vems.co.uk]

What firmware are you running?

Are you 100% sure that the coils are not faulty, the reason I ask this is because the VEMS only ever grounds the coils, the thing drawing the ~7A load will be outside the ECU - unless you have the ignition outputs inverted in which case the coils would be being charged constantly except for 2.0ms of the time.
If you found that the fuses blew when you were testing them with a multimeter then you may have been providing the coils with a ground path allowing them to charge and draw a large amount of current.
The fact that the sparks stopped when you removed the injectors seems strange - are your injectors on a differente fused circuit?

[AjRose]

I'm running 1.0.73 

I'm using the MSD 8224 coils and the only have 2 inputs. I have not been able to find anything that says they require one pin to be +12v and the other the ecu trigger. It's my understanding that they are reversible. I assume that's what you mean by inverted?

I was checking the spark by cranking the motor and looking at the plug for spark.

My injectors are on a different circuit.  I'm not really sure how they could have caused this problem.  But It started just after I tested them.


How would I go about testing the coils to make sure they aren't dead? I have another set of coils. But I may go back to the stock single coil setup just to get the car running for now.

[rob@vems.co.uk]

I'm using the MSD 8224 coils and the only have 2 inputs. I have not been able to find anything that says they require one pin to be +12v and the other the ecu trigger. It's my understanding that they are reversible. I assume that's what you mean by inverted?

They can run in either direction, after all a coil is a coil no matter which direction you're looking at.
By inverted I am talking about the option in Settings->Ignition Settings

I was checking the spark by cranking the motor and looking at the plug for spark.

My injectors are on a different circuit.  I'm not really sure how they could have caused this problem.  But It started just after I tested them.

That is strange, I can't think of a reason why this would happen.

How would I go about testing the coils to make sure they aren't dead? I have another set of coils. But I may go back to the stock single coil setup just to get the car running for now.

Check the primary coil resistance, it should be around an ohm.

[AjRose]

They can run in either direction, after all a coil is a coil no matter which direction you're looking at.
By inverted I am talking about the option in Settings->Ignition Settings

Invert driver output is disabled.

Check the primary coil resistance, it should be around an ohm.

I get .5 on all three coils. On one of the extra (not msd) coils I have is .6

[rob@vems.co.uk]

Coils sound okay, if you're only charging them for 2ms it should be fine.

If you can post your config.txt and tables.txt I'll take a look.

Rob

[AjRose]

primep=00

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j[0]=1E80 3480 3680 3880 3A80 3C80 3E80 4080 4380 4580 4680 4880 4A80 4C80 4E80 5080

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j[2]=2880 3D80 3E80 3F80 4080 4180 4280 4380 4580 4680 4980 4D80 5080 5080 4F80 4F80

j[3]=4580 4680 4780 4880 4980 4A80 4B80 4C80 4E80 4F80 5280 5680 5980 5980 5880 5880

j[4]=4D80 4E80 4F80 5080 5180 5280 5380 5480 5680 5780 5780 5980 5C80 5C80 5B80 5B80

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j[6]=5080 5180 5380 5580 5780 5D80 6080 6180 6180 6280 6380 6380 6380 6380 6380 6480

j[7]=5180 5380 5580 5780 5980 5E80 6280 6380 6480 6480 6580 6680 6680 6680 6680 6780

j[8]=5580 5780 5980 5B80 5D80 6180 6480 6580 6680 6780 6880 6980 6980 6980 6980 6A80

j[9]=5980 5B80 5D80 5F80 6180 6480 6680 6780 6880 6A80 6B80 6C80 6D80 6E80 6E80 6E80

j[A]=5D80 5F80 6180 6380 6580 6780 6980 6A80 6B80 6C80 6C80 6D80 6E80 6F80 6F80 6F80

j=6180 6380 6580 6780 6980 6A80 6B80 6C80 6D80 6D80 6D80 6E80 7080 7280 7280 7280

j[C]=6680 6880 6A80 6C80 6E80 6F80 7080 7180 7280 7280 7280 7380 7580 7780 7780 7780

j[D]=6B80 6D80 6F80 7180 7380 7480 7580 7680 7780 7780 7780 7880 7A80 7C80 7C80 7C80

l[0]=37 37 3B 3B 3D 40 40 43 47 47 48 4D 4D 4F 51 51

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l[2]=37 37 34 2C 2C 31 3B 3D 3D 43 47 48 48 48 48 48

l[3]=3D 3D 3B 3B 3B 3B 3D 3D 43 43 47 48 48 48 48 48

l[4]=47 43 37 3D 47 5C 5C 5C 5C 5C 5C 5C 5C 5C 5C 5C

l[5]=66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66

l[6]=66 66 66 66 66 6B 6D 6D 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

l[7]=70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

l[8]=70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

l[9]=70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

l[A]=70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

l=70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

l[C]=70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

l[D]=70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70

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n[4]=50 5C 60 64 6C 80 80 80 80 84 88 90 94 94 94 94
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n[6]=50 54 54 54 54 5C 5E 60 64 64 68 70 70 70 70 70
n[7]=50 50 50 50 50 50 54 58 58 58 58 5C 5C 60 60 60

n[8]=48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 4C 54 58 58 58 58

n[9]=40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 44 48 48 4C 4E 50

n[A]=38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 3C 3C 3C 40 44 46 48

n=34 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 34 34 38 3C 3E 40

n[C]=30 2C 2C 2C 2C 2C 2C 2C 2C 2C 30 30 34 38 3A 3C

n[D]=2C 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 2C 2C 30 34 36 38

k[0]=0A 14 1E 28 32 3C 46 50 5A 64 6E 78 82 8C

r[0]=05 0A 0D 0F 14 19 1C 1E 23 28 2D 32 37 3C 41 46

h[0]=08 02 20 04 10 01 40 80

h[1]=01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01

h[2]=20 10 00 20 10 00 00 00

According to your post in the "MSD wasted spark question" thread the H[2] line Is wrong or at least different. But I would think that I'd still get spark even if that is wrong. It would just be firing in the wrong order?

Thanks, Aj

[rob@vems.co.uk]

Yes you'd still get a spark no matter what the firing order.

Strange, h2 looks fine, I'll try bench testing it when I get a chance - it won't be instant though as something called Valentines day has been mentioned, not sure how it effects me but no doubt I'll get to "oppotunity" to do something non-VEMS related

Rob

[rob@vems.co.uk]

Looks fine on the test bench, do you know what ignition hardware you have on your unit?  Mine test one is a 4+4 type so that would only give a spark on one channel...

[AjRose]

Thanks for the reply Rob,  I think I may have found the cause of the problem.  Either my crank position sensor is dead or I fried a VR driver on the board..

I'm an absolute idiot for not checking that I'm getting an rpm signal at all.

Aj.

[rob@vems.co.uk]

If you fiddled with the grounds you may have destroyed the P259 chip, you can test VR signal with your DVM on AC across primary trigger and sensor ground, when cranking you should see something like 100-300mVAC from a VR sensor.
If the sensor is fine then you'll need a read of this:
http://195.159.109.134/vemsuk/forum/index.php/topic,676.0.html

[AjRose]

I dont remember messing with the grounds when I tested the injectors.  But I "may" have unplugged the EC36 while the battery was still hooked up.  If that would do it.. I really hope I didn't fry it.  I'll check it first thing tomorrow.

Thanks. Aj