_Chris_
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Posts posted by _Chris_
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Just a brief introduction to CDD Electronics.
I started the business back in 1987, initially as self-employed sub-contract labour for another electronics company, working as part of a design team on specialised telecoms equipment for the railway industry. This grew to providing a complete service including design and small to medium volume manufacturing of custom electronics.
Recently, the emphasis is on sub-contract electronic design and software, mostly embedded. Production is sub-contracted to a local company I have a good relationship with.
Specialities are telecoms, radio, motor drives, industrial control and image analysis. One of my current projects is precise location tracking using ultra-wideband radio, this is a joint venture with some friends which I will cover separately.
I have a very out of date website which I wrote many years ago when many people were still on dialup. Hopefully I'll get it redone shortly.
If anyone is looking for this sort of expertise as part of their work then please feel free to contact me. I'm also happy to offer free advise to club members.
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Having come from years of owning escorts and talbots as my toys, I noticed a massive difference in the quality of steel used by Toyota, both for body metalwork and fixings.
On a ford, a body panel would go from a stone chip to a hole in a year or 2, and leaving any surface rust when repairing would mean doing it again within a couple of years. Very different story on the Celica. Likewise bolts which have been there for 20 years just take half a turn with a breaker bar and out they come with fingers, very different from bolts which are rusted solid within a year. This is why I always clean & re-use original bolts rather than fitting new aftermarket ones. Even plated bolts rust quicker than original Toyota.
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It will be a vibration damper for the same reason as dual mass crank pulleys. Any spring plus mass combination (and metal is springy) will resonate at a particular frequency. In the case of driveshafts, this will be a certain speed. If kept at that speed constantly and without the damping, the flexing of the metal will lead to fatigue and snapped driveshaft. The big question is what speed is the resonance, and how long do you spend driving at that speed.
A very informative thread on the subject.
http://www.gt4dc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6120&hilit=resonance
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If you passed the test in 2013 then I'm guessing you're fairly young so worth investing the time and money for the extra entitlement you'll find useful for the rest of your life. I certainly have, it makes so many things so much easier. Trailers don't need tax, MOT or insurance unlike an extra vehicle which would otherwise be needed for occasional larger loads.
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The question is one better determined by looking at the government guidance. You licence should state what you are allowed to drive.
My memory is that from 1997, you were only allowed to tow tiny trailers (200Kg or 400Kg from memory) without taking a separate trailer test, however:
https://www.gov.uk/towing-with-car
QuoteLicences issued from 1 January 1997
If you passed your car driving test on or after 1 January 1997 you can:
- drive a car or van up to 3,500kg maximum authorised mass (MAM) towing a trailer of up to 750kg MAM
- tow a trailer over 750kg MAM as long as the combined MAM of the trailer and towing vehicle is no more than 3,500kg
MAM is the limit on how much the vehicle can weigh when it’s loaded.
NOTE - MAM includes what the vehicle / trailer is rated to carry, not the actual weight. i.e. an empty transit is stil 3500Kg. This is the spanner in the works.
A trailer rated to carry a 1.5 tonne car (Celica) is likely to have a MAM of at least 2.5 Tonnes to include the trailer.
Since, almost universally, a tow car must weigh at least as much as the trailer gross weight, this would leave you needing a total weight of at least 5 tonnes.
I think there is a small loophole in that some 4x4 / landrovers are classed as agricultural vehicles which have different rules, however they may also require a different licence category.
There is potentially another option of using an A frame such that the towed Celica becomes a trailer and will therefore just be 1.5 Tonnes. This would require it to be a braked trailer, and therefore you would need to find a way to splice a trailer braking mechanism (done from the tow hitch) to the car brakes. This could potentially be a mechanical mechanism (cable) from tow hitch to brake pedal, or it could be a hydraulic master cyclinder at the tow hitch plumbed into the braking system, neither of which would be an easy option to do in a professional manner.
Be aware the police are quite hot on towing regulations these daya and stops into checkpoints are fairly frequent (I've been pulled in a couple of times). Penalties for being over-weight or not in accordance with licence are huge (potentially licence losing).
The best option is to do a towing course / test as it's a one off and will be useful for the rest of your life. To be fair, there is a lot to learn which us oldies have had to learn the hard way. Thankfully in my case, I've erred on the cautions side so have never come a cropper from my mistakes, just soiled a few clothes.
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There are also rubber fuel lines in the tank and under the bonnet, plus injector seals. That doesn't necessarily mean they're natural rubber or even a type of rubber affected by Ethanol.
From memory, copper is one of the worst affected materials, although that may be for methanol.
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Was the non-runner a celica ?
Bearing in mind we've been running E5 for years which contains ethanol, I would expect to have had problems by now.
Also bear in mind that rubber perishes with age anyway, and being still is often worse than being flexed. Tyres are a classic example.
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I can try to get photos tomorrow, not got a Celica at home at the moment.
On 21/11/2020 at 21:26, digs said:Will it damage anything? Seems conflicting messages on that - in terms of seals etc .
My memory tells me that methanol is the really nasty one, Ethanol not so bad. If the system copes with 5% ethanol, then I doubt it would have a problem with 10%.
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E10 will run a little lean which should be compensated by the closed loop control from the lambda sensor. Ethanol has a higher RON than petrol so detonation shouldn't be a problem.
The biggest potential danger is the GT4 version which goes open loop on boost and will therefore run weaker at a time when running weak can melt things. Standard ECU's have a goos safety margin so should be ok. Aftermarket ECU's are another story.
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I wasn't suggesting a full remap - just determining how it's set up and either replacing a faulty O2 sensor or tweaking the idle cells as appropriate.
If you would prefer to spend money swapping components without diagnosing, then I would start with the O2 sensor. There's a good change a plug & play link would connect to the standard narrowband sensor and run closed loop on it.
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High CO is usually a sign of rich mixture - shortage of oxygen produces CO instead of CO2.. That would have been confirmed by lambda reading being low.
It all depends on how the ECU has been wired and configured as to what the problem might be. It will need someone who understands these things to look at it and diagnose.
From memory, the Link importer was Thor near Birmingham. Looking at your location that may be a good place to start. One of my locals had his car mapped there and they seemed reasonable to deal with. Looking at the map afterwards it seemed reasonably safe. Many mappers tend to be a bit reckless with safety margins to get good power figures, with a number of their customers getting engine failure soon after.
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It says boost map analyser, so I suspect it's probably a boost controller or add on for one. I very much doubt it would affect a link ECU.
The big question is whether the link is running closed loop, and whether that is from wideband or standard O2 sensor. If it is closed loop then the sensor is probably duff. If not, then it may need a tweak.
If you can post up all the figures it will give more clue as to what is wrong. It may not be mixture out at all but a duff cat, exhaust air leak or some other problem.
Is it a G3 or G4 link ? The G3 is very difficult to get the idle right.
The good news for link is that the tuning software is free to download and easy to use if you know what you're doing. The latter part is the downside.
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In my opinion Toyota got it about right for a practical and comfortable but fun car. I don't find the KYB a huge change, and they seem to last ok so if they're cheaper that would be my choice. I've used both.
If you want a very stiff, lowered, highly responsive dry tarmac car then go stiffer and lower - but bear in mind you'll be crawling over every speed hump and car park ramp to avoid grounding. Otherwise, just keep your standard springs.
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My preference is standard or mild upgrade, i.e. genuine or KYB. These are normally available at reasonable price from TCB or Fensport. The bump stops, gaitors etc. are also available from TCB (not sure about Fensport). From memory, the upper swivel is also part of the strut so double check the new strut comes with one. I would expect back plates to be available from TCB but I've never changed any so not certain.
Worth checking the superstrut components for play as these might as well be done at the same time if required. I wouldn't touch them otherwise.
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I've been using Halfords autocentres for tyres the last couple of years and found them very competitive and excellent service. By the time you've paid disposal and fitting on top of mail order tyres the saving isn't normally huge.
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Choice of tyres is largely defined by manner of driving, how close to grip limits, road conditions.
Tyres all meet a specification which makes them compatible. Mixing different makes on the front axle can cause steering pull to one side, especially under braking, but this is normally very slight.
Mixing different makes front to back can cause either severe understeer or severe oversteer at the grip limits, depending on which end has the lower grip tyres.
If you never drive near grip limits then you won't notice much difference. The only thing in favour of having a matched set of good tyres is if the unexpected happens.
Different makes & models of tyre tend to work better in different weather conditions.
Japanese tyres generally work well on warm, dry tarmac at the expense of wet / loose surface. They also tend to be less progressive. From my experience Yokohama are the best of the Japenese ones, particularly in wetter conditions.
For tyres that are very progressive and predictable and therefore easy to drive then rainsports are very good. They wear a bit quicker and are a bit squidgy in hot midsummer though (all 3 days of it)
Other tyre makes I tend to favour - Pirelli, kumho, BF Goodrich, goodyear (can be variable depending on country of origin). Firestone have been better lately too.
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Thankfully, I glanced at some of the celica pages on FB and decided they were a waste of space. I have no idea what post you're on about.
Facebook is not a good medium for useful information as it gets lost in no time. For me, it's a bit of fun. Sharing silly pictures and jokes and a bit of banter among friends.
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It has always been thus, the difference is that older cars were easier to get gains because they were much less optimised. People still remember the gains on minis and escorts and think they can still happen.
One of the keys to the con is to reduce power output at lower revs (usually a significant loss if gains are to be made higher up) so when the slight increase in top end power comes in it feels much bigger. The downside of this with everyday driving is you need to keep stirring the gearstick on every slight hill. Vtek kicked in yo.
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12 hours ago, Sherv said:
Think its the only Gen full stop with those figures currently on 4 pot N/A ,on here anyway.(at the moment).
Getting genuine worthwhile power gains from N/A cars is time consuming and usually expensive ,even more so with Celicas,3sge or otherwise.First port of call is usually improving power to weight as most of us know.
The Celica is particularly difficult to get gains because the original was done by Yamaha who are masters of inlet & exhaust tuning. Most changes actually reduce (usable) power.
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8 hours ago, 99GT said:
One of them is insurance. Ok so your MOT has been extended. But it is still your responsibility to keep your car roadworthy in the meantime. If you have an accident do the insurance use a government assessor, MOT tester or thier own expert to decide if your car was roadworthy? Do they try to wriggle out and say your insurance was invalid if they find the slightest thing wrong with your car? Not saying my or anyone else's car isn't roadworthy, but it's worth thinking about
This applies regardless, including cars up to 3 years old which have never had an MOT. Some of mine had done over 120K miles in that time.
A car without an MOT may give an insurance company a chance to wriggle out, however this isn't the case now.
The emails I've had from insurers all state that the insurance industry are well aware of the situation and so no need to notify them that your vehicle is in an extended period, however they also point out your responsibility to keep the vehcle in a roadworthy state.
I've never come across an insurance company carrying out MOT style checks as part of the claim procedure, other than the obvious such as tyres, but then no one I know has had an accident caused by mechanical failure.
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7 hours ago, Kev 16v said:
I have no less than three of Lidl's Ultimate Speed "Smart" chargers. £13.99 each when available, I couldn't manage without them.
They were "uprated" from 3.8A, to 5A recently.
Another vote for these, although mine are an older version.
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The government run MOT centres are closed. Normal garages are allowed to function, and if the computers administering the MOT's are still running I guess they can carry out MOT's. Useful to know as I may want to get one of my GT4's MOT'd and able to go on the road.
I have checked the government MOT status site for my camper which originally expired on 18th April and it's now listed at 18th Oct.
2 hours ago, jim7564 said:does this mean once we are all back to normal (whenever that mat be ) the all future MOTs will last 18 months as its ok when it suits this goverment,
if its safe to do this under lockdown its safe in normal conditions as i am sure your car is oblivious to this
Are you a politician ?
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I'm not sure what questions it raises ?
MOT facilities ahve been shut and existing MOT's expiring after April 1st (presumably until facilities re-instated) had their expiry dates extended by 6 months.
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I've been using Halfords for the last couple of years, cheapest and excellent service
Halfords autocentres are in a whole different league to the parts shops for service and price.
I haven't checked kwik fit - I don't use them on principle due to their insistence on carrying out a 'free check' and finding faults they'll threaten to report to the police if you drive away. Also the last set of tyres I got from them (a couple of decades ago) suffered deformed sidewalls before they were worn out, good make not cheapies. I suspect they were rejects, old stock or badly handled.
Nurtured Tech - Introduction.
in CDD Electronics
Posted
Nurtured tech Ltd was formed a couple of years ago, and is a joint venture business between a group of us including a couple of other Celica enthusiasts. Some of you may have met Lewis and Alex at events. Between them they own an MR2 turbo, an RC, an ST185 a-a and an ST183.
The group skills include mine listed separately in CDD, server / web software including AI and blockchain, graphics and mapping, and marketing / sales.
As a first project, we have developed a system for real time location tracking (RTLS). This provides a complete package including 'tags' which attach to anything to be tracked, 'anchors' which are mounted in fixed positions as reference points for measuring location plus server based analysis and presentation via web browser including current locations, heat maps and geofencing which can produce warnings and alarms. The system uses ultra-wideband radio which allows precise distance measurement (10cm) based on time of flight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-wideband
If anyone is interested in this, or can see an application for their workplace, feel free to contact me.
We are currently developing marketing material ready to start sales work as lockdown eases. Currently there is a provisional website which will hopefully have a makeover soon.
http://www.nurtured.tech/