AA80E 8-speed

[Jim Blackwood]

Thanks Rukavina! I will do a search for it.

Jim

[Jim Blackwood]

I'm just about ready to see if I can re-establish communications with the controller and plan to attempt that today. But Lance, the latest changes didn't look like they did anything about the paddle shifter input or the solenoid output that needed switching. Did you do that?

Jim

[Bernard Fife]

The most recent test code had some fixes for the PT6/AD4, but nothing on the output switching. So there is more work to do.

[Jim Blackwood]

So is there any sort of a timeline for doing that? I've completed installation of the new Turk prox sensors for the paddle shift, and just need to configure them in software. (They are NC rather than NO)

Jim

[Bernard Fife]

If you have a working vehicle to test the code fixes, we can start work anytime.

[Jim Blackwood]

Excellent.
I'm pretty much there. A little configuration work on the CAN bus, and a little circuitry review on the upshift input which is sort of dependent on the code changes. You think we might be able to start the first of the week? The car is driveable.

Jim

[Jim Blackwood]

Lance, I think we can start testing now, whenever you are ready. I have the CAN communication working, turned out I didn't have the CAN jumpers installed on the MS2 controller board. At the time the board was built there was no reason to think I would be expanding the system. Put those in and it worked like a charm. Not an uncommon issue I'd guess.

The big issue before I can test is the shift trigger solenoid. Testing the paddle shifters is a lower priority but I don't think it would be a good idea to run it until PT6/AD4 are switched in the code. There's just no telling what will happen without that shift trigger, and I really don't want to break or burn up anything at this point.

Jim

[Bernard Fife]

Jim, Sounds good. I am working on code for you to test, and will post it here when it is ready.

[Jim Blackwood]

Thank you Lance, I greatly appreciate all your hard work. Also I realize that right now this probably seems like a pretty thankless task, what with Marty being the only other person we know of who is using this transmission right now. I hope what we learn here will carry over to the new Big Three multi-speed autos though, since they are now on the market we should be starting to see some interest in them and it'd be great to be able to get out in front of that at least a little bit. I don't know if those will require a rethink of the GPIO board or not, but with this one we've done a good job of pushing it to the absolute limits I think, yet there is still just a little wiggle room. It might be enough. The trend seems to be towards a reduced number of planetaries and that means fewer solenoids. So fingers crossed.

Anyway, looking forward to what you come up with.

Jim

[Bernard Fife]

Jim, Sorry for the delay, I have been ill for the last few weeks. I have learned not to touch the code when sick, as the probability of making difficult to find & correct mistakes increases dramatically. I am still sick, but I will get back to working on the code when I feel better.