6L50 / 6L80 Conversion Project

[caeo]

As a West Aussie, going about life pretty much like before COVID and safely shutting ourselves off to the world, I’d suggest your Premiere is not going far enough with controlling the virus. From over here, as long as there are compromises and allowances for things, you’ll be in an eternal lock down. We went hard on lock downs. Regional movement bans in place too. Each region was shut off from each other. Quarantine is heavily policed with the correct services involved.

We have no community transmission and only get cases from international flights during quarantine.

What's done is done. All we can do now is wait it out. Altho all these dickheads going out and protesting are undoing the efforts of us Victorians.

After lockdown ends I'm going to pull my supply chain out of China. For every controller I have made in China I have a 150% shipping surcharge and the language barrier is difficult to navigate. It's honestly cheaper to manufacture here in Australia now and significantly more convenient.

 

[caeo]

@caeo no need to appologies for anything. You haven't done anything wrong

Just know that summer is approaching and you can go out (for 2 hrs i think) and let the sun warm you up
As a 20 yo, lockdown probably feels much much worse than it actually is
But life will become great again (Trump has spolit that phrase ) and probably with an added vigour and a new perspective. so hang in their
Just remember that you may feel alone in lockdown but there are many people around that you can talk to
It may not feel like it at times but they are there
(According to Denial Andrews, or is it Dictator Dan, we are all in this together ... bloody Politicians and their slogans )

I'm starting to make use of the 2hr exercise rule but the 5km restriction remains.

I'm 20 too and I really miss my mates. Altho I could do with more mates into cars

 

[Lex]

Hardware testing

Above link is one part of the some electronic hardware testing I'm doing. Making sure the controller generates all the correct signals before I install it.

How did the hardware testing go?
Successful?

 

[caeo]

How did the hardware testing go?
Successful?

Doing well. The peripherals work. It's been running for about 18 hrs now for an endurance test.

The processor I'm using has some good features that can make this project safer; in the event of a software panic, the processor will automatically execute a piece of code that will put the transmission into GM's safety mode (5th / all solenoids off), emit a distress signal on the canbus and log the error. That way, should a fault arise the user can pull over and restart the car and drive home.

Software panics can be generated by various things but I've worked the software to mitigate the causes as much as possible.

 

[Fu Manchu]

I love how this is coming along.

 

[caeo]

Development is going to be split between this and a 3D printer I'm working on. I need the 3D printer to produce cases and stuff for controller. It'll be sharing parts of its internal architecture with the controller and it will serve as a experiment for some future hardware architecture I plan to use in future projects.

 

[caeo]

Been doing a rewrite of the software core. It's now more flexible, code-wise. An added benefit is that it's easier to work in, so that theoretically mean I should make fewer bugs/mistakes, but really it just means I can get my sh!t done quicker.

An added benefit of this is that the core now has 4, 5 and 8 speed support. 4 and 5 speed transmissions can be run from the current board. 8 speed transmissions will require a new board. I'm not focused on supporting any of those at the moment, I want to perfect the 6 speed before thinking of doing anything else.

A shipment of parts has been delayed, so can't do much without that (hence why I did the rewrite).

 

[caeo]

Got the controller in but it a voltage regulator failed because it didn't meet advertised specifications. So project is delayed again. Sending of a design for a new (improved) controller later today. Assembly will be done here.

Also been investigating an adaptor for the AWD based Commodores. CrossTrac won't be impacted. The shorter nature of the 6 speeds makes doing a transfer case adaptor for the AWDs modestly easy.

It sucks that the controller failed but ah well really. Learn and grow.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Wot.
An adaptor for a Cross trac. I e just changed two pairs of pants today. There goes another pair.

 

[gungazza]

fu did you see that awd on ebay 2004 5,7lt leather interior red in coulor $17,000 sold in one day nice car missed out lol