Panhard ignition - Imfsoft Master Mini 3TCI
Saturday 20 September 2014 Filed in: Panhard Ignition
After getting back from Belgium, I started to revisit the Master Mini 3TCI that was working on the test rig before I left.
Unfortunately, I had a firmware glitch that was stopping it writing to the ROM chip, aka the “FLASH” in Czech speak, but of course I didn’t know this. I had uploaded the latest version previously, but as I was getting frustrated, I resurrected a Windows 7 laptop and installed the Imfsoft software direct from the website, and the pages that referred to the Master Mini 3TCI. Upon opening it, the MASTER software looked different, so I reset the wheel parameters, and wrote to the RAM & ROM, disconnected the power, and read the ROM. It stayed the same, whereas the MacBook running XP SP3 in Parallels 9 was corrupting the unit. I was getting loads of “-128” values in boxes, when previously they were blank.
After doing a few oscilloscope traces of the trigger wheel in action at various speeds, and having no problems, I rebooted the MacBook with the same firmware and wrote it to the MASTER Mini...voilà c’est parfait.
Here’s a few screenshots from the MacBook, at different speeds. the lowest recorded cranking speed was 40 rpm!
The red trace at the bottom is the trigger wheel going past the sensor, the white columns are the ignition events for the coil switching, so you can see two per revolution. So it’s all looking good again. Next test is check at what range of air gap I can tolerate, and not lose reliable triggering, but that’ll be another day.
Unfortunately, I had a firmware glitch that was stopping it writing to the ROM chip, aka the “FLASH” in Czech speak, but of course I didn’t know this. I had uploaded the latest version previously, but as I was getting frustrated, I resurrected a Windows 7 laptop and installed the Imfsoft software direct from the website, and the pages that referred to the Master Mini 3TCI. Upon opening it, the MASTER software looked different, so I reset the wheel parameters, and wrote to the RAM & ROM, disconnected the power, and read the ROM. It stayed the same, whereas the MacBook running XP SP3 in Parallels 9 was corrupting the unit. I was getting loads of “-128” values in boxes, when previously they were blank.
After doing a few oscilloscope traces of the trigger wheel in action at various speeds, and having no problems, I rebooted the MacBook with the same firmware and wrote it to the MASTER Mini...voilà c’est parfait.
Here’s a few screenshots from the MacBook, at different speeds. the lowest recorded cranking speed was 40 rpm!
The red trace at the bottom is the trigger wheel going past the sensor, the white columns are the ignition events for the coil switching, so you can see two per revolution. So it’s all looking good again. Next test is check at what range of air gap I can tolerate, and not lose reliable triggering, but that’ll be another day.
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