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(Documented) Engine Control Unit, improved, ECU 2 M2R 1 TZ

MC size 5 x 6

The name ECU 2 2MR 1 TZ decodes as:

Engine Control Unit

2 Engines each with a Clutch

Manual gear switches
2 Gear boxes
Reverse

1 Output shaft

Throttle aware

Zero clutch mode

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This is typical of boats and some cars

Advanced features include that there are various engine trouble indicators that will force the throttle down, thus hopefully getting the engines out of overheat or the vessel out of dangerous situations. You can also have a panic button for signaling trouble that also acts as a one-button get the boat to come to a stop.

Manual clutch is useful when testing gear ratio on vehicles. Vehicles will also perform differently from normal, towing and overdrive which will take switches anyway.

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Mandatory equipment:


Bridge:
= Throttle box
= Push Toggle for Manual Engine Panic or just call it Panic
= Instrument panel: Gear switching
(Instrument panel as: 1 = Reverse gear switch; 2 = Engine starter push button (not toggle); 3 = Gear 1 switch; 4 = Gear 2 switch. Recommend this adjoining throttle box)


Sensor equipment:
= Tilt sensor look forward
= Tilt sensor looking right/stbd
= Linear sensor looking forward

Other:

= Electric Relay
Control: Engine Okay of MC; Side A: The power source (batteries); Side B: both engines.
This is how the MC safety feature is able to shut off the engines. Suggest placing this near the engines.
The engines should have no other electrical connections other than this relay.
Likewise its simpler to put nothing else on the engine side of the relay. Keep it simple. Its too easy for some secondary hookups to some how loop power into the engines which would bypass the trouble shutoff feature.
You can put “engine specific” (list shortly) items to have electricity from the engine side of the relay or the engine. Don’t do this if these are after you link the shaft power together. The engine specific likely include:
= this engine’s clutch
= this engine’s generators
= this engine’s generator RPS boosting gears
(more RPS = more electricity but also more resisting torque)

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Optional bridge equipment:

= Driving seat to use optional W/S to adjust throttle
(I play a lot of WASD games and my instincts are for W/S)
= Instrument panel: Engine status
(1 = Port engine temp; 2 = Stbd engine temp; 3 = Port Engine RPS; 4 = STBD engine RPS)
= Instrument panel: Motion status
(1 = Knots; 2 = Final torque; 3 = Worst tilt gauge; 4 = Final RPS)
= Dial for Clutch Port Pressure
= Dial for Clutch Stbd Pressure
= Toggle button for Zero Clutch mode

Optional sensor equipment:
= Torque meter on final shaft near propeller

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Review of a typical engine layout:

Items marked [ee] mean they can share electricity with the engine by joining to the engine or the electrical side of the relay


Engine [ee] Engine [ee]
pipe pipe
generator[ee] generator [ee]
pipe pipe
Clutch[ee] Clutch [ee]
T junction pipe
Gear Reverse
Gear Alpha
Gear Beta
pipe
(Option: Final Torque meter)
pipe
Propeller/Wheels

With the switches you have the following gearing:

Reverse (with all these options)

No Gears
Alpha only
Beta only
Alpha x Beta

So its a four speed transmission plus reverse mode

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Internal data handling:
Anything with a # is a property number for easy editing

= Engine trouble on temp #105
= Engine trouble on worst tilt #80 degrees
= Engine trouble on RPS #30
= Engine trouble on manual push (toggle recommended)
= Any engine trouble signals to lower throttle
= Engine okay needed to confirm throttle going up
= Engine okay needed to confirm starting engines
= Auto clutch with break points (RPS, Pressure) (#6.2,0.8) (#4.7,0.6) (#3.2,0.4)
(note that electric engine starters try to reach ~ 6 RPS so the starting ratios bracket that;
3 RPS is typical restart attempt so it has a go lower on clutch before that)
= Auto restart attempt when engine RPS between #3 and #0.5 and Throttle above #0.20
(the lower number is a dead zone needed for when the boat is stopped.)
= Zero clutch mode allowing the engines to run, thus power the generators, without sending power out to the propulsion. You can stationary charge batteries.


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Pairs well with a boat stabilizer. Mine are at:

Gyro based:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2377081332

Simple non-gyro:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2376886654


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My ECU 2 2R 1 alternates

Without throttle input:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2376802583
Autostart may get into loops of firing off wasting electricity on a low throttle. Use the manual Engine Trouble to get out of this.


With throttle input:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2378231625
Autostarter now has the data to avoid trying autostart when throttle is low.


With Zero Clutch mode:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2380681962
Zero clutch mode is useful for charging your generators >if< the generators are closer to the engine than the clutch.

With Overheat protection
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2393181386
Adds logic of throttle seen by engines to internally restrict throttle if engines are past allowed overheat


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FAQ and setup assist:

1) Connection check
With all listed gear all in, out and composite connections are used. Remember to check the MC in both “data” and “composite” modes.
Be sure to check that electricity it setup to everything, the games yellow warning mode (bottom right of build screen) is great for that.
Engines should only have electrical connections to the

2) My engines won’t start:

2a) Throttle not zero?
When in the vehicle did you put the throttle above zero?
Also if you pushed the engine PANIC toggle and left it on this will be forcing the throttle to zero and thus not start the engine

2b) Check the relay for electricity
The engine relay receives power from elsewhere on the ship on one side. The other side has the engines (and recommend this only have the engines). The engines shouldn’t have any other electrical hookup.

2c) Relay data connections
The MC “engine okay” should be connected to the data input on the engine “electrical relay”. This one has caught me a few times too. Without control the relay is at 0 and won’t allow electricity to the engines.

2d) Is there a yellow warning on the engine?

I sometimes see a Steamworks bug where the logic connections to the starters get disconnected. This seems to be a game bug that happens whenever you open up the MC for editing.
If your boat doesn’t start to check this:
In the editor activate the warning triangle on the bottom right
If you see warnings on the engine starter nodes delete and restore.
Do that for both engines.

As this seems to be a game bug I’m not aware of any correction to be done at my level. So far I keep having to delete-restore the starer hookups anytime I look into the MC programming.

3) Engines whirr but no motion
Did you leave the “Zero Clutch” toggle active?


4) When Im stopped the throttle down keeps blinking
Likely the manual engine trouble “panic” is on. Once the boat engine stops this is still sending a signal. I tried a logic on RPS = 0 but what happened is when first starting up a boat you could only move the throttle up. Linear motion was considered but wave actions will move the reading off zero. Currently no solution to this.