make three right turns, duh

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc2844

seriously: you know who holds iphone g4s in such a way to lose signal? assholes, that's who. reminds me of the time when i bought a new car, turns out it couldn't make left turns. i brought it in under warrantee, turns out it was designed that way. dealer said: three right turns is as good as a left, you asshole. and i was bewildered at how dumb i was for thinking my car should turn left.

apple, you're so right.

"I mean that, sometimes, we must learn to accept that we were simply not meant to succeed at everything. We must accept our failures... and we must forgive ourselves for them. Otherwise... otherwise," he went on ruefully, "we may become so obsessed with our efforts to repair our mistakes that we are blinded to other priorities and end up causing more harm... We must stop living for the past, or we can never reach forward to sieze the future... Time to stop waiting for the past to resolve itsself and start looking forward to the future."

well, that's what picard said, it's hard to believe that a character like that actually meant it but it's a thought.

"The events we remmeber most readily are the exceptions to the pattern of our lives. And the pattern of your life is one of ongoing success at virtually everything you try." a little backstory about picard.  

day 3 - i finally finished Star Trek The Next Generation: Buried Age. i've had the fortune of reading some outstanding books, selected almost at random. highlights include The End of Eternity by Asimov and Cutting for Stone. there were some Star Wars books, but so far they failed to impress because it was all action that was generally corny, limited character development, no science or fiction concepts that were original or otherwise inspiring.

Buried Age spanned a long, long period of time both in the lifetime of Picard and in the scope of the reference time for the Manraloth, which Picard discovered when on an archaeological dig. more important, though, was the exporlation of humanity, the hope that humans can transcend their predatory violent instincts and maybe use some of the brain for benevolence. for me, though, what resonated was the idea of atonement for mistakes. the obsession of fixing what i didn't get right, and that only i could do it (and how that stemmed from ego, really) and how beating one's self up could actually get to a point of being counter to a lot of things.

end of eternity - this quote sums it up: "any system like Eternity, which allows men to choose their own future, will end by choosing safety and mediocrity, and in such a Reality the stars are out of reach."
Asimov saw it all coming, well before "safety" was the buzzword in industry, or even in toyota commercials. safety is a good thing, but this drive to mediocrity troubles me.

Cutting for Stone - well, we shall see if my future is to be anything as interesting as those doctors. i hope so.

day 2: Sunday
my first father's day. my kid is pretty incredible. she's in the 92nd percentile for height, weight, and cranium size. women at the grocery store talk about her in their native language, which i figured out bc of the limited spanish i can understand. she looks like a boy when in blue, has no identifiable ethnic features, i am telling you that it is so strange the wide range of people that she just draws in.

like stars, with their enormous mass distorting space-time and causing other bodies to be irresistably drawn. like a tractor beam towing your starship to wherever she feels like. i'm telling you, resistance is futile.

she also can sit on her own almost indefinitely, once you sit her up. considering just 6 months ago she couldn't even support her own head and weighed about 1/4th of her current weight... well, anyway, i'm not telling you anything you don't already know if you've had a kid of your own. naturally, no one has a kid as cool as mine, but still.

i'm getting force premonitions about this one. the force is strong in this one.

it has been a while, but what an awesome last 3 days.

sat - 3 weeks ago, i got a motorcycle. it's my second bike, and it's new to me. 3 years ago i sold my first bike, an '02 sv650 that started life red, was crashed by a buddy, then got painted flat black. what a sexy bike. 3 weeks ago, i wouldn't stop surfing craigslist and lilit told me to just get a stupid bike because my obsession was getting on her nerves. so, i did the logical thing - i got another sv650.

the SV is a cult bike. it literally does everything well - beginner bike, girl's bike, sport tourer, commuter. i'm definitely a beginner, so in that sense, a good choice. but anyone that knows me knows that i love motorsports and there is no way i would be satisfied with anything that didn't handle well, stop well, and have lots of room for me to progress in my "skills".

the other thing the SV does well: put more powerful, faster, expensive, pedigree bikes to absolute shame. the corollary in the car world - something like an Evo, though it would have to be an Evo even less expensive than the current prices for used Evos. it's like an Evo in that it has surprising potential for it's price point, but in terms of maximum capability, probably more akin to something way further down on the food chain, like an S2000 or a Cobra mustang. nonetheless, low on cost, an acquired taste, and easily mistook for a poseur. it's potential is far from the surface, known only to those who discern potential through research and real understanding, and extracted only by those with the patience and the drive to delve deeply into the character of the machine (if machines could have things like character, or soul).

for a bike, it's not very fast in straight lines, though fast enough to require some real courage to ride it the way it should be ridden. but to those who have a clue, it's a respectable choice - it's not for faking it, or being a "squid". btw, i most definitely was a squid on my first bike - tshirt, flip flops, chicken strips, and focusing on stupid stunting summarizes my first go-round with motor sickles.

it was a logical choice, most of all, by cost. $2400 friends. i couldn't have even built the Evo's motor for $2400. i could have put a bunch of parts that would have made good gains, but in the end, the Evo is already about 200whp too fast for what makes sense on the street (which is still really good fun btw). in the end, the lessons i'm learning about traction management, balancing the good sense of "slow in, fast out" with having the balls to actually try new cornering techniques has really kept me on my motorsports toes. and for that alone, $2400 is incredibly cheap. on top of getting a bike made in japan, meaning that it won't break itsself just because i didn't put the cover on when there was a light fog on a tuesday night with a full moon on a odd numbered day in june (such as a ducati or a harley). i'm also getting 47mpg despite lots of "experimenting". for those familiar with motorsports, the likelihood of getting a good quality thing at a low price is almost zero. i feel like i've struck gold.

so, the highlight of saturday: i scuffed up the toe plate on my left boot. this is old hat to many real motorcycle folks, but brand new to me, and even more of an accomplishment considering it took 3 weeks to do it after having been off-bike for about 3 years. i'm really quite happy.

data priorities:

do timing adjustments. start with the 696 scaling, then dial timing back, at least to 3 degrees negative.
for fun, try the 750 scaling. if time permits, minus 3 to plus 1. 

23mar10 rom has scaling of 713.
tried the following scalings: 680, 696, 731, 750.

whp/wtq results

713: 455@6500 / 417@5281
680: 448@6146 / 416@4885
696: 467@6083 / 419@4990
731: 456@6260 / 424@4958
750: 466@6177 / 409@5750

it looks like the 696 scaling is where it's at. i'm curious as to what happened with the 750 scaling, lower torque sustained higher than the rest. sounds perfect to me, but i am really curious if there was a turn while on the "dyno"  or something else that affected the log. for that log, afrs got into the 12.7 to 12.9, and the pro tuners suggest that this is too lean. other think that this is appropriate for e85.

for now, i will take a degree out at 38XX rpm, there was knock there, and i'll call the 696 scaling the finalized rom for 48*F. still, i'm going to investigate the 750 vs the 680 scalings. i wonder if the significantly leaner afr is some kind of break point for when there is a significant difference in the rate of combustion. will compare the afrs at the logged peak rpms (for hp and Q) and see if those aren't the optimized afrs for those rpm.

knock on wood, it's good to have the evo back up and running. it's just too much fun.

48F, 29.97
will check different injector scalings to make a quicker way to achieve AFR per weather.

bitness plan

ok, tonight's plan -
set the base AFRs - 11.5, 12.0, and 12.5 are the targets
make note of the temp, in F
once the static lookup tables are achieving the target AFR, subtract 5 deg of timing from the timing map in the load cells that are typical for a pull. then increment 1 deg of timing each pull. compare each deg in VDR to determine at what point it's not useful to add a deg of timing.

again, do this for the three different AFRs.

should be at least 20 pulls. probably this is a week's worth of work but it's important to do it an night so that temp variation isn't as different from pull 1 to pull 20.

order of business for this morning -

1. pull with current rom

2. pull with 1* timing removed from 6-8

3. pull with 1* timing removed from 6-8k plus attempt for 12.0:1 AFR

first blog post ever. should probably post about something more insightful, like the meaning of life. i'll instead post about my current science experiment - E85 tuning in a mitsubishi lancer evolution ix.

been reading a book - How to Tune and Modify Engine Management Systems by Jeff Hartman something that caught my attention as i read is that richer AFRs (air fuel ratios) result in a faster flame speed.

so, if the mix is burning faster, i imagine that less timing advance is required. another way to put it - lots of timing advance plus a fuel that burns very quickly could be a recipe for gases that want to expand when a cylinder is still traveling in the compression stroke.

another thought - perhaps running a leaner mix is better bc the flame speed slows, allowing for greater timing advance. the downside is less chemical based intercooling, so obviously some optimizing is required. the other side then would be running a richer mix results in faster flame speed, greater intercooling, and requires less advance.

anyway, let me begin from the beginning -

1. 400 wtq on a dynojet is thrown about as the max Q acceptable for a stock block 4G63, such as in my evo ix. not sure if this is a continuous number, or a peak value. practically speaking, 400wtq continuous is not going to happen on my cbrd bbk-full turbo upgrade.

2. my car runs on e85. with requisite fuel supply upgrades, of course.

3. running VDR, and confirmed on a load-bearing dynojet, the car is capable of producing in excess of 400 wtq. this is especially true when free air temp is 65F or below. at temps higher than 75F, especially on sunny days where radiant heat from the ground is effective, the VDR plots are south of 400.

4. the ecu is capable of controlling boost (and therefore torque production). i have adjusted boost to ensure less than 400 wtq even in somewhat cold conditions (55F).

logs this evening - got a set of data from a tune [23mar10] that gets around 12.3 afr. i have a version that runs more like 12.5, with 1* more timing from 7-8000 rpm. in VDR, power output from 6-8k are nearly identical.

the plan for now is to remove that extra degree of timing advance and to go for a 12.0:1 air fuel ratio.