M4 ECU

The M4 ECU (engine control unit) is a device designed to manage and operate small gas engines like those found on lawnmowers, generators, ect. It started out as a simple project intended to make an electronic ignition coil work on a small Briggs & Stratton engine. Having electronic ignition would improve the start-up reliability of these sometimes-difficult-to-start machines. Very quickly this project broke those boundaries with great ambition. New goals to the project included an electronic governor, electronic choke, and variable timing advance that reacted to engine temperature, rpm, throttle, and manifold pressure. As the project's lofty goals expanded so did the minimum requirements of the hardware needed to develop it. The first iterations operated off of Adafruit Industries' Arduino compatible board, the Itsy Bitsy. The 16Mhz processor lacked the performance needed to manage spark advance, dwell time, throttle position, and choke position all at once with precision. Several following iterations used more powerful MCUs like the Teensy 4.0 as the program developed. Finally the project settled on the Atmel ATSAMD51G19A-MU MCU with a Cortex M4 processor. At this point the project started back at ground zero with the intention to eliminate excess processes like the boot-loader found on nearly all Arduino compatible boards commercially available. This meant learning and using a new IDE and a debugger to program the MCU. Eventually it became time to produce an actual first iteration PCB for the project. The PCB was designed using Autodesk's Eagle CAD software. The first board came out good for being Grant Aerospace Technology's very first although it still needed some work. However it was a valuable step forward in the development of this project as well as Grant Aerospace Technology's knowledge and skills. This project is still in construction as it is a non-commercial endeavor it takes the "back-seat" to other projects that are. Stay tuned for future updates!!