V4,V8,Flat4 and Rotary 5 only
On the V4,V8,Flat4 and Rotary 5 there is a serial interface to control the finer points of your engine.
To Connect to your engine wire the GND, TX and RX connectors from the engine PCB to a 3.3v serial port adapter.
Note: Ensure that your adapter is a 3.3V one, as a 5V adapter may damage your engines electronics.
The PCB serial connections are 0v,Rx,Tx and +3.3V (if its a 4 way connector)
Once connected use a suitable serial terminal program like putty(PC,Linux), minicom(Linux) or terraterm(PC). Set your terminal emulator to 115200 Baud, 8 bit, no parity, 1 stop bit (15200,n,8,1). You may also have to determine which port your serial adapter has connected to.
Once you have connected your terminal, power up your engine, If you are connected correctly you will get a prompt
ExtKits Sol V4
This prompt will differ slightly between products.
If for any reason you don’t get a prompt. Check the settings above, and also try swapping the TX and RX connections and try again.
To prevent noise and unwanted triggering of this interface when it is disconnected, it needs a code before it will start accepting controls.
In your terminal emulator, type [Enter] then all in capitals XKITS
You should receive an “OK”
If you don’t get an OK then the engine isn’t receiving your characters.
You may receive a “Got Code” response. This indicates that the processor is receiving something, but not XKITS. Check your connections and serial emulator settings.
After you have got your OK prompt you can enter commands. All of the commands are listed below. They are all single lowercase character commands and do not require CR or LF [Enter] to be executed.
Serial Commands
[Enter] XKITS to get OK promptSpeed up/Down
Speed is regulated by setting minimum on time, when elapsed time for a half rotation is less than set. The equivalent of the two buttons on the PCB.
‘u’ speed Up
‘d’ speed Down
Change Direction
‘b’ Change Direction (toggle)
Print actual speed (internal measurement)
‘-‘ print actual speed
Ignition
Enables or disables the solenoids.
‘i’ turns on ignition
‘e’ turns off ignition
Start
Initiates sequence to try to start the engine. (requires ignition to be on)
‘s’ Starts engine
Show current (internal) settings
‘?’ show current settings
Adjust Running Top Dead Centre of Sol1
‘[‘ adjust TDC +
‘]’ adjust TDC –
‘a’ save EEPROM TDC from current axel position
‘t’ save EEPROM TDC from current running TDC
‘r’ reset TDC from EEPROM
Adjust Running On angle
On angle is how soon before TDC to engage solenoid (sets power)
‘>’ adjust On Angle +
‘<‘ adjust On Angle –
‘@’ save On angle to EEPROM using the running On angle
Adjust Running Advance
Adjust the deviation from TDC/Advance, due to inductor delay of solenoid
‘{‘ adjust Advance +
‘}’ adjust Advance –
‘#’ save to EEPROM the running value of Advance
Display relative solenoid on times
‘n’ Not Moved Timer Value
‘o’ Display On times counters
‘p’ Reset on times counters
Debug
‘x’ toggle Debug (sets factory debug output)
‘q’ quit – return to wait for code
Reset
‘r’ Reset EEPROM to defaults
‘l’ Load settings from EEPROM to running engine