Thread: Turning off the ACE

Graeme is most definately the guru here! It'll spin you right out how he controls the ACE.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Slunnie!

According to the WSM, ACE is totally disabled at less than 3kph and can be partially or fully disabled between 3kph and 40kph if ACE detects rough road conditions. The ACE ecu gets the speed signal from SLABS. It also gets a feed from the reverse light switch to lock the bars whenever reverse is selected.

I have built a speed signal generator using a micro-processor that feeds my desired speed to the ACE ecu. It has 3 settings which are switch-selectable...
(1) standard SLABS speed signal for the actual speed
(2) actual speed up to 35kph but 35kph for higher speeds (to get rough road capability at all speeds) - my normal setting
(3) 2kph to have the bars unlocked - great for Hay River trips

My reverse light feed wire to the ACE ecu has been unplugged as it annoyed me to have the vehicle so rigid when reversing over ruts.

Does this allow you to leave the vehicle raised for rought roads above the speed it would normaly lower itself?
Dave

Originally Posted by davros

Does this allow you to leave the vehicle raised for rought roads above the speed it would normaly lower itself?
Dave

No as SLS is a function of SLABS, not ACE. SLABS generates the speed signal and uses it internally to control ride height.

Graeme I wouldn't mind the details if you have a bit of time. A couple of pictures and diagrams would be excellent. Have you been completely happy with your design or is there still room for improvement?
Cheers Robbo

Originally Posted by Robbo

Graeme I wouldn't mind the details if you have a bit of time. A couple of pictures and diagrams would be excellent. Have you been completely happy with your design or is there still room for improvement?
Cheers Robbo

Hi Robbo,
To give you an idea, it uses a PICAXE chip mounted on a project board with appropriate components such as resistors, capacitors, voltage regulator ICs, opto-couplers, LEDs etc located under the dash and another small box with a 3-posn switch and LEDs mounted on the dash just behind the indicator stalk. I developed an appropriate program using the PICAXE Basic-like instructions and downloaded it from my PC. The Vehicle Speed Signal (VSS) wire from SLABS to ACE is intercepted and fed into this box and a modified VSS is then fed into ACE instead.
I have tried various options like unlocking the bars automatically at less than 10kph but that causes rocking problems going diagonally across kerbed driveways, so I use the real speed as high as I can go yet still retain ACE's rough road handling.
I've found that traversing some ruts with bars-unlocked can allow the vehicle to rock and bounce, whereupon I quickly switch to my "normal" position, as ACE counters rocking. But mostly on rough tracks with bars unlocked gives a much smoother ride and reduces TC activation a lot, albeit with some lean around twisty bits. But ACE is very good at keeping the tail-end in check so at higher speeds I use my normal mode. My normal mode makes secondary sealed roads much more comfortable, yet still retains ACE control on corners. At one time I had the system automatically switching to real speed at speeds over 100, but there are roads with poor surfaces that have 110 limit and the ride got rough over 100, so that feature got removed.
According to the WSM, ACE will lock the bars for speeds up to 40kph when lateral forces exceed 0.2G, whereas at higher speeds it will try to keep the vehicle level up to 0.35G (IIRC). This produces a bit more lean on fast corners, but also causes less oversteer sensation than normal. However if I'm going to take a corner quite quickly (eg showing a Cruiser or Commodore how to take bends - the poor drivers don't realise that they're following a chipped D2 with ACE), I'll switch to std ACE for maximum control.
I have no plans to make any further changes. Now if I could reprogram ACE to have bars unlocked normally and only lock, partially lock or push when needed then I wouldn't use my device at all.
Regards,
Graeme