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How to connect Aquamist controller to Link Storm


PitBull

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I have an Aquamist HSF4 kit water/meth kit.  The expected method of connecting the HSF4 controller is to tap one of the fuel injectors so that it can determine it's water/meth duty cycle based off the fuel injector pulses.

However, I would prefer to connect the Aquamist controller to a link Aux Output so that I can control it's DC independent of the fuel injector DC (using PWM and a 3D table).

Does anyone have experience having done this?  I am not sure on the wiring, but I'm thinking I'd just connect the Aquamist's wires (which are supposed to connect parallel to the fuel injector wires) directly to the link.  The + going to the Aux output and the - going to ground?  Or would the + go to 12v out and - goes the Aux output?

Thanks!

 

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I figured it might help if I provided a clip from the install manual.  Note there are actually two ways to connect the Aquamist to an injector.  There's a + and - that connects to a "conventional" injector and another set of + and - that says to connect to "peak and hold" or Di injectors.  I'm not sure which set of wires would be preferred to connect to the Link Aux output for control by PWM.

 

Aquamist connections.jpg

Edited by PitBull
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Hi Pitbull,

What link system are you running? There are many ways to hook this up and it just depends on how well you want to control it. You will most definitely hook the positive to the Hi-imp side of the injector to +12v and the other side to an aux OP driver to control this with a table that you build. The fail safe side of this unit is very useful as well. When setting up in your Link. You have options here to allow you to send signal to the Link that can be configured for a ign./fuel cut type safety incase of X,Y, and Z.

I hope this was useful?

Cheers

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I have a Link G4+ Storm currently driving a 4-cylinder so each of the ECU's fuel injector outputs are driving a fuel injector.  As for how well I want to control it....I want to control it with as much accuracy as possible as I plan to cut back on the gas as I add methanol so I want it to be pretty consistent.

Are you saying that I should connect the Red(+) wire on the Aquamist gray connector to one of the fuel injector's +12v wire and the Green(-) wire from the Aquamist's gray connector to the Aux output on the Link?  Would I not want to just connect the Aquamist (+) to the 12v out on Link? 

 

 

 

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I have a Storm G4+ but not the "black" version. 

The factory wiring diagram shows the injectors are connected to the ECU on one side and a "EFI resistor" on the other side and then to the "Ignition Main Relay"

However, I have a JDM engine swap so I'm not sure that the factory wiring diagram is going to be accurate.  I don't know if it helps you, but the engine is a 3SGTE from a Toyota Caldina.  The swap originally used the factory ECU but I now have the Link which I purchased from a vendor that sells it with a custom "plug and play" harness.

I'll pull the tune off my laptop later today and send it over.

Thank you greatly!

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Whether or not the EFI resistor is needed is going to depend on the resistance of your injectors. If they are around 2-3ohms then the resistor needs to be used.

If they measure around 12-13ohms then the resistor should be removed.

 

 

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Simon,

Just to clarify -- I don't want the Aquamist to use the engine's fuel injectors as it's Injector Duty Cycle reference.  I want the Link ECU to be able to provide that PWM signal to the Aquamist control unit from an Auxiliary output totally independent from the fuel injection.

What I was trying to determine though is if the Aquamist needs its (+) wire (that is supposed to go the + on the injector) actually connected to the injector 12v.  Or if I can just connect it to a switched 12v source...

I posed this question on the Aquamist forum and I did get a response.  It said:

You just need to send the PWM signal to the green wire of the grey harness. No need to use the green harness. Set the THRES to minimum (fully CCW).

Ideal PWM frequency: ~30Hz.

The red wire goes to a switched 12V source, active at the pre-crank or run key position.

 

 

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After taking a bit more time and reading the full post it makes sense now.

Red wire will need to go to the feed into the resistor pack (battery + side of the resistor pack)

Green wire will go to the ECU side of an injector.

 

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I think you could just connect to an ignition switched 12v+ and use a GP PWM function on an available aux output channel (driving low). You can set the frequency to constant, or if you want to experiment use the frequency table.

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I think you could just connect to an ignition switched 12v+ and use a GP PWM function on an available aux output channel (driving low). You can set the frequency to constant, or if you want to experiment use the frequency table.

Thanks, yes this is what I'm hearing from multiple sources so I'll try it this way and let you know how it works out...

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I think you could just connect to an ignition switched 12v+ and use a GP PWM function on an available aux output channel (driving low). You can set the frequency to constant, or if you want to experiment use the frequency table.

This is how I have set it up and it works wonders! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got this all hooked up and it seems to be working as expected.  I can control the Aquamist's flow by varying the Aux output's PWM duty cycle with a 3D table of RPM / MGP.  I also have the Aquamist's flow meter output (0-5v) connected into an Analog input so I can monitor flow at the Link and the Aquamist's failsafe output connected to a Digital Input.

What I'd like to do now is log the Aux Output's PWM duty cycle along with the Analog Input of the flow so I can see the relationship of dutycycle vs. flow.  Howver, I can't find a way to graph the Aux Output PWM DC.  Can anyone point me to what parameter will display the Auxiliary Output's current PWM DC?

Edited by PitBull
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At the moment its not possible to log the output of a GP PWM table.

Only way to work it out would be to log the two input parameters and then manually work out the DC from the table.

 

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  • 1 month later...

For the Aqaumist failsafe---is it sending a signal to the ECU to turn on the secondary map and the signal stops when the tank is empty?  Or does it send a signal to the ECU when the tank is empty.  I'd like to put a switch in the failsafe circuit to cause the ECU to default to the primary map...trigger the failsafe (when I run a 50/50 mix but tune for no meth...just for a safety factor) and use the secondary map when I use 100% meth for competition.

 

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I'm unsure if the output of the aquamist goes high or low when the failsafe is activated, this should be pretty easy to check for someone who has it set up. Regardless of how it does it, it would be possibly to use a switch on the same ECU Digital Input channel using diodes, or use an additional digital input channel for the switch. If using an additional Digital Input channel you would use a virtual Aux channel for the control of the table switching and make the virtual aux channel activate if DI X or DI Y become active.

Scott.

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That is what I referring to.....all I'm after is:

1-Aquamist failsafe automatically triggers base fuel table when the it runs out of meth but runs on a second fuel table tuned to 100%meth under normal conditions. Not problem there (as far as I know).

2-Ability to switch fuel tables (without needing to plug in a laptop)...essentially telling the Vipec that the Aquamist is out of fluid.

 

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The aquamist willsend a signal (on it's pink or brown wire) when it is switched on which can be used to activate the map switch.
In error condition - either flow problem or tank empty it will remove the signal causing the ecu to default back.

If you want an external switch to select further mapping in the case of using a different meth/water mix you could use 4D fuel and ignition overlays, triggered by a virtual aux on condition of the digital input from the Aquamist and your meth switch. 

Edited by scraggles
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  • 2 weeks later...

The Aquamist failsafe output (at least the one I have:  HFS4 v3) can be set to either go to ground or go high (+5v) on activation.  The characteristic is selected by a jumper setting on the Aquamist control module.

There are several conditions that activate the failsafe:

1. Low fluid detection

2. Flow sensor output is below lower threshold (i.e. pump failure, nozzle clog, meth line break prior to flow sensor, FAV fails closed)

3. Flow sensor output is above upper threshold (meth line break after flow sensor, FAV fails open)

4. Injection system is deactivated by the switch on the flow gauge

If you set the failsafe to go to ground on activation, you could then add a toggle switch onto that wire to short it to ground when you want to trigger the failsafe maps manually.  BUT, you'll want your switch to connect ONLY the Link's DI to ground, while at the same time breaking the connection to the Aquamist failsafe output.  Shorting the AqM failsafe to ground would be a bad idea.

I have my Aquamist failsafe connected to a DI on my Link and I have it set to switch between high and low Boost Solenoid PWM DC tables. 

I do not use it to switch fuel or timing maps.  Rather, I use 4D fuel and ignition tables and have the Aquamist's flow meter output set as one of the axis and RPM as the other.  So as the AqM's flow meter output rises (i.e. more meth being injected), the 4D tables remove fuel and add timing. I am still in the process of tuning this but it seems to be working fairly well.  But I am running 100% methanol only and don't need to switch between 100 or 50/50 like you want to.  You'd need to use fuel and ignition map switching for your purposes.

The one issue I am having to work around is that the AFRs tend to get progressively richer as the meth sprays, even when other variables stay constant (RPM/load/meth duty cycle).  My assumption is that since I have the nozzles just after the intercooler exit and there's about 2~2.5 feet of intake piping between the nozzles and the throttle body, some amount of the meth will wet the intake piping, but once it is wet, then the majority of it flows into the cylinders.  I don't see it as a big problem, however, as the reading I've done on methanol says you can run it richer than gas.  If I can get the AFRs to start out around 11.5 and drop into the 10's during the pull I think it'll be good.

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  • 3 years later...

SO bringing this back from dead. I have mine setup and working well. That being said the water level sensor will not trigger a map switching event like I thought it should. Turning the system on and off switches between map 1 stock and map 2 meth respectively  But I thought closing the water level sensor which also throws the light on the gauge would trigger the switch back to map 1 as well. 

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Will do. I am just in the testing phase here so map 2 of fuel is still identical to map 1 and the flow amounts are just test amounts at the moment.  Just wanted to verify things work. I did do some reading and Richard from Aquamist posted on somewhere I saw that the later systems just used it as a light and not a failsafe but I could bee wrong and I cant find where I read that.  attached is my layout too so you can see what I see. 

Also in Aux 1 pwm settings there is frequency setting and you can choose constant or table. The constant setting uses a Hz rating. The other is table. Am I right that when using the hz setting it just goes 100% and table uses a percentage to pulse?

 

Meth.pclr E85-G4-Layout.llf

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