CAT 3208 monitoring

[nedb]

Sorry but I don't know of a monitor for the 3208. Unlike more modern engines, my '91 300HP doesn't have a "computer" to manage the engine, and therefore has no data bus to provide trouble codes, engine data, and the other monitor functions that the DDEC computer and data bus collect and provide to the dashboard area.

Still, my WL has plenty of sensors and interesting places to collect information, including the usual things like coolant levels, temps, pressures, and so forth. It would be useful to break out and monitor the individual sensors that are currently aggregated into the "Check Engine" warning light. I know of a sensor on the leveling jacks, a sensor on the coolant tank on top of the engine radiator, and I assume there are more. Any of these will turn on the generic "Check engine" warning. I hate it when that happens, because I want it tell me which system the problem is in.

So I think about lashing up a short custom wiring harness to feed the data from sensors to an Arduino inside the coach. They have plenty enough processing power to log, filter, transform, and transmit a handful of raw data inputs for display. I'd probably try to send it wirelessly to dashboard area for display.

I've never used Arduino for wireless data transmission. I picked up an XBee shield thinking it was what I needed, but it needs the actual XBEE wireless radio component as an add-on. The XBee web site says this shield model is deprecated! So I am back at square one on that aspect of the project.

David mentioned once that he was thinking about an engine fan speed monitor, and I thought this sounded like a cool idea so I put together a prototype based on a bicycle speedometer and a few lines of code modified from a sample code I found on the web. It works perfectly as a counter--every time I wave the magnet near the sensor, the arduino reads it as a high value. When the magnet is out of range, the arduino reads it as "0". All that remains is finding a mounting place close enough to the Horton fan to pick up the magnet as it goes by, attached to a fan blade. Heh--an Arduino fan speed sensor!

I get carried away with the possibiiities. I know better, but under this hardcore veneer of 3208 "KISS" discipline, I am at heart a fully-instrumented kind of guy. I don't mind the uncertainty of taking the bus on the road with the prospect of mechanical problems at some point before returning home. But I would love to be able to see problems developing before they occur by keeping an eye on more aspects of critical systems and engine operating parameters. There's no particular reason why I couldn't monitor many more things than my coach in factory trim is equipped to do.

Is anyone else hacking the 3208/Arduino frontier? Care to share?

--Ned

Ned Bedinger
'91 SP36