The Polar Bear - NP241 Upgrade

[downtowncb]

Alright, an update for the nerds in the group. We just gave a presentation on the prototype for the iPhone jeep controller. We did the demonstration on a BlackBerry because my partner already knew how to program for it and we needed something for the demonstration so the iPhone will happen shortly.

So it will control:
Door lock/unlock
Remote start
Front & rear locker
Front sway bar disconnect
Front & rear fog lights
On board air compressor
Winch

It will provide data back from:
3 axis accelerometer - to determine orientation
Wide band O2
Transmission temp

Below is a video of our bench prototype just controlling the locker compressor, fog lights and receiving data from the accelerometer. I'm designing the circuit board layout and am sending it away to be manufactured some time in the next couple of weeks.

[dp96zj]

That is SICK!! Can't wait to see it put to use on the rig. What major are you again?

[AgitatedPancake]

that is the mostest badass thing i've ever seen.

Great work man, and suprisingly I really like the white engine bay

[downtowncb]

That is SICK!! Can't wait to see it put to use on the rig. What major are you again?

THanks guys! I'm a Mechanical Engineering major with a concentration in Mechatronics, thus projects like this haha. But in 1 week I'm graduating so then I'll be a real engineer!

[chadjans]

Question: what do you do when you run over your phone, while wheeling?

[UTChavok]

Question: what do you do when you run over your phone, while wheeling?

Wheel open open in the dark and hope you dont lock your keys in it

Thats pretty badass though.

[downtowncb]

Wheel open open in the dark and hope you dont lock your keys in it

Thats pretty badass though.

HAHAHA

No but seriously, there is going to be an RJ45 plug under the dash that I can plug a small remote into that I can manually override anything with. The remote will just stay in the glove box otherwise. Now if I lose both... then I just have to hope someone else with me has a smart phone with wifi, otherwise it's back to UTChavok's plan.

[downtowncb]

Finished finals, now I get to work on the Jeep once again. Got the air bump brackets welded to the frame this evening.

Here is full droop, right now they're setup for 4" of travel but thats way to much for my needs so in the future I'm going to limit them to 2"


Here is full bump, they don't quite touch yet because I'm going to make up the difference with the LCA bracket and a UHMW disc.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Very innovative stuff here. Good job!

[ATL ZJ]

2 inches is going to be a pretty abrupt stop. How much uptravel do you have before you hit the bumps? What pressure are you going to run in them?

Also what spring rates are you using?

[downtowncb]

Very innovative stuff here. Good job!

Thank you!

2 inches is going to be a pretty abrupt stop. How much uptravel do you have before you hit the bumps? What pressure are you going to run in them?

Also what spring rates are you using?

That's why I bought the 4" models, since it's relatively easy to change the travel I can mess around with them until I get them dialed in. I'm trying to avoid hitting them all the time. The coil overs are setup for 7" of up travel so at 4" bump stops that would give me only 3" before contact. I don't yet know what pressure, tuning these is still very new to me. I'm probably going to buy a nitrogen setup so I can tune both the coil overs and air bumps on my own.

I don't yet know what spring rates I'm going to use because the weight of the entire front end has changed since I last weighed it. Once I get the motor in and bumper on, along with some modifications that I'm going to make to it, I have a friend with a set of racing scales that is going to bring them over. Once I know the weight of each corner I can choose spring rates. I'm aiming for a target natural frequency of around 1.3 - 1.45 hz. I'm going on the slightly higher side because I like doing a lot of high speed stuff too.

[Shinobi]

Alright, an update for the nerds in the group. We just gave a presentation on the prototype for the iPhone jeep controller. We did the demonstration on a BlackBerry because my partner already knew how to program for it and we needed something for the demonstration so the iPhone will happen shortly.

So it will control:
Door lock/unlock
Remote start
Front & rear locker
Front sway bar disconnect
Front & rear fog lights
On board air compressor
Winch

It will provide data back from:
3 axis accelerometer - to determine orientation
Wide band O2
Transmission temp

Below is a video of our bench prototype just controlling the locker compressor, fog lights and receiving data from the accelerometer. I'm designing the circuit board layout and am sending it away to be manufactured some time in the next couple of weeks.

Wow that is bad ass ... and bad ass build man can't wait to see more !!

[downtowncb]

Wow that is bad ass ... and bad ass build man can't wait to see more !!

Thanks! I'm actually from Reno.

[ATL ZJ]

I'm probably going to buy a nitrogen setup so I can tune both the coil overs and air bumps on my own.

Cool. I recommend piecing a n2 setup together. There are some pretty good nitrogen regulators on ebay- that's where I got mine. Besides that, you really only need a cylinder and a fill hose. I actually had to change out the air chucks on my gauge and fill hose for straight chucks to work with the recessed schraeder valve in the FOA reservoirs, so watch out for that.

[Shinobi]

Thanks! I'm actually from Reno.

nice dude we should do some wheeling sometime soon

[downtowncb]

nice dude we should do some wheeling sometime soon

I'm down. I'm staying down here until the 23rd to try and get as much done on the Jeep as possible, maybe even driving around the block. If all goes according to plan, I should be bringing the Jeep up to reno with me some time in February. Do you guys do much snow wheeling? Last winter I was up there and had a lot of fun screwing around up on Sky Line.

[downtowncb]

Got the landing pads done.

[chadjans]

Got the landing pads done.

You sure those arms are going to take those forces well?

[AgitatedPancake]

The bushings might wear out faster, But I doubt it will cause the arm to buckle. I've seen it done a few times before, including on AW's rig.

[paulkeith]

does the bump land in the center of the arm? or off to the side?

[downtowncb]

I'm going to sit down and run some engineering calcs tonight to see how it will hold up to a really hard hit. No it lands off to the side, that is why it is gusseted from beneath.

[downtowncb]

So I got off to a great start working on the Jeep today, got up nice and early, working away ... and then I get a call from my friend. His parents are in town and they brought the sand rails, well my productive day went to shit...

So I spent the day mobbing around in this guy. It's got a nicely tuned suspension and a Cadillac short star V6 It's like riding a La-Z-Boy with 300 hp

[OverkillZJ]

Badass.

[downtowncb]

Got the transfer case sand blasted.


Then painted it with the epoxy I used on the transmission.


Finished probably about 95% of the wiring, I have the parts of the old Jeep harness I need to make the gauges work fully integrated into the Chevy harness so once I'm ready to put it in, all I have to do is plug it in. As a side note, I had my Chevy ECU programmed with two fuel and shift maps, to change between the two you have to provide a momentary ground to one of the pins. Since I will no longer be using the OD Off button on the dash, I repurposed it to change between these maps.

Below you can see the Camaro headers mocked up. The driver's side clears the motor mounts great but the passenger side has literally a millimeter or less between it and the poly bushing. I'm trying to decide if I need to cut the mount up and move it down a bit or not. I'm not sure how much heat these things can handle.

[ATL ZJ]

Looking good... I would be a little nervous about the header being so close to the poly bushing. Could you relocate the tabs for your bushing slightly forward and add a heat shield in between? The passenger side is a bitch isn't it.

Any info on the specific differences between the two fuel maps you chose?