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Andrew Cooke
21-03-2012, 13:12
Has anyone here had a play with Electric Power Steering, or know of any good technical links?

I've got a Corsa C colum coming to have a play with. It seems like it just needs a rpm pulse to keep it alive, and a speed pulse to set the assistance. I've seen that you can buy a box for ~£40 that can do this, but I was more interested in what the signals might be. Have you seen any tests on the level of assistance given? Or any access to the diagnostics - is it serial, or CAN?

cheers,
Andy
Sparkie
21-03-2012, 20:54
ive only ever messed with the epas on VAG group stuff. - that is definately CAN, cos you have to code the new one in with a 5 digit code, telling you where the car was made, has it got ABS, and interestingly how hard you want the steering to be - there is a disabled option for VERY light steering.
Andrew Cooke
21-03-2012, 21:23
I found some vaguely technical info.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/42458893/PDF-epas
Andrew Cooke
02-04-2012, 13:23
I bought a doohicky off Ebay to fool the steering controller into thinking it was on a car. I've just stuck it on a scope to see what the signals look like:

RPM ~280Hz 12V square wave
Speed 10-4400Hz 12V square wave, adjustable

Hopefully that will allow me to get the thing running and see what sort of assistance curves the rack offers. Time for me to build a new test fixture :sad2:
Dave Reed
02-04-2012, 13:37
This is somthing we are using on the new car me and my dad are building..

We just bought the 'box of tricks' (basically a potentiometer) from some (can't remember the name now) electronics company, we plan to just adjust it as required.
Trevhib
02-04-2012, 13:46
Is this intended for the 5, Twingo or other motor?
Andrew Cooke
02-04-2012, 14:33
Is this intended for the 5, Twingo or other motor?

5

maybe...
Andrew Cooke
02-04-2012, 14:37
This is somthing we are using on the new car me and my dad are building..

We just bought the 'box of tricks' (basically a potentiometer) from some (can't remember the name now) electronics company, we plan to just adjust it as required.

please share your experiances on this thread :)

hopefully something useful will drop out my measurements.
Dave Reed
02-04-2012, 17:55
please share your experiances on this thread :)

hopefully something useful will drop out my measurements.


Well I've seen and felt one fitted to a Mk1 cossie powered escort and it worked very well.. You could turn it off completly and it would feel like a normal car without power streering.. Turn it on, adjust to what feels right and of you go..

I will say though, that my mate reckons that for drag racing he just turns it off..

All the above is probably no use to you at all mind :laugh:

What exactly do you want to know about? It's a very common thing that alot of people use to convert to power steering.

I just remembered the name of the company & a quick goole search brought this up;

http://www.wiringlooms.com/EPAS.aspx

DC electronics :)