Text work has begun now, starting with the long, arduous task of extracting every bit of text from each diagram. Currently trudging through Section B: Engine Control, having organized everything so it's a bunch of copy/paste from the previous diagram in order to save as much work as possible. That and backporting/forwardporting descriptions as needed so everything stays consistent. 10/91 was a bit weird in spots, and a few minor errors got fixed along the way. 7/94 Engine Control will begin tomorrow.

A couple days ago, I got to take part in a new owner's first day with his Eunos Cosmo from the other side of the planet, the only one I've had the blessing of working with that had a still-functional touchscreen in it. Through a FB call, I guided him through the CCS diagnostic procedures. Most badass thing I've ever done and it solved why the CD changer wasn't working, based on the error codes presented. "Error while Communicating" was showing up on almost every CCS-connected device, so I found that one single communication wire (TXS-) is shorted to chassis somewhere, paralyzing the whole CCS sub-network in the car. Pretty sure TXS- is short for Transmit Status -, and it works very similarly to Canbus with +/- PWM pulses on two lines for error detection through redundancy.

Series 7 and 8 ECU pinout charts are all extracted and ready for translation. Might need a hand with the de-texting on everything else, we'll see how time goes.

Fun fact: Spirit R's have a Starter Interlock Switch, 1999 models don't.

Just a quick update, still extracting text
 

Been hard at work extracting text. Section B: Engine Control is done, so I've jumped to G: Heater & A/C since it's the next largest section. I'm roughly 25% done with text extraction and about halfway through Section G, the last 16 pages of will be buttoned up tomorrow. Also got a MUCH better understanding of the optional Automatic Air Conditioner System, how it works and how one COULD retrofit it to a LHD FD...:gwink:

Another fun fact: I was watching Gosei Sentai Dairanger (was adapted to become Power Rangers season 2) and saw they listed Autozam in the credits in the last episode. Watching through the entire series, I saw a CD Cosmo, a FC RX-7, and a couple Eunos Presso/Autozam AZ-3. There's probably more, but now we know that Mazda was directly responsible for all of us seeing the White Ranger.

Pretty darn awesome.

50% now
 

Finally hit 50% of the text extracted a few minutes ago. Sections I, J and H are done now, with the rest being under 30 pages per section. One thing I've noticed is inconsistent naming of parts with no apparent rhyme or reason. excluding the 10/91 diagrams as "beta releases", things like the rear defroster were renamed for 1998 to the older "hot wire print" nomenclature from the FC/Cosmo manuals. So once I get it all extracted, all the goofiness will be compiled together so a master rename chart can be made to keep things consistent.

Done for today, time for Ninja Sentai Kakuranger

that stuff is part of what makes it fun. if i was doing that i'd switch defroster for hot wire print, defroster is boring

Defroster, Defogger, Hot Wire Print. 3 names for the same device, in order of commonality. Renaming it to Defroster is the easiest way for anyone to understand, and not butcher a Japanese FD because "hot wire print ain't english". I've already seen a Eunos Cosmo be hacked up with all sorts of mods to "fix it", let's not risk that with a Spirit R.

Two more sections extracted, Section O: ABS and Section Q: Cruise Control. Both systems changed quite a bit since October 1991. Gauges are up next, 29 pages of pure joy...:lol:

So I just buttoned up extracting all of the Wiring Diagram text a few minutes ago, over a day ahead of schedule. Definitely was a long, hard push to get it here, but now all of it is easily editable for the most aggravating part of this project. That would be going through all of it and resynchronizing all of the various names for the same parts, descriptions and whatnot throughout this 450 page behemoth. Wasn't a step that I foresaw when it began, but it's something I'm going to do anyway for consistency.

At least I can be working on this while image de-texting can be outsourced.

Setting up the next parts
 

So I took a few days off to rest, recover and recharge, playing around with a few new parts for my CNC. Had to mock up a new part in CAD last night, using cylinders of the correct size in place of bolt holes since it wasn't cooperating in rendering holes for some reason. Currently waiting on a reply from the developer about this as it might be a bug in the newest version.

To unify part names between the six different sources, everything's getting dumped into a 7-column master naming file to cover every possible variation. Just go across the row, the last column will be final names implemented in the finished product.

As for cleanup, Section A (Starter & Alternator) is de-texted now. I did this earlier today as a guideline for the rest of the project. I'll be looking for some help with this part of the project, using MSPaint or the like. If you're interested, please let me know.

Last but not least, I'll be accepting a limited number of preorders before it is completed. In exchange or preordering, you'll get it for 30% off. ETA is currently 4 months but may be subject to update.

that is a good way to do it, we did something like this at work, but it was kind of a free for all.
however if you type texas tea in you do get motor oil, lol

JARVIS, you there?
 

What started off as a simple idea ended up being more complex than initially thought. And was starting to have to shrink windows down or have them over each other. I've been hitting the wall on my setup and working around it whenever possible, but 1680x1050 on the main screen plus a 1440x900 side screen just won't cut it anymore when needing to have multiple documents open side by side. Like it or not, I've just outgrown a 20" widescreen LCD after 15 years and no amount of shuffling things around would get me when it's time to get work done.

Had a bit of a re-think, did some homework on it and this happened after a visit to a local used computer shop.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f877a481e2.jpg

For a single display, this is the absolute maximum that my hardware can do. 27" Main screen, 2560x1440 resolution, plus the 1440x900 19" side screen recycled from before for the project log. This weekend is going to working on the geometry of everything to get it dialed in as much as possible. Had to turn down the brightness to about 50% on the main screen to not broil my retinas every morning when checking email.

And to think, I started out with a single 800x600 CRT back in high school. Now I got almost 8x that on just the main screen, over 10x for the whole system right now, and can expand it even further. Maybe once all of this is finished, I'll see how many screens I can have running at once...:lol:

I've been busy getting everything set up for the next step of the project. Right now, 20% of the text is sorted and primed for the next phase. Kind of annoying to do, but it means unifying names and final translation can be done easily, quickly and in a single step. Got a couple weeks of work to button up priming, so I'll report back when we're closer to the goal.

Send Coffee :D

In addition to the custom Hardware, it would appear you also wrote software for this task. Is that correct?

75% Primed now
 

I wrote the code that operates the scanner control system. Still needs a couple adjustments to satisfy the perfectionist in me, but it's working pretty well so far.
So everything is at approximately 75% primed for translation now. Also caught a few errors and omissions I missed before, all of them are fixed now. Roughly 4 more days to finish sifting through and organizing everything, and everything is set up in advance to make it as easy as possible. Who knows, I might even take a day off for my birthday...:lol:

130 pages left :)

Paging Dr Brap to Imaging...
 

Took a few days off to rest up after finishing up sifting through all of the text. The last couple days were fueled by pure adrenaline and almost every boss theme from the 16-bit era.

Image work has begun now and should go reasonably quick as everything is prepped, sorted and ready to rock. Sure would be great to have this part done by the end of the week, but we'll do the best we can. Burnout is a thing and ruins a lot of projects

So I took a couple days off for my birthday to rest, recover and recharge. Made an excursion to the salvage yard, seeking an E38 fuel tank and was disappointed that all of them had holes punched in them, within 12" of their drains too. Kinda sucks that a mystery leaking factory tank is the best of the lot within 100 miles.

Anyway, back to work now. De-texting is going well, though a bit slower than expected due to Section B: Engine Control being packed rather tightly (That's what she said...). But that part is done and I'm in Section G now, working on HVAC stuff. If all goes well, it'll be about 1/3 de-texted by this weekend.

Halfway there
 

Update time...(yay)

So I'm just over halfway done de-texting and most of the heavy stuff has been ironed out. Another week or so and we should be into writing the final text and then assembly. Making good progress toward the goal.

And now for something completely different...
 

To speed things up a bit, I've handed off the last 2 Sections for de-texting so I can change gears and start the next step.

Started writing the final script this morning. We're getting there, one page at a time.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...88de0d4876.jpg

O is for Oops...
 

So I just finished the first pass through finalizing text and found something wrong. On the TWS Unit #1 (AKA CPU #1 in the US manuals) diagram from November 1991, they forgot to put in the main power feed for the TWS/CPU! And somehow they made the same goof a second time in July 1993 too, yet got it right the first time in the North American manuals...:lol:

Text is now ~80% finished, and I made a note of this error in the project log so it can be fixed when I get back to artwork. The next pass is all of the shared terms such as "For EC-AT cars only" since they worded it a bunch of different ways throughout the 90s. I collected those during the first pass in a dedicated file to homogenize all the wording throughout.

Diagram text is finished
 

So the actual diagram and location text is done. And I mean completely done. Sorted, cleaned up, unified for clarity throughout and put back in the associated organizing charts. Also, I spent a couple hours separating all of the charts for ECU/EC-AT/etc pinouts, current flow charts and other blocks of text into their own files. Signed off on it, every single word is ready for the final build.

While doing so, I found that I missed a few rather important pages along the way. Things like the July 1994 update to the ABS system (AKA 1995 model in the US, same setup), I completely blanked on during the early days of the project. Alas, I'll have to go back and do those pages start to finish before proceeding further. Plus, I kind of...um...forgot to translate most of the non-diagram or location pages :lol:

Also got the last of the actual pictures back, scrubbed clean and ready for the final adjustments. Made a backup of everything just in case and we'll be pushing forward to fill in the missing pages tomorrow.

So I've been busy adding the "missing" data that I forgot earlier and went a little further than I was thinking. All of the relevant Service Codes for each section are added in from the respective Workshop Manuals.

While doing that, something strange came up. For some reason, no information exists for using the DT-S1000 Diagnostic Computer on a Series 7 FD. however, a little further digging in other sources has yielded that the DT-S1000 was made with English firmware too.

49-B099-001 is the Japanese version. 49-F088-001 is the English version. 49-B099-0A0 is the complete Japanese version set, I'd bet a "0A0" set exists in English too.

What's odd about it the F088 prefix. B099 on the Japanese one means it was made for the 323/Familia (BF platform) and completely finished in 1985. But there's no "official" F088 prefix in the RX-7 lineage, it goes from F070 (Infini IV) straight to F100 (Series 6 Japanese FD). Got a feeling the English version was made during the prototyping stage to test the turbo control system. There's an English version disk for it too. Might be interesting to take a look at what's on both of them. It could definitely open some doors ;)

10pm update: Started chipping away at the last of the text work, translating and unifying all the charts, current flow charts, etc. The sooner I get it done, the sooner a test section can be rendered. Gonna try my best to be in that stage this week.

yes there was for sure an English DTS-1000. the dealerships got sent them in 1992-1993 (it works on the millenia also), but it was $10,000 in 1993, so the one i know about got sent back, because it was too expensive, and the owner of the dealership doesn't understand how tools work....

Dang, $10,000??? That's 500 Super NES systems, easily Bruce Wayne money there. Too bad that DTS1000 didn't umm...get lost in the mail :lol:. Sure would be awesome to take a look at one if any dealers still have them sitting in a box in their attic. Who knows, I might even be able to adapt it to use modern media instead of floppy disks. Though I do have a box of them I got for my first computer in 2000.
I had a few Millenia FSMs awhile ago, but can't remember where they disappeared to into the digital ether. The 1996 Millenia FSM shows the Ford NGS scan tool (49-T088-0A0), so maybe the earlier ones referenced the DT-S1000? The North American NA Miata, 323 and 626 from 1990-ish all use the Disc Monitor and System Selector so no joy there. Did call in a favor to see about looking in a Japanese Eunos Roadster manual for more info.

7 files left to translate and unify now. Charts of pinouts and service codes, fun fun.

Chipping away at Section B now
 

So I just started work on Section B: Engine Control. ECU pinouts, voltages, error codes, everything. Most of it is set up for go-time, but I'm kinda torn on the DTS1000 charts and if I should merge them with their respective Voltmeter/Oscilloscope charts like I did with the Cosmo. Still 15 pages of stuff to go through and translate either way.

Thoughts? Ideas? I'm all ears.

Text is DONE!
 

So I just finished the last part of text translation. Everything's getting backed up as a precaution since going through ECU pinouts, DT-S1000 diagnostics, ECU Service Codes, etc took twice as long as I thought. It started out as 15 pages, ended up being 24. Even with merging charts. But it is done now.

Test section build coming soon.

Test render
 

So I took a little break after getting things sorted out and ready for the next phase. Couldn't help but do a test run to start dialing things in on formatting.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a1c54e719f.png

It's still a bit unfinished and might need a couple adjustments, but this is proof of concept. This is scaled for 8.5x11" paper in Landscape format with 0.5" margins all around, so it should print on the average household printer without any cutoff. The 11/91 and #4003 test is 10pt while the connector data at the bottom is 6pt. The actual diagram part is scaled down to fit the 10" wide cell. If I kept it at original scale, each page would be nearly 20 square feet (1.85 square meters) in size and it would have to be moved with a forklift. So there's plenty of room to go bigger than 8.5x11 if need be.

Thoughts? feedback? Ideas? Let's here it.

Color Test
 

Threw together a quick paint mockup of what's coming to test color and contrast between elements. Text has a couple errors in it (see if you can spot them), but it's good enough to see what could use some adjustment during the final phase.

11/1991 Starter and Alternator
Start drooling now...:D
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...55feeda497.png

Mind...Blown

The last art stages
 

All of the "boring" optimizing is done, now it gets easier and a bit faster-paced, as that last stage was quite a slog. Color work is being handed off later today so I can get all of the connectors split up and optimized in each section.

Section A and B already have their color put on, so they're ready for compile once the connectors are all finished. With all of the detail work going into the project, this 27" screen is definitely earning its keep.

Once compiling begins, no more discounted preorders will be accepted. So this is your early warning. If you have a RHD FD, it's your last chance to save $100 on something you'll need one way or the other.

Where can I preorder this now?
 

I have a JDM 1994 R2 Bathurst if that information is needed. Sorry kind of new to posting on this forum. More of a reader.

So I've received a few questions regarding how to preorder for the discounted price of $200 USD. The simple answer is to just message me (facebook usually gets a quicker response). I generally like to discuss your needs and expectations before accepting any payment via paypal, to ensure there's no misunderstandings. Also, with your VIN number, I can run a Build Sheet for your car to answer any questions regarding labels/parts/etc specific to your car. It also curtails most "which diagram do I use?" type of questions in the process by pinning your car down to the exact day it was made, the exact model, and specific options it had from Day 1.

A good example of this is with the ABS System. Before July 1994, the Hydraulic Unit had 3 solenoids (front left and right, plus rear), just like the FC3S GT-Limited Special Edition. Even uses the same tools to diagnose too. In July 1994, it was upgraded to 6 (hold and release for each channel). And in September 2000, the system was changed again to combine the electronic and hydraulic parts together into one unit. This was likely done to cut costs a bit, eliminating quite a few wires that ran about 3/4 the length of the car that the Control Unit used to power and operate each solenoid. Presumably, the 9/2000 system has six solenoids like the 7/94 one, but a donor unit would have to be sourced and disassembled to confirm it beyond reasonable doubt.

Each of the three systems has specific supporting parts such as harnesses and Control Units that all have to match in order to function correctly.

With that said, here's the latest:
Rested up for a couple days and hammered out the final formatting. Templates are done now, I had to create my own parameters from scratch. While doing so, I inadvertently exceeded the design limits of the Microsoft Word Document format. So OpenDoc to the rescue. Each page will need individually adjusted a bit to fit together the way I want them to, but everything is standardized to streamline final render and assembly as much as humanly possible.

Teaser shot. 27" screen at 2560x1440. 50% zoom and it BARELY fits. The actual diagram image was reduced to about 1/4 size when I rendered this.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...226cb65a15.jpg

At the normal 100% zoom, mouse cursor is the standard size for any Windows or Linux system
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0eb5bd6bde.jpg

This test render ended up being ~900kb for a single page. And what you're thinking right now? That's exactly what she said...:nod:

Here we go: The final push begins
 

So I just finished extracting images of every single connector ever used on any FD. 1885 of them, sorted into over 200 folders. About 15% of them were in Section X. That massive drag is done, and obligatory backups are made, now the moment we've all been waiting for. Compiling can begin now. Iffy connectors will be subbed out for a cleaner version whenever possible so everything is rendered at the best possible quality and clarity that I can do.

1885 connector images, 529 diagrams, and some misc oscilloscope ones in the ECU charts that I can't remember right now, and ALL of the text for it. I'm combining over 2400 files together. Good thing I got a new graphics card on ebay, gotta love those dirt cheap deals. So if all else fails, I'll have enough outputs for anything I could need for an excruciatingly long time, and up to 4k resolution on all of them.

Last bits before we begin
 

Update time. So I took a few days to rest, recover and replenish. Got my new graphics card, went in without any fuss and it's earning its weight in gold already. With the same screen configurations, I found out I'm using roughly 330mb of video memory. My old setup was 256mb, so that explains why it was having problems and acting like it was having a seizure at times. So that's good to go.

I've been ironing out the last few images for things like ECU pinout charts so the clarity and quality is the best I can do. The meter/scope images portray the same data points for each item, and the S7/8 ones are ~50% higher resolution, so it sounds like a winner. A bug fix correction on the early TWS units was added in too.

These were the last things to be tidied up, so compiling is a go now.

Rendering, please wait...
 

So today is June 1st and I've started rendering each page. It's going in two steps, first is the Pre-Render to get all the images in their approximately final setup on every page. Once that's done and I can see the overall fit/finish, the finalized text can be put in and every piece adjusted so it all fits correctly on the page. I was going to start this yesterday, but got a little sidetracked after giving all of the page templates an overhaul for that extra bit of polish. I also drew up the Front Cover artwork too, but that's gonna stay a secret until everything is finished.

Ready for final text now.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b34cc2e3ad.jpg

And one last tweak. Production dates and Applicable VINs for each page.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...231d41b56f.jpg

One section down, 21 to go

The devil's in the details...
 

So things went a little sideways regarding getting the main diagram/location pages pre-rendered. In the meantime while it is getting resolved, I've been working on the various pinout charts throughout the whole thing to get them ready for rendering. A consequence of this was that every chart was upgraded with the associated wire colors so they match the style, fit and finish of the N3Ax ECU Pinout chart. Makes it 10x easier to diagnose things too. The N3Fx (Series 7) ECU chart and the N3Gx (Series 8) supplement ECU Chart are merged together. Right now, I'm doing one final pass through to unify any odd wording in wire colors, then all of the waveform images will be put in and each can be split into individual pages.

One thing I did discover is that TWS Unit #1 is wired the same as CPU #1 on North American FDs. It's the interior fuse block's "backpack". TWS Unit #2 (AKA CPU #2) is a different story. All of the Japanese market ones have the same pinout and wire colors, with later ones being "dummied out" on removed features such as the key cylinder lights. I can't remember offhand if it is due to circuits being removed inside TWS Unit #2, if the harness had these items de-pinned, or if it was both. When I get closer to the finish line, we'll know more. On the other hand, North American CPU #2 has additional functions such as the Security Light and can interrupt the Starter too, so their connector pinouts were shuffled around and connector #2 has a few more pins added too. But from a quick glance, it MIGHT be possible to use a USDM CPU #2 on a Japanese FD.

Time to get back to work, it's gonna be a busy weekend.

And 8 hours later, ECU charts are nearing the finish line. Here's a test fit for size on the oscilloscope output and descriptor text. 12pt bold and plenty of space. Can go to 10pt if it gets cramped, but everything's looking good.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...695817e3e9.jpg
Gotta love high res images :)

Anyway, progress has undoubtedly been slower than expected so it looks like the June 30th date may not happen. I'm doing the best I can, it's just a LOT of work and this one is being made to a MUCH higher standard than the Wiring Diagram book I made for the Cosmo.

First pages are completely rendered
 

It's been a busy few days and I've been hard at work. Today was especially good as I finished the final render on all of the Pinout and Service Code charts. 51 pages finished and re-combined into their 17 respective sub-sections.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...fad880da2a.jpg

10% is finished now. Tackling the Flow Charts next.

82/500
 

I was up till 4am this morning, but the Flow charts and SRS text pages are finished now. Everything that isn't a diagram or location page is rendered and finished. 82 pages out of 500 done now. 16% done.

I'm tired, taking the day off now.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...06d5cfb5ec.jpg

Quick Update
 

So the color work is finally finished. Now the fun stuff can begin. I'll be making a Test Build of the entire book this weekend to see how things fit and flow together, make any adjustments needed and get a page count to get in the ballpark on the final product.

June 30th: Happy Birthday Sailor Moon
 

So today is June 30th. As I'm typing this, my system is putting everything together right now. So in that respect, the date was met with...

The IKEA Edition! 2.9gb of pure awesomeness. Some assembly required.

Now that we've all had a good laugh from that, here's the latest. I just added all of the titles to every page and rendered all of them as PDFs for the Test Build. Took maybe 5 seconds longer per page to add that step. Everything has been given a final going-through, which caught a few minor errors that slipped past me before. The IKEA Edition has all of the necessary files to compile everything together in a single, yet massive package. Compiling this monster will be split 4 ways once the Test Build is done. So, 408 pages, plus charts, flow charts, text pages for Section S, and all the extras too. Hopefully it won't take too long.

Tonight! A cat takes a nap! I get a concussion! And a file is made!
 

(cue Top Gear Theme)

So all of the above is true. Still not feeling 100%, but I put together the Test Build this morning to get an idea of what the final product will be. It's currently 532mb and 489 pages. A couple bits need tidied up and some other parts added, but we're at least in the ballpark now. Realistically, the final product will be in the 6-700mb range once all the text is added, bookmarks put in and all the other fun stuff.

Teaser now.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8e74606783.jpg

Time for a break. Concussion is not something to f*ck around with.

Update after a week
 

It's been about a week since the concussion and I'm trying to get work done still. I'm at roughly 25%, so I started hammering out the vacuum system diagrams as it's the "lightest" work I can do right now. It's taking a LOT longer than I'd like since I can only focus well enough for maybe an hour each morning. Between this and the back of my left shoulder/neck area aching, progress has ground to a crawl and there's just not much I can do about it.

On a different note, I got the POR-15 Fuel Tank Repair Kit (Aaron Cake used it on the 1976 Cosmo) for my daily a few days ago for $68. Advance Auto Parts had it on sale, then a coupon on top. Yay for half-price repairs :)

Post Concussion Update
 

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of news over the past two weeks. Recovery has been slower than I'd like, partly because I had been trying to chip away at work each day and it was working against me. I found that my VERY DEPOWERED focus just kept failing on me after maybe 30 minutes. So I threw in the towel for a week and gave my brain a rest. It's worked pretty well and I'm at roughly 65% of normal so work can resume. As long as I take a break when I need it, all should be okay.

Vacuum diagrams are roughly 80% done, I just need to verify the solenoid connector colors on a Series 7/8. Also took care of the Black Box disassembly/reassembly guide too. Might add a couple more bonuses, not sure yet. Anyway, I'm done for the day. Brain is tired now.

It's that time again...
 

Well my internet has been down for almost a week, but I still got work done. During that time, I sorted out all of the connector images and put in "helper text" on each page. That way, I can outsource putting in the 1800 or so connectors where they need to go.

So a much-needed break was in order. Had to charge the battery in my BMW. Maybe 100ft from it, the spare tire carrier on my Expedition broke, dropping the spare tire in the middle of the street. It broke right where the cable meets the bracket. Thankfully, it happened on a side street at 20mph instead of on the highway at 55+. So now I get to figure out a solution. Yes, the whole thing CAN be replaced. But it's been in place since right before Mario Kart 64 came out, and rust is a thing. Better to pick and choose your battles.

While this happened, I spent a few days of my "break" sifting through the pile of mp3/audio files leftover from data recovery last year, getting it into some semblance of order. It's roughly 2/3 sorted, but a lot is missing and has to be found again. And there's a bunch that were renamed with numbers that I have to figure out what they are too.

Sorry I haven't been around much over the past week. Wifi JUST got fixed a day or two ago and I've been getting all of the pop-up projects like my spare tire hanger hammered out to get them out of my attention span. Ended up learning how to sandblast yesterday in 90+ degrees with a heat index of 110+. Not a fun time, but useful nonetheless. The bracket is in a vat of vinegar to finish breaking up the rust since it's too hot out to do any more sandblasting on it. Heat Stroke sucks.

I'm gonna get back on the FD Wiring Bible tomorrow to get everything dialed in for the final push on text and connectors. It's forecast to be in the expletive range of hot, so there's zero chance of me being outside. So I might as well be useful.

Just a quick update
 

So the spare tire repair went a bit sideways after user error. One tiny bump and the cable end fell off because I didn't tighten it enough. Crank it back on and it's been solid ever since. Next, a trek to extract a fuel tank for my daily went sideways when the donor car wouldn't jack up straight. Then trying to find another donor tank went sideways too...

So it was today that I got a chance to sit down and get back to the FD Wiring Bible to fit connector images into place. And that went sideways too.

Most things went in fine, except the ECU connectors. No matter what I tried, it just looked off, wouldn't fit text properly or both. So I re-drew them all from scratch, did a test render and now they look and fit properly. It does mean a bit more work on the backend to put the terminal designations back in, but it also means easy matching with Ctrl+F (gotta love that feature!)

8 days and no update? So I made a script to expedite some picture edits. It's not perfect, but it will make things FAR quicker for doing the edits on the remaining 1500+ connector pictures. Still requires me to make a few keystrokes per picture, but take the whole task from a mind-numbing week down to a day of semi-auto action. Then they're getting sorted according to device to pick the best copy to use throughout.

Also, I've been busy after discovering my daily's negative battery cable wouldn't stay on the battery anymore and wouldn't tickle the starter. Crimped on a new lug and did the Aaron Cake treatment, still no crank. No crank and no fuel pump action. Got a broken power feed wire on the pump, and we're not sure what's wrong with the starter yet. Didn't get time to dive under the car to diagnose it, but everything before the starter checks out fine. Got a feeling it's from corrosion.

Edit: So I just finished the connector images. Just over 2 hours total. So the script works brilliantly :)

Views? It's over 9000!!!
 

After the daily driver debacle (yes it was corrosion), I got back to work here. The past few days have been spent sorting the freshly-trimmed up connector images into their associated devices.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0458849352.jpg

It might sound menial, but there is a good reason for it.
5 "identical" images of Connector JB-09 on the inside fuse box. From top to bottom, we have 11/91, 7/93, 7/94, 12/95 and 12/98. There wasn't one for 9/2000 since no changes were made to it. Varying resolution, straightness, consistency and tidiness, no two are alike. So I can choose the best example of JB-09, make it perfect and use it throughout. Repeat for every other connector.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...1e7a226d30.jpg

Only the 7/93 one came close to my standards. The other 4 all failed the test.

AMAZING WORK!!! Can't wait.

So I've begun the long process of mastering each connector and ran into a snag.

This is a comparison of X-04: Between Front and Engine Harness. It was re-named X-12 for North American FDs, but do you see what's wrong here? Version 1 (11/1991) is backwards from the rest of them.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...439e86395d.png

I've noticed errors like this on the following connectors:
X-04
X-05
X-08
X-24 (Photoshopped in for this example)
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e15dcde144.png


Here are the locations for each of them, highlighted in yellow and red. Applies to all Japanese FDs.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e773b8db41.png

There's enough of a doubt there that I need to verify those 4 connectors on each of the six sub-generations. I have a V1 (FD3S-1xxxxx) car lined up, but I need Version 2 through 6 to verify against too. If you can help, please message me or reply here so we can get this discrepancy straightened out.

10,000 views!
 

Well, well, well, I never thought this would break into 5 digits but it has. And despite the minor snag from before, things are still moving forward. Right now, the finalized text is being put in for the connector pinouts, formatted and ironed out to a single standard to prep everything for the optimized connector images. For areas that were originally together that I split up for clarity, they're now color-keyed back together for easy reference. I just finished Section A in just under an hour, so it's going fairly quick.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...62e7d11e65.jpg

Also, I've been working on a small side project here and there to help jumpstart new development. A Eunos Cosmo owner sent me their CCS Navigation disc so I could take a look at how it works. So I made a backup ISO and found it has no actual files on it and was rather small. Around 25mb, so it's definitely odd, but not unheard of. Took a look under the hood at its actual code and found there's a lot of similarity between it and an early Super NES rom or Playstation 2 save file. There's a TON of work to be done to fully decipher it, but it can be done now. A few areas I've identified are the Longitude/Latitude markers (same identifiers in the Workshop Manual), the disc header area, completion date (May 23, 1993 for this one) and what I suspect are an early form of Points of Interest at the end of the disc. A Repeating pattern of not-exactly-identical data blocks, 350 in total. From all of this, I'm thinking tht the CCS was coded in a way that the actual map data could be expanded on by having a larger "map block" and adjusting the Start Address for POI accordingly. The same trick was used in Earthbound to add more data for rom hacks (EB rom expander). Right now, this is purely hypothetical and will need quite a bit of work to figure out what makes it tick, how things are structured, etc.

While at it, a high resolution image of the label side was made too. Took a few tries to come out right since it's a "bare" reflective disc, and capture the hub code (like on a PS1 disc).

Have you compared the differences between the Series 1~3 and Series 4~6 wiring?

I found some major differences when tracing the injector wiring back to the ecu in the charts.

Also the wiring for the coils. I avoided disaster by checking the wire colours in the small coil harness to the proper coils.

The harness was hooked up in the reverse order!

Luckily we found this before the replacement coils and harness went into the car.

Yes, there are some differences as you mentioned. For this reason, going by wire colors/pinouts is the proper approach as similar connectors can easily be mixed up when in close proximity. Especially with the revised coil placement for 12/95+ (Version 4-6), things could easily go very wrong, very quickly from such a minor error. Fortunately, wire colors are generally consistent between early and late FDs so parts can be swapped between the two and wired up correctly without too much difficulty.

Right now, I'm trying to simplify the process as much as reasonably possible. As much as it sucks, I think it's time for a 3rd screen for organization purposes. My sub-screen had 10+ windows open on it when going through Section A and it was getting difficult to keep track of what I was working on. Between that and the 8 or so on the Main Screen, I found it was getting too time-consuming to sift through both screens to get what I needed. And it'll only get worse in Section B.

So, time for a VESA monitor arm mount...:biggrin:

Is that harness connected correctly, or not. Best not guess.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...6e83b6c598.jpg