Kevin,

Now that you mention it, I actually do not recall if I unplugged the motor from the ECU, or if I unplugged the power going to the ECU. I will try this again, making sure to unplug the motor from the ECU as you have suggested. 

Yesterday I received the CAN simulator from Blake and last Friday I got the necessary connectors to build the harness.



I got the two Molex connectors for the box itself along with an OBDII connector.

Blake also emailed the pin-out diagram.

I am still sorting out exactly how I am going to do the wiring, but I am hoping to wire things up temporarily tomorrow and see what sort of trouble I get myself into.

If the power steering comes on when the CAN simulator is turned on, then I know it is working.

The other part of this will involve hooking up an OBDII scanner and seeing what codes are being sent by the steering ECU. I am hoping that I can do that with my BlueDriver Bluetooth dongle and my cell phone. Hopefully it will also let me reset the codes.

Wish me luck!

Andrew

Andrew

Sounds good, let us know if the wake up on canbus works, you already have the most high tech 67 Cougar on the planet. This will just be the next step.

And yes there is considerable difference steering motor unplugged from ECU VS removing power from ECU and leaving motor connected. If you want to see some really high effort steering short the unplugged motor leads and try turning the wheel. The motor becomes a generator when driven and the short loads it down real bad.

Kevin

Today I was able to do some testing. I didn't want to wire everything up permanently only to have to chase things down later. So today I simply wanted to see if Blake's box works. The definition of "works" is, will the steering ECU turn on when it sees an RPM signal over CAN. I wanted to do more, but I didn't have enough terminals for the little connector that plugs into the steering ECU. There is a Prius at a junk yard not to far from me. I plan to take a trip and see what I can rob off it.

I connected the CANHi and CANLo at the steering ECU (on the D31 connector) to the CANHi and CANLo on Blake's box, making sure to twist the wires. I installed the wires into the Molex connectors for power and ground, ran the ground under the dash and had the power wire ready to connect to a temporary power source.

I turned the ignition ON, and as expected, there was no power assist. As soon as I applied power to Blake's box, almost instant assist. Blake said that his box should come online in less than a second, and that's about right.

I then went for a drive, not really expecting any difference, but to my surprise, there was a difference. At low speed there is considerably more assist and as speed increases there is a noticeable drop in assist. So contrary to my previous proclamations, and counter to the results that some people have done with bench testing, I don't believe that the speed sensitive steering is active if there is no CAN signal. This makes sense, because in the Yaris FSM it clearly states that if there is a CAN communication error with the engine ECM, it defaults into "failsafe" mode (fixed assist at the middle level). The RTC was about the same, but I expect this to improve once I get the OBDII connector wired up, scan and clear any codes, and perform the torque sensor zero point calibration.

Progress is being made.

Andrew, sounds good. A assume you are still applying VSS from the Holly and that is what is changing the assist level. I still contend that with VSS only I have felt 3 levels of assist on the test bench.  Waiting to see how the Diagnostic connector works out. You have a better test bed in the Cougar than I have on the bench.

Keep us posted                Kevin

Kevin,

Yes, the speed signal is still coming from the Holley Dominator ECU. I believe what you tell me, but at the same time I can't deny what happened today. Clearly more testing is required, and I plan to do that once everything is installed for good. I am really eager to get the OBDII port wired up and get it functioning and check for codes. 
I actually managed to find the tiny little terminals that go into the D31 connector. They are made by Tyco and I ordered some from DigiKey. No sense in going through all this and not doing the wiring the best that I can. I also tracked down the D31 connector body in the Yaris FSM and it is available from the local Toyota dealer for $7. 
The plan is to use a spare hot lead that I already wired from the engine bay to under the dash. That wire will power (through a relay) the steering ECU turn on circuit on pin 6 (2.5 amp fuse), Blake's box (5 amp fuse), and the OBD2 connector (7.5 amp fuse). I will trigger that relay through the Holley Dominator, so as soon as the ECU powers, Blake's box goes live, and so does the steering ECU. 

For New Years I am visiting a friend in Orlando. He is a sharp guy and has a well equipped shop. One of the things that we will try to do on the trip is check both the upper and lower shafts and make sure they are laser straight. I know my top shaft is not perfect and the bottom one might need a tweak as well. Not having those shafts perfectly straight is definitely hurting RTC. The other thing that we are going to see about doing is making a beefy bracket to support the column at the motor. He is an excellent fabricator and I am sure we can come up with something that can be welded to the pedal support bracket and anchors the motor assembly. I think having the column be as rigid as possible will also improve the installation and overall driving experience.

Andrew

Just a tiny little update. The weather has been cold and rainy, so no work is being done, but I did receive some parts. I like doing a proper wiring job and that means not doing any butt connections with the wires if it can possibly be avoided. This means spending some time looking at catalogs and data sheets for the right terminals.

With the Yaris (and Prius) steering ECUs the wiring that needs to happen is on the D31 connector. This is where the +12v power pin is located, along with the speed signal, CANHi and CANLo, etc....I have a D31 connector that I clipped from the donor car so what I needed were the actual terminals to avoid butt splicing wires and to add pins as needed. I was also looking to find the connector itself, but had no luck, but the Toyota dealership has them for $6. However, the dealership does not have and can't even look up the terminals. As far as I could tell the connector is made by TE Connectivity and the stock terminals had Tyco stamped on it. A little time spent in the TE Connectivity catalog resulted in a reward.

I know this may seem like overkill for most people, but if I am going to all this trouble, I might as well take it 100% of the way.





Once I get a dry sunny day, I can wire up the rest of the wires for the OBD2 connector and see if I can read fault code using the Blue Driver OBD2 dongle and android app.

Andrew

It's not over kill, it's doing it right and in a way that will last.  Nothing worse than spending a few hours under the dash troubleshooting a problem caused by a splice that should not have been there in the first place

As always, please keep us updated          Kevin

We have put this same EPS into a couple of MGAs and I would be REALLY happy to get the part numbers for the Toyota plug and the TE Connectivity terminals so we can order them as well - have sent Andrew a private message as well

Thanks
Dominic

+41796877079

BTW, now having read all this thread I can provide some feedback on the issue of re-centering the steering.  In the experience we have, this is not necessary if the ECU and column are a pair from the donor car.  If you get a mismatched set, then the re-centering will be needed, otherwise the steering centering works as if it was still in the donor car.  So make sure to get a paired set from your donor / breaker




+41796877079

I am sorry for not responding sooner. I am not a regular visitor to this forum and it does not send out emails when there is a post or PM.

The D31 connector PN is 90980–12290 and can be ordered at the Toyota dealer for about 7 bucks. The terminals are TE Connectivity PN 1674311-1 and can be sourced from DigiKey.

The information below is not confirmed first hand, so proceed accordingly. I might as well add the information for the A19 (power connector). The connector body can be bought from Toyota under PN 90980-12300. This is a connector made by Yazaki and I have not found a company in the US that sells the terminals individually. However, I believe these are the terminals and can be ordered from Japan:

***EDIT*** THIS TERMINAL IS NOT CORRECT*** 2/10/19

https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/auc-hi-1000/item/f312-yz-5080/

***EDIT*** THIS CONNECTOR IS CORRECT*** 2/10/19 ***The same vendor has the connector bodies:

https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/auc-hi-1000/item/2p375-a-yz-f-tr/?l-id=rgm_item_en_rvp_widget

Andrew