Electronic Damper Control

Simon_Ashley said:

Hello,

So what I want to achieve is an adjustable controller (Analogue or Digital setting) for adjusting the damping on front and rear axles of my VW Caravelle.

Later VW Transporters (Caravelle) had option of Dynamic Chassis control so the dampers are available and fit my van.
Link to details on that system can be found here:

View document [SSP 406 DCC Adaptive Chassis Control]

vd Veer engineering car electronics. Haldex, DSG, CAN controller and other CANBUS devices.

www.vdveer-engineering.nl

Now I don't want to try and go through all the cost of sensors, ECU and wiring to fit the full OEM system.

After a standalone control for stable manual damper setting/adjustment (as far as I can determine) this is an electro magnet operating a valve that changes damping from Comfort to Sport.
Comfort being off or 0amps
Sport being on 1.8amps (possibly max 2amps)

What is the best way of creating such a controller?
Arduino
Pulse Width Modulation
Power control module?

Don't think it makes any difference but I'll be installing the Bilstein B16 Damptronic2 suspension that works with the factory installed DCC:

BILSTEIN DampTronic® II: Redesigned for mass production - BILSTEIN

This article explains how the BILSTEIN DampTronic II system works and how the developers were able to transfer the technology from small-scale to large-scale production.

bilstein.com

Thanks in Advance
Simon

Click to expand...

It's not so simple (just on vs off state). These valves are controlled by input from accelerometers, steering wheel position sensors, vehicle speed and sensors showing compression/extension of the suspension (and rate of change of suspension movement, vehicle velocity) and anticipating change by monitoring throttle position and brake position and rate of change of those.

The performance of the GM/Delphi "MagnaRide" was (is?) incredible - it uses a viscosity controllable oil (magnetorheological fluid) and a small magnetic field at the orifice to dynamically control damping with response time of 5mSec. The device was developed in months but software and sensor integration took a long time to perfect.

The newer (and more robust) systems like yours use one or more electronically activated valves to change the orifice size instead of changing the fluid's viscosity give a progressive damping effect.

A simple on/off will result in a stiffer sport ride but may not be matched to the spring compression. You may experience a "hard tail"-like hard bounce if it is "over-damped". The whole goal is to keep tires on the road to maintain/re-establish traction quickly after a perturbation. It is not just about firm or soft.

Thanks for your feedback

VW offer many variations of the same / similar systems.

Later transporters have the full Dynamic Chassis Control system as an option from factory. Where some current Polo and earlier Golf had purely Electronic Damper Control systems. These had just Comfort and Sport.
Not smart systems but integrated into the Body Control module for selecting modes, so also trickier to retrofit.

So while yes it won't be as good as factory DCC system, I should be able to achieve a basic electronic damper control system.

Hopefully with an adjustable controller allowing settings between fully soft and fully hard depending on how I want to setup the van and hopefully independently adjustable front to rear.

Cheers
Simon