# Anybody get Zilla RPM limiter to work?



## ruckus (Apr 15, 2009)

Hello,
Lithium Jaguar is a success (http://www.evalbum.com/3980), but the Zilla refuses to acknowledge the rpm sensor. I even bought a special 50% duty cycle excitation ring from the very nice and fast folks at RechargeCar Store. (I dare you to explain to your wife about your recent "excitation ring" purchase...)

No go. It drives the Classic Instruments tach just fine (as good as my homemade jobbie anyway), but if I try to include the Zilla in the loop it does not transfer the signal from the tach signal input to the tach signal output in the hairball. I lowered the rpm limit to 1000 but the engine could rev freely so it is not picking up the signal. 

Ideas?

I am using a fairly standard seeming Omron inductive proximity sensor. It has 3 wires: hot, ground, and signal. I believe it is normally open and the signal is pulled down 4 times per revolution.

Anybody out there get the finicky Zilla to accept a sensor input? 
What was the trick?

Thanks.


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## EVfun (Mar 14, 2010)

I used the rev limit function once. Here is Otmar's FAQ on the subject and here is a link to the sensor I used.


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## petenyma (Apr 2, 2008)

With my Zilla I had to change the mot speed 1 setting before it would do anything with the tach input. I also found that although the tach now works the Zilla does not rev limit - it just logs an error when it detects that you have over revved.


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

Consider talking to the guys at Manzanita Micro, who are now producing and selling the Zilla. They're quick to respond.


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

dumb question ( but I didn't see it mentioned) Do you have a pull-up or Pull-down resistor of about 2 K ohms on the output of the sensor??


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## electricmini (Oct 21, 2008)

ruckus said:


> Hello,
> Lithium Jaguar is a success (http://www.evalbum.com/3980), but the Zilla refuses to acknowledge the rpm sensor. I even bought a special 50% duty cycle excitation ring from the very nice and fast folks at RechargeCar Store. (I dare you to explain to your wife about your recent "excitation ring" purchase...)
> 
> No go. It drives the Classic Instruments tach just fine (as good as my homemade jobbie anyway), but if I try to include the Zilla in the loop it does not transfer the signal from the tach signal input to the tach signal output in the hairball. I lowered the rpm limit to 1000 but the engine could rev freely so it is not picking up the signal.
> ...


Well, the rpm sensor from EVsource works just fine with the Zilla Z2K in my Supra project.
(I did try an inductive proximity sensor myself with the old Mini conversion, that seemed to work ok, but I didn't have a Zilla then)

Check to if you have the "amps-on-tach" feature switched on as this could give you unexpected results, and as other have said you need to enable the motor speed sense input in the Zilla's options too.

The sensor may need a pullup resistor to work with the Zilla's input
(maybe your tach provides this internally, which is why it works with just the sensor)

HTH

Richard (electricmini)


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## ruckus (Apr 15, 2009)

THANKS to everybody for chipping in! 

And the WINNER is: Turn on the rpm sensor option in the Zilla menu. 

As simple as that! 

I have confirmed the rpm limiting is functional. However, the Zilla tach output will not drive the tach. The tach IS functional if the tach output wire is put in the same hairball slot with the tach input (shorting them together).

In other words, the Zilla reads the sensor, the tach reads the sensor, but the Zilla is not able to drive the tach. I don't see an option to turn on the "tach out" slot. 

I would like to turn on the tach to amps feature and drive a 2nd, mini-10k motorcycle tach as an amps guage.

Anybody get THAT to work?


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