Rex B. Lantz Jr.

PO Box 924, Jonesville, VA 24263

(276) 346-0023

Some Simple Tachometer Input Circuits

Rex Lantz
05 April 2007

Steve:

Here are a few simple circuits you can try. The two resistors and the small cap to ground forms a
LP filter and the values shown will pass a freq. Up to 12,000 RPM. You can increase the value
of the resistors to 4K7 without difficulty. They just need to be the same value. Try the .05uF
cap and it can be increased to ~ .1uF. Any more and you may filter out some high RPM
information.

Figure 1 is a simple diode clamp with the LP network. The circuit will clamp at the 5volts and
you will get a square wave output from ground to +5. You can run this at a higher voltage … the
equipment that you are feeding the circuit into is the limiting factor. I don’t like much over 8
volts myself.

Figure 2 is an excellent circuit and the one I use on my tachometer design. This circuit produces
a very crisp edge on the pulses. It also divided the input by 2 so that you get on pulse for every
two rising edges of the tach signal. This is quite useful for most microprocessors that are
measuring the actual pulse duration to calculate RPM. You analogue tach works on
frequency/voltage which is different.

Figure 3 is also a very good circuit I use frequently. This has the standard front LP filter and
uses a PNP resistor. When the resistor conducts it will clamp the circuit to the control voltage
and it produces a very crisp output rising edge trigger for your equipment. Most all tachometers
are happy with this circuit.

On the SRF a much better tach signal is available on Pin 1 of the EDIS module which is the PIP
line. This is a 50% duty cycle perfect square wave output similar to my Figure 2. Perry
Edwards has helped me allot with this circuit and he offers a technical discussion of the EDIS
here http://www.dainst.com/info/edis/edis.html if you’re interested.

You are probably aware of the discussion from Mega-Squirt about the Ford EDIS here:
http://www.megamanual.com/ms2/EDIS.htm You notice that they are also using the PIP signal
as the tachometer source.
Rev Limiter:

I made a small unit to control the SPI motor on the 2.0L Ford SPI Engine that I am going to use.
It is basically my tachometer circuit and it runs a FET with a PWM signal to the motor. This
may work as an interrupt in the coil signal line or in the PIP line of the EDIS.

If it were on the IGN GND signal line (pin 4) it could at a certain RPM open the line and
momentarily which should kill the coil.

In the alternate, you might try interrupting the EDM line. This will tell the ECU that a coil has
malfunctioned but I’m not sure of the consequence. It will probably set a fault code too.

Or finally, and perhaps the best way, is to interrupt the SAW signal (Pin 3) from the ECU to the
EDIS. When this happens the EDIS should default pretty quick to limp mode and retard the
spark back to 10 degrees BTDC. In a driving situation where you are against the max RPM this
would be quite noticeable and act as a rev limiter.

You are welcome to copy this circuit if you would like to make some of these. It also makes a
great shift light control! You can mount the box anyplace and run the wires to a decent control
light.

Here is a look at the PCB for the SRF dash. I’m working on code still.
 +5V
Figure 1
D1
1N4148
Figure 2
IC1B

IC2P
+5V
14 7 8
S 13
R5 R4 Q
Vcc Gnd
Tach Input
C3 9
2K2 2K2 D
D2 To Your Device C9 11
CLK
.1
1N4148 .05 10 12
R Q\
Input and Output signal is the same.
Chassis IC2A
6 1
S Q
TACH1 Q2 5
R8 D
2N2907
Tach Signal Input
3
CLK To Your Device
2K2 4 2
R Q\
+5V

Output >> Divide by 2

10K
C8

R7
CD 4013 D Flip Flop
.1

TACH
Input and Output signal is the same.
R1 R2
ALTERNATE : To Your Device
2K2 C1 2K2
Tach Signal Input Q1
2N2907
Northern Controls & Communications
+5V

Filter C .05 PNP

C2
Route 2 Box 2063 Jonesville, VA 24263
.1 To Your Device

Figure 3 Steve Fenske

10K
R3