Zemco CompuCruise

[Tom Jennings]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005, John Foust wrote:

> Zemco Compucruise!  I put one in my 1996 Mustang Grande circa 1980.
> It was so futuristic.  After the Mustang I got a Javelin.

And today it's a futuristic artifact of the past, and will be
right at home in my new 35-yr-old car.

(I've avoided automotive computing intentionally and 100%, but it
looks like I'm going to do MP3 audio (with a Soekris Eng. NET4801)
and also Megasquirt, an open-souce EFI system.)

> I kept it long after the car passed on and eventually gave the
> Compucruise and its sensors in 1996 to Dale Luck of Amiga
> graphics fame for one of his restorations.
>
> It was an early car computer kit.  I remember epoxy-ing magnets to
> the drive shaft to monitor speed, a pair of temperature sensors,
> an inline optical gas consumption sensor, a brake switch, and a
> vacuum-driven bladder connected to the throttle.  It could do cool
> stuff like real-time MPG, estimated time of arrival, and a cruise
> control that would accelerate to a preset speed on its own.

I lucked out a few years back, and found a new-never-used still in
the box one, complete with brackets, cable ties, manuals and
errata, etc. Missing only the box top.

It's Z80-based, I think and has a masked ROM, and powered up OK
about a year or so back. I hope to begin installing it this
weekend.  I doubt I'll get many sensors setup this weekend.

> The Compucruise's cruise control once lost its feedback (and/or
> brake shut-off, I forget) while driving the interstate and it
> happily floored the gas pedal until I reached under the dash to
> disconnect its power.  My passenger was horrified.

Woah. Not very good! Cruise control isn't high on my list, but
I'll keep that in mind! The brake-switch interlock system is a bit
kludgey, a ball-chain and plastic switch. I suppose I should
reengineer that part.

I'll keep the fuse/connector handy too :-)