PID tuning, any good reads?

[Chris Wilson]

I am slowly dragging myself into the electronics age, and having a bash at doing some mapping., The hardest thing I am finding to get my head around is PID tuning. I got this gentleman's free stuff that has made the concept much clearer, without delving into too much maths, (sadly a great weakness of mine) :

http://www.pidtuning.net/index.php

I subscribed to his free tutorial. I fear the main course may be more orientated to industrial process control? I have watched the excellent Motec webinar on PID closed loop tuning. Is there an other good source of info, written or video, especially any with specific automotive relevancies? Thanks.

[Holmz]

I am slowly dragging myself into the electronics age,
...

The math is easier to learn when you have a motivating reason...
If you were MATLAB oriented, then there is this:
http://www.mathworks.com.au/products/simcontrol/demos.html?file=/products/demos/shipping/slcontrol/scdspeedctrlpidpad.html

There is also Octave http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ - which is a freeware equivalent under linux.

[Chris Wilson]

Hmm, I think I need to ask real world tuners a question here, maybe I should have asked it before the thread starter question?

Is real world hands on experience of tuning PID worth more than reading lots of technical references?
Is it worthwhile trying to find commercial algorithms that work to try and create PID control settings outside of the dyno room, or with the laptop on your knees in the car, or is it like plastering, you can read all you want but until you try and make the stuff stick to the ceiling yourself a few hundred times, it's mere theory?

Thanks Holmz, even the thought of Matlab makes me quake, I have to get the wife to do my VAT and I add up using my fingers if no one is looking Slight exaggeration, but not a lot!

[stevieturbo]

I think trial and error is the only way, simply because every specific application is different, uses different components and will require different numbers.


I guess that's why I like open loop lol.

[MarkMc]

If you read my PID tuning introduction and watch my webinars it will give you a good start. "Trial and error" suggests you are messing around with no direction (sorry). If you understand what each part does you have have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen when you start tuning.

SOmething liek idle control is probably hte hardest thing to get right as it relys on so many outside factors (fuel, ignition, etc), cam control is quite easy to do. Boost control is probably not so bad either but you make sure you get the open loop part right first and build on that.