What a generic channel does
ESP gives you hundreds of channels, but real cars throw up combinations nobody planned for. "The engine is warm and we're above 60 mph." "The launch switch is off or the clutch is released." A Generic Channel packages logic like that into a single new channel. Once it exists, you can map against it, use it to drive other functions, or simply log it so you can see exactly when your condition was true.
The settings
Everything lives on the Settings tab.
| Setting | What it does | Our advice |
|---|---|---|
| Name | What the new channel is called when you search for it elsewhere in ESP | Describe the condition, like "Warm and Moving", so it makes sense in a log months later |
| Number Of Operations | How many source channels go into the calculation, from one to three | Use as few as the job needs; simpler logic is easier to debug |
| Select Channel | The ECU channel for each operation | Pick channels that are clean and stable, not ones that flicker |
| Maths | The comparison: Equal To and Not Equal To, Greater Than and Greater Than Or Equal To, or Less Than and Less Than Or Equal To | For a switch, compare to its on/off state; for sensors, use greater or less than |
| Value | The number the channel is compared against | Leave a margin so the result doesn't chatter around the threshold |
| And/Or | How the operations combine: And needs all of them true, Or needs any one | Write the rule out in plain English first, then set And/Or to match |
A worked example
Say you only want a water-methanol pump allowed when the engine is fully warm and on boost:
- Name it "Meth Allowed" and set Number Of Operations to 2.
- Operation 1: coolant temperature, Greater Than, your warm-engine temperature.
- Operation 2: manifold pressure, Greater Than, your chosen boost level.
- Combine them with And.
The new channel is true only when both are met. You can then use it as a condition on a generic output that drives the pump relay.
Tips from the shop
- Always log a new generic channel alongside its source channels for a drive or two. It's the quickest way to catch a Greater Than that should have been a Less Than.
- A sensor sitting right on the threshold will make the channel flick on and off. Move the value slightly away from where the car normally lives.
- Need time involved, like "true for two seconds"? Feed your generic channel into a generic timer.
For custom sensor inputs, see generic sensors. On Nexus ECUs, NSP's version of this idea is the generic condition.
