Friday, May 25, 2012


Here's a close up look at the CNG controller

Or maybe it should be titled "Here's a look inside a Chinese controller". Actually it's not too bad, it hasn't been on the car yet so I can't tell how well it performs in a working situation but from an evaluation standpoint it seems good enough - At this point I would give it 2.5 out of 5 stars; 5 being the best.

The CNG controller case has a two piece case made of cast aluminum containing the PC board

 Although the case isn't all that good, it's sealed with clear silicone in the molded two piece inter-locking U channel and screwed together with four machine screws. Looking at the case, it's obvious that case is good enough but not very high quality. A General Manager I used to work for in product development had a saying "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough" - This is certainly the case here - That is, the casting is good enough.



 Rear of the case - The mediocre casting quality
 is evident on the lower case seam shown
Back cover of the controller 
and attachment screws














A close up view of casting quality

It's obvious from this picture that the plastic on the shells for the interconnects have shrunken during cooling due to lack of attention paid to plastic thicknesses - Also note that this also means that there is a marked absence of  glass filling used in most automotive connectors to stabilize the plastic and ensure that it functions well in the automotive temperatures under the hood.


Here is a view of inside the CNG control module - This module uses a Freescale micro-controller. In closer inspection it was reveled that the micro controller is rated to Industrial temperature range (-40 to 105 C) rather than Automotive Temperature (-40 to 125 C) as most under the hood control modules are - Clearly implementing the "good enough" principal. On the right, the "U" channel is visible. This channel is loaded with silicone sealer before placing the inter-locking back plate in place. Although the casting for this unit is mediocre, the application of sealer seems to make a pretty good water-tight seal.


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