Electric power steering controller

[Telco]

Hi guys, long time no yak. I tried searching for this but unfortunately when I searched for electric power steering the search function hit on every thread that had the words electric, power or steering, which pretty much hits every single thread on an electric vehicle conversion site .

Anyway, has anyone come up with a way to speak to a CANBUS operated electric power steering system? I've been beating my brains out trying to find SOMEONE who has figured this out because I have a hard enough time with English (I like to tell people English is my second language, when they ask what the first is I say Gibberish,) computer languages are just a bridge too far for me. What I'd like to find is a control unit that can take inputs from a VSS sensor and a steering wheel torque sensor and convert it into a CANBUS message that will control an electric rack.

From what I can determine, electric racks have a self-contained computer to run the rack. The rack needs to know how much and how fast the steering wheel is being turned, and it needs to know how fast the vehicle is going, and with these readings it increases or decreases how much assistance the motor provides. And as the OEMs are going increasingly to EPS systems instead of hydraulics, being able to speak CANBUS will only benefit the modding world.

For those who want to keep the hydraulics but use electric, the newer Jeep Grand Cherokees are using electrohydraulic pumps, but they require CANBUS controls.

[Daox]

Autospeed has an article about modifying electric power steering. It involves altering the signal from the steering torque sensors that go to the EPS ECU.

I've tried this on my 2014 Mirage, and I didn't have good luck. If you adjust the signal too much the ECU knows that its 'out of spec' and throws a problem code. However, I'm sure it would work on others.

[Telco]

Heh heh, I actually came across that article doing my own searching on the subject. I've been at this several weeks now. Thanks though, I do appreciate it. Most promising I've found is this link where they put a column assist into a vintage Mustang. Seems there's a guy in Portugal that makes a controller setup for this that comes with a variable pot to allow you to adjust assist by turning a knob on the dash but I'd really rather have it operate as though the OEM had installed it which would mean replacing the knob with a VSS sensor input.