Want your ECU socketed?

[MDK87]

So I'm starting to play around with EPROM's a bit with my Nissan and have to socket the ECU.
I was gonna go back to my old workplace and use their professional equipment to do a pro job of it (I'm an electronics technician).
So I was just wondering if anyone wants me to do theirs as well?
Cos with the right equipment, it doesn't take long and I might as well make the trip worthwhile.
I did my VR4 one (no socket, straight ECMlink) the night before our last Xmas cruise, at home with basic tools and it turned out to be alot better than I expected, pretty much perfect.
But if I had the option, I'd have used the right tools.
I'm not into making money out of this but you'd have to pay for postage if you can't hand the ECU to me in person and maybe $10 or so an ECU. As the socket will cost about $1, It'll be mostly going to my mate who I'll be bribing so that he lets me into the manufacturing facility to do this hahaha.

This is just sorta like an EOI atm as I've gotta ask him if he'll do it for me first.

 

[MDK87]

Oh, I can also copy EPROM's as long as you have your BIN file.
I'm not game to edit the Hex yet but I'm gonna start playing with it soon hopefully, if time allows for it.

 

[Gianni]

Pm sent

 

[MDK87]

PM replied.

I was kinda aiming it at the local guys, else the offer of free ECU 'socketing' might get out of hand and I'm pretty busy with work and uni these days, I don't really wanna get bogged down with the logistics of it all if I could help it. Having said that, I'll try to help you out, read your PM.

 

[nigel_a]

count me in mo!

 

[MDK87]

Yeah it was you who was telling me to put this thread up. Lol
Told you everyone in Brissy has already got theirs done.

Sorry to anyone that got they're hopes up, but I got bored the other day and chipped my Nissan ECU at home. So it should go without saying, the above plan goes out the window.

Nigel I'll do yours no probs idiotman just text me when you get it out.

Gianni and brettu26, if you're not in a hurry to get them done, send me your ECU's (I've sent you the delivery details in a PM) and I'll do them at home when I get time....which probably won't be for a while, but I'll get them done....eventually haha

I don't have a gun to anyone's head though, so you're free to opt out.

 

[MDK87]

While we're on the topic of EPROM's, I'm currently in the process of mounting my EPROM seperate to the ECU in a buddy box with ~ 1.5m length parallel ribbon cables (2 x 14) so that I can change EPROM's quickly with a ZIF socket, and also Nissan's have indicator LED's and a potentiometer which is used for diagnostics, they'll also be mounted in the box because you can't access them when the ECU is installed in the car. :huh:

So aaaaanyway, is this even possible?
I haven't even considered modelling this setup and I'm worried that the length of the ribbon cables might have an adverse effect on the ECU operation / communication times.

Paging razza or to4garret

 

[Qik-1.8]

Hey Mo ill be sending mine down with nigel next weekend when he comes to pull my dash out but im in no rush

 

[to4garret]

i wouldnt imagine having the EPROM external to the actual ECU would be too much of a problem. You would just want to keep the length as SHORT as POSSIBLE 30-45cm.

I am by no means an electrical engineer but i believe the reasoning behind that is interference and resistance, you look at any protocol specification and they all state maxium lengths for cabling etc. Im sure an Ostrich works with a nissan ECU as well, they are external and USB programmable. It might be a better option for your tinkering, seeing as all the hard work would have been done for you (apart from the LEDs and POT).

 

[CLuTZ]

Hey mo- do you think you could tackle non-eprom to eprom conversions?

 

[MDK87]

Dammit, I should have waited for the replies before I went ahead and did it.. :|

I have mounted the ZIF socket in a plastic box which I keep in the glovebox.
The length of the ribbon cable is just over 1m.
I guess I'll try it all out and let you guys know!
I'd imagine it'd either work or it wouldn't. I initially thought that the throttle response might just be a little sloppy if the comms speed were too slow, but now I think about it, as it revs and load cells change quickly, by the time the appropriate cell was pulled, it'd be time to move onto the next one.
Meh, I'm just confusing myself now. I'll see how it goes!

Thanks for your thoughts Craig! Could you point me in the direction of this Ostrich thingy?
Nissans have the option of Nistune (~$700) which is similar to ECMlink to allow for real-time tuning, but I'm trying not to get carried away with the $$ as I'll probably be selling the car soon. I've piggybacked (if that's a word?) one DIL socket onto another and the second one has pin headers inserted in it with the mating connectors on the end of the ribbons, so it's all very easily reversible.
The idea was to allow quicker chop-change for EPROM tuning so that once the ideal tune was set, the EPROM could directly be inserted into the ECU.

Grant, no worries, but remember, your old EPROM will be destroyed.

Dre, sorry man but I'm not that confident.
Do you need an EPROM ECU? Or that wouldn't work?

 

[MDK87]

Hey mo- do you think you could tackle non-eprom to eprom conversions?

In fact bro, looking at the following link - http://www.ecmtuning.com/wiki/nonepromprocess

There's no way I could do it without the schematics of the ECU.

If you had the adaptor board and socket I can do the physical conversion but that's if you're hard stretched as I'd have to go to my old workplace to do it.
Might be worth getting ECMlink to do the conversion, or even better, buy and EPROM ECU.

Sorry I couldn't help you out buddy.

 

[to4garret]

http://www.moates.net/

specifically, http://www.moates.net/ostrich-20-the-new-breed-p-169.html?cPath=68

 

[MDK87]

Woohoo! It works!

I'm using 512kB EPROMs so I had to program it four times using cascaded addresses but that was the only problem I encountered.

I'm upgrading the MAF atm so I have disconnected the MAF and there's no air filter, but it does exactly what it did before I pulled the ECU apart, that is, it doesn't rev past 2k (...no MAF) so I won't know fully until I've finished fabricating my new SS intake pipe and have it all back together, but it's looking good!

It's so much fun!

I'm burning chips, trying them out, flashing them and doing it all over again. This is really fun stuff!

I can't wait to learn how to edit the ROM...

 

[MDK87]

http://www.moates.net/

specifically, http://www.moates.net/ostrich-20-the-new-breed-p-169.html?cPath=68

Thanks again Craig

That's actually not as expensive as I had imagined..

Do you know if you're able to retrieve something like a BIN file from the emulator so that once you're done tuning you can make it permanent by loading the data onto an EPROM?

Cos if so, that means you could use this thing as a tool similar to ECMlink (obviously without the cool interfacing software) and perform real time tuning, then once you've achieved the best tune, you could burn an EPROM and use this emulator for another car and so on and so forth...

Or do I have it completely wrong? :/

 

[to4garret]

the Ostrich just emulates a chip, enabling you to burn a bin in real time (USB) and query the bin in real time.

you use a program like Tuner Pro RT (RT = Real Time) with a bin deffination to read/write.

usually, you would use the Ostrich to tune your car, re-mapping the bin to suit mods etc, then do a permanent burn to a normal chip for every day use. Moates sell chip burners too.



it can be used similar to ECMLink, though it is no where near as user friendly, in fact i would suggest to anyone considering this as an alternative to ECMLink to seriously consider paying the additional money. ECMlink as it is far more advanced than just a chip emulator.