WOW is this cheap, unassembled megasquirt 2

[Version135b]

eBay Motors: MegaSquirt-II 2 PCB3 Standalone Engine Management Kit (item 230199309764 end time Dec-13-07 10:02:52 PST)

unassembled, just need to build case and solder together.. seems like an awesome deal.. the assembled set costs over 400 bucks from the same company.

QUESTION: is the megasquirt a good thing for my turbo 5sfe?

has anyone used megasquirt? is it better than smt6? is this a good buy for a newbie ? (i'm not afraid to learn.. but if im getting in way over my head i'd like to know in advance )

i'm not afraid of soldering.. and i'm confident i could build a decent looking box for it.. basically i just want to make sure the hardware is a good buy.. and that it'll do everything i need to make my 5sfe happy (not explode)

thanks -stuart

[Gairloch]

There are a few people using the megasquirt for different projects. If you search in the EFI forum you'll see there was a large discussion about it.

[ARZ]

My buddy in this video makes close to 600 rwhp in this car with MSII

Datsun @26psi VS Datsun @18psi Both 7MGTE - SupraMania

Notice my boost gauge, my car is no slouch either, I did 487 at the rear wheels with 23 psi, but thats about the limit with the stock 7MGTE ECU. I am seriously considering mega squirt.

[Version135b]

it's impossible to see ANYTHING in that video hahaha mount your camera next time XD

[Enthalpy]

It always cracks me up to see EMSes sold based on the output of the cars running them. To make gobs of power is actually incredibly simple from the EMS point of view. Any EMS in the WORLD should be able to do this.

Where the rubber meets the road in EMS land are things like trigger filtration (which the MS sucks at), drivability (MS is so-so), durability (MS scores low here too) and feature set (MS is so-so here).

As previously emphasized, I encourage you to see the other thread on this topic.

[TomsMR2]

so so on feature set? i dont know about that man.. you could program an MS to make you toast! considering that its open source with thousands of guys churning out custom programs for it, its pretty feature packed.. kinda to the point where its SO much that its hard to keep up with all of it. its kinda so feature packed its overkill.

it doesnt have the best resolution, and lots of people do have driveability issues, and is it pretty hard to setup with lots of room for assembly error.. but its features are endless.

then again, in reference to a 5s.. it would almost be hard to make a worse ecu than stock. the MS might not be in the same league as normal ems's, but its miles ahead of stock.. especially if you have a 91.

MS isnt directly compatible with 5sfes (yet), so either way its not going to work. its not going to read the ignition signal.

[mrturrari]

Originally Posted by Version135b

QUESTION: is the megasquirt a good thing for my turbo 5sfe?

It would be great if you have the patience and skill to get it working. Just remember that what you save in initial cost you will more then spend in your own time and effort. I bought one from DYIAutotune and they are good. I haven't worked on it in a while though but I plan to get back to it eventually.

has anyone used megasquirt? is it better than smt6? is this a good buy for a newbie ? (i'm not afraid to learn.. but if im getting in way over my head i'd like to know in advance )

No one as far as I know has a MS working on a 5sfe yet much less a 5sfte. If you get it working it will be better then a SMT6 like any EMS would be when it comes to flexibility and ability to tune. The SMT6 has it's advantages too though because you can rely on what was programmed into the stock ECU. Basically with an SMT6 you will just have to do the fuel and ignition maps but with an EMS everything must be configured from scratch.

I wouldn't recommend it for a newbie because there is a steep learning curve that can be very frustrating. I don't know your level of knowledge concerning electronic fuel injection but if you are asking the question then you are probably getting in over your head. That's not to say you couldn't do it but you will need to be patient and willing to take the time to learn about it and figure it all out. Expect if you are just starting out for it to take a few months just to figure out what you are doing.

i'm not afraid of soldering.. and i'm confident i could build a decent looking box for it.. basically i just want to make sure the hardware is a good buy.. and that it'll do everything i need to make my 5sfe happy (not explode)

As Tom said you will need to figure out how to get it to read your distributor signal or go with a different way to trigger like a Ford EDIS. It also needs a custom circuit to run the IAC if you want it. Everything I have seen points to it being a capable EMS in the hands of a good tuner. Also having assembled one, it is not too hard if you are patient. The hardest part is figuring out what options you need to make it work on your engine.

[karl]

Originally Posted by TomsMR2

MS isnt directly compatible with 5sfes (yet), so either way its not going to work. its not going to read the ignition signal.

feed the G signal (4 tooth) into a GM HEI ignition module and let that talk to the MS for you. i get a pretty solid DRP signal off the GM module when i triggered it from the 3SGTE distributor on a bench. 5S shouldn't be much different.

mega manual has documentation on how to run MS via a GM HEI module.

[TomsMR2]

the 5s dist is different than the 3s dist, different signal.

[karl]

Originally Posted by TomsMR2

the 5s dist is different than the 3s dist, different signal.

not for the purposes of this discussion they're not. they're both VR signal, which is all we care about. tooth count is irrelevant to the VR signals ability to trigger the module.

either will drive a GM HEI module to output a 12V square wave for crank position. it just so happens that (at least the early) 5SFE's use a 4 tooth cam wheel, coinciding with each cylinder TDC. the VR signal fed into a GM HEI module will output the signal necessary to run the MS as if it were triggered by an HEI GM setup.

this is how GM triggers their ECMs as well. for the 4cyl, there's a 4 tooth VR sensor in the distributor that feeds an AC signal to the HEI module, which conditions the signal into a 12V square wave with the falling edge even with TDC for each cylinder.

hook it up to the G sensor in the stock distributor, feed that signal (G1 pickup to 'n' terminal on HEI module, G- to 'p' terminal- that should be it looking at the pics of the reluctor wheel) into the HEI module and set up MS as if it were running a GM engine with the HEI ignition module.

for idle, if MS has a PWM output available for idle control as an alternative to the stepper motor, just ground the ISCC pin on the valve so the solenoid coil acts as the spring holding the valve closed and let the MS control the ISCO terminal to open the valve. i'm using a similar method with a honda ECU.

[Enthalpy]

Originally Posted by TomsMR2

so so on feature set? i dont know about that man.. you could program an MS to make you toast! considering that its open source with thousands of guys churning out custom programs for it, its pretty feature packed.. kinda to the point where its SO much that its hard to keep up with all of it. its kinda so feature packed its overkill.

it doesnt have the best resolution, and lots of people do have driveability issues, and is it pretty hard to setup with lots of room for assembly error.. but its features are endless.

then again, in reference to a 5s.. it would almost be hard to make a worse ecu than stock. the MS might not be in the same league as normal ems's, but its miles ahead of stock.. especially if you have a 91.

MS isnt directly compatible with 5sfes (yet), so either way its not going to work. its not going to read the ignition signal.

I can go get a $70 basic stamp from Radio Shack and control 10 toasters with thermisters using my own code. This is a far cry from a real EMS. MS isn't terribly feature packed when you are relying on "developers" writing God-knows-what buggy code for the MS.

I'm not really wanting to get into the "MS vs. the world" debate here. I wanted to simply point out that peak power isn't what makes EMSes great.