Link Engine Management

Regarding buying serial links. - the price is approx. $66 US - however, shipping is the kicker - an additional $60 for the courier (that's their minimum cost to the States). We don't post, unfortunately, since it requires a drive to the nearest post office - to be honest, for the value of the item it just isn't worth it.

Sorry.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

So the price the FM sells them for is pretty resonable when you factor it in. FM sells the serial link for $74usd.

FM is often accused of price gouging ... and with the serial link I thought this was the case, thanks for showing me it isn't.

Jay

y8s

iTrader: (8)

I bet when he says $60 is a minimum you can still ship about 20 serial links for that... effectively making shipping cheap. but whatever.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

I'm sure that's the case. FM is making money on the item, but they aren't raping anyone (IMO).

Not trying to make this into a FM vs miataturbo.net thread. Was wondering if I could get it cheaper from the supplier.

jhoexp

For the NB '99 miata too?

greddymx5

iTrader: (1)

The origional ecu is not being manufactured anymore????
Shame .... it's a nice ecu...
I think fm is going hydra alone... (hope they have a lot link ecu's in stock)

Why will the new displaylink not be compatible with the older ecu's.
Software ? How come the keypad is compatible and the display not???
have you tried it??
Too bad, really like it.

I am not going to sell my fm link with everyting just to buy a new (unproved) ecu. But would love to have the diplay link...

As for support... i think miata owners are spoiled. The aftermarket tuners (begi and fm) have very good support. Even if you are not buying from them.
You see them on miata.net too. Just helping people.

I think thats the way to go...(just my 0.02 cents)

As for the new aftermarket ecu... You must beat aem/tec/hydra/xcede/emanage(b/u) by price/ease off adjustment/instalation/quality/power to set something in the market...

Why is your ecu bettter then the rest?

Link Engine Management

jayc72 - Yes, you're right - the $60 shipping cost is for half a kilo, including packaging - we can squeeze in about 5 for that price - which would give you a chance at a bulk buy. Base weight is .3kg, each additional unit is about 50 grams. You can do the sums from this point - our shipping costs for various weights are on the website.

greddymx5 - fair point - we have to beat the others you mentioned in all the areas you mentioned. Unfortunately, some of it is subjective, such as ease of tune etc, some of it involves a trade-off of features we have / they don't, and vice-versa. The market has to do the comparison - it's our job to make sure that we clearly tell you what features we offer, and hopefully give people the opportunity to see / hear about our products in action, and work out the subjective stuff for themselves.

If the website is unclear on what our products offer / don't, please let us know - we really want to make it easy for you to get this information.

jhoexp

I can't understand if the plug-in adapter is available for the 1.8 NB '99 or it's for the NA only.
Is it (the new lemg3) capable of controlling the 99+ alternators?

keinayo

iTrader: (22)

I have a FM "naked" Link ECU. i need the air temp sensor, MAP sensor, knock sensor and keypad. Can I buy these directly from Link, what is the cost of each item, and is the shipping still $60 for all. If shipping is $60, could also take the serial link.

greddymx5

iTrader: (1)

Any info why exactly the display link doesnt work on the FM ecu's.

Easy to say is diff software. But its only a controller with some nice features or am i wrong...

Link Engine Management

jhoexp - I will have to check with the tech's on Monday, and will get back to you then with a detailed answer on supported models.

greddymx5 - The DisplayLink isn't a controller, but a highly configurable monitor that allows you to see (and log) various ECU parameters in real-time. e.g. MAP pressure, RPM, Injector duty cycle and a host of others. I don't have the full list with me, but basically it allows you to monitor virtually everything that's going on inside your ECU. Actual setup / control of the ECU is done using PCLink

I'll get a full list onto the website on Monday.

As far as the software compatibility with FM gear, think of it this way - all the above information is stored inside the ECU memory in very specific locations and formats, which we know, since it's our ECU. Since we have no access to this type of information about the FM products, we can't access it.

At a slightly more technical level, there is a whole layer of communications protocols on top of this data, which has to match in both the ECU and the DisplayLink - if we wanted to talk to the FM ECU, they would have to support the protocols we use, and / or vice versa. Unfortunately this is not the case. There is some commonality, since your rightly point out that our 'keypad' talks to their software, but there are differences as well, and these are what makes it difficult.

Link Engine Management

Keinayo - The cost of the SerialLink is about $60 US, and the prices of the rest are in our pricelist on the web. I'll get a cost for shipping the lot to you on Monday (assuming you're based in the States) - the weights shown on the pricelist are a guide only, as it's difficult to come up with a fool-proof method of pricing shipping for multiple products at the same time, since the packaging complicates things.

Normally, once you've told us what you want to buy, our sales guys will get back to you with a final shipping cost, at which point you can decide whether you want to go ahead with the order or not.

jhoexp

Thanks....in case of positive answer, what do you think will be the shipping to italy for a lemg3+adapter?

Link Engine Management

jhoexp - I'm told that we don't do the NB version at the moment.

If we get confirmed orders (i.e. with a 10% deposit) for 3 or more of a particular model (not charged until the threshold of 3 has been reached) we're normally happy to develop an adapter for it - this can takes as little as 2-3 weeks.

The only things that can stretch out the time involved is finding a supply of the correct connector (ECU plug) or finding an exotic / late model car for testing.

So, if you can find 2 other people who want one, we can get one started. Anybody else interested?

--------------------------------------------------

Cost to ship an LEM + adapter to Italy is approx €70

jhoexp

Thanks, very interesting! Does it applies to the NB-facelift version too? (it has another ecu connector)
I think I will start a thread on the italian mx-5 community forum to see if someone else is interested in your unit.

Can you please confirm that the unit will be a completly stand-alone ecu, so that i can remove the stock one and get the lem g3 to control everything on the original engine? (including the stock NB alternator, egr, etc... )

In case I won't be able to collect 2 more people that want the adapter, can I buy the Lem g3 without the adapter and wire it to my nb as a stand alone?

greddymx5

iTrader: (1)

I think the NB problems lies in the cas sensor. They dont have it.
The ecu (for now) cannot support the crank /cam sensor.
You can make it work using an cam sensor (NA) and get this wiring to the ecu
The ecu must be rewired completely.
I think temp sensors wil not be a problem.

jhoexp

The Nb has cam and cas sensor too, but they are different from the NA ones.
Anyway they aren't a problem: in fact many ecus can read the output from them and work out the ignition and injection timing.
(my e-manage ultimate works perfectly with them)

For what I have read from m.net, the main problem is the alternator, that is ecu controlled...

Link Engine Management

Jhoexp - just a quick reply, as our MX5 expert is away on a course today. I'll get him to answer your questions re cam / cas / alternator etc. tomorrow.

The view amongst the other tech's here is that it is in fact the alternator that is the problem, as it is controlled by the ECU. We have apparently done the controller for this in the past, so it may just be a matter of including this on a new adapter.

----------

Regarding your other question - Yes, the models we have already are pure straight plug and play units. For the NB, the alternator shouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately we don't provide EGR control.

The only other thing I'm not sure about, which will have to wait 'till tomorrow, is what the input / output requirements of the NB are - later models of other cars can have so many things that the ECU controls (air-con, power steering, etc.) that the LEM won't support them all simultaneously, and you either have to compromise in what you control, or move up to a more powerful ECU, such as our LinkPlus G3 (due to be released next week)

I must stress, I don't know if this is the case with the LEM - it may easily have enough i/o, but just thought it was worth pointing out to you.

Finally, you are correct - the LEM is a wire-in ECU, so you could use it without the adapter and do the wiring yourself, using one of our looms (which comes with it) - you would just need to check, as I said in the previous paragraph, that the LEM has enough inputs / outputs to control everything you want to do.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

It might be helpful to make a simple ancillary harness that plugs through the OEM one so the OEM computer can retain emissions, a/c and alternator control.

all the link would need is something similar to the GReddy EMU's airflow output map to fool the OEM ecu.

That would save us a lot of work getting that stuff to work right since the OEM ecu does a good job of it already.

Link Engine Management

Right - just a quick update - we'll look at developing an adapter for the NB, but it's going to take a bit more research on what exactly will be needed (i/o etc.) to fully support this model, and we won't be able to give you an answer straight away.

The feeling at the moment is that the LEM doesn't have quite enough outputs to meet all the requirements, so it would need one of our more powerful ECUs. We'll get back with some more information on this once we've worked through it properly, and dotted the i's and crossed the t's.

Finally, we can't do the 'ancillary harness' / piggyback option, as this tends to compromise the level and quality of control offered by both (or either) ECU. (you can never tell how tightly intertwined functions on the OEM ECU are, so you don't know what is going to happen if you try and operate some of them independantly)