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So as you guys stated credit card = wayyyyy too thick. I put it about half, still had the issue, went to as close as I could without touching and it works now. I also took my ecu out and apart and changed the jumper I had from tach to 49 in my ecu to a jumper from tach to tach. The info on that stuff is really hard to find and I got confused the first time around. Good news is the tach works in the cluster now! Additionally when I did that my iat sensor started reading! I am beyond excited these 3 problems are gone. Now I have 2 more issues before I am really happy with it. I can't for the life of me figure out why it won't run without the laptop plugged in. Some people suggest 5v regulator but it's apparently different across all the boards and different ones have different functions combined. I'm having a real hard time finding the part to first of all test and then get a replacement of the same thing and solder it on to hopefully have a car that moves without a laptop. The other issue is my tps signal is still extremely noisy. I can't get a clean signal to save my life so I'm stuck on map bassed accel enrichment and such until I can figure that out.
lol I don't have 1k+ to throw at an ecu right now, maybe someday. The ecu is getting 12v and ground everywhere it's supposed to, and the car works if the usb is getting power but not if it isn''t . I can connect it to the cigarette lighter and it works fine. It's just not getting to 5v and powering the board for some reason. In case I do someday, why link vs megasquirt or anything else? Just what you have experience with or is it "better" in some ways.
Your ECU takes the 12v input and regulates it down to 5v, and distributes that on pin 2k, or on most aftermarket ECUs, 2L as well. Your laptop is feeding it 5v via the USB port, which is why I'm curious if you have 5v at your TPS with the ECU on and the laptop unplugged. From what I remember, you can even connect to a speeduino with the ignition off, just working off the power from the USB port. Your noisy TPS signal and no-start without laptop may be connected.
"why Link instead of MS" is the hardest question I have to answer. I try to suggest Links to everyone I know because I believe they're a better ECU for various reason. They take a little getting used to compared to the MS, but after tuning holley, hydra, Haltech, AEM, Motec, and others, it's just a drop in the bucket for me. I hated spending time trying to make idle and startup working properly. To me that's not enjoyable, nor the reason I wanted a standalone ECU. A bone stock 1.6 starts and idles great. I don't want a stock 1.6 though. The Link does all the stuff I want to do really well, without some of the confusion I found with MS. I also like (especially on NBs) that they mount in the OE case, and that the utilize every single stock function, so there's a lot less running wires through the firewall.
Pretty sure you're right about being able to connect with ign off, I do it all the time. Additionally you're probably right about the problems being connected. I'm just hoping I can fix them and get closer to a reliable car XD
@SimBa has more experience with Speedunio than me, I’ve only tuned a few on the dyno, haven’t lived with one as long as you/he has, maybe ask him what he thinks of them
Finally found what is most likely my issue, will confirm and maybe try fixing tonight. The info is in this thread in case someone else stumbles across this in the future on the wild goose chase I went on. https://www.mx5nutz.com/threads/fuel....390148/page-2
I'm wondering if this will also help my other sensors. I still have slight issues with cps from time to time and have found best luck with the Medium trigger filter. On aggressive it cuts out when getting on it, and with weak/off it spikes rpm randomly at idle and cruise. I think it would make sense if that goes off 5v if its anything like my tps signal I could see how it would be a major problem. Additionally if @Curly pops in here I'm no where near getting a new ecu rn money prohibited, but I see a new link 5 as opposed to the g4x, do you know anything about that? If I was to get a new one wouldn't I want the newest version?
They started with the G4, which they no longer make products for, and now they make the G4X, which is what all the PNP models are based off of. The new G5 is not really a new ECU. It has built in wi-fi, dual widebands, GPS, and can control direct injectors and two DBW throttle bodies, and has 30 auxiliary outputs as opposed to 18 on the G4x, but most of those things aren't necessary for the typical Miata user. Plus, it's a "wire-in" ECU, not pnp, so you'd be making a new engine harness to utilize it. They also have the Atom, Monsoon, Storm, Xtreme, and Fury wire-in ECUs, which are again all based off the G4X and have various amounts of I/Os. Aside from the Fury which has a single on board wideband, the pnp models are actually one of the more capable ECUs, check out their comparison chart below.
Back to your car though, the CAS is not powered by 5v, it's powered by the same 12v as injectors, idle valve, purge valve, and fuel pump relay.
As you can see from the diagram below, the "lt grn-red" wire is your 5v from 2k, which only goes to the auto TPS and AFM. On manual transmission cars, the TPS has a signal ground, and switched signal for idle and WOT. Most pnp standalone ECUs pin 5v to the light green/white wire at (2L), and use the red wire at 1N as the variable TPS input. You might see if your ECU still gives 5v at the AFM lt grn-red wire, and if it does, run a jumper wire to the TPS 5v pin, to see if it cleans up your TPS signal.
The way Speeduino handles ECU power is annoying. Not a deal breaker, but definitely an annoyance. If you try to switch the power source on the ECU while the car is running, the ECU loses power and the car will die. IE, if your USB cable jiggles enough to lose connection with your laptop, the car will die. If the car is running and you plug in your laptop, the car will die. Really fun when you're accelerating onto the freeway and your car randomly dies. Once I realized this I started tucking the USB cable under the laptop to keep it stable and didn't have any more issues with it.
Sorry, slight rant there.
Ryfrog, are you running firmware that supports the 36-2 trigger wheel? IIRC you are, but if not, you should go read that thread. I know some people who run that wheel with a different trigger configuration, but for me the car drove like garbage until I got the trigger wheel setup right.
Speeduino is a super cool project and has made standalone ECU's super accessible to a lot of people who can't (or don't want to afford) a more expensive unit. I still think it's an awesome project and a really capable ECU, but there are a good number of compromises that come along with them. Lack of documentation is definitely one of those.
Also, I forgot to ask, but @Ryfrog , are you running any filtering on the TPS signal? At one point I got away with 0 and didn't have issues, but after pulling/building the engine I noticed I needed to add some to prevent AE from triggering constantly. Not sure why that is.
IIRC I started towards the higher end of the scale and lowered it until AE was kicking in randomly and then just bumped it up 5-10 points( I believe the value is about 128 out of 256). Haven't had any issues after doing that and AE triggers as expected every time.
So I believe I'm not on the custom firmware but I do get the 36-2 option in tuner studio and that's what I've been using. I'll check the version tonight and possibly go to the custom one. I just checked my tune and it says 16% filtering. I don't think any amount of filtering will fix how it acts right now, the problem needs addressed first. it will bounce from 0-100 and anywhere in-between completely randomly with the pedal only slightly suggesting it to be bouncing in the lower range or higher range. Calibrating it does nothing to help and will give me different numbers 100% of the time. Going to hopefully fix my 5v problem tonight with the fix from the link above, and go from there. Also I noticed my newly functional tach was bouncing in the higher rpm so I'm going to install the recommended resistor tonight and see if that helps at all with that issue. My current trigger settings are as follows: Missing tooth, 36, Crank Speed, 2, 210, skip 0, falling, falling, single tooth cam, medium and this is where it seems to be working best but I think you might be right it's time to look into the custom firmware that better supports it because this has been a consistent issue coming back up. Edit: there is no 36-2 option, its missing tooth and specifying 36,2
Yeah, filtering probably isn't going to help that, I figured it was just a slightly noisy signal.
Are you running sequential fueling? If you're not then the settings you're on might work fine. The problem with that setup is that the cam profile on isn't supported, so you have to run batch fuel. When my car was running batch I had to idle around 12 AFR to be even remotely stable and going on/off throttle was super jerky. The car still drove pretty well outside of that, but once I got back to sequential it was a night and day improvement.
Last night I did the 5v regulator bypass as per the forum linked above and the video in that forum. The car now starts without a laptop or being plugged into the cigarette lighter! Additionally I changed my boost controller to 32 hz from 30 and upped the cycle% because it wasn't doing much, and it now makes around 16 psi(was only making about 10-12). Going to play with it more to get a steady 15ish I think. The car is fast. Too fast for the wet cold mornings. Any time it touches boost it wants to spin. It is so much fun and brings constant smiles to my face... when I do get to drive it and it isn't broken for one reason or another.
Forgot to mention, the fix made the ecu act as expected, but did nothing to fix my tps. I haven't tried bridging the 5v yet as curly suggested wanted to get my 5v at ecu figured out first to see if it helped. Additionally I hit my last 1k miles of break in on the way home today and go to regular oil.
The car is working great and aside from some slight tuning to be done I'm getting pretty happy. It doesn't like cold starts but I'm getting that dialed in with a little more cranking pulse width and ase, It starts quicker now but dies almost immediately unless I drive it... not even far just like across a parking lot and then it will idle. I would like to get my tps figured out so I can switch to that for ae and get 2 step working consistently for the lol's, I don't even plan on launching it much I just like the WAADADADADA in certain times and places. The car feels like my bike does at this point. It will kill you if you let it. Too much throttle anywhere anytime and it wants to get dangerous quick. Hopefully I'm done with major show stopper problems for a awhile. A timing belt job and a trans job on a new build was more than enough for me for a while. I just want it to work for a while lol. Hopefully it holds out.
Nice man, glad it was just the regulator on the ECU.
I found that my FF640 injectors required almost no warmup enrichment. If anything they seemed to flow more fuel when cold, so it was almost like it had built in WUE. Not sure if that's at play for you. I also had to dump a ton of fuel in when hot to combat heat soak but YMMV.
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