When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with the company, just curious. So, me and a good friend have been looking for an ECU for a non-Miata project we are preparing, and these seemed like great options. They are built in Poland, and are widely used by racers there, but also gaining popularity with the drift crowd here as well. Specs seem on par with units at least double the price (full specs on their website: https://www.ecumaster.com/products/emu-black/). "The EMU Black has built-in wideband lambda input (Bosch LSU 4.2, and LSU 4.9 sensors wire directly in), MAP control connector (4 bar MAP sensor on board), 2 EGT probe inputs and an input to directly connect a Flex Fuel ethanol content sensor."
The price is right too; at $1099 this seems like a huge bargain, especially considering the specs. Said friend has helped with a basemap on another car, and said he software is really intuitive and easy to work with. Also HP Academy made a really positive review on this:
One thing you have to watch for is what trigger wheels they support and what is available for whatever vehicle you are planning on using the ECU on.
For example I have a Haltech Elite 1500, almost top of the line that Haltech sells. It can not use a SPM 36-2 trigger wheel, with stock NB CAM sensor and run VVT, full sequential fuel and spark. It would take code changes that Haltech would not do when I asked. When Emlilio made the timing plate the correct timing pattern was sent to the MS devs and they added it in without much fuss. The point of this is that make sure you can read them cam and crank sensors that come on the car, or know you can swap something on that the ECU can handle.
That's a very useful observation indeed. I am unsure if they will support your given example, but we have checked it on the engine we plan to use. Rumor has it that the company is super helpful with adding stuff like this, have yet to find out.
Having helped a friend tune a Supra on this ECU, I can't say I was impressed, even for the price. The software is a bit of a mess, opening separate little windows withe 4-6 options inside for related settings instead of grouping them in one window. There are bugs everywhere, so as a tuner I'm not confident where I'll hit a brick wall.
Example: we run into a strange issue where we are running out of fuel on a turbo Supra. The car made about 520 crank hp on 550cc injectors, so we though hey, we run out of injector headroom. We swapped in new 1000cc injectors, we still run out of fuel at 7000rpm (100% duty cycle). New pressure regulator, new 450lph pump, new lines, still 100% duty cycle at 7000rpm.
So I begin to get a litle suspicious, and added 20% more fuel in the VE table at 7000rpm. Sure enough, the duty goes to 120% and the fueling goes to 10.0:1 (from 12.0:1 where there was "no more injector duty left"). That set us back a couple of days, and cost the customer about $3000 in parts (injectors, pump, lines, regulator, fittings), labour and dyno time.
The are other little things that got me a little skeptical. Like, the ECU has a builtin wideband controller but you have to measure the sensor's resistance and enter that into the ECU or the controller doesn't work. What? There are more but you get the picture.
That seems to good to be true. Also curious to hear from those that have used one. Wheres vlad....
It's enough of a burden to fully and properly dial in a car using known, supported, and very commonly used ecu's. Some cars are super finicky and it's a lot of work.
If anyone likes to inflict pain, headaches, and frustration onto themselves in the name of trying something new, well then they should definitely try new ecu's and "blaze the path" for the rest.
Been there, done that, hated it, have the gray hairs to show for it.
Vlad you are right; it's enough of a large task already, hence I will be using an MSLabs ECU on the Miata. However, the main selling point of the EMU was native, off-the-box DSG support which is needed for the other project, and we are not aware of any other standalone being able to pull this off.
Dimitris, that's indeed an issue, and things like that scare me. Have you/your friend communicated that with them? Did they do anything to iron this out?
I'm using Ecumaster EMU Classic on my NB and I'm very happy with it. Both Classic and Black support MX5 OEM triggers but Im really not a big fan of the 4 tooth guess type trigger wheel so I've replaced it with a Mazda 626/MX6 36-1 trigger wheel. Only thing bad I can say about the EMU Classic is that although it has PWM outputs, they're not coded in the firmware for alternator control. I used a NA alternator to solve that problem, only after i've found the 15€ alternator controllers on ebay... anyways EMU Black has alternator control coded in the firmware. I've also worked with MS3X, VEMS and ME221 and in my opinion the EMU Classic offers the most bang/buck.
For my setup I changed the connectors at the and of the wiring loom and also integrated the wires for COPs and WBO2.
Working on this PNP adapter for a friend, still gotta find some time to finish it...
One thing you have to watch for is what trigger wheels they support and what is available for whatever vehicle you are planning on using the ECU on.
For example I have a Haltech Elite 1500, almost top of the line that Haltech sells. It can not use a SPM 36-2 trigger wheel, with stock NB CAM sensor and run VVT, full sequential fuel and spark. It would take code changes that Haltech would not do when I asked. When Emlilio made the timing plate the correct timing pattern was sent to the MS devs and they added it in without much fuss. The point of this is that make sure you can read them cam and crank sensors that come on the car, or know you can swap something on that the ECU can handle.
This is actually on the schedule for the end of February development. Shouldn't be too complicated marrying existing 36-2 code to existing NB cam trigger code. Now that I have swapped to a VVT engine I can do the testing in-house. I'll PM you when I have experimental firmware Lars so you can help me confirm.
This is actually on the schedule for the end of February development. Shouldn't be too complicated marrying existing 36-2 code to existing NB cam trigger code. Now that I have swapped to a VVT engine I can do the testing in-house. I'll PM you when I have experimental firmware Lars so you can help me confirm.
This is good news. I also have SPM 36-2 wheel and an NB or two. BTW did you get ahold of a test mule?
This is actually on the schedule for the end of February development. Shouldn't be too complicated marrying existing 36-2 code to existing NB cam trigger code. Now that I have swapped to a VVT engine I can do the testing in-house. I'll PM you when I have experimental firmware Lars so you can help me confirm.
Feature list looks impressive, the DBW controller with internal drivers is appealing to me.
It looks like the logging may be lacking a bit, you need an external module and only get 25sps? It specs 25Hz which implies 50sps, but that is frequently mis-spec'd.
Wonder if it has 2 independent boost controllers for compounds and twins. We need a 12V high side tach out as well.
Specs a 3rd order aaf for the knock, aaf needs to be in HW which is challenging to dynamically configure from a passband perspective, would assume then a secondary digital bandpass for non-resonant sensors?
I had a coworker interested in the EMU black and it sounded like a decent megasquirt competitor from a hardware perspective. The onboard 4.9 LSU wideband control and two EGT inputs put it above the MS3Pro for the same price.
I installed the software and was able to play around without connecting the ECU or needing an unlock key, so similar functionality to TunerStudio in that regard.
Why in the holy hell can you not paste tables? There are no base maps for most vehicles, so you have to at least put something reasonable into all the tables. They have a XML-based format that is used to save/load tables from a file. If I were forced to use it, I would write an Excel script to convert a table to a 1x320 array. For the majority of people it seems like the only option is to fill in each of the 320 cells per VE/IG table one..,.at....a..,..time..... Can anyone comment if there is some work around? I did a search and found a Facebook user asking the same question. Their software change log lists in multiple instances of "Copy / Paste" bug fixes, but all it will do is copy a table to excel. You can't paste anything anywhere. What a piece of junk. It would take hours to just populate all the maps with numbers.
I looked through the manual, and it's pretty hokey. Just a basic explanation of trigger definitions; nothing I would consider remotely comprehensive if I had a setup other than their default dropdown list. Then I started delving into other things like traction control is only engine speed rate of change; its not even capable of wheel speed delta like anything else. Even megasquirt has multiple TC options. I don't care how good the hardware may be, the software is junk. I told him if you buy one, don't ask me for help. He snickers at megasquirt, but it's vastly superior from a software standpoint. They do seem to be putting out regular updates, so in theory it will improve over time.
there's also an official Facebook support group where you can sort everything out, Ecumaster founder is a member here and he's very responsive...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ECUMaster/
Don't know when did you look in to the software but here's how it stands now:
This is actually on the schedule for the end of February development. Shouldn't be too complicated marrying existing 36-2 code to existing NB cam trigger code. Now that I have swapped to a VVT engine I can do the testing in-house. I'll PM you when I have experimental firmware Lars so you can help me confirm.
Originally Posted by concealer404
This is good news. I also have SPM 36-2 wheel and an NB or two. BTW did you get ahold of a test mule?
Sorry to necro post. Just want to correct some erroneous information the last place I saw it.
36-2 +3 is fully supported by Haltech ECUs. It always has been as the Toyota VVTi trigger is identical. It was my mistake for not recognizing it. My car is now running with an FM 36-2 wheel and Elite 1500. No issues. Swap the wheel. Change the trigger pattern. Adjust the TDC offset to 140º. Done.
01-08-2019, 03:17 PM
ECU Master EMU Black
0
