i've had issues where my LC1 will randomly throw an error and stop supplying NB SIM output to the ECU, causing the car to run nothing short of undriveably bad until the wire for the narrowband simulation is disconnected from the ECU.

Giving the car a lot of load or a big rev making EGT's spike then following with a long period of trailing throttle would usually cause the issue (i.e giving a hit through 1st and 2nd and then straight into 6th and cruise). Also trailing throttle for extended periods of time (such as down a very long hill on the freeway) would also sometimes cause the issue.

The issue is due to the sensor heating routine seeing the temperature rise, but not antisipating the temperature fall so quickly and it doesn't enable the heater which causes the sensor to give a slow response and flag the error, which the LC1 won't recover from without a power cycle.

The "fix" is as follows:

Revert to Firmware 1.00 (devices in recent times usually shipped with 1.10 or 1.10a).
Install Beta Firmware 1.20RC4.

All reports are that the 1.20RC4 (*BETA*) fixes the issue.

Reverting to 1.00 has seen some increased heating times and slower (or as reported) smoother AFR response where the value doesn't jump around as much.

I have also been warned that you MUST have a stable and reliable connection with the LC1 through the Innovate LM Programmer software before attempting a firmware update.

Hello,

I have recently spent some time investigating E8 issues on several devices including LC-1s. There is a lot of confusion about what causes an E8. The truth is that lots of failures will cause an E8. The E8 is a general sensor timing error. The direct digital pulse is not responding as expected. Here are some possible causes:

1) sensor out of temperature range.
2) hardware problems inside the DD device (typically opamp failure)
3) cracked sensor (usually caused by shock cooling the sensor, thus the need for extended bungs).

Now, assuming there are no hardware problems (cases 2 and 3 above) the most likely E8 cause is the sensor out of temperature range. Our customer service has mentioned "over cooling" in the past. The reason this can happen is due to the heater algorithm that we use. It is a PID loop. The original poster of this thread has the classic example of over cooling. When he was on the throttle hard the sensor heats up. Suddenly he let off the throttle. At that point our PID loop had what’s called integral windup. It’s an error condition that takes some time for the heater to correct. So while the sensor was cooling down (via the cold air while off the throttle) the Integral had to wind down before it could start applying the heater again. Meanwhile the sensor got too cool and could no longer take DD readings. At that point it threw an E8.

Now for the good news! We have developed a new PID algorithm that will respond to Integral windup faster. So it will be able to almost immediately start applying the heater to keep the sensor within operating temperature. In addition to that scenario it will handle the scenario where the sensor can over cool even when the sensor heater is on full blast. This scenario is not as common but is possible. The new algorithm will set the LC-1 into a re-heating mode and re-try readings. This would be a temporary E8 condition while the sensor is heating up. In the past the LC-1 would throw the E8 and give up.

The fix is in the form of a new firmware. I have been testing it for months now and would like to start beta testing it in the field. If any of you would like to try the new FW please let me know. Ideally I would like someone that can reproduce the E8 problem like the original poster described. After the new FW is installed I would like to know if it fixed the problem. I would like to stress extreme caution when upgrading FW on an LC-1 as if the download fails the only way to fix it is to cut it open which destroys the rubber overmold. Test the connection on you computer via LM Programmer and Logworks before trying a FW upgrade!!

Scott VanDell
Innovate Motorsports
Hardware Engineer