Originally Posted by Brap-Brap

Hey man, my name is Alec and i'm just a kid with a Miata who wants to have fun. I bought my first Miata, a red 97' 5-20-2017 but i've been messing with cars all of my life. I got it, changed all the fluids and spark plugs and wires and coils and now she's throwing misfire codes every time I get anywhere close to 6800 RPM. OBD-II just says "Random Misfire" and the CEL is starting to **** me off. I also want more power and full control of my car, so i'm looking into standalone ECU's. Didn't feel like posting a thread, but I did search some things on here to see what's what. I've been a lurker for some time and I know how serious you guys are about good products. I think I nearly pissed myself laughing over the many FFS "For ***** Sake" Supercharging flame threads with Tom the Yo-Yo master. But I would like to go to a standalone EMS and stay N/A for a while before I try going boosted. Keep in mind my car is my daily driver and at the end of the day I need to be able to open the garage door, hop in, turn the key and get going no matter if its 100 degrees in the middle of August or 0 degrees in January. I live in Ohio so emissions is not an issue.

The FM221 caught my eye. Keith has me hooked on things like cold-start, AC compensation, off-throttle fuel control and other stuff that seems nice for a daily.

But, I know how much you guys love Megasquirt (and for a good reason, its a damn good product) and so I wanted some advice. I was looking at the MS2PNP. (EDIT: MS3PNP also seems like an option... more down below...)

I've read this thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/hydra-58/...p-hydra-91029/

The ME guys just seem stupid, but FM are good people and I think they have the potential to make it a really great product.

The plan was get an AEM Wideband, GM IAT sensor, wire them up and delete the MAF.

What say you? MS2PNP (Again, MS3PNP, but see below) seems very popular but the options list of the FM221 looks nice.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by concealer404

I can't think of any "extra options" the FM221 offers over an equivalent MS for same price.

The droid you want is MS3X or MSPNP-Pro. Is either NECESSARY for your car? Nah. But Shuiend likes to say a few times a week: "If you were going to go buy a new Playstation, would you buy a PS3 or a PS4?"

Originally Posted by Brap-Brap

Good analogy.

I was under the impression that the FM221 offered cold start enrichment and A/C compensation.

I also thought the FM221 had boost by gear over the MS3 but I was mistakenly looking at the spec sheet for the MS2PNP. The MS3PNP seems to have everything I could possibly want except starting patterns and A/C comp/ control. Although maybe FM is touting that as a feature yet the geniuses at MS just stick it in standard and assume everyone going Standalond EMS is smart enough to know about those things. Still looking for more input.

Originally Posted by concealer404

Every ecu for the last decade has had that. Those things being touted as the "next best thing" are a standard feature on every other ecu that isn't a million years old.

I'm sure the FM221 is fine at this point, i'd hope most of the dozens of bugs have been worked out in the last year, but if you're tuning it yourself, it offers absolutely no advantages over Megasquirt, unless you need something that goes in a stock ECU case for racing rules. Which you don't, since you're talking about adding a turbo.

Originally Posted by 18psi

I never got the free copy of TS when I bought mine about a year ago.
That said, I'd probably pick the DIY MSPNP-PRO because apparently now you can call them if you have any questions/issues, but either one should work fine and be hands and feet above the piece of crap ME221 or FM221.

Originally Posted by shuiend

There is a link on some of the paper work that you have to goto and put in your serial number. Then you get a key for TS. It is not the easiest thing to find, but it is there. I had to ask DIY about it for the first PRO that I sold.

It is the phone support from DIY which is why I am selling the PRO's. It is just an added benefit knowing that if you are having a problem that you can give DIY a call, and there is like a 90% chance that Matt Cramer will pick up and help you out.

Also DIY now has the 96/97 models finished and listed on their site. I am pretty sure they got tired or me calling in and bugging them about it.

Originally Posted by Brap-Brap

I know from reading the "RIP Hydra" thread I linked the ME221 was a **** show over here in the states but seemed well received in the UK, but I thought FM would have done their own preliminary tweaking to get it as production ready as possible.