My Love / Hate relationship with my Hydra
 

I'm curious to see if any of these things strike a cord with any of the other Hydra owners out there . I'm currently on a Gamma version of the 2.7 .

Things I love about my Hydra :

32 square resolution of the maps , probably better than I'll ever need but I'd rather have more than I need than than need more than I have.

LTT fuel trim is fantastic , makes getting than base fuel map right a pice of cake

On board data logging is super easy to use , much better than the old 2.6
version.

Versatility of the ECU , if I can ever figure out how to use it .

FM support after the sale has been as expected , excellent .** If Jeremy is available , if not you're screwed til he is .


Things that drive me INSANE !

The almost completely nonexistent documentation for this thing . How any product like an ECU could be released to the end user without I'd beyond me .

Features that I've paid for , twice in fact , that still don't work as advertised . Can you say EBC ?

Firmware updates to fix problems that should never have been there in the first place . For some reason I'm feeling like an unpaid beta tester , and I wasn't one of the poor souls that needed NB alternator control.

As a late 2.6 purchaser I received a "free 2.7 upgrade" . Of course to get the vvt control I already had in the 2.6 version , I had to pay for the Gamma upgrade. With shipping and insurance from Canada ,my "free upgrade " was around $500.

On the whole I still think the Hydra was a good choice (in too deep to change now) . It has potential to be great , in my opinion the major thing holding it back is the lack of documentation . I'm off the road now for the winter now and a forged bottom end . Hopefully some off these things will be resolved by the time I'm boosting again !

I could go on for a while on this issue. Basically my expectation when buying a 2.6 was for a competent ECU on par with an autronic, haltech, aem, etc. What I received was a time machine that took me back to very early windows interfaces circa 2000. Incompetent logging, terrible interface, poor voltage comps, unable to work with most fuel injectors, inexplicable lack of on board firmware upgrades, slow loading, poor implementation of some features like boost control, etc etc etc. After the 2.7 upgrade, I am Motec $$$ deep for a still deeply flawed product that I purchased for ease of implementation and apparent advantages over MS at the time.

Most ECUs in this price range have equal or better versatility, documentation, software and core function. Jeremy does a good job supporting what is there which I am sure is frustrating. I am guessing that future improvements will continue to come with high costs for the customer. With all that said, 2.7 is a big step in the right direction. More improvements are still needed but the Hydra is presently better than ever. My MSM is running better than ever and I should have CAN comm to my AiM dash / logger finally. I hope they will start making firmware & software changes to improve that don't require expensive upgrades in the future but rather just improve the core product to get more customers the old fashioned way.

Sigh. Yeah. I think the upgrade costs and circuit-board modifications are ridiculous.

I really hope Jeremy ditches Hydra and goes AEM. sigh

I got my 2,7 for my 1990 Miata turbo some days ago. Swap for the old Link, should be better, or?

First, I have reversed the Link mount back to OEM. Installation of the Hydra OK, pretty staightforward. My injectors are 880 Venum. I didn't succeed in measuring their impedance, but Jeremy has programmed the base map with high imp.

So far, I haven't succeeded using the program for initial set-up, due to bad compatibility to my Win 7 computer, so no start yet. I hope ro get it going this afternoon, though.

I must state that I have mixed feelings about this ecu so far, but I'll give it two days..

Regards
Finn, Norway.

Search "hydra windows 7", I know there is a workaround I just don't remember what it is.

Or take this moment to get a properly documented ECU...

I didn't think this was a problem for 2.7, but:


Might be worth a shot.

Ah yeah that's what I was thinking of. Sorry I thought it was for all of them.

It may very well be, i don't have hands on experience with 2.7. :)

2.7 is designed to be windows 7 compatible. Worked on my win7 machine no problem, just had to pick the com port in the top left of the startup screen first.