assuming this is the issue since i was an idiot and got ahead of myself this weekend. did a couple "file->open->burn to ecu" cycles without unplugging anything...

now i have no tach signal to the dash. car starts, drives, and runs like a champ, but no tach. megasquirt registers the tach signal, and as i mentioned, car runs great.

my assumption correct?

 

yeah sounds like ignitor :(
MS HATES IGNITORS

 

yep. guess so.

i think at the point i pulled the car out of the driveway for the first time in three weeks i could have cared less, though ;-)

oh well, i'll try to pick one up this week and should be good to go. just need to be moer careful, i guess.

 

Will that ......file -> open..... really burn the ignitors?? I have done that a few times and I just put new ones in from toasting them?? I sure hope mine are not jacked because I did it once tonight and now the car is cutting out even worse than before. It did not seem to cause a problem in the past couple days though?? When I turned the ignition on I heard a pop and then went to see what it was and it smelled electrical. I cant find any damaged wires or anything though, my tach works, and the car drives. It just stumbles all the time????????? DANG IT!! Let me know if you think that I toasted mine as well....again....

 

ok i guess i need to stop doing that myself, but after countless times my ignitor seems to be working fine

 

i think burning entire maps with the ignitor plugged in is bad. anytime there is an ignition setting change or potential change, unplug it.

 

burning entire maps should be fine, I've done it hundereds of times, but as you say if there are alterations to the ignition settings then unplug the ignitors.

that said why should there be ignition settings being changed?

 

I burn maps all day long, hell, while the car is running I'll load a saved map.

 

I burn fuel maps and things like that as I change them while the car is running, but flashing the entire .msq is what fries them isn't it? I though it holds the ignition high or something and it gets too hot thus burning things out. I also have a switch inline with my ignition wires so when I want to do full reflash i just hit the switch and burn away firmware or msq. It's pretty nice, the 1.8 coils are a bitch to get to to take the coil connectors off.

 

yeah I will make little tweaks and burn, that's fine. but i wouldn't recommend dumping a new msq with the ignitor plugged in.

 

yup ditto, zero issues here

 

this is the first time i've had a problem. i know it's nt the first time ive burned a map like that. but i guess it's one of those things that CAN happen, even if it doesn't 100% of the time.

 

it takes 10 seconds to pop the hood and unplug them. Why risk it?

 

oh, i know. i actually didn't realize it was an issue with all megasquirt installations, for some reason. i thought it was a PNP issue. i was wrong. :-P

 

of course I had mine disconnected this weekend and then I went to crank it... it took a few attempts before I realized that I didn't reconnect them.

 

So if my tach is twitching between 800-1100rpm at idle and the MS shows a steady value, is that a sign that my coils are on their way out?? It works fine when I rev the car.

 

And is the consensus that you DO need to unplug when opening an .msq file??

 

Not unless the new .msq has bad ignition settings for your car...

I never unplug my ignitors to load a new .msq file. I did it several times with a car on the dyno today. It's flashing firmware that is the problem-- the ignition settings in the firmware's default map are what the Miata's ignitor needs. So when you flash the firmware, you're essentially loading a map with ignition settings that are bad for your car and will leave the ignitors on all the time, or just long enough to cook them. That's why you have to load a proper map for your car after loading the firmware in order to correct this, and then you can plug your ignitors back in.

 

YOU NEED TO UNPLUG FOR REFLASH! Not for changing maps, msq, etc.

When the processor flash enters write mode the coil outputs are grounded, this is not the case when writing the program flash which the MSQ is stored on. Two different internal memory functions.

 

then i'm confused as to when i'm actually performing a "reflash"

i didn't do anything with new firmware, or anytihng of the sort. all i've done is change settings and open/burn a couple new .msq files. so unless i have a grand coincidence and had the tach output of my ignitor die on me in the last couple weeks, it seems as if it can happen when performing standard .msq burns.