RayinNorCal

iTrader: (6)

Some of you might remember this thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/megasquir...estions-69967/

Well, that was a year and two months ago! Extremely busy life, lack of funds, coupled with some general laziness kept me from ever hooking up the MS1. I might also add that I was a bit scared that the MS unit might go up in smoke due to my rewiring it. So, there it sat in my garage...until last week.

It seems things are moving forward now. I have a new FM manifold on the work bench, an Artech downpipe that Abe will be fabbing for me, and I was able to finally break loose my compressor wheel and turbine to clock my turbo properly (PB Blaster is my best friend right now). But back to the Megasquirt...

Finally decided it was time to get this thing going. First step was to read, then read some more, and then some more...I still can't believe how much material a noob has to wade through just to find basic answers...but I found them, along with some trial and error. I initially got the MS to communicate with my Windows 7 laptop but couldn't for the life of me get it to update the firmware because of a comm error. So I got fed up and broke out my old Windows XP laptop, installed the usb to serial adapter driver, and successfully burned the new firmware to the Megasquirt. I jumped back onto my other laptop and successfully installed the base tune. This was quite a relief to see happen.

So now all I have to do is figure out my other settings like vtps and such and then set my base timing and hope it starts. But I'm just tickled to have even got to this point.

I decided to mount it in my glove because I just loathe the idea of pulling the carpet up every time I want to connect to the MS or leaving a cord attached to it that someone might knock loose with their shoe. Here's a lousy cell phone pic:

RedCarmel

iTrader: (7)

Congrats! Keep the momentum going!

RayinNorCal

iTrader: (6)

Thanks Adam. It won't be but for a few days before I can get to work on it again, but I'll update the thread when I make more progress.

rleete

iTrader: (21)

I've had mine for almost three years, and still not installed. I am determined that this year it will get done.

Congrats on getting it going.

RayinNorCal

iTrader: (6)

Thanks Roger, although it's not exactly up and running juuust yet.

In fact, I tried to work on it this weekend to see if I can at least get the car started but ran into a few tiny hurdles. I never knew fishing the rubber grommet from a spark plug socket stuck to a spark plug still in the chamber could be so much fun. About the only thing more entertaining than this was watching the spark plug socket itself roll down into my fender from the pressure zone near the windshield. The Mazda engineers made that hole just the perfect size for this, you know.

Ah well, at least after finding out I had to reverse ground and 5v on my vtps I was able to calibrate it, and at least I was able to confirm spark on all four cylinders before my battery died. Fun stuff!

So, when is yours going in?

rleete

iTrader: (21)

When it gets warm. Unheated garage means this old man doesn't work on cars until it hits the mid 50's, at least.

We just got dumped on with another 8 inches of snow yesterday, so it's going to be a while. Although it is supposed to start warming up next week.

RayinNorCal

iTrader: (6)

I know what you mean. I'm not as young as some of the saplings on this site, so my enthusiasm to work on my car tends to wane at times. I didn't even put my car back together last night. Made my wife drive me to work today, lol. Good thing I work only 3 miles from home.

Btw, you can send us some of your snow anytime. We're in drought mode in California, although we did get a little rain this weekend but not near what we need.