My tach reads fine in Megatune and seems to be accurate but my dash Tach does nothing. I tried reloading a few different maps but nothing changed. Is the dash Tach even related to my MSPNP or is it sourced somewhere else.

 

Yes, but this is the first time I heard of it on a 1.6. There's a thread about it a quick search should find it.

I fixed mine by jumping the diagnostic box with a 1k ohm resistor 1/4 watt IIRC

 

sorry I should mention it was working when I parked it 2 hours earlier.

 

hmmm call diy and bitch

 

On my old 93 1.6, i had this happen right before the igniter went totaly out on me

It too also went from being fine to nothing

I had an extra one at the time, so it was only the few mins to change it on the side of the road.

When i accualy ordered it from parts group, they did not have any though, since they had a race that weekend, and were taking all their spares, so im guessing its a common thing. Had to wait a week

I have that LED tach that FM sold a while back, it would not work either since i had it wired to the rear of the stock cluster

The 97 has the tach signal a different way, so i dont have the extras anymore though

 

I keep reading I can burn up the ignitor if I update the firmware without disconnecting it. This has nothing to do with an loading and msq file, right.

 

Yeah, mine was also megasquirted at that time.. burning an .msq without unpluging it can ruin it and cause the same syptoms, but mine went bad because of something totaly unrelated to MS.

 

Correct. This happens when the CPU is offline, yet power is available to the coils, as under normal circumstances (unless you have built this ignition circuit) the CPU must actively hold the ignition triggers off. (Yes, it's a stupid design.)

By necessity, the CPU is taken offline during a firmware reflash. It does not go offline during an MSQ burn.

 

Ok so my ignitor going is not due to me burning an MSQ, do they normally just go or is it coincidence that my MSPNP has only been in the car a month.

 

I'd say coincidence. These ignitors seem to be finicky

 

So the car still runs and drives, can I still drive it or should I just park it until the new ignitor comes in.

 

I have about 10,000 miles on an ignitor with a blown tach driver.

 

Switch to toyota cops now and don't waste the money on another set of coils.

 

its not the coils just the ignitor. I just ordered 2 ignitors for 60 ea which seemed cheap.

 

The 1.6 dash tach is driven entirely off of the car's ignitor and not the car's ECU in any way. Flashing firmware to a MegaSquirt with the ignition connected could possibly toast an ignitor, so that's why we recommend disconnecting it (90-93) or the coils (94+) before flashing firmware. Otherwise, these events would be completely unrelated.

 

I'm way confused now. What exactly is firmware?

 

Once you get your new ignitor in, just use the pullup resistor int he diagnostics box. I've tried to run my tach off the diypnp and it doesn't work. It works fine while cruising, but during shifts, and acceleration the tach bounces around. I'm going back to the resistor method. It was reliable.