MS3 + Racepak Dash + AEM 30-0300 Wideband questions
 

Need some help sorting out the best option to get my 2002 VVT Exocet setup going and ready for EFR turbo.

Ok, so in the garage I have the following waiting to go into my Exocet and want some advice on what makes the most sense from best practices standpoint.
1) Trackspeed/MSLabs MS3 basic for NB2 VVT
2) Racepak iQ3 Logger Dash
3) AEM Wideband 30-0300 / Digital display
4) Flowforce LS ignition kit
5) EFR 6258 and Kraken manifold with Max HP goals in the 275-300hp range (whatever torque max that will keep me from blowing up stock shifters and diffs)

From my research:
A) The AEM wideband controller is preferred over the Innovative due to faster response and startup.
B-1) A CAN (actually AEM Net) connection is the best way to connect the 30-0300 to make sure that the MegaSquirt is seeing the correct AFR reading (and that the digital dash and TunerStudio gauges match)
B-2) Enabling the MS3 to talk to the 30-0300 over the CAN h/l wires requires turning off CAN communications and eliminates the broadcast of CAN data to and from the MS3 thus making it impossible to connect any other CAN devices to the MS3 like my Racepak gauge.

Let me add one more wrinkle into this. The guy from PerfectTuning says that he has written a firmware that will talk to the AEM wideband controller AND allow the use of additional CAN devices.

Question time:
1) Has anyone used the PerfectTuning gauge with an AEM gauge over AEM Net and CAN in this way? If so, does it work well, fairly straight forward to get running?

2) Since I have the AEM kit with the gauge, I’m assuming I must run the gauge since that is what is doing all of the computing of taking the wideband output and turning it into a data stream, right?

3) Assuming that the PerfectTuning gauge firmware is the one that interprets the AEM net signal and changes them to CAN does that mean I can connect the wires anywhere on the CAN bus and all of the other devices on the bus will get those signals but will be “blind” to them, meanwhile the PT gauge will convert them and everything else on the bus will see a CAN wideband signal?

4) If I have to resort to running an analog connection from the AEM wideband to the MS3, what are the downsides and how much is it going to be for my type of power range objectives.

5) Should I ditch the AEM wideband in favor of a Wideband that can broadcast using the standard CAN protocol? If so, what wideband is recommended?

You could also consider the spartan3. Relatively basic unit (no gauge), but does support can. Has very low latency.

Also, there's a gauge-less version of the AEM (30-0310); comes with all the AEMNet limitations though.

https://www.aemelectronics.com/produ...afr-controller

For the AEM to work through CAN Bus, you need to disable the 29-bit CAN. Gauges and clusters that work through 11bit CAN Broadcasting will still work.

I can’t seem to find any info on what bit CAN Broadcasting the Racepak VNET to CAN adapter uses. Does anyone happen to know?