Plug-in ECUs for the Miata - at attractive prices
 

Link is pleased to announce that we're now selling our engine management systems direct via the web at extremely attractive prices.

As an example, the new LEM G3 with a plug-in adapter for the 1.6 or 1.8 liter Miata is:

• US$ 1170
• € 860
• AU$ 1380
• £ 570

These are not low-end systems, but are powerful aftermarket ECUs, fully configurable in real time.

Features of the LEMG3 include:

• Large, high-resolution maps to accurately control fuel and ignition and maximise the performance of your engine
• Absolute stability of tune regardless of altitude and weather due to the on-board barometric sensor
• Non-factory features such as anti-lag, launch control, boost control and more.
• Easy tuning using our free PCLink software via on-board USB
• The adapter allows you to plug directly into your factory ECU connectors. No looms or wiring required.
• Also available in a 5 bar version

For more information on the Miata plug-ins please see:

For more information on the LEM G3 please see:

Finally, we do offer bulk-buy terms - 10% / 20% for 5 and 10 units respectively. Any model of ECU from our range counts towards the total.

Please note:

• The price quoted includes shipping, but excludes taxes and dutues, and may be subject to exchange rate fluctuations.
• Shipping is via DHL international couriers, and typical shipping times to the UK are from 2-4 business days.
• Payment is via PayPal or Credit Card.
• Unlike others, we're going to be straight with you. Our plug-in systems mean that you don't have to do any wiring, and the base-map provided with the ECU should allow you to start and run a reasonably standard engine immediately. However, to optimise performance (the reason you're fitting an aftermarket ECU in the first place) you'll need to tune your car on a dyno. Just like any other aftermarket ECU, you're not just going to be able to plug it in and dial in extra power.

How does this G3 compare to the MiataLink as offered to us by Flyin Miata? Does it include a keypad? Is fueling control full time closed loop?

Oh, and why didn't you post this last week, BEFORE I purchased a Link from FM?

how do you have 31 posts now and, only 1 valid post with the search?

wonder if deleted posts work that way.

edit: nope.

We approached the moderators for permission to post this, which was granted. On the basis that the information would be useful to the forum members, they arranged for our post count to be bumped so that we could post it immediately.

Ben - I'm collating information for a comparison between the G3 and the MiataLink, and will post it shortly, but basically the MiataLink was based on our previous generation of computer, whereas this one is a new beast entirely. Laptop / PC control, all surface-mount components, but not full time closed loop fuel control.

To be fair, the MiataLink is a full plug and play ECU - which comes at a much higher price. This one will still require some tuning etc, but the pricing reflects that. Oh yes, we've also got on-board barometric control.

Sorry about the timing, we're only just starting to ramp up the announcement - hence this posting.

Thank you for the clarification.

I look forward to seeing more information about your new product.

Please note - I've just been told that the Flyin Miata has now migrated to (or is in the process of migrating to) another, non-Link, hardware platform, and as such I don't consider that we are qualified to comment on its abilities, and don't want to get drawn into any flaming wars.

For a summary of the differences between this version of the Link LEM and the previous one, please go to:

understood.

i don't think you'll find a lot of fans of flyin' miata here. :)

Can it be configured for any Map sensor (like the 2.5bars I all ready own, or only link specific?
Are the Temperature sensors link specific as well?

I almost bought a used link last year (~$600), but the Map and AIT sensors prices were the cost of the main unit...

It has an on-board MAP sensor, so you wouldn't need yours any more. We do 2.5 and 5 bar options.

It uses the factory air temp sensor, and, if you want, an inlet air temp. sensor, which you can get from us - we do Bosch or Delphi - more details on our web site.

Sorry Jefe - I just read your reply properly - the cost of the AITs are about $40 US each, and if you buy one with the ECU the shipping cost is effectively free.

What about any other odd n ends? Boost control solenoid, knock sensor, etc? Did I see on your website that the ecu interfaces with a pyrometer? Is it for logging purposes, or does the ecu use egt as a parameter on it ignition map?

The software looks nice. Would it work with my MiataLink, if I decide to keep it? It looks superior to the DataDogLab that I'd be forced to purchase a license for (which is $99)?

The prices of other stuff are shown here
I'm afraid the PCLink software won't work on the MiataLink - the underlying software in it is written by Flyin Miata, and is completely different from ours.

As far as logging pyros go - we don't do that directly, but if you convert the output to a 0-5v analog signal then we can log that.

AWESOME!!! But I think we all need some clarification because I still don't quite understand the relationship between your company and FM. I see some of the parts on your website are direct matches for the FM stuff. Are you the company that makes the MiataLink ECU that FM markets as their own? I knew somebody had to make them. And part of the deal is that previously you've not been allowed to compete with them, only now you are allowed to market it direct? Is it the same thing or not? I know the software is different, what about he hardware?

The FM MiataLink is a great product. If your product does the exact same thing, is as easy to use, has quality support, and is enough cheaper in price... then you'll probably have no problem attracting customers. I think the biggest single turn-off to the MiataLink is the price. I'd love to have one, but for close to $2k when you've added the periferals, NFW!!! If this thing is going to be down in the $1100 range or less for a group buy... I might think about it.

I can see myself getting one of these here in a couple of months. Sounds like we might be able to get a group buy of 10 or more people and get them for pretty reasonable price.

nice hope it gets some takers i wanna see how it pans out wiht FM going to the hydra a new link source would be nice.

I don't think FM has any plan to stop selling their version of the link. They are going to the hydra, and development has effectively stopped on their link (there just isn't room for any more code). FM is still going to support the link and assist with tuning, the support is a big factor in why some people choose the link. That why I bought one and spent many $$$.

I really like the display module that is avalible for THIS link. Way beyond what you get from FM. Pretty spendy, but very cool bling.

Nice to see other options.

Right - in reply to SpamNavy, here's the story about the relationship between Link and FM.

Link used to make a full plug-in ECU for the MX5 / Miata (effectively part of our 1'st generation range)

FM decided they liked the hardware, but wanted to do their own software, so they bought the units from us, and wrote their own code for it. However, they have now moved to another manufacturer.

Because they used Link's hardware, they also used some of our accessories - such as our Tuning Modules (the handheld tuning module - aka the keypad), KnockLinks, ClampLinks (voltage limiter), SerialLinks (PC - ECU comms unit), and some cabling etc.

Basically, we supply hardware to them, but there is no other connection between the two companies.

Hopefully that clears that up

-----------------------

As far as support goes, of course, we're based in New Zealand. However, we deal with people world-wide, and we've been told that the level of help we give is a lot better than other manufacturers. We also have dealers in the States, but if you haven't bought our gear from them it would be unfair to expect them to support it at no cost.

Along those lines, we're keen to prove ourselves. We've therefore placed a posting in 'Miata Turbo Forums -> General Miata' for someone willing to install and review the G3 LEM, in return for a free DisplayLink (worth $675 US). Click on the following link to see the full details of the offer.

Can I purchase the serial link from you guys?

this is a sweet deal :bigtu: someone needs to step up and try it

Regarding buying serial links. - the price is approx. $66 US - however, shipping is the kicker - an additional $60 for the courier (that's their minimum cost to the States). We don't post, unfortunately, since it requires a drive to the nearest post office - to be honest, for the value of the item it just isn't worth it.

Sorry.

So the price the FM sells them for is pretty resonable when you factor it in. FM sells the serial link for $74usd.

FM is often accused of price gouging ... and with the serial link I thought this was the case, thanks for showing me it isn't.

Jay

I bet when he says $60 is a minimum you can still ship about 20 serial links for that... effectively making shipping cheap. but whatever.

I'm sure that's the case. FM is making money on the item, but they aren't raping anyone (IMO).

Not trying to make this into a FM vs miataturbo.net thread. Was wondering if I could get it cheaper from the supplier. :)

For the NB '99 miata too?

The origional ecu is not being manufactured anymore????
Shame .... it's a nice ecu...
I think fm is going hydra alone... (hope they have a lot link ecu's in stock)

Why will the new displaylink not be compatible with the older ecu's.
Software ? How come the keypad is compatible and the display not???
have you tried it??
Too bad, really like it.

I am not going to sell my fm link with everyting just to buy a new (unproved) ecu. But would love to have the diplay link...

As for support... i think miata owners are spoiled. The aftermarket tuners (begi and fm) have very good support. Even if you are not buying from them.
You see them on miata.net too. Just helping people.

I think thats the way to go...(just my 0.02 cents)

As for the new aftermarket ecu... You must beat aem/tec/hydra/xcede/emanage(b/u) by price/ease off adjustment/instalation/quality/power to set something in the market...

Why is your ecu bettter then the rest?

jayc72 - Yes, you're right - the $60 shipping cost is for half a kilo, including packaging - we can squeeze in about 5 for that price - which would give you a chance at a bulk buy. Base weight is .3kg, each additional unit is about 50 grams. You can do the sums from this point - our shipping costs for various weights are on the website.

greddymx5 - fair point - we have to beat the others you mentioned in all the areas you mentioned. Unfortunately, some of it is subjective, such as ease of tune etc, some of it involves a trade-off of features we have / they don't, and vice-versa. The market has to do the comparison - it's our job to make sure that we clearly tell you what features we offer, and hopefully give people the opportunity to see / hear about our products in action, and work out the subjective stuff for themselves.

If the website is unclear on what our products offer / don't, please let us know - we really want to make it easy for you to get this information.

I can't understand if the plug-in adapter is available for the 1.8 NB '99 or it's for the NA only.
Is it (the new lemg3) capable of controlling the 99+ alternators?

I have a FM "naked" Link ECU. i need the air temp sensor, MAP sensor, knock sensor and keypad. Can I buy these directly from Link, what is the cost of each item, and is the shipping still $60 for all. If shipping is $60, could also take the serial link.

Any info why exactly the display link doesnt work on the FM ecu's.

Easy to say is diff software. But its only a controller with some nice features or am i wrong...

jhoexp - I will have to check with the tech's on Monday, and will get back to you then with a detailed answer on supported models.

greddymx5 - The DisplayLink isn't a controller, but a highly configurable monitor that allows you to see (and log) various ECU parameters in real-time. e.g. MAP pressure, RPM, Injector duty cycle and a host of others. I don't have the full list with me, but basically it allows you to monitor virtually everything that's going on inside your ECU. Actual setup / control of the ECU is done using PCLink

I'll get a full list onto the website on Monday.

As far as the software compatibility with FM gear, think of it this way - all the above information is stored inside the ECU memory in very specific locations and formats, which we know, since it's our ECU. Since we have no access to this type of information about the FM products, we can't access it.

At a slightly more technical level, there is a whole layer of communications protocols on top of this data, which has to match in both the ECU and the DisplayLink - if we wanted to talk to the FM ECU, they would have to support the protocols we use, and / or vice versa. Unfortunately this is not the case. There is some commonality, since your rightly point out that our 'keypad' talks to their software, but there are differences as well, and these are what makes it difficult.

Keinayo - The cost of the SerialLink is about $60 US, and the prices of the rest are in our pricelist on the web. I'll get a cost for shipping the lot to you on Monday (assuming you're based in the States) - the weights shown on the pricelist are a guide only, as it's difficult to come up with a fool-proof method of pricing shipping for multiple products at the same time, since the packaging complicates things.

Normally, once you've told us what you want to buy, our sales guys will get back to you with a final shipping cost, at which point you can decide whether you want to go ahead with the order or not.

Thanks....in case of positive answer, what do you think will be the shipping to italy for a lemg3+adapter?

jhoexp - I'm told that we don't do the NB version at the moment.

If we get confirmed orders (i.e. with a 10% deposit) for 3 or more of a particular model (not charged until the threshold of 3 has been reached) we're normally happy to develop an adapter for it - this can takes as little as 2-3 weeks.

The only things that can stretch out the time involved is finding a supply of the correct connector (ECU plug) or finding an exotic / late model car for testing.

So, if you can find 2 other people who want one, we can get one started. Anybody else interested?

--------------------------------------------------

Cost to ship an LEM + adapter to Italy is approx €70

Thanks, very interesting! Does it applies to the NB-facelift version too? (it has another ecu connector)
I think I will start a thread on the italian mx-5 community forum to see if someone else is interested in your unit.

Can you please confirm that the unit will be a completly stand-alone ecu, so that i can remove the stock one and get the lem g3 to control everything on the original engine? (including the stock NB alternator, egr, etc... )

In case I won't be able to collect 2 more people that want the adapter, can I buy the Lem g3 without the adapter and wire it to my nb as a stand alone?

I think the NB problems lies in the cas sensor. They dont have it.
The ecu (for now) cannot support the crank /cam sensor.
You can make it work using an cam sensor (NA) and get this wiring to the ecu
The ecu must be rewired completely.
I think temp sensors wil not be a problem.

The Nb has cam and cas sensor too, but they are different from the NA ones.
Anyway they aren't a problem: in fact many ecus can read the output from them and work out the ignition and injection timing.
(my e-manage ultimate works perfectly with them)

For what I have read from m.net, the main problem is the alternator, that is ecu controlled...

Jhoexp - just a quick reply, as our MX5 expert is away on a course today. I'll get him to answer your questions re cam / cas / alternator etc. tomorrow.

The view amongst the other tech's here is that it is in fact the alternator that is the problem, as it is controlled by the ECU. We have apparently done the controller for this in the past, so it may just be a matter of including this on a new adapter.

----------

Regarding your other question - Yes, the models we have already are pure straight plug and play units. For the NB, the alternator shouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately we don't provide EGR control.

The only other thing I'm not sure about, which will have to wait 'till tomorrow, is what the input / output requirements of the NB are - later models of other cars can have so many things that the ECU controls (air-con, power steering, etc.) that the LEM won't support them all simultaneously, and you either have to compromise in what you control, or move up to a more powerful ECU, such as our LinkPlus G3 (due to be released next week)

I must stress, I don't know if this is the case with the LEM - it may easily have enough i/o, but just thought it was worth pointing out to you.

Finally, you are correct - the LEM is a wire-in ECU, so you could use it without the adapter and do the wiring yourself, using one of our looms (which comes with it) - you would just need to check, as I said in the previous paragraph, that the LEM has enough inputs / outputs to control everything you want to do.

It might be helpful to make a simple ancillary harness that plugs through the OEM one so the OEM computer can retain emissions, a/c and alternator control.

all the link would need is something similar to the GReddy EMU's airflow output map to fool the OEM ecu.

That would save us a lot of work getting that stuff to work right since the OEM ecu does a good job of it already.

Right - just a quick update - we'll look at developing an adapter for the NB, but it's going to take a bit more research on what exactly will be needed (i/o etc.) to fully support this model, and we won't be able to give you an answer straight away.

The feeling at the moment is that the LEM doesn't have quite enough outputs to meet all the requirements, so it would need one of our more powerful ECUs. We'll get back with some more information on this once we've worked through it properly, and dotted the i's and crossed the t's.

Finally, we can't do the 'ancillary harness' / piggyback option, as this tends to compromise the level and quality of control offered by both (or either) ECU. (you can never tell how tightly intertwined functions on the OEM ECU are, so you don't know what is going to happen if you try and operate some of them independantly)

Just to flog this horse,

The new Link G3 w/ PNP adapter will support only 2 injector drivers, and it will support 4 ignition drivers? Am I correct? Is there not a way to run sequential fuel injection?

To add knock sensing, does it require adding just the sensor itself, or does it require the knockblock as well?

Does the G3 "autotune" or have some sort of assisted fuel tuning capability?

Adding the IAT sensor is reasonable. Does it also require adding a coolant temp sensor, or is it capable of using the existing sensor?

Thanks

Mr. LEM- did LinkElectro even consider making the display an input device too? Just seems like that would be the "complete" solution, rather than having separate input and display peripherals.

I worked directly with Link Electro getting the LEM wired into my Motorola Cup NB - to my knowledge the first link in an NB. We figured out that all the NB signals were "ultra" low voltage compared to the NA's 5v signals and that the noise filtering capacitor(s) were cutting out all the trigger signals above 3k or so. I'm assuming the G3 is capable now with most modern sensors using less voltage.

We also used the NB cam and crank sensors - the cam set coil phase, and the crank was set up to trigger spark. Fun stuff, and I gotta say that the guys at Link Electro were absolutely committed to project- answering my questions the very next day with direction to ultimately find a working resolution. How's that for a vote of confidence? ;)

Ben: Yes, thats correct the LEM G3 has four ignition drives and two injector drives. Note that any engine can be run using group fire injection, Also all four, six and eight cylinder engines can be run using four ignition drives. The catch is that you will not be able to do sequential injection and on engines with more than four cylinders you will have to group coils or use a wasted spark setup. Our higher end ECU's provide eight ignition and injection channels for those who want to run full sequential fuel and/or ignition.

The LEM G3 does not have capability to measure Knock. You could use another box such as the KnockBlock to put a 0-5V Knock signal into the An Volt channels. Aghain, our higher end ECU's have dual input closed loop knock control for those who require it.

At this stage no "autotune" feature has been enebaled for customer use as we find that people tend to use them without doing proper tuning practice which results in a poor tune and an unsatisfied customer... no autotunes can completely tune an engine management system to the standard a good tuner can acheive...

All our products are designed to maximise the use of factory sensors where they are fitted. The ECU must be used with a coolant temp sensor, but the factory one is OK.

I assume by input device you mean a tuner? The reason the DisplayLink was never used for a tuner was due to the complexity of the engine management system (also the same reason hand tuning modules are no longer supported). There are far too many parameters to be adjusted through the display. Remeber these ECU's are much more sophisticated than our earlier ECU's.

LEM G3 ECU's use a new high input impedance trigger circuit with user adjustable filtering and trigger thresholds. Changes are no longer made by modifying the hardware, they are done directly through PCLink.

Haha, cheers for the vote of confidence, I would like to add that we still offer the same level of commitment and support... Thanks for the compliment...

Really interested in seeing a setup
 

Im really more interested in the application of one of these units than what it supposedly can do.

For example - someone buys a megan racing manifold, and a 14g turbo the link unit should do....

or the greddy unit and using the link it will help you..

Otherwise..im thinking why is thisany better thatn say an e-manage or bipes or SMC or whatever.

What exactly is the application as it relates to a miata??

it is a standalone engine management system that is fully programable so you can get your engine tuned "exactly" how you want it to be tuned (or at least damn close). The bipes, SMC, Emanage (well emanage is pretty powerful), and some other tuning solutions will not be as precice and there will be tradeoffs.

Has anyone tried this yet?

Lots of people run link engine managment.
Flying Miata has been selling the link for years.

Yeah, but I don't know anyone running with this new hardware.
I volunteered to guniea pig it, but never heard back :dunno:

Really a shame, their group buy price was pretty friggin good.

interesting

Bump for interest, time to change..again ;)