twdorris
Supporting Vendor
- 527
- 77
- Feb 13, 2003
-
Frederick,
Maryland
Dare I even suggest such a thing?
We've gotten a few question asking us what V4 is going to include now that V3 is out and working well. These are typically joking questions, but it does lead to some thought.
Two of the biggest limiting factors on our ECUs are I/O and RAM space (internal working memory). We only have so many inputs and so many outputs. You can log wideband data and boost data and, depending on the ECU, one or two other things on the given pins. Many pins have special considerations too and if you're running a factory Mitsubishi mass airflow, you're limited even further because it steals two of the inputs you'd otherwise make good use of (IAT and baro).
And then there's the output side of things. We provide full "parameter"-ized, windowed control over the EGR and FPS outputs already and we'll add boost control via the WGS output soon enough. But there are plenty of situations where people would really like to have even more outputs to do things like drive external shift lights or trigger a separate knock warning LED or a coolant-temp warning LED, etc. But we're limited to what the factory ECU provides us.
And then there's the RAM space issue. This is more an internal restriction we're forced to deal with in terms of functionality we can add and how we can add it. But this certainly affects the end user too as we'd like to do a lot more cool stuff inside the ECU that we just can't right now (ECU auto-tune for example).
To address these issues, we're giving some thought to an entirely different hardware approach. For the non-EPROM 1G (and soon 2G) ECUs, we already have a conversion board that basically "hooks" into and intercepts the processor pins. From there, we can do a LOT of cool stuff we can't do out on the EPROM socket.
If we were to develop a similar board that worked on both non-EPROM and EPROM ECUs (basically removing the processor and installing a special board whether it's an EPROM ECU or not), we can do a lot more stuff. We can add more analog inputs for datalogging, digital inputs for external switches, digital outputs for various things, MUCH faster datalogging than we do now and more extended RAM space which means more functionality.
The problem, of course, is that this conversion is relatively expensive. Figure on $95 for the conversion and then some dollar amount for the upgraded functionality. Maybe $175 would make sense as a V3 to V4 upgrade and you'd *have* to send us your ECU to do it.
So, given that, the obvious question is...how many people would actually be interested? People were VERY interested in many of the new things we added in V3. But now that that's out and working well, is there anything else people are really wanting? Let's hear some ideas!
Thomas Dorris
ECMTuning, Inc.
We've gotten a few question asking us what V4 is going to include now that V3 is out and working well. These are typically joking questions, but it does lead to some thought.
Two of the biggest limiting factors on our ECUs are I/O and RAM space (internal working memory). We only have so many inputs and so many outputs. You can log wideband data and boost data and, depending on the ECU, one or two other things on the given pins. Many pins have special considerations too and if you're running a factory Mitsubishi mass airflow, you're limited even further because it steals two of the inputs you'd otherwise make good use of (IAT and baro).
And then there's the output side of things. We provide full "parameter"-ized, windowed control over the EGR and FPS outputs already and we'll add boost control via the WGS output soon enough. But there are plenty of situations where people would really like to have even more outputs to do things like drive external shift lights or trigger a separate knock warning LED or a coolant-temp warning LED, etc. But we're limited to what the factory ECU provides us.
And then there's the RAM space issue. This is more an internal restriction we're forced to deal with in terms of functionality we can add and how we can add it. But this certainly affects the end user too as we'd like to do a lot more cool stuff inside the ECU that we just can't right now (ECU auto-tune for example).
To address these issues, we're giving some thought to an entirely different hardware approach. For the non-EPROM 1G (and soon 2G) ECUs, we already have a conversion board that basically "hooks" into and intercepts the processor pins. From there, we can do a LOT of cool stuff we can't do out on the EPROM socket.
If we were to develop a similar board that worked on both non-EPROM and EPROM ECUs (basically removing the processor and installing a special board whether it's an EPROM ECU or not), we can do a lot more stuff. We can add more analog inputs for datalogging, digital inputs for external switches, digital outputs for various things, MUCH faster datalogging than we do now and more extended RAM space which means more functionality.
The problem, of course, is that this conversion is relatively expensive. Figure on $95 for the conversion and then some dollar amount for the upgraded functionality. Maybe $175 would make sense as a V3 to V4 upgrade and you'd *have* to send us your ECU to do it.
So, given that, the obvious question is...how many people would actually be interested? People were VERY interested in many of the new things we added in V3. But now that that's out and working well, is there anything else people are really wanting? Let's hear some ideas!
Thomas Dorris
ECMTuning, Inc.