Discussion
Got too much time on my hands this weekend. Took the ECU apart and noticed obviously the processor, some SMC 8mhz jobby, and sitting next to it were two chips in removeable sockets. One was the non-volatile ram which I assume stores the adaptive map, and the other was a bog standard eprom covered with a white sticker that said 'cerb 4.5' and a serial number. I assume that the eprom contains the program for the processor, and possibly the map for above 4000rpm ?? Anybody know anything further. I have to say I love my car, but its only a matter of time before I'll have to find out whats in those chips one way or another.
Forget trying to understand the poxy little thing. It works and thats that. How about remapping it to get the best out of it. Easy map software and lead for the 941 MBE is £40. Bargain! All you need to do is find a decent rolling raod and map till your car is as smooth as an V12 Vanquish!
wokkywokky said:
Forget trying to understand the poxy little thing. It works and thats that. How about remapping it to get the best out of it. Easy map software and lead for the 941 MBE is £40. Bargain! All you need to do is find a decent rolling raod and map till your car is as smooth as an V12 Vanquish!
Read Danny's post again .. it's locked, you can get the data off the chip with easimap5 (been there, done that) .. you can change the values (been there, done that) .. but you can't get them back on the chip again (been there, not done that).
Joospeed, do you know more detail on what is actually locked? the ECU has what seems to be a bog standard EPROM and NV Ram, and a processor. If the map you are looking for is stored it is likely to be with the program on the eprom. With the adaptive <4000 on the NVRam.
How far have you gone down the line of dumping out the eprom or NV to see whats inside, because correct me if I'm wrong but the only two things that could have a 'lock' are the software you use to interrogate the ECU or the processor if it has onboard eprom or static. I have some equipment to do this but not if its a well trodden road already.
How far have you gone down the line of dumping out the eprom or NV to see whats inside, because correct me if I'm wrong but the only two things that could have a 'lock' are the software you use to interrogate the ECU or the processor if it has onboard eprom or static. I have some equipment to do this but not if its a well trodden road already.
er, don't know, you lost me there! octane junkie was looking into this but I've not heard anything back on that score so assumed it was a no-goer. If you have another plan that'd be great .. if we can't upload new data we'll have to go aftermarket ECU (already being tried by one person I know of) .. or build our own ecu (someone I know can do this for me) .. but it'd be much simpler to go with what we have. unfortuantely the 15deg offset for the ignition is built into the ecu itself so MBE tell me, so you can't substitute another 941 or so I'm told .. haven't actually tried it though.
What do you suggest?
>> Edited by joospeed on Sunday 22 June 23:50
What do you suggest?
>> Edited by joospeed on Sunday 22 June 23:50
I can't believe you can write your own ECU that's at all good (i.e. deals with any form of cold start, accell enrichment, cruise advance etc.) without a huge amount of effort. And experience with both engines, and embedded software/hardware. After all, isn't that how Dave Walker started? Seems like a complete waste of time when you can buy an Emerald for a few hundred quid.
danny
danny
dannylt said:
I can't believe you can write your own ECU that's at all good (i.e. deals with any form of cold start, accell enrichment, cruise advance etc.) without a huge amount of effort. And experience with both engines, and embedded software/hardware. After all, isn't that how Dave Walker started? Seems like a complete waste of time when you can buy an Emerald for a few hundred quid.
danny
except the cheapest emerald is 650 pounds plus vat, so not all cheap. I'm told it's not at all difficult, all the necessary stuff is already available used for other uses, so just needs bringing together in one unit, I have a customer who makes ECus to control boost on mazda RX7 turbos that he makes himself at home and someone else contacted me saying it'd be easy to adapt something they make already for the purpose. All you really need is something throttle angle based versus revs to control the injector duration with accel enrichment and a driver, something to control ignition advance relative to a fixed datum, plus coolant trim which is just on a percentage basis relative to a voltage input, You don't need anything else for a basic ecu.
) The PIN code for the maps is actually in the map code and difficult to extract - though not impossible 
Hi, hope noboby minds me jumping in here as I dont know what i'm talking about with all this elastictrickery stuff 
but i was talking to an old friend last weekend, albeit alcohol fueled, about my plans for the emerald and he claims to have a piggy back unit which can +/- a few % of fuel where ever you want it. Any thoughts? He could of course have been making it up but claims to have tested it on other cars.
but i was talking to an old friend last weekend, albeit alcohol fueled, about my plans for the emerald and he claims to have a piggy back unit which can +/- a few % of fuel where ever you want it. Any thoughts? He could of course have been making it up but claims to have tested it on other cars.
I know this is going to sound like a stupid question, but does anyone have an old or junked MBE set of chips for me to experiment on?
Understand what you say Dannyit but not really trying to reinvent the wheel, I would be more interested in understanding more about my car. I take as much pleasure in that as I do driving it. I'm hesitating cos I don't want to junk my car but am pumping one of the MBE people at this moment for info. When I find a junked set of chips or have enough info to risk it on my car I'll go for it.
I doubt there's a decent encryption system because it supplies a huge overhead for the processor, and recalling info from that eprom is SLOW. I'm trying to find details on the processor itself. Again I'll let you know what I find. I have no secrets and am willing to share any info I find.
Interestingly the chap at MBE said they couldn't even sell me any software to interrogate the MBE system as he believes TVR modified their system, although I see no sign of that.
Understand what you say Dannyit but not really trying to reinvent the wheel, I would be more interested in understanding more about my car. I take as much pleasure in that as I do driving it. I'm hesitating cos I don't want to junk my car but am pumping one of the MBE people at this moment for info. When I find a junked set of chips or have enough info to risk it on my car I'll go for it.
I doubt there's a decent encryption system because it supplies a huge overhead for the processor, and recalling info from that eprom is SLOW. I'm trying to find details on the processor itself. Again I'll let you know what I find. I have no secrets and am willing to share any info I find.
Interestingly the chap at MBE said they couldn't even sell me any software to interrogate the MBE system as he believes TVR modified their system, although I see no sign of that.
you can get all the info you need off the chip with easimap5 .. I have the passwords for all levels also (not that difficult to guess, i got the top level password after 4 attempts . pitiful!!!). plus I have as many chips as you want .. tell me your address and I'll send them through the post.
cheerz.
cheerz.
Joolz,
You mentioned in another thread (discussing Julian Rowntrees RedRose) that the fuelling for his car was all over the place. I guess it was just set badly by TVR? Or does the MBE make it diffcult by having a rubbish acceleration enrichment or something?
This is possibly an area in which big improvements could be made (as well as the ignition map) or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?
Rob.
You mentioned in another thread (discussing Julian Rowntrees RedRose) that the fuelling for his car was all over the place. I guess it was just set badly by TVR? Or does the MBE make it diffcult by having a rubbish acceleration enrichment or something?
This is possibly an area in which big improvements could be made (as well as the ignition map) or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?
Rob.
Just an update for anyone interested. Pin codes in the map ridiculously easy to find and bypass. The original ECU in the cerbera was from a company called MBE, who make customizable ECU's for Kit cars and racing cars. MBE are understandaly less than forthcomming with information as they agreed with TVR not to divulge this. MBE was contracted by TVR to produce a bespoke version of the MBE 941. This 941 was not like the normal 941 produced by the company. The processor program was different and the maps were burnt into an Eprom and coded in a different way from the normal 941. This makes looking at the data using their standard software (easimap) a bit hazardous to say the least. I am currently looking at the configuration of data on the Eprom to tray and 'back' work out the map locations.
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