What ECU

Author
Discussion

stevieturbo

17,271 posts

248 months

Saturday 5th July 2008
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Odd....

Allan ( DTA ) may be blunt and to the point. But any queries have always been answered.

If I'm phoning with a problem..Im not phoning for a chat, I want the problem solved !!!
That said.....I could count the number of problems Ive had with DTA using one hand, over 6 years.....
And I wouldnt even need to count all the digits on that hand !!

hiltonig

3,151 posts

209 months

Sunday 6th July 2008
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I think it was the fact I was a novice didnt know what I was talking about therefore he was short on the phone. I did buy a s80pro though !!! oh and an emerald !! The other thing is that I wanted a one stop shop where I drive the car in a new loom is made and fitted and then the RR session. This is what emerald offered, only thing I need to decide now is have I bought the best wideband unit which after reading some posts I think I could have bought better.

Boosted LS1

21,188 posts

261 months

Sunday 6th July 2008
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Allan at DTA can be a trifle difficult to speak with on the phone but that's because he's probably very busy and expects you to understand what he's saying. That said his overall service is extremely good. The products got great software, very user friendly. He's faultless when dealing with him via email, a reply always arrives.

stevieturbo

17,271 posts

248 months

Sunday 6th July 2008
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Agreed....I know I'd get pretty pissed off if I kept getting phone calls from someone who bought an ecu to fit to their car, and knew absolutely nothing about how to do it.

Research first, and know what is needed before buying.


Although from what I hear, the service from Dave Walker is second to none for a start-finish project.

As for widebands and ecu's.....best is relative.

Some say brand x is the best, others say its crap and will give numerous problems.

Sometimes its maybe always better to buy the second best that more people agree on ( if thats possible )

Herman Toothrot

6,702 posts

199 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
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If you need support setting up then LINK is great as they have a help forum and Ashley responds daily, also having a q&a forum there are lots of answers already available. Bonus I found was being in Newzealand they are in the office when your at home after work with your car.

zac510

5,546 posts

207 months

Wednesday 9th July 2008
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I had a Haltech E6K several years ago and it was OK for a street car that was rarely driven but I think it could have had improvement in both the tune and the design. Although I realise that they have released a few new models since then and have a new tuning interface, too.

You can't crap on the MoTeC because it's 'hard to tune' - it's a serious ECU and you'll see it in rally/racing cars all around the world up to Le Mans 24 hr and more, with add ons like the ADL (dash/data logger) and so forth. But I guess this exact capability puts it out of range of the average weekend street car.

The OP perhaps needs to describe in more detail his requirements. Is it a highly strung >£100k turbo Porsche or a backyard Peugeot 205? smile

Slinky

15,704 posts

250 months

Wednesday 9th July 2008
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zac510 said:
The OP perhaps needs to describe in more detail his requirements. Is it a highly strung >£100k turbo Porsche or a backyard Peugeot 205? smile
VAG 1.8T...

Herman Toothrot

6,702 posts

199 months

Wednesday 9th July 2008
quotequote all
zac510 said:
You can't crap on the MoTeC because it's 'hard to tune' - it's a serious ECU and you'll see it in rally/racing cars all around the world up to Le Mans 24 hr and more, with add ons like the ADL (dash/data logger) and so forth. But I guess this exact capability puts it out of range of the average weekend street car.

smile
Never heard that before, looks as easy as any good ecu to tune. Almost identical to my Link, maybe even simpler in you can click on the 3d plots and key up and down without refering to the tables.

zac510

5,546 posts

207 months

Wednesday 9th July 2008
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Me neither.. Vixpy1 up above said it was hard to tune.

stevieturbo

17,271 posts

248 months

Wednesday 9th July 2008
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Not hard per se....

But in some ways it has many unnecessary features, which could be explained better.. The Windows software while ok.....the actual fuel/ign display screens are very small. The old DOS based software was better in that respect.
I havent used the latest firmware/software, which is supposed to be a big improvement over the V22/V23 software for the M4-800 series.

Either way, It is seriously overpriced for what it is, more so considering the features it lacks, which are cost extras.

At its base price, they are actually quite poorly specced.

Vixpy1

42,625 posts

265 months

Wednesday 9th July 2008
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zac510 said:
Me neither.. Vixpy1 up above said it was hard to tune.
I did'nt say it was hard to tune, i said they were a nightmare to map. The interface is slow, there are quirks which drive people crazy, Tuning one is not difficult per say.

GravelBen

15,696 posts

231 months

Wednesday 9th July 2008
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Flatmate builds/tunes a lot of engines for jetboats (V6, small block, big block, FI, you name it), he seems to think Motec is the daddy but a Link will be good enough for most people at much cheaper price.

fergus

6,430 posts

276 months

Thursday 10th July 2008
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MoTEC will charge you for a passcode to unlock several bits of functionality in their ECUs. You typically buy the basic version then add upgrades as you need them. I used to run an M400 on my bike, and once setup it was good, but lots of people had difficulty in actually setting it up.

I run Emerald and Magnetti Marelli on my cars, and the Emerald is certainly a lot easier to map.

As already mentioned, IMHO it's worth using Emerald (and potentially sacrificing some 'nice to have features' (e.g. anti lag for a road car) from the Emerald) purely to allow you to deal with Dave Walker. A more knowledgable, honest man in the tunig world you'll struggle to find.

CNHSS1

942 posts

218 months

Thursday 10th July 2008
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fergus said:
A more knowledgable, honest man in the tunig world you'll struggle to find.
would have to agree, dave walkers advice (free) has often saved me money and occasionally even talked himself out of a sale.

im sure we all agree that all the mentioned ecus are good bits of kit, but for me part of the 'value' is the support and attitude for an electrical moron such as myself bounce