Megasquirt reliability?

[Crofty2011]

My local rolling road is telling me that Megasquirt (even Megasquirt II v3) aren't very good, in fact that they lose their program and it all has to be re mapped from scratch? I realise they were originally designed to be Ford compatible and wondered if any one has any suggestions when Renault mapped? Is the guy just trying to sell me his own preferred make of programmable ECU?

[Snake the Sniper]

Many places refuse to map anything they don't recognise, or have a software disk for. Such as Megasquirt. As far as I know, it's just as reliable as any other after market ECU.

[eliot]

Sounds like BS to me. Even if you did loose the settings, you would just restore the settings from your saved file on your laptop. And they must have the settings file (MSQ) because megatune prompts you to save the file on exit.
Not sure what you mean about ford/renault as the ECU isn't marqe specific.

[rev-erend]

Why not ask the question on the MS forums :

http://www.megamanual.com/forums.htm

If the product is as bad as he says - then I'm sure you will get plenty of replies.. but somehow I think he was just giving you plenty of BS.

Personally - I went with Emerald - as I'm no electronics expert and that seems the main point of MS - to build it yourself.

[GreenV8S]

The 'has to be remapped from scratch' sounds like rubbish to me. Given a PC and the appropriate software (which is freely available) you can reprogram and configure from scratch. I'm not aware of MS having any reputation for it's configuration or firmware. Seems more likely to me that an independant tuner would dislike MS because:

• it's cheap and easy for a DIY install/tune so probably not a great deal of money to be made from it
• there's no formal manufacturer support
• the product isn't certified in any way

None of these would imo be a reason not to use MS yourself but might discourage you from using it professionally.

[bertelli_1]

You can buy ready built ms ecu's from various professional companies - in my experience the only reliability issues are caused by inept soldering or poorly built wiring looms. I have used ms on my last two daily drivers and covered around 30k miles with no issues.

[spyder dryver]

I've had no problems with the V3 install on my Toyota 3SGE engined kit car. It was a professionally built item with FOUR coil drivers to enable "coil on plug" using Nippon Denso coils from a ZX9.
Installation was easy using a pre wired and labelled loom. Laptop connection is easy. Software is easy to use, I find. Maybe Emerald or MBE etc. are even easier, I can't say.
I can say that it has run trouble free for over two years.
Geoff.

Edited by spyder dryver on Saturday 10th May 21:35

[matt225]

80% of the issues I have seen with regards MS have been due to poor installation or fabrication of wiring looms etc. 15% due to failed MS ECU's themselves (worth noting those selling pre-built units vary massively, some are very good, some aren't) and 5% for various other reasons.

MS does work and can work very well indeed. Although to be perfectly honest when talking in terms of a four or so grands worth of engine I'd recommend and Omex and an Omex built loom. It may be three or four hundred quid more but in my experience 100% of them have worked 100% of the time. Also if you need someone else to troubleshoot your MS then 300 quid doesn't pay for a great deal of hours and your saving can disapear there!

One thing though don't buy an MS with a bloody printer connection as its main loom plug. That most definately is not an automotive grade connector! ;-)

Cheers
M

[eliot]

matt225 said:

One thing though don't buy an MS with a bloody printer connection as its main loom plug. That most definately is not an automotive grade connector! ;-)

The DB37 is used purley for cost savings. Yes its not ideal, but its been proven in thousands of installs. The microsquirt and spectre have proper automotive connectors now, but at aditional cost.

I've seen people complaing about having to be buy a few cents worth of components for the VR input circuit when its not needed on their particular install, let alone $20 for a connector.

[Mr2Mike]

Severaly people have bought old Bosch ECUs (Motronic etc) and just used the case and connector to house a Megasquirt PCBA which gives you the automotive grade connector for almost nothing. You obviously need the mating half from a car loom unless replacing an existing Bosch unit with the MS.

That said the D-Sub connectors are surprisingly robust. IMO the biggest problem is attaching suitable gauge wire as the solder buckets are small and the pins too close together.

[cinquecento]

I will moderate my language so the nice chaps of PH don't disable my account.!!!..

You have been given incorrect information!!

My MSII V3 (with EDIS-8) has performed faultlessly in my Griff 500. It was well soldered, well tested and more importantly open up the whole educational side of fuel injection. Any issue I have had was because I didn't know what I was doing!!

I now have a system I can tune, troubleshoot and UNDERSTAND myself..without needing to rely on the very types that want many, many times of my $$$$ than I have spent on MS.

The CPU which has the programmable memory is just a normal, every day Motorola processor..mine has worked every time!!