BAWC Forums

Do you have a back up ecu?


Coop

[quote=""Jeff V.""]The PSC-550 is the device GM requires their dealerships to use when they're doing diagnostics and reprogramming. It's far from a 'crude charger'.[/quote]
Yet somehow you ended up with a bricked ECU. If you need more precise control over voltage for your work it might be worth your while. Maybe the Mitsu stuff is less tolerant than GM's ECUs.

Coop wrote:Do you have a back up ecu?

I have several. I may pick up another one tomorrow.

Matt wrote:Yet somehow you ended up with a bricked ECU. If you need more precise control over voltage for your work it might be worth your while. Maybe the Mitsu stuff is less tolerant than GM's ECUs.

I used to work for GM TechLine. I sat through a presentation from a GM service programming engineer explaining exactly why it was required and how it works. I've got at least as much confidence in it as I would any reasonably priced bench supply.

In any case, I killed it when I was using my converted PC power supply. Using the PSC was just an attempt to save it.

Have you ever saved one? I know Aaron had one, and seemed like someone else but never heard of one coming back.


Coop

I haven't, but this is also the first one I killed.

I'm not even convinced it's a voltage problem. The error is 'failed to erase'. So it wasn't able to erase that memory block before it wrote the new data. Now, that can be due to voltage.

But if voltage is the only problem, you should be able to rescue it when you increase the voltage and try again. So it's also possible it's down to a faulty chip, or a problem with the Tactrix reflash software. It may be possible to use a different reflash method and pulse the memory cell for slightly longer, for example.

This will be a good ECU to play with. A lot of ECUs that die are due to using the wrong memory map. Those are gone for good, because it wipes out blocks that hold the actual onboard reflash software. This one still has its reflash blocks intact. Assuming you use the correct memory map, you'll never erase the reflash blocks because those are in the same location and don't get touched, regardless of which ROM you're using. Mine will still communicate with ECUFlash, but I can't actually use it in a car because I can't install all the data I need.

It's not something I'm going to mess with right now. I've got too many other irons in the fire.

[quote=""DCIV""]Have you ever saved one? I know Aaron had one, and seemed like someone else but never heard of one coming back.


Coop[/quote]

Mine that bricked I sent to Brett for him to try and repair it, never got it back or heard from him really after that :d ontknow:

I think his intent was to just replace the main processor. That's not easy work.

There's a low level boot mode available on these chips, but it's not well documented. I might look into that at a later date.

Progress on this thing has glacial, to put it lightly. Some of that has been out of my control due to the holidays and the vacation we took, but the sad truth is my motivation level has been very low.

The firewall notch was way more work than I expected. The firewall isn't flat in that area, so there was a huge amount of trial and error to build the box with the correct bevels, in a confined space, with amateur (at best) welding skills.

But it's finally done. It took a lot of grinding to make it presentable, but I'm mostly happy with it. It needs some seam sealer and paint, but that'll be easy if I can get the garage warm enough to do that.



On the inside, it fits perfectly. I only had to take a slight notch out of the heater box mounting tab. There's a ton of room by the AC evaporator. So it was a lot of effort, but it came out pretty much exactly like I'd hoped. Once it's painted, you won't even know it's there.





I also started mocking up the Outlander radiator. I knew it'd fit pretty well, but it's already turning out better than I expected. There's a ton of room above the filler neck, which was my only real worry. The brackets foul on the hood a bit, but some strategic dents should take care of that. I need to fabricate some lower brackets, but that'll be a lot easier than what I did with the firewall.



There's still a whole lot left to do, but I think I'm nearly done with the metalwork. The pace should pick up a bit going forward.

You are so close. Wrap it up! That weld job turned out better than I thought. I like the electric fan idea. Probably a better system overall.

Good work Jeff!

You put some sealer and paint on it and it will not even notice it's there.

It feels good to get done parts of projects that we are not always wanting to do, glad you got it done.


Coop

I don't know if that'd be safe, even with engine and brake upgrades. It's a great little utility truck, but the frame is pretty small. The most I'd ever put behind it is one of those little UHaul cube trailers.

Yeah 5000 lbs (including trailer and car) would be pushing your luck on a truck like this. The smallest thing you’d really want to tow something like that with would be a 2nd gen V8 Explorer.

My 4th gen V8 Explorer is rated for just shy of 6900lbs (4x4 and aux hvac reduce towing capacity from 7200lbs), and many people think I am nuts for using my Explorer for that.

It will be interesting to see what these can tow. Properly set up trailer would make a big difference with these weighing only 3k lbs.

[quote=""Chris GTO TT""]Yeah 5000 lbs (including trailer and car) would be pushing your luck on a truck like this. The smallest thing you’d really want to tow something like that with would be a 2nd gen V8 Explorer.

My 4th gen V8 Explorer is rated for just shy of 6900lbs (4x4 and aux hvac reduce towing capacity from 7200lbs), and many people think I am nuts for using my Explorer for that.[/quote]

I had an aerostar on a trailer behind mine once. Handled it fine but looked funny as hell

Tonight I was driving home, and I had a moment of inspiration. Sadly, it has not panned out.

One of the problems I'm having is finding a good way to drive the MIVEC solenoids. I can't use a 2006 Eclipse ECU right now because of the flashing problems and the drive by wire.

Prior to 2006, the only other cars with MIVEC and flash ECUs were the FTO GP and Pajero Evo. But I haven't found any of their ECUs for sale on the international auction sites. I can't even find pictures of the circuit board from one.

This is where the inspiration came in. Even if I can't find one of those ECUs, surely another Mitsu ECU uses the same circuit board. It would have the paths for the MIVEC circuit, even if all the electronics weren't there. Sort of like the VICS and boost solenoid circuits on the US 3S ECUs. I know the pinout for the FTO, so tracing out the MIVEC circuit would be cake. Armed with that information, I might be able to modify a US ECU to match.

What other V6 cars used the 4 plug, 2 row flash ECU, and were sold overseas?

European 99 VR4

I already have one of those!

Or so I thought. I can't find it. I'm certain I didn't sell it, but I can't remember if I loaned it to Adam or something like that.

At least I know my theory holds some water. I pulled the circuit board number from my old notes, and did a little Googling.

This is off a European 6A13 Galant. There's the path for the MIVEC circuits, right there.



So I can't find my EU VR4 ECU, which means I can't trace the circuit. Without knowing which CPU pins it goes to, I can't pull the MIVEC maps out of the 6G74M Pajero Evo ROM I have. Without the maps, I can't build or modifiy a flash file to work with a US ECU.

Not that that really matters. None of the US ECUs have anything remotely like those empty circuit paths. So even if I could figure out the ROM and the electrical parts, I still don't have a circuit board I can use.

Maybe I'll think of something else. The truck is still weeks away from needing an ECU anyway.

Man that would be nice! Especially since when you figure it out I need to pay you for one of my own :suspect2:


Coop

Arg! So close. It would really be nice to make MIVEC work with our Vr4 ecu, yet alone any mitsu ecu. You are getting close to a solution.

Think egr is off the table?

I know you wanna make this work how you want to but why not go dbw if you can't?