I'm not a moderator and have no control on this website.
Having said that i just want to get one message out.

The Autronic community is like a very close family and supported well thru it's dealers. This is why there forum is only available to their customers and no one else. By doing this is keeps everything on topic and there's no BS ever. It also prevents people from trying to back door there local dealers. This forum can not be a gateway for people to get support when they didn't buy thru there dealers.
This is why there's dealers in the first place.

Autronic is a great ecu and i would never use anything but Autronic in all my projects. I have that much passion over this product. On more then one occasion i have removed motec's and installed autronics.

Autronic is NOT an Aem, Haltech, microtec, etc. Where you can buy thru anyone or ebay and then need to go to a forum for support.
Try buying a Motec without going thru your local dealer and see if you can get any support. Autronic is the same way. You need to go thru your dealer for support!

Luckily the rotary market for Autronic is very small(compared to piston applications) so we dont' have to worry to much but we still need to be aware of this! I made the original post asking for an Autronic forum before i realized Autronic was being sold black market and people were using forums to get support. Now Autronic has tighted up there support and it's helping to cure the problem. I'm also in favor of this method. So i ask that this forum be used for basic questions about Autronic and to keep the more technical questions for the dealers to answer. I know there's only a couple of autronic dealers' here and i'm sure they feel the same way. I'll be happy to help out with most questions but the technical one's need to be answered by your dealer. And if i'm the dealer then i'll be more then happy to help privately thru email or telephone.

Sorry for the long post but i needed to get this out now before we run into problems later.

Enzo..

 

How do you mean they are being sold black market? To me that makes no sense, this is sounding like some stupid cult and even cults try to spread their word by recruiting by providing information.

You telling me that technical support about the system is withheld if you buy an Autronic EMS elsewhere other from a dealer. So you are telling me that if my neighbor no longer has any reason to go racing I can't buy the system from him. Everything has a price and so does an Autronic EMS so why restrict what people wants to know about the system.

I own a SM4 and several weeks ago I had registered with the Autronic forum and I am still waiting for access. Not much is forth coming from you and it is just my luck that I have had experience with several other systems, I was able to figure it out on my own.


Motec provides alot more info than Autronic has available on their website so why would Motec spend time answering wayward questions.
The Autronic support reflects the personality of it's eccentric owner Richard Aubert and the "let Rice Racing tell you about the other guy" Ray Hall. I won't be the one to do the bashing but I have had my share of run-ins with the above mentioned coyotes.


In any case remove this Autronic sub-section from the forums now before Ray Hall asks that it be done. Ben Strader was asked by Ray Hall to remove the Autronic tech section from his EFI University forums for a similar reason. Why does Pectel or Motec (to name a few) not do the same, because their systems to me would seem more desirable that any Autronic system available, no wonder people duplicate their ****. Autronic hopes to be in some of the cars that Pectel and Motec have been placed in, and with their current situation that will not happen.

Tid Bit for anyone who cares:
Pectel T2 - 1 x 32 bit @ 21Mhz microprocessor
Pectel T6M - 2 x 32 bit @ 25Mhz microprocessor
Motec M4 - 1 x 32 bit @ 33Mhz microprocessor
Autronic SM4 1 x 16 bit @ 20Mhz microprocessor

Now go figure. Wish I had not bought that damn SM4 at all.

 

This is an extract from the Pectel Control Systems website:

"We believe that every customer is different, and we always consider each customer's requirements very carefully before creating a solution to satisfy all of their unique needs. A great deal of value is placed upon dialogue between ourselves and the customer, for it is often this that can turn a good solution into a great one, or make the difference between first and second place.

The products that we design and manufacture are optimised to withstand the harsh conditions of motorsport. High quality components are are used throughout to ensure total reliability and top performance. Our state of the art electronics are combined with user-friendly software to help the customer fully exploit the potential of their vehicle.

As well as providing the hardware and software for all of our systems, we always follow up with quality backup and technical support to ensure that the customer gets the absolute best from the product. Our enviable reputation for excellent support stems from our philosophy that selling the product is only one part of the job; equally important is to provide backup for that product once it has left our hands.

If you would like any more information about who we are and what we do, please contact us."

"If you do not see a product which appears to satisfy your requirements, or simply have a question that this site has not answered then please contact us in order that we can try and meet your specific needs."

Had to share that with you guys, aaahhhh at least somebody cares about providing some customer service, and believe me they are no different on the phone. I can attest to that.

 

I'm just saying many people avoid buying thru there local dealer in hopes of getting a cheaper price elsewhere. Black market means there buying ecu's from another country when there's already a dealer in there own country. Again there looking to save a few dollars, when they should've just bought thru there dealer and had all the support they wanted.

If your neighbor bought the ecu from a dealer you should have nothing to worry about. Call him if you need help.

And for your information if you were to buy a motec directly from australia good luck trying to get support in the US!

I'm not witholding info about autronic at all. I would gladly answer any questions regarding the product and help owners with their setups. But if people buy systems elsewhere by avoiding their dealer and then expect to come here for troubleshooting/support there not getting it from me. I don't see anything wrong with this. It's the reason you should buy thru your dealer so you could call him whenever and get all the support you need.

As for the SM4. Thats an ecu i would only sell if i'm installing and tuning it myself otherwise i won't do it period! It's to complex for many to figure out.

post all you want about processing power and claims and do what you want with your SM4. Buy the motec or pectel(most of their top engineers left to start there own company) if you feel there better.

 

This is exactly what i'm trying to say! Autronic will support and service their customers 100% if they buy thru local dealers.

 

Ain't nothin wrong with a little free enterprise. I would too if you see how much money the boss makes, and when you add up all the cost for the sum of parts and realize he is making a killing. So them leaving does not mean something went wrong but hell I can make a killing too.

 

i'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. But remember these would've been the guys supporting you after you buy the product.

 

That's 'grey market'. It'd only be black market if the Autronic was illegal in your country; nobody is smuggling aftermarket ECUs into the US (at least not that I know of).

This is not always the case, see below.

Look at my situation: My local dealer isn't really comfortable with my application, and you refused to sell to me an SM4 unless I flew you out to California to do the work. This means I'm forced to buy from someone who will support my applications who isn't in my area, or go with an SM2. My motivation to buy out of my dealer area has nothing to do with money.

 

I'd be more then happy to sell you an SM2. And you probably wouldn't need me to come to cali as i could get you running over the phone or emails.

SM4's are still under development and most features arent enabled yet and only dealers can install/tune them.

Why wouldn't you just run the SM2 and if you feel you need to upgrade to the SM4 later on you could quite easily. You probably won't as the SM2 is more then capable of running a 13B just fine.

 

You know..................looking at the situation I see two major issues that could create such a problem.
1) There is no parity in prices from the manufacturer, both locally and abroad, obviously something wrong there and don't tell me the exchange rate is what contributes to that.
2) There possibly is a major supply problem.

But enzo tell me something............I understand the reason for a dealer not wanting to provide technical support over the phone for a unit that was'nt bought from him personally. But the total lack of a support structure or better yet an enclosed fraternity with total disregard for the buyer who may not have come about his unit the way the fraternity wishes. Then there is this fraternity determining who is worthy of becoming one of them to gain this valuable information.

Why can't it be where information is readily available, that has nothing to do with the dealer, because he can still say to whomever "I can't provide you with that information because you did not buy from me". I don't think that affects the dollar the dealer makes more like restricting it. Is telling someone where the brown wire or the red wire goes cause dealers to suffer and incalculable loss?

I am trying to understand the thought process behind all this enclosed stuff and the connection it has to the gray market. I guess you are really not the right person for me to ask these questions, but you're a dealer. You should know and I know you have to obey the rules of the fraternity or you will be disbanded or condemned but help me out with clarifying it.

 

I'ave been checking around and found this interesting thread which even included your name been mentioned enzo, my, my, from whence we came. Was there a time back in 2003 when you yourself were learning about your autronic system and from the sounds of things you had quite a difficult time in setting the system up.

Oh...... and on the same issue of Autronic support or the lack there of, this was discussed at length here also. Some mighty interesting reading I might say.

http://ausrotary.dntinternet.com/for...ronic&start=20

 

I think this is what ENZO means...

And this is my pm box.



I respect what enzo is saying and am not tyring to argue. But I am the sort of person that doesn't buy something from the first person/store they saw it from, especially when more than %80 of my pay goes straight into parts for my car (and im not made of money).

Yes I realise I am in Australia and Autronic is made in Australia. I was keen to find out how much they sell overseas.

I guess this is how I end up paying under $2000AUD (~$1500US) for GT42R and not $2800 from a local seller or $100AUD for 1 injector instead of $240.

 

So you see that "AUTRONIC" is trying to tell you to not shop around, but buy from who ever they suggest thats the guy in your neighborhood. And if you don't do as they say, you are on your own.

 

enough said above.

A forum is about technical support, this is not a heavily regulated resource because of some false flawed marketing idea from some peanut. If you want it to go this way then I'm sure the sub forum will be closed as quickly as it was opened, as it will serve no real technical purpose and not satisfy anyone's existing needs.

It was created because of a lack of open information and sharing of information and idea's via existing channels for some current customers and POTENTIAL customers.