well Just curious what advantages / dis advantages between these two would be?

how easy is it to upload a map for say sequential twins at 14 psi



and what about all the issues with tach's and speedos and gaugesnot working ?

howmuch cheaper is this over the power FC .. ?

 

I've never touched the PowerFC so I have nothing specific to offer regarding it. However, I can certainly tell you about the Microtech.

Your first question is easy to answer. Microtech won't control the sequential twins, and you can't really "upload" a map because the Microtech software doesn't allow you to save to disk.

Any issues with tachs or speedometers not working is down to the person who did the wiring, not the ECU. Could happen with any standalone.

Don't buy a Microtech. There's no reason to these days where there are cheaper, more capable and better supported ECUs around (Megasquirt, Haltech, probably PowerFC).

 

For anything under 400hp go power fc. anything over where you have to use bigger primary injectors use anything else

 

^^^Agreed, Having used the microtech alot as well I would recommend going with AEM or some other form of management as well. Not that it won't get the job done but its alot more messing with it to get it right.

I have used power fc up to 400whp on a bridgeport single not problems.

Zack

 

i find the microtech easier to install and setup. :shrug:

but it's old and antiquated yet still costs the same and takes weeks to ship back and forth for customizing or repairs. avoid the microtech now, is my suggestion.

 

Ive seen a ton of haltechs **** the bed latly.Honestly i love my lt10s simple dependable and and works.What more do you need?

 

something you can save and load a map to from a computer?
something that has wideband logging capability without spending another $500?
something that has more than 1-2 inputs/outputs?
something you can pull out of one car and put into a different setup that has flexibility?
something you can adjust perameters without having to send it to australia to be nickel and dimed on for every little thing?

don't get me wrong, it was a decent ECU like 10 years ago.

 

Yeah would be nice but is it needed? Not for my setup and im sure i can get plenty more without the ecu being a problem.
My stageing is spot on so is cruise like i said (Need).fan is triggered by it so is a/i afrs are also logged.
And if the car is wired the same why couldnt it be put in other car?Type in a map and start messing with it. Its not like your gonna put it in with some saved map and it be perfect. oh and i paid 600 for mine with a full harness

 

can't switch from FC to FD, or anything else for that matter. most ECUs can be adapted to different cars.

not new you didn't.

 

Personally, I'd love my Microtech to have:

-save to disk (though I'm working on software that will allow that)
-far better interpolation of the load map
-3D timing table instead of the ridiculous distributor model they use now
-closed loop AFR control
-BAC output capable (my LT8s apparently is not, even though Microtech promised that all "S" models would be with a simple add on option performed by a Microtech dealer...nope, shipped ECU to Oz only to be told it isn't possible with mine)
-configurable O2 input (wideband, narrowband)
-configurable data logging (software always seems to stop afer about 30 seconds)
-e-fan control that doesn't suck (ability to set both on and off temperature)

That's all I can think of the at the moment. All those features have been available in a $400 Megasquirt for 6+ years.

 

that would involve building a new design bed, something microtech obviously seems to not care about in lost sales.

it's the equivalent of building an FB for 25 years without ever changing a thing on the car. eventually it isn't competetive in the market any longer with antiquated styling and lack of up to date technology. yes it still runs and drives, gets you from point a to point b but it doesn't have a cd player, GPS, surround sound, heated seats, airbags, etc, etc, etc. microtech is a base model ECU that works, but if you want those other things for even as low as a few dollars more, most people would think it's worth it to buy something more up to date. eventually you get tired of being passed up by the 400 horsepower SUVs in your tiny old sports car.

i'd consider megasquirt to be far more worthwhile, even if you had to pay someone to set it up properly to close the gap in cost. at the end of the day you aren't running a rock with 3 LED lights on it that just happens to be able to control injectors and timing.

my microtech is going on 6 years old now, the commander wet the bed a few weeks back and for some reason it's going into test mode when i turn the key on and floods until i clear the **** it dumped into it out. so it looks like my microtech may be dying, if anything i am going to send it in for repairs and sell it if that is the case. for that timeframe it was a decent reliable daily driven EMS however. but i'd rather have more ability to change things and load up a map to a usb drive, take it in the house and play with my maps instead of sitting trapped in my car by microtech's laziness.

AEM and megasquirt are more ideal for the north american customers, it's just a royal pain waiting a month and a half for even minor things to get repaired with these imported units.

 

So i guess if a car has a carb on it then everyone should junk it cause its missing all the bells and whistles of modern cars?
Should tell all the guys running demons edelbrocks and hollys time to buy something better.Honestly i could care less about gps radios heated seat blah blah blah just more **** to go bad .
Id drive an old 60s truck if i didnt have to travel so far to work. Hell my next toy is gonna have a carb guess i should just scrap that project.
I guess since we are all ballas here then the op should just fork out the loot and get a Motec or AEM.

 

Yes, the carb should absolutely end up in the recycle bin.

You're sort of missing the point. All the features we talk about the Microtech not having are not exactly extraordinary features. They have all been standard features in most ECUs, even before the last few Microtech series were released. When my LT8s was sold without BAC control, closed loop, 3D timing tables, and save to disc, Haltech had been selling ECUs with those features for years. I purchased my Microtech because of the rock solid VR conditioner and the promise from Microtech that software updates would be continually released to add new features to the ECU.

Now every ECU on the market has sold VR conditioners, plus all the features are more that the Microtechs are missing. And many are cheaper than the Microtech.

At this point Microtechs should only be used on track cars, as they don't need many of the features I talk about that make a street car drive like it should.

 

people run carbs because they CAN be easier to setup and deal with versus fuel injection. carbs also cost less and are ultimately simpler than fuel injection.

carbs are also inferior to fuel injection, so yes you answered your own question.

yes if those things eventually break it sucks, but until then they are still conveniences. i suppose you would prefer scanning through a tape for 30 minutes instead of flipping through thousands of songs on your ipod list in a fraction of the time.

 

The new microtech software on their site seems to be able to save maps to disk. I haven't personally tried it as yet because my ecu is out the car. Has anyone tried it?

 

^ nope not a chance!

 

Have you tried the ver 2.1 softwate? LT-16 65psi software? I installed but havent connected it yet to an ECU, but it does have the save map and load map options in it.

Web page link here
http://microtechefi.com/index.php?ro...tegory&path=42

download link here
http://microtechefi.com//download/65soft.exe

 

I'm downloading it now, but since my car is in storage for the winter I may not be able to test it for at least a few days (need to go out in the garage with a battery, etc.). Maybe someone else can take a look?

If it can save to disc and fixes some of the quirks with the earlier software, that's great. Still doesn't fix the fundamental issues with the ECU though. Given the choice between save to disc and a 3D timing table, I'd rather have the timing table.

 

Never dl'ed the lt16 software cause I don't have it. But I'll dl it now and try it. I do have the ver1.2 for the lt19s and it does not allow hard disk saving

 

yes you can save maps, however it apears they are encrypted when you save them. this is the screen that appears when you save a map.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...savescreen.jpg

 

it's not encrypted, its each tuning cell in order from screen 1 on. what a joke this is. lol

 

What more do you want? As long as the software can save and restore maps to the ECU, then that's what matters and who cares whether it's just delimited text, XML, binary or as audio tones in a WAV file?

 

As Aaron says.. as long as you can save the map from the ecu with a given a file name and you can bring it up back later or email it or something, that's a massive improvement over old.

And if you can read that saved map you showed, that is even kinda helpful so that you can just look up a parameter from that screen rather than toggling through all the screen to find the value that you want..but you have to be able to read it in the raw format though

 

it is nice but you cant upload it to the microtech, still have to manually upload. plus it doesn't save any of the settings on the option screen and soo on. def a improvement though

 

So wait, I can't load the map to the Microtech that I just saved? Half implemented, useless "feature". It literally took me half an hour to write a VB program that can dump a the matrix table into a text file a few years ago.