Islander

iTrader: (6)

Hey fellas, just wanted to share my experience with you guys on a product I just purchased for my money pit.

I ordered a Adaptronic ecu from Elliot, turblown.. Of course everything was smooth and shipping was fast.

Ok im gonna be rambling while im typing but I hope I can get all the info in I can. Me and catch-22 purchased this ecu just because we are internet junkies. lol. But I can say it was well worth it.

Starters:
The ecu looks and feels its well constructed. probably like the rest cause I cant really say ive fondled a lot of ecus.
Well we got the ecu in, I used the internal 4 bar map sensor and began playing with the settings. It was super easy to get everything going. We tried to start the car with a base map and it wouldn't stay running. It would rev to about 3k rpm then drop to 1k and let off a pop. Well we figured it wasn't getting any fuel. Went to youtube and watched one of andys very informative videos. He said to set all the cells to 90 and then go from there. Car instantly fired up and settled into a very smooth idle.

We then adjusted a few things and added and subtracted fuel as needed. Now this is all US doing the programming. I didn't have my wideband linked to the ecu yet. So here is where the fun begins. We got the wideband connected. Set all the parameters and let the ecu do the rest..

OMG. I have gotten a few tunes from various people in the past. Most have been pretty on point and ive made awesome power. The main area that is most important to me is the driveability, idle and crusing afr's. We set a target afr and went out cruising. You can watch the whole process in real time. The ecu is adjusting and calculating and making changes as we drive. We set all the boost cells to be rich so the ecu adjust down from a rich spot instead of trying to compensate for a lean spot. Took about a good 30 mins of driving. I did 5th gear 1000rpm to 5000rpm pulls 1/4, 1/2, full throttle. Each time you could see the cells changing. Did each gear like that. Was doing 25mph on a highway adjusting the tune. wtf. That didn't happen twice. lol. But after a few minutes of that we then did full throttle pulls starting in 5th, then 4th, 3rd, yadda yadda. So now... Hell yeah. time for a strong pull, full boost.

Dropped to 2nd, pedal to the floor, spinning straight thru, hit 3rd, wow, 4th omg, even did a brief boosted 5th gear pull. All I can say is wow. We set the afr's for 10.8 under full boost. And i'll be dammed ....... it was dead on. Cruising was phenomenal. This thing felt awesome. We have the idle at 13.8, light cruising 13.8, anything over 0hmg 12.5, then any boost over 4psi it drops from there to hit 10.8

We also have it set up to run closed loop under vacuum so the ecu makes changes to make sure its hitting the target afr's. Then after a certain rpm/boost it will switch to a mapped based tune where we have the values set. Andy says run it in closed loop all the time. Might try that, just gotta make sure you use a new sensor.

Timing was not messed with. But Andy has a good timing map in there to start with, so that was good. Possibly could change it a degree or so , but I wont mess with it.

So all in all I am very pleased with this ecu. It was a very good purchase. Now I plan to get the race dash for it and have all the functionality of the ecu. Sell all my defi gauges and buy that thing. Hooray.
I will post more info, videos, dyno, tuning, etc as soon as I do it.

Thanks for looking fellas.
Wanna thank catch-22 for helping me, Elliot has been a big help as well checking in on me every few days, and Andy for an amazing product. He is also very knowledgeable and quick to answer any questions. And I never read anything so he has gotten a lot of questions from me. lol. Thanks Andy..

curacaosfinest

iTrader: (12)

this is great

pushing me more and more towards spending more money

Islander

iTrader: (6)

Ahahahahahaha. Yes sir. The pfc is a great ecu. But we need something up to date. Any changes made it does it right on the spot.. No loading or waiting or whatever. Hooks up ia usb cable and even with the car off you can open the map and access the ecu. Ridiculous..

James Paventi

iTrader: (34)

I can't wait for mine to show up! It should be in transit from Australia now.

Thanks for posting Islander. It's good to hear some first hand experience from someone. The auto tune is the feature that made me purchase this. It's good to hear that it works well.

I'll post a write up on mine once it's in and I've been able to work with it for a bit.

jayscoobs

iTrader: (8)

This ECU sounds awesome.

Turblown

iTrader: (12)

I'm still waiting on an eta from aus, and will update everyone when I know more. Thanks for the feedback Neil!

James Paventi

iTrader: (34)

Sounds a bit too good to be true, right? This was my first reaction after being so used to driving, logging, tuning, driving, logging, tuning, etc. each time that I changed something.

I had the PFC that your now using set to 12psi with the mods in my signature. This pushed my injectors to about %80 duty cycle. Just enough headroom for a cold day. It took me six months to learn the PFC and tune to this point.

When I ordered a set of BNRs from the recent group buy I new that I was headed for another round of log-drive-tune. It's about a 1-2 month process with the amount of time that I can put into it. I'm sure that it won't be long after the BNRs before I need larger secondaries and another two months of tuning.

Based on the OP's review and a lot of internet research it sounds like I will be able to turn this two month process into one Saturday. Cross your fingers for me.

James Paventi

iTrader: (34)

Appreciate the update Elliot.

jayscoobs

iTrader: (8)

Most definitely will. Let me know how it goes. The more I read on it the more I like it. Mostly just the auto tune feature. Theres nothing to not like about the ECU. Im currently not even using the Power FC only because I hardly have the time to try to get the car to idle correctly. That ECU is quite pricey however but then again it has a built in datalogic. Also has a internal 4 bar map sensor?

James Paventi

iTrader: (34)

Check this thread ... lots of info ... but yes, build in 4 bar sensor.

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...s-ecu-1022341/

tonesbones

iTrader: (1)

Not sure if this is a noob question but what happens if you run in closed loop all the time and the wideband flakes out? Eg. sensor dies, connection cuts out, etc.

AdaptronicAus

Thank you Neal!

Hi guys, it depends on the sensor and how you've set it up. If you are just using the factory narrowband sensor, then the ECU will go into open loop mode when the target AFR is outside the range of 14.2 to 15.3 anyway (ie on boost) so it would still be safe.

We recommend using the Innovate sensor, because if the sensor fails, then the Innovate controller tells the ECU, instead of just giving a bad reading. When the ECU sees that it doesn't have a working sensor, the ECU automatically goes into open loop mode to be safe. This is why we recommend the Innovate one - the other wideband controllers (as far as I know) don't have this error checking built in.

Islander

iTrader: (6)

Hey Andy, thanks for the info. I also am gonna buy the dash2 screen for my fd. When I plug that into the ecu, will it show all the sensors that the ecu sees?? Water temp, fuel level, volts batt, etc.

XLR8

iTrader: (52)

Great info!

Would love to see an integration of this cool ECU with PLX gauges. An ECU as flexible as this, mated with instrumentation that is equally flexible would be an excellent combination.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

^^ +1 as that is exactly what I was thinking.

In the last few months Ive been thinking about ditching the PFC as it just seems too antiquated. Maybe this will be my replavement

Speed of light

iTrader: (8)

Is there a map available and/or aux outputs that can be used to drive aux injection?

RENESISFD

iTrader: (13)

^ The PnP ecu does not have any outputs unless you reprogram the sequential outputs if you are single. It also does not have datalogging capability. It also has IIRC, a 2d timing split map.

$lacker

iTrader: (9)

Sounds awesome!

However, the PFC + datalogit + laptop combo is equally capable of self-tuning, the software just hasn't been written to do it

Turblown

iTrader: (12)

There is no internal data logging, but that doesn't mean you cannot data log. You just need to use your laptop's internal memory. If one wants more outputs you need to use the 440 Universal and wire it in. A terminated plug and play harness will be available for those soon.

2D trailing timing map can be changed if there is enough desire, along with anything else in the software...

arghx

iTrader: (3)

I'm checking out the software and the hardware list right now. The hardware capabilities for the e420d (as listed on the website) seem pretty good, probably better than a Haltech Sprint RE.

Can someone please comment on the following paragraph from section 5.2.3 of the user manual,

What would it take to rewrite the software to eliminate this? Clipping trailing timing at TDC is a big issue for me. You end up with very narrow split on certain setups and timing configurations.

AdaptronicAus

Hi all, that is no longer relevant, in the current release of the firmware it clips at 30° ATDC. That was correct at the time the manual was written but we've since changed it to allow us to do antilag and large split on high boost. I will update the manual.

The e420d is basically a cut down version of the 440; it has a lot more outputs than the 500 so you can do all the things we need to do on street driven cars like idle control and so on. It just doesn't do flex fuel, adaptive tuning or traction control.

arghx

iTrader: (3)

Thank you for addressing that. I am currently looking at your WARI v10.0 software and the V9.0 user's guide that seems to have been installed on my computer.

Could you please elaborate on, or point me to documents pertaining to the following issues:

1) Injector staging. Maybe I missed it, but I don't see a whole lot of explanation on how the injector staging is calculated and/or mapped by the user. Do the secondaries come on and match the primary duty cycle? What triggers the secondary injectors, some load point or duty cycle threshold? I see deadtime/lag tables in the software but maybe I'm missing other staging parameters.

2) Injection timing. Is it a start of injection or end of injection calculation? Is there any way to tune this? I do see your asynchronous gain setting for tip-in purposes.

3) Electronic throttle (more out of curiosity than a direct application to an Rx-7) . I though I read that at least one of your ECU's can control electronic throttles. Could you elaborate on what kind of electronic throttle you support (i.e. only x model, or only with potentiometer type TPS, etc)? Also how is their control related to your idle & torque limiting (traction control/speed governor/knock protection etc) control?

As far as future software updates...

4) I noticed you've implemented a very basic type of torque-based logic for ignition timing control (5.2.11 section, "Adaptive Ignition"). Do you have any future plans to expand torque-based logic? I think the aftermarket is starting to move toward that... Of course Bosch Motronic 7 had it fully implemented 15 years ago.

5) Knock control, Currently, you have a background noise table (for knock judgment flag) and a basic feedback knock correction (initial retard with decay timer). Do you have any plans to expand to load-based knock learning, i.e. a realtime learning table for subsequent feedforward use like a lot of stock ECUs are using?

6) Flex fuel--any plans to implement ethanol compensation for boost control?

7) Closed loop fuel trim--will there be different rpm & load based fuel trim learning zones in the future? 4-6 zones is pretty typical on stock ECU logic (also with enrichment delay timers for fuel economy, but I don't see demand in the aftermarket for that).

I know that's a lot of questions. Thank you for your time.

moehler

iTrader: (12)

So, for the tuning dummies on the forum like me... Are you guys saying that I can buy this ECU with a base map for either single or twin turbos, plug a wideband in, set a target AFR and it will do the rest? I've seen some big gains from small timing adjustments - does it adjust timing as well?

jkstill

iTrader: (11)

Um, ok.

As most people that mess with computer are aware - hardware is a commodity.

The power ( and money ) is in the software.

Software always trumps hardware.

rotarymandan

iTrader: (15)

I am wondering the same thing as moehler... From what it sounds like Islander said it doesn't adjust timing, or maybe he was just not using that feature. I would like to know from AdaptronicAus if timing is a part of the auto tune as well. Also, a question for Islander, what wideband are you using?