I got my vr conditioner circuit to the point where it generates an rpm signal in megatune when spinning the cas, but the signal seems to be very intermittent: the injector lights on the stim blink for a while and then stop, the spark led on the front of the megasquirt barely blinks ever (it is set to output spark).

When I spin the cas slowly with a multimeter connected to the VR output which goes to pin 6 of the opto isolator, there is definately a change in voltage for each tooth that passes the vr.

Any suggestions? I've tried regrounding the vr's in multiple ways, it won't even work consistently on the bench. Any capacitor I could install somewhere?

Thanks in advance if anyone knows

 

The best ground point I've found is JP1, pin7. Car ground gives a noisy signal.
This might be normal behavior.. Mine did something similar after I completed my mods. The best testing you can do with the stim is to remove the jumper from the optoisolator and set "stim for wheel" on, and "3 outputs". If the front LEDs blink, you're good. What I recommend is to wire the circuit and ECU into the car and then do the drill test, or just put it in the car and start it if you're ready.

 

I tried starting the car with this heap of misconstructed circuits already. I've wasted enough time trying to get this to work, I could have worked for wages instead and had enough money to buy a Haltech!

Actually I think my VR circuit is fine, but something is wrong with my MS unit (again). I give up. This has been the biggest mistake I've ever made with this car, trying to build a Megasqurt. Seriously, I could have bought a haltech by now with all the time I've spent working on this. It's time to face the fact that I'm a failure with electronics, and should stick with the mechanical side of things.

Thanks anyways to those of you who tried to help.

 

Hey 88integra,
Read some of the posts from em Ive been exactly where you are now.Just step away from the car and take a break. Did you turn both of the adjustable resistors fully counter clockwise? Maybe you have a 2.2 board. Seriously even if it dosnt work and youv had it ,I bet you could still ebay the MS and get a chunk of money back out of it. A buddy of mine baught a EMS stinger ecu and put it in a VW rabbit convertible. He too had a lot of trouble getting it sorted and spent 1,200 on the EMS with a wideband. Just saying it wont be a piece of cake with any stand alone. Youv been on this forum longer than me I just dont want to see you give up. My 7 isnt running on MS yet either but I finally do have spark. I've taken a break from it because of the holidays and I was about to loose it..lol. I hate to admit it but I got soo mad I was actually considering removing a fresh rebuilt 13B turbo engine and installing a chevy 350.....lol. Now everyones gonna hate me.

 

Whether or not you wanna give up... That's up to you, but I wouldn't.
Custom13b is right, you should just take a break, then go over it one step at a time. I'd be glad to help you with it, if you wanna message me.
But why go haltech? I don't have any experience with them, but I looked at their software recently. Compared to megatune, it is difficult to use, I think.. Megasquirt is really not that complicated, it just takes time to learn it, time that will not be shortened by buying another ECU. MT's VE table and spark table tuning are pretty intuitive compared to Halwin and especially the DOS software, which I think is cumbersome, but this is what I started on, so I am biased..
I do have an assembled daughterboard with a tested lm1815 circuit I was going to install in a recently built MS. I could sell the daughterboard to you if you want.
It's up to you, man, haltech or not, good luck either way you go.

 

Thanks for the support guys, I'm pretty sure the MS is fried, again. If anyone has a working MS unit with working FC VR conditioner circuit that has proven to work on an FC, and would be willing to sell it, I might be interested. Just the bare v3 board would work because I only need one VR circuit for my missing tooth Cas setup. I'm having severe V8 fantasies right now. This MS has stood in the way of getting my project finished for too long. It worked fine until I tried to add ignition; that was over my head. I'm just not electrically inclined; now I know how it feels for the average American to look at a car and not know a piston from a wrist pin.

 

I can relate. I have been very close to converting to a V8 several times now. I know I could get enough money from my turbo 13B and turbo kit to buy a nice low mileage LS1. But then theres oil pan clearance issues and a custom sub frame to build. The T56 viper transmission is the way to go but thier pricy as hell. Obviously I've read up on this because of troubles I've had as well. Bottom line a V8 conversion is labor intensive and costly. I admit if I saw one for sale locally I would be tempted. Im in NY and nothing good is ever for sale locally its always in FL and Cali. Today I cranked the **** out of my MS equipped 7 got it to run for about 3 seconds and nothing after that...battery is dead...again. So I'm frustrated too. I actually dug out the old stock ecu and harness and started thinking of putting that back in. It ran with it but has no adjustment. Then I remind myself its only December and we have lots of snow here. I have until April before I can really drive the car. So whats the rush right?

 

getting an engine to start initially is the hardest part. Don't give up, tofuball and I took quite a while to get his car idling, but now it runs really well.