Adaptronic owners thread

Postby **Okibi** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 8:18 pm

Awesome advice Simon :mrgreen:

manga_blue · Postby **manga_blue** » Tue Nov 18, 2014 10:01 pm

Just joining in here. All help and advice will be appreciated. :wink:

I've bought the e420c off the forum. Spent this evening connecting it up to the laptop on the bench with a temporary 12V supply: all good - Prolific USB to serial adapter working OK, saved whatever there was on it and overwrote it with Andy's latest stockish NA8 config. It's still sitting on V10 firmware - I may leave it there until someone here tells me to move it on. It came with a 3 bar MAP sensor, though this car will never be boosted - it's a daily driver set up to compete in specific classes in club and CAMS supersprint events. The car is very competitive, even with A/C, P/S, cruise control and full interior.

Current set-up is
- stockish NA8 with a bit of DIY headwork, mild cams, CAI, sorst, re-route, balanced
- Toyota COPs
- modified (socketted) OEM ECU - remapped fuel and ignition and 7600 rev limit
- Bosch wideband with Innovate LC2 and SSI-4

I'd run out of headroom with the Mazda ECU when I couldn't locate the code in there to change dwell time for the COPS. That meant I was either blowing Toyota COPS (which were cheap) or blowing Mazda coilpacks, which were not. So you can imagine the first thing I did with Andy's config was to reset dwell - so much satisfaction in being able to do that. Basically it's making a very reliable 85rwkw now with OEM driveability, including some of the traditional idle gremlins. Logging is showing that for the last 2 years it's had a miss at full throttle. Don't need or want much more from the Adaptronic, just protect the coils, fix the miss, make it smoother, hopefully improve power spread (but not peak).

Once I've checked that the loom is assembled right then I'll try it in the car. It may have to be self-tuned for a fair while. In fact it may never see a dyno. I'm pretty remote. It's a 5 hour trip to Mania from the far south coast.

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 8:07 am

Probably worth checking with Andy if the serial port can take the innovate and if the 420c has the power for the latest code.

The latest code allows extra pressure / temp sensors to be connected to the innovate and feed in via the serial port.

The big advantage is you can then use them for engine protection such as rev cuts if water temp high, oil pressure low. You can also use the turbo timer function to idle the car down until temp is below a thread hold.

The latest code also allows for arbitrary setting of the bins for fuel and spark map rather then at say 250 rev increments.

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rascal · Postby **rascal** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 1:29 pm

Quite a few 420c owners have been experiencing issues with the later firmware, that is solved by returning back to the older firmware.
I (also a 420c owner) actually contacted Adaptronic directly to ask and they suggested that staying on 10.00 is probably a wise idea, based on customer feedback..

So some of the new features may not be available in 10.00

rascal · Postby **rascal** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 1:34 pm

sailaholic wrote:Probably worth checking with Andy if the serial port can take the innovate

I've swapped my narrow band for a LSU4.2 wideband supplied with the Innovate MTX-L and I run this through the serial port without issues on my 420c.

manga_blue · Postby **manga_blue** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 3:13 pm

Thanks for the pointers, guys. I'd already picked up a sniff about there being problems with later firmware on the old ecu though I hadn't got so far in the research to see where Andy was recommending we hold off on it.

sailaholic wrote:Probably worth checking with Andy if the serial port can take the innovate and if the 420c has the power for the latest code.

The option to connect to LSU4.2 through SSI-4 was there in the config screens, so I took it. I'll wait and see if it works. This begs the question of what is the best way of coming up to speed. Is it through contact with Andy and his forum or this forum or miataturbo or what?

sailaholic wrote:The latest code also allows for arbitrary setting of the bins for fuel and spark map rather then at say 250 rev increments.

Luuxury! The Mazda ECU has fixed 512 rpm increments and if you want to update a value in a bin you have to manually remove the ROM, leave it in the sun for a day or put it in a dental steriliser, lick ROM clean and then re-burn it. :roll:

As I said, I'm not chasing a lot of power. It's been so cumbersome to remap with the old ECU that I've only tuned it for fuel at WOT from 5000 to 7500. Smoothing out idling, low range cruise and mid-range power would be lovely.

The loom looks OK. I bought the vacuum bits and wiring connectors for the MAP today. Planning to put it on the firewall beside the clutch cylinder so it has a short hose. Make sense? Then I'll find out if it goes vroom or bang or a bit of both.

timk · Postby **timk** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 5:43 pm

I haven't been able to use anything past version 10 on an e420c without unreliable/slow comms. In saying that, an e420c running version 10 is a very capable unit!

Cheers

manga_blue · Postby **manga_blue** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 10:56 pm

So I pulled out the old ECU and plugged in the e420c this arvo. It started on the first kick and idled smoothly so I let it warm up then drove it around the block and it went fine. :shock:

In fact it may even be a little smoother than the factory one. That went so well that I took it onto the highway and flattened it. It pulled OK up to about 7000 in 2nd but it was pretty gutless, although there were no pops or bangs or anything like that. I think it's rich as buggary but at least the first experience was pretty good. Looks like a pretty big learning curve to get the maps right now.

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 8:07 pm

Ok Adaptronic experts I need some advice. I don't seem to be able to get a nice idle happening let alone anything else. I've searched and searched with no results. I have just converted my NB8B to turbo so I'm assuming I need to load my base tune and then change the injector size and it should work right? At the moment it runs on the base tune but super rich and when I try to change the injector size it runs at 3000rpm for 10 seconds and then stalls. Anyone have any ideas what I am doing wrong? I'd love to get the idle sorted and then let the autotune take over. If there's no help here I'll try the adaptronic forum. Ohhhhh also 2001 NB is 60psi fuel pressure yeah?

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:41 pm

Has this ecu previously been running ok prior to turbo? If so what's been changed?

If it hadn't been running previously I'm assuming you've loaded a NBb base map. What on the engine is not factory?

Are all the sensors showing correct reads? With the injectors size "normal" it's pig rich but will run, but as soon as you change injectors up or down it stalls after 10 seconds at 3k?

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meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:24 pm

ECU is new to the car. Engine ran before no problems. Loaded up NB8B Select Base Map and it runs but rich. Change injector size to id1000s and will rev to 3000 then stall in 10 seconds. Have all the usual turbo goodies added to the engine at the same time as the ecu

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:15 am

Your using the drop down box for id1000s or setting the size to 1000cc?

Confirmed fuel pump is running while engine running?

Seems odd that it will run ok(ish) with injector size at 320? Tnbut no go when it's 1000!

Still got the MAF installed at this stage or trying to run MAP?

None of the engine protection functions are turned on that could be triggering a fuel cut?

How long is you post crank enrichment? 30s? Just wondering if it's going to lean once the post crank cuts out.

Maybe try setting the injector size to 500cc and see what happens? The software updates live so you should be able to start it on standard injectors size and then just keep upping the size while the car is running and see what happens. That way you should have the O2 sensor warmed up and be able to see if it's going lean / rich.

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Postby **Okibi** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:40 am

The ID setting in Adaptronic is for a static fuel pressure. I had a lot of trouble setting up my injectors, Tim K used different dwell times for ID725s as a static pressure than the adaptronic settings, I can give you what I used for ID725s on the SE fuel system?

timk · Postby **timk** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 10:15 am

The published latency curve for the ID725 was measured when connected to a MoTeC injector driver, the driver in the Adaptronic is different hardware so the latency isn't quite the same. Andy has bought some gear to do the latency measurements for a more accurate dead time calibration, but I'm not sure how far he has gotten with this.

Cheers

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 10:58 am

Thanks for the information guys. I'm at the hospital with my daughter at the moment but I'll give this another go when I get home. I've selected id1000s in the pull down menu. So the correct fuel pressure is 60psi yeah? I'll also compare the dead times with what's on the ID site. I guess the other complication is that they aren't genuine ID1000s but I've been assured by a very reputable shop here in Melbourne that they behave exactly the same. If I could guarantee it was the injectors I'd buy the real ones straight away but there is no guarantee that's the problem. I might need a professional but would love it if I could get this running without the need. I guess the immediate question is is changing the injector size from a base map all you need to achieve a good idle?