MegaSquirt goes Pro!

gslender · Postby **gslender** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:14 am

http://rpm-mag.com/2012/11/megasquirt-g ... rade-show/

The MS3 PRO will still require a harness to be custom made for those that wish to have plug and play with stock wiring, but the new unit brings MegaSquirt up to and beyond the professional standard, but will still cost less than the competitors entry level units.

This will change the market for ECUs !

G

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:42 am

That looks a lot better. Still the biggest problem is tuner support here in Australia.

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gslender · Postby **gslender** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 7:23 am

sailaholic wrote:That looks a lot better. Still the biggest problem is tuner support here in Australia.

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Perhaps, but you certainly don't need them.

On that point, do you know what qualifications or associations you need to belong to to call yourself a tuner? Ie do you "HAVE" to be a qualified mechanic or is that a "nice to have" requirement?

G

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:14 am

gslender wrote:
Perhaps, but you certainly don't need them.

On that point, do you know what qualifications or associations you need to belong to to call yourself a tuner? Ie do you "HAVE" to be a qualified mechanic or is that a "nice to have" requirement?

G

Maybe you don't need them, a lot of people will though. If the ecu is to compete with the big market encumbants anyway.

As for qualifications? No idea. The ones I talked to all look like they are qualified :-P. But then I was reasonably picky where I went.

I didn't ask for certification from the tuner I picked. But I did have a fairly good look at what they were producing and how they discussed the job.

I was happy with what I saw, they came recommend and motec are generally fairly choosy about who can fly their banner. Did I pay a premium? Yeah probably.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that it's not a good ecu, I'm saying that tuner shop support is megasquirts next big hurdle.

If I was rich in would buy one and give it to my tuner and get him to do back to back set ups with a motec and pay for a full report/ his thoughts. But I'm not.... So ill stick with what I have.

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Postby **NitroDann** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:27 am

This is the answer to your question G.

sailaholic wrote:I didn't ask for certification from the tuner I picked. But I did have a fairly good look at what they were producing and how they discussed the job.

Dann

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:18 am

True, a tuner may not be needed. But having some out there that know the product will do only good things for the company.

There's a lot of people who just want a modified car, they don't give a sh*t about learning what AFR means, etc, they just want to leave the car at a shop, tell them what they want, then come back in a few days and collect it.

It will also mean the company appears more "legitimate" to the general market rather than being a sort of hidden away product used by guys in a backyard. (not saying that's a bad thing, but some people want a big company and stickers to put on the car)

gslender · Postby **gslender** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:39 am

You get a sticker in the box.

I will support anything I build / deliver to anyone, but take ya point re the local market and tuners who only know Motec and think a real ECU must cost $2000 to be decent.

The sad part is they are very likely wrong and have done very little to look into the electronics and software behind the ecu and blindly trust the brand assuming it counts for everything.

Save a $1000 and spend it on other mods.

G

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:50 am

gslender wrote:You get a sticker in the box.

What I meant was a sticker people want to brag about.

ie: people put on "Greddy" stickers to show they've bought a "Greddy" intercooler. But they won't put on a "Xinghua" sticker because they bought an ebay CHina-cooler.
Megasquirt isn't in the ebay stuff category, but it's not (yet) a big enough name for the kids to want to brag about.

gslender wrote:I will support anything I build / deliver to anyone, but take ya point re the local market and tuners who only know Motec and think a real ECU must cost $2000 to be decent.

The sad part is they are very likely wrong and have done very little to look into the electronics and software behind the ecu and blindly trust the brand assuming it counts for everything.

True, but the issue is that you are just a guy. People like security, warranties etc. It's all well and good to say you will support a product, but legally there's not much stopping you from telling somebody to bugger off.

If however, it were a known company doing what you're doing, with warranty paperwork etc, then I think more people would be willing to buy the product (on a side note, if you need/want info on company rego etc PM me, it's part of what I do for a living)

I think if megasquirt wants to become large and well known in the ECU community they need to bump the image up a bit.

At the moment they're a bit like OpenOffice vs Microsoft Office.
Both can do the same thing, some better than the other.

The difference is though that MS Office has the image of being the proper product, with full support by retailers.
Where OpenOffice is seen as a bit of a geeky version you get when you don't want to pay for MS Office.

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:53 am

It's not just support (though that is a big part). It's being able to give it to someone with access to a dyno and pick it up two days later tuned up, preferably with a invoice.

Tuners are looking for a company that they can pick the phone up and order, discuss ect in business hours.

If the product is going to work in a commercial applications, it has to be commercial. So it has to look commercial (pro now ticks that box). It has to be commercial supported (tuning "operations") and be supplied commercially (Australian stockist). And it has to perform to expectations.

At this stage ms in Australia is still lacking the that commercial support and supply. So it's still limited more to hobbyists. I don't think that is so in the USA.

The release of the pro I think is ms seeing this and moving to address the issues. Ie businesses development rather than pure technical development.

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gslender · Postby **gslender** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:51 pm

All your points are valid I guess. More customers will change things and I agree a local distributor that can assist local enquiries would help tremendously.

Getting the subject back on track, the features look great and I understand the new electronics are supposed to be very impressive. This unit is apparently using a new firmware designed for the ms3pro! Things like built in knock sensor and digital real time calendar and on board 4G SD card for real time logging etc are really cool features. Plus the tuning software is close to the best there is including Android apps and Bluetooth.

I'll chime in soon with some more too!

G