EFI

[chassisMAN!]

Does anyone have any experience with the "Mega Squirt" EFI system? Any words of wisdom with regards to this setup? We're planning on going this route for our first car and am not sure if there are any teams that have used it in the past with satisfactory results.



Sean Hopman
UOIT MOTORSPORTS
Project Leader

[chassisMAN!]

Does anyone have any experience with the "Mega Squirt" EFI system? Any words of wisdom with regards to this setup? We're planning on going this route for our first car and am not sure if there are any teams that have used it in the past with satisfactory results.



Sean Hopman
UOIT MOTORSPORTS
Project Leader

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

also considering it cuz our haltech is getto-ass

[Bryan Hagenauer]

Try searching for it

[Dan G]

Sean,

I ran an MS on the 2003 Carnegie Mellon car. The 2006 UMich-Dearborn car will be running an MS as well.

For '06, we'll use the MS running MSnS-E firmware to control fuel and spark on our Briggs & Stratton VTwin. Expecting to fire it up under MS fuel-only control tomorrow night! We'll get the fuel curve dialed in, then add spark control. In another month or so, there should be a funny looking hairdryer/snail shell looking thing hanging off the engine too. Just got that in the mail this weekend. Its beautiful!

A few things I've learned from the experience:

Soldering the board is not difficult. Think "paint by numbers". This is not something you need to be highly skilled at to do. Although if you've got an ace EE on your team that can do it for you, all the better.

If you're truely mortified by the thought of soldering your own EMS, then there are very inexpensive sources for pre-built and tested units. Any of the sponsors at http://www.msefi.com should get you set. Glens Garage is also a great resource. He sells pre-gathered kits with the PCB and then all the components individually packaged and labled, for barely more than the price of ordering everything yourself. Definitely worth the couple extra bucks (seriously, maybe $10 or $20 more) to order through him than to try and gather everything on your own.

Don't skimp on the wiring harness. Avoid using Radio Shack as your primary supplier. You're saving hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars by going with the MS. Drop a couple hundred on top quality connectors, wiring, shrink tubing, and braid. The finished result will look professional, be easy to use, and should perform as good as you expect it to.

Get the engine running yesterday. Seriously, the sooner you get that thing running, the better you'll do at competition. With MegaTune's auto learn or log/suggest features, you will be able to get it from 20% to 90% really quickly. But that last 10% takes time and effort, and probably a few part failures or design improvements. Playing with engines is fun, so start doing it early. It has the added benefit of motivating the rest of the team to get a car built faster to run it in.


Those last two suggests aren't really MS specific, but you got to hear them anyway. If you do have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask, or better yet, ask it over at http://www.msefi.com since they're much smarter than me and will probably answer whatever you ask in a period of about 45 minutes, 24/7/365.

[Dan G]

The EFI'd Briggs fired up tonight! Its still rough around the edges, but it was 'one small step' for us. Hopefully we'll be making some 'giant leaps' in the next few days.

Details here...
http://www.msefi.com/viewtopic.php?t=13081

[osubeaver]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by drivetrainUW-Platt:
also considering it cuz our haltech is getto-ass </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just out of curiosity, what is your problem with haltech? I really dont think it is fair to say that the megasquirt is a good replacement for a haltech, unless you have a very limited budget.

[Faterooski]

We used the Haltech, and it was an absolute nightmare to get straightened out. I don't think it's a bad system, but I sure wouldn't recommend it with a YZF600 motor, they seemed incompatible in every way possible. Another engine, the Haltech is probably plug and play. In it's defense, when we finally did get the Haltech sorted out, we had a very reliable, strong running engine.
Anyway, about this megasquirt.....we were thinking about it. It obviously is cheap and simple and it seems to work as well as any other system, but how easy is the software? Is it as easy to use as the "big name" ECU software or is it pretty crude?
Dearborn, congrats on getting the Briggs up and running on EFI. I'm still amazed at how well your car ran at Detroit. How 'bout 25 earth-shaking HP this year?

[Dan G]

We're shooting for the modest doubling factor on the hp, hopefully somewhere in the 30-40 range at the wheels. Obviously this thing isn't a revver, so that would actually be pretty impressive with a 6k rpm redline.

With the MS being the 'open source' engine management, its pretty safe to say it has the best tuning software out there. The programs run on Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS-X, Palm, and they're working on Gameboy Advance as well as remote logging via wireless connection.

The software is very easy to navigate, although the sheer number of settings available can be a bit confusing to click through. It has tons of shortcuts and intutive actions built in, the kind of stuff where you'd say "I wish it'd do this tedious click/type/click/type stuff for me... oh wait, it does!".

Things like auto table generation based on your engine specs to get you most of the way there on your VE and spark tables, as well as powerful log file viewers and analyzers to help you adjust the right values for a proper tune run great, but are also under constant revision and receiving constant feature upgrades.


I agree, the Haltech is a very capable system, nothing wrong with it at all. Their tuning software could use some sprucing up, but it doesn't prevent you from being able to get the engine tuned well. I think the main advantage (minus any feature mismatches) between the Haltech and the MS is that the MS is a number of times easier to use, with a huge community of friendly, knowledgable support. I think the MS (or perhaps the P-E EMS) is the right choice for most young FSAE teams, as it helps the novice engine tuner get some pretty good results.

[Faterooski]

I'd sure like to get a kit and try it out. Just wondering, how does it work in the cost report? I'm not that familiar with how the CR works, will the MS go in as a built item or a retail?
Keep us posted on how the Briggs is coming along. By the way, do you have a sponsorship from Briggs or any info from them on how to hot-rod those motors, or are you just doing it all yourselves? Sorry if I'm asking for info that you don't want to give away.