VH45 Megasquirt setup....

[Marquinho]

Marquinho excuse me if I came across the wrong way, that was not my intention, I'm just trying to understand what you mean... the VH electronics are fairly simple already! Anyway, sorry for the derailment, back to megasquirt!

Oh please, no worries my friend! It is all good

After all, this is all about personal opinion/preference and we all have our own!

[npez]

youd think thered be an easier way since the factory gives us a knock sensor that works pretty well.. some way to tap into the signal..

good question for Q45tech would be to analyze how the KS reacts during engine knock. We know how to test if theyre good or bad, now how to determine when the ECU "knows" the motor is knocking or not.

Wes,

My understanding in reading the manual for this product, is that you supply V+,GND,RPM Signal, and Knock Sensor Signal and it takes it from there. Not sure how it would work on our cars with 2 KSs. I think this basically does what the ECU does, only it lights up a light when knock is detected.

I agree with you though that if we could "tap" into the ECU to display the knock event when it occurs it would be much easier.

Nick.

[Ptotherice]

Hey guys, I know this is an old thread, but I was wondering if there has been any advancement in the MegaSquirt for the VH? I'm doing a vh -> s-chassis swap and I have decided for my future of this car and simplicity for the swap a MegaSquirt is the way for me to go. I've search and cannot find any information on a MegaSquirt in a VH.

Thanks for the help guys.

[wrxratd]

To be honest dude, I would recommend searching someplace other than nico. Nico is a great place, but everybody here is so stuck on "just using the stock ecu and nistune" that i feel there NEVER will be any info on using MS on nearly anything Nissan on nico. Guys like Carl H have done great things for the community from what i've read, but unfortunately, guys like carl are also the reason there will probably never be anything here for guys that wanna run megasquirt. It gets squashed by the same reply everytime it gets brought up. It's frustrating, but it's just the way it is. Is MS inferior to the factory ECU? Yes. Could you eliminate a TON of wiring and vacuum hose mess running MS? Yes. This goes for just about everywhere you could ever use MS. Like it was said before, 6 of one half a dozen of the other.

I'd go to DIY autotune's site and read the FAQ and that should answer most of your questions. Good luck. Let us know how it works out for you.

[Q45tech]

The 90-93 non California, Non TCS non active ecu is as basic as one can get.

As far a KS is concerned almost every brand [ domestic and Japanese] uses a outside designed IC circuit that can be simply programmed to fit different bore frequencies and number of cylinders. Programmable Gain Programmable Band-Pass Filter Center Frequency External Clock Frequencies up to 24 MHz 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, and 24 MHzProgrammable Integrator Time Constants

http://www.intersil.com/data/an/an9770.pdf

http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpic8101.pdf

Easy to find all the patents and understand how things work, assumming you have engineering degree or familiarity.http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090064762

[90TSIAWD]

I have a V3 megasquirt board that I initially built for an SR20DET that I had in my 240SX. I thought about putting it on the VH but there's a few issues with going that route. 1 being the COP ignition system, you need to either A.) have a high current ignition driver for each coil (and on my board anyways putting 8 of the ignition drivers on would be damn near impossible, the 4 I did was hard enough. or B.) using the low current drivers to activate the ignitor chips in the proper sequence.

The other main issue (at least I'm assuming it's the same on the VH) is that the ignition trigger wheel is virtually useless as far as MS is concerned. The outer ring with 1 gap per degree of rotation is too small of a signal for the MS to read accurately. However, I found that a CAS wheel out of a 1g dsm would fit into an SR20 cas housing and I would say that there exists the possibility that there is a similar solution for the VH.

I haven't researched much more about it in quite a while as my priority when I have time away from school is simply getting the swap done. Perhaps after the chassis is back under power early this summer I will investigate as to MS on a VH more.

[Ptotherice]

I'm going to start searching around the internets here soon to try find something. I know there is a page on programming the VVT into the MS, but it's still up in the air. If I find any information I'll throw it in here for you guys that might want it.

[PyroTheGreen]

Just a thought, but as I understand the MegaSquirt system, it was not designed for this sort of application. The target market for the system was individuals interested in converting carbureted motors to EFI in an attempt to modernize classic restorations. If your vehicle already has an ECU, you wouldn't really have a need for an ECU designed for cars that do not.

[XJared]

AEM will do the cop and vvt.

[bohunk]

I know this thread is rather old, but Megasquirt is the bees knees when it comes to engine management. You can get much higher resolution for your maps vs. a stock ECU with piggyback, you can run MAP, and COPs are no longer a problem either. The Miata community are huge Megasquirt users, and a lot of DIY turbo setups are using Toyota COPs with Megasquirt for a better spark. But if you absolutely love your stock ECU, as I see a lot of you do, then why not just wire in the MS as a piggyback, instead of a replacement? That way you only have to touch what you want to change, and leave the rest up to the stock ECU. Also instead of a triggered light to warn you of detonation, MS can retard your timing when it detects knock to save your motor. I do believe MS has now also conquered VVT as well.

[Chrispy300]

Megasquirt is not the bees knees at all. It's a budget system for people who are on a budget.

Can it do sequential COP for 8 plugs? No.
Can it do sequential injection? No.
Can it use the standard CAS? No.

Only benefit IMO is MAP sensor, and even then only for certain applications.

It has the same resolution fuel and ignition maps as stock. If you are going to all the trouble of using a MS for a piggyback you might as well just do it properly with Nistune and not try to fool your ECU into doing what you want.

With the stock ECU you can set everything from idle ignition timing with the aircon on, to temp limits for VVT activation, to cold/warm start enrichment, to knock fuel and timing maps.

There is just no need to run a MS on a Nissan unless you just can't afford the extra $300 to get a nistune board and license.

[tempestas]

Megasquirt is not the bees knees at all. It's a budget system for people who are on a budget.

Can it do sequential COP for 8 plugs? No.
Can it do sequential injection? No.
Can it use the standard CAS? No.

Only benefit IMO is MAP sensor, and even then only for certain applications.

It has the same resolution fuel and ignition maps as stock. If you are going to all the trouble of using a MS for a piggyback you might as well just do it properly with Nistune and not try to fool your ECU into doing what you want.

With the stock ECU you can set everything from idle ignition timing with the aircon on, to temp limits for VVT activation, to cold/warm start enrichment, to knock fuel and timing maps.

There is just no need to run a MS on a Nissan unless you just can't afford the extra $300 to get a nistune board and license.

MS3X is out in beta and supports 8 sequential COP and fuel. It is not available as the finished product yet, but the boards are pretty much set in stone, they ware just working out the code with the many beta testers running them on thier cars already. You can read about it at msextra.com if you would like.

I haven't run Megasquirt, but it will no doubt be my next EMS. I have however run SDS, which was a nice, beautiful cheap, simple system.

MS3X can handle 8 cop, 8 injectors sequential...
Nitrous, VVT, launch control, boost control... it goes on...

These kind of setups are not easy, while MS might be used for "buget" systems by some, it is also about a community of people building a system that can do anything imaginable.

If you like nistune great, if you want to build a MS setup go for it.

[91z]

Here are some of the new featurs with MS3X
•8 channels sequential fuel control
•8 channel sequential ignition control
•Individual fuel and spark trim for cylinder by cylinder tuning
•2 and 3 channel PWM IAC control
•2 stage nitrous controller
•Table switching for multi-fuel engines
•2 step launch control

In addition, it will also be able to use the stock Nissan CAS. The MS3 (not the MS3X, that will be available later) is $550 assembled.

Also, since it can be setup to read other sensors, you can use a GM Map, GM open and closed temp sensors, and whatever other sensors you want to switch over. This means you break down, walk into Napa, and come out with a part, and some money still left in your wallet! And I believe it has calibrations setup for GM sensors already. So it can be made into a really slick setup.

Considering this cost about the same as a good ebc, and it can be used as an ebc, I think it is a hell of a value.