Forgive the lack of research on my part at this time. I just want to share the ideas with others who might be thinking along the same lines.

Is the auto tune feature a seperate sofware piece that can be used with MS I, or is it only compatible with MS II?

Will it tune WOT as well? I know you must have a wide band o2 sensor, and I don't mind at all upgrading to this. What challenges am I going to face if I add the wide band to the MS I and start tuning all over again? Will MS I show me real AF ratio with a wide band? Will I need to upgrade my tuning program? I am now using MEgatune 2.25.

Greg, I know you have done this, and use MS II. Can you give me some basic guidance here please?

Congratulations on your victory with the Ruster.

Sam

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Autotune is a software function, not a hardware function. As long as you have a capable version of Megatune, it will work regardless of processor. I still use 2.25 as well so the answer is yes its capable. You'll have to have your laptop hooked to it while autotuning - the parameters are changed live, but only become permanent after you hit the burn button. If you turn MS off before burning, they are lost.

It compares the actual AFR to the desired AFR and adjusts the closest VE map points appropriately. If you have an MSII and wideband, you can specify the target AFR at each point. If you have only a narrowband, you can only accurately tune to 14.7 so you would avoid wanting to use autotune at WOT - you can set limits.

Don't quote me on this, its been a while since I ran MSI - I don't think it lets you specify target AFR's does it? So your only choice for it would be to tune the entire map (or the parts of the map you select within the limits) to 14.7 wide or narrowband.

Appropriate section of manual is here.

Pierre,Thanks for the link. I have this manual all printed out. I will study it some more. One of the options in the configuration menu is whether you have a narrow band or wide band O2 sensor, so it must be set up to use one. But I must go back and study the wiring diagrams to see how the wide band needs to be wired in. It states in the section you just linked me to that you need not only the wide band sensor, but it's control box. My current Innovate wide band gauge does not work, and the manufacturer thinks it is the box that is causing the problem. So I am guessing I cannot simply wire the wide band sensor directly into the relay box without an interface of some kind.



What changes did you have to make to upgrade to MS II? Did your old communications cable still work? This would be both the lap top to ECU and ECU to relay box.


At this point I must say the drivability of the Dart with MS I is very good so far, (the weather is still warm). I am just wondering how much of a step backward I would be taking to jump to MS II. Am I going to be fooling around with this again for months trying to get it working right? Or, can this be a plug and play operation? I assume that the old fuel map could be simply downloaded from the saved file to get me started. Then I would have to key in a timing map of some kind. And,I would think a could duplicate the estimated timing from the current mechanical advance on the distributor. The distributor would need to be locked up some way ast that point.

This is a ways off as I pretty much shot the budget with new wheels. But I want to get a handle on this, and maybe get my mind wrapped around what I have to do. Thanks for the feedback.

I will likely go to the MegaSquirt forum as well eventually.
Thanks. Sam

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You'll need a working wideband controller to use any of the automatic tuning functions.

Is the MS1 currently controlling just fuel? If so, I'd export the VE table and copy it into MS2; a fuel only MS2 is nearly plug and play. You can then add spark tuning later.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

This means I must get my AF ratio gauge fixed? Can I feed both a gauge and the MS ECU with the same wide band sending module, (or whatever it is called). I need to crawl under the dash and find out where I stashed mine so I can send it in for repairs.

This is the Inovate unit, and I think they call the box between the sensor and gauge the LM-1. Or maybe it is LC-1. I always forget which is the gauge and which is the processing box.

Sam

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You can feed both with the same output wire, yes.

I haven't used the Innovate, only the AEM so far, and haven't even hooked it up to MS ECU yet...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Be super careful there. It's not a good idea to do so unless your certain of the current capacity of the output. Now that I think about it, you shouldn't at all because it will have the potential to cause erroneous readings due to various electrical issues.
Not per the megamanual - a narrowband would work, just may not be ideal.

Sam I'm guessing you have the LC-1 + gauge. LC-1 is the controller module that interfaces the sensor with any gauge. An LM-1 is a hand held unit with built in controller designed for portable AFR measurements. The LC-1 has dual independently programmable outputs. One can feed your gauge, one can feed your megasquirt. I have one of my outputs programmed for typical 0-5v wideband output to the megasquirt, then the other programmed for 0-1v output to simulate a narrow band sensor - this lets me use a cheaper narrowband gauge under the dash.

Thanks Pierre, That gives me more incentive to get under the dash, and find the problem with the LC-1 It just stopped working one day.I hope I am bright enough to figure out how to wire it, and how to program it. There is much to learn about the Innovate system. I just installed it, hooked it up and forgot it except for looking at the read out as I was tuning. . I never cracked the book on it's potential.

Back to the MS tuning. Are there any changes needed after hooking up one of the outputs to the relay box other than going into the tuning program and switching the setting from narrow band to wide band?

Sam

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The narrow band won't give you much of anything useful under boost, but could be used for cruising. It pretty much is just a matter of setting it up for narrow band in the tuning software. Don't do what I did the first time I tried it and miss a key setting - I left the switchpoint at 0.51 volts, and it autotuned the car for pig rich. Had to pull into a parking lot and reload my old VE tables when it was so choke off it wouldn't go over 30 mph.

Or you could try the paid version of TunerStudio - it has a feature called VE Analyzer Live that's way more sophisticated than MegaTune.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

So how should you set the switch point, and why? Thanks.
Sam

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The switch point is the voltage it aims for if not using an AFR target table. It's better to use the target tables with the current firmware.

_________________
"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair