Evinrude MegaSquirt Injection ECU

[InjectorService]

What is ch1 on the first waveform?

-BL

Honestly I'm not sure. I had a custom circuit board printed to run some etec injectors. This was a few years back. Based on it being a 2v signal, I'm thinking it had to do with that board specificly, but the bottom waveform shows the amp draw of an eTec injector.

[PanRonnie]

forgot i had these!

[BLisBack!]

Interesting. Sounds so good (the etec_injector pdf) yet they still couldn't sell 'em. Even when they could pull a 4-stroke backwards and sink the boat Lol. There's some serious business marketing lessons there to be learned.

-BL

[PanRonnie]

The same problem with the yamaha hpdi
Economy of scale if you have to build everything yourself instead of getting parts of the shelf product cost and maintaince get to high

[BLisBack!]

I think the market simply went away. The trend was for low speed control and required emissions. Although the eTec did both slick marketing (like buying the boat company to ensure your motor gets installed on them) and the fact that 4 strokes were eventually going to be making way more power than the 2 stroke with the advent of micro sized superchargers that fit under the cowl, the OEMs decided to abandon the 2 stroke.

I remember years ago 20? when I got into hi-perf boating a friend of mine from the automotive racing world where I came from said "why don't you take one of those new Honda 4-stroke motors and put a blower on and smoke all those 2 strokes out there" Little did he know the industry was going that direction.

-BL

[Chaz]

BL , I've loosely followed along since you started posting about your ECU or system if it uses a different harness and sensors.

As far as OMC is concerned, I believe your a bit off on your statement's about other systems. The Motec that Monty has used in his multi-world championship drag boats is well proven. Expensive, but well proven.
A few years ago @ the Snowbird Nat's in Bradenton, he went over to the Fuel Tech people and struck a deal to become a dealer. Wanting full factory support on his installs, he called numerous times. They picked up the phone or answered e-mails .. promptly. If you do the same, that's just good business.
Joe Simpson says they have good tech support .. because they have to. From what I've witnessed, that's just not the case. But then, he has more or less migrated over to the Holley system.

Squirt box's .. are considered bottom of the food chain because they never shook of the stigma of being a build your own .. low dollar kit. I weld aluminum, stainless and chromoly every day. Solder, not so much. Electronics, even less. So kits are out as far as I'm concerned.
However, I do remember fondly cruising past the DIY Autotune booth @ the PRI show and seeing their MS-3 box submerged in a fish aquarium running 8 sparkplugs on a test board on the table. I have no clue what type of connectors they use, but I would have to think they are quality pieces.
As far as being complex. With all the application's that they can cover and the features that they provide in one unit, as long as you can feed the drop down box's the correct information there should be no issues. If there are, there is an official forum as well as a half a dozen others on fakebook.

Mercury ... as Sensi Ronnie stated, he has a handle on the -6 tooth flywheel. It's a Land Rover code I believe.
I am a 3.0L based guy. They haven't made the 300x in almost 20 years. Yet the **** ******* still think that they can sue a private owner / programer or land him in jail, if they convert a 225/250 box into a 300x box. Which is all done with a change in software. I've got news for them, their Woodword / Motorola tune-up is nothing to write home about.
I still have multiple calls, texts, PM's and e-mails, monthly .. asking for reed adapter plates and reprogramed or aftermarket box's.

Here is a hit list of importance .. as far as I'm concerned.

Individual fuel and spark tables. A up - down button is good for getting it to run on the hose, but does nothing for those of us that want to actually tune the motor as the six individual single cylinder engines that they really are.

MAP / TPI / RPM based.

I don't really care about the motor turning 360 or 720 degree's to find itself, before it will start. But I can see where it might be a nice feature.

Electric oil pump. These motors idle @ 100 : 1 and go to 40 : 1 @ WFO. What range of HZ that entails, I couldn't tell ya .. but that part they got right.

Of course it would need a low oil bag alarm. The tank has a float switch, two wires so that would be easy ... but necessary.

The props are heavy and the lower unit gears are made of glass, so a real shift interrupt switch is needed. There is a two wire switch in place but the software seems to be a bit hit or miss. And when the little plastic rubbing block wears .. the motor won't run in gear.

Six EGT inputs would be nice as would two O-2 inputs. Maybe with alarms, which would cut way back on aluminum slag.

Are the above really nescessary .. only if you want to sell semi- plug and play units to the public. At least thru me anyway. Because I won't sell something I wouldn't use myself.

Naa-trouzz ... adding supplemental fuel thru already over taxed injectors would limit HP potential .. as would sourcing from the pizz water fuel from main tank. Anybody that has really run nitrous knows that a wet system running 120 octane / toluene / E-85 or methanol is the only way to go. The only job of the ECU would be to cut the timing in half, from say 28* down to 14* - 15* and further if over 100 additional HP is the goal ..

I do applaud your efforts in applying an aftermarket unit to a seemingly dwindling market share. While not available new on the showroom floor, we both know that there is still a booming 2-stroke cottage industry, that could give a rat-zass about what the bowling ball has to offer ...

[BLisBack!]

Chaz;

Thanks for loosely following

Agreed, cannot discount proven success, especially MoTec in many diff racing applications. Just simply trying to state there are specific 2/stroke outboard features whether deemed necessary or not that they don't provide. I stand behind the fact that whereas their support may be good, they won't change design for any one person. I'm spinning version 8.0 right now with individual cyl EGTs fast/slow injector controllers and 16 channels for injectors (nos enrichment), multiple CAN channels. Any ideas you like to see in there? Thats my point.

VSFI uses the same connectors as Squirt (4 TE Ampseal 35 pos). They are very good.

The up/down buttons are definitely for at speed! Not just hose. Thats how I tune a map, watch the EGTs, go up/down on the handheld to get in range. And thats my point with Ronnie, TPS/Alpha-N is all you need, way simpler, not speed density. Works great! But the other systems can do that also. My only worry is the injector that may be dirty and you try to go to the edge watching a two bank EGT gauge, can be destructive. But thats with any EFI unit, why I think individual EGTs are a must. Now VSFI integrates them into the touchscreen and has alarms. I doubt any others do that, but I could be wrong. That up/down tune handheld is the Chit! I'm always playing with that at all speeds. It will teach you so much and how it works with ignition timing is amazing. Timing up, loves it lean, timing down, better richen it up. Essentials we've all know for years but seeing in real time is so cool. I think most systems have that feature anyway?

With NOS there are separate injectors for the NOS, you can run alcohol through them or when using a smaller 50hp jet on the NOS gas will work.

My real goal in all this was the challenge to make the 2-stroke have all the low speed control, smooth and fast start capability of an OEM system, and do it with port injection which is much more scalable than OEM DFI. No spray can to start, no locked ignition timing, no idling up to dock at 2000rpm and a slick dedicated touchscreen.

Thanks for the good input, interesting stuff.

-BL

[BLisBack!]

Duel fuel rails (one for additional 6 injectors for enrichment) on an ETec.



-BL

Some examples of custom things that are being added by request that other ECU system (DIY or high-end) simply can't do;

On the website there is an old Sea Ray with Mercruiser 330 BBC and a Merctrans transmission. Those old electric shift Merctrans units are known for not shifting completely into gear, sometimes they only move the actuator halfway and put the transmission between gears. This causes the forward clutch to not fully engage and slip and eventually burn up, usually half way to your destination. VSFI is going to add a sensor for those applications on the shift solenoid with an indicator integrated into the touch screen to alert the driver if the transmission is not fully engaged. With alarm. This will be on the dash tab of the touchscreen.

Another, there is going to be an addition of a video tab on the touchscreen that allows the user to place a camera anywhere. Engine room on bigger boats, drive shaft packing seals etc. or maybe on the transom for single outboard boats for more info on your setup at speed.

Any other ideas?

[H2OPERF]

Not to Discount your efforts in any way I love what your doing but Most high end Ecus can do just about anything these days... yes, they dont have toutch screens, support sucks and they think everyone should have gone to EFI univeristy, but you can set up the inputs and outputs to do most anything from on/off, and- and /or-or to adding a complete X&Y tables to run an accesory. I have my emtron running the alternator field controlling the voltage, turning it off at certain throttle positons. I'm running a dfi style oil pump for extra skirt/center main and upper main oiling with undiluted 2 srtrioke oil so lots can be done.

[BLisBack!]

I'm running a dfi style oil pump for extra skirt/center main and upper main oiling with undiluted 2 srtrioke oil so lots can be done.

That’s cool, I like that. You guys don’t see a need for a primer? Using the injectors of course. Letting the cold temp algorithm handle that alone causes long cranking starts when cold or after the motor has been off for an hour or two but not ice cold.

and cold start alone can sometimes flood if the motor wasn’t that cold.

-BL

[BLisBack!]

Also, why not set your system up as Alpha-N/TPS only? Then the injector on time is simply a period in milliseconds, longer period richer, shorter leaner. No need to know FR, VE, BSFC, MAP, Bar etc or even temps if you want to go ultra simple. There are no hills on the water (‘cep offshore) so no case where the MAP deviates from the TPS. And especially for drag where the TPS usually 100% anyway.

-BL

[PanRonnie]

you can change start enrichment according to headtemp
If you have MAP as load and only run a single Map sensor you can incorperate the barometrich pressure in the base map
at time barometric pressue does not get higher than lets say 98 your full throttle fuel map will stay in the 98 rows at a 102 KPa it get to the higher rows
fuel demand follows the torque curve which is more easy to understand when you see a MAP load
But you can run Alpha N for low rpms and switch to MAP for higher rpms same as the mercury ecu,s

[H2OPERF]

The emtron has 4 main start enrichment tables, A pre crank prime like you are talking about which has multiple ways to enable, key on, first firing event or first crank index ... then you can set fuel amount on a table based on temp over ms pulse which can be a single or i think up to 8 pulses. Then you have a time in seconds over temp based % enrichment table and a firing events over temp based enrichment... I have those tables fading at about a minute then you end up in into the regular temperature over load based % enrichment which have zeroing out at about 95 degrees on my set up. Basically you can spend a week on start enrichment tables alone.

[Instigator]

As basic as my Mad EFI was, one of the programs I really liked was the cold start.

That taught me how your perfect program was changed by any ambient change.

What was perfect one morning you had to use the primer to start the next day!

One more reason I love carburetors!

Carry on….

The emtron has 4 main start enrichment tables, A pre crank prime like you are talking about which has multiple ways to enable, key on, first firing event or first crank index ... then you can set fuel amount on a table based on temp over ms pulse which can be a single or i think up to 8 pulses. Then you have a time in seconds over temp based % enrichment table and a firing events over temp based enrichment... I have those tables fading at about a minute then you end up in into the regular temperature over load based % enrichment which have zeroing out at about 95 degrees on my set up. Basically you can spend a week on start enrichment tables alone.

[BLisBack!]

Ronnie: Why switch to the MAP sensor at WOT when it’s zero? Or close to zero. That’s why speed density is not needed at that application, no manifold psi change.

H20: That’s what I expected, lots of tables/trims. I like that. VSFI is similar. You can use them to really control cold starts. I’m all into cold starts, over Christmas I’d go out and start my EFI crossflow in below freezing temps just hear it kick over in under 360 degrees

Gary: You really need to switch! These systems are incredible. A little learning curve but once you go EFI you’ll never go back and thank God you live in the era of semi-conductors! Lol Full control, a jet change in the press of a button.

-BL