DIYEFI.org Forum

Marty and Moog plan to use a second hand MS-PNP on their turbo MX5 project. They soon discover that it doesn't work. They abandon the idea and go with a Haltech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0M-Bs3mDI

Not good advertising for MegaSquirt.

Yes, I saw that, and intended to post up about it! Pretty funny :-)

To be fair to M$, it was likely an easy fix, or a damaged unit they got stuck with, or both. Fair call just saying it like it is, too, though :-)

Fred.

i have used MS2 and MS3 with good results once you know what you are doing. Also once you are willing to fidge a few things hardware wise, much better with ms3x but still not what it should be,.

However you could not pay me to use a haltech. Pile of crap..
I am sorry megasquirt lossed out to haltech...

Bloated clumsy software, unreliable hardware, not the most friendly to deal with until they finally admit their problems.

I'm pretty sure the original white and red MS-PNP, as shown in the video, is based on MS1.

Good spotting, but I'm afraid I'll have to ban you for knowing their product line too well! :-p

Nooooooooooooooooo!

I will drink a bottle of red and try to forget as much as possible.

This is an approved technique. Let me know when you're sure it's all gone, and you're happy again, and I'll restore normal status to your account.

Just had to repair a fried MS-PNP off my brothers Miata. He tried to start the car with the bootloader jumper installed.
Lucky for him I have a big stash of components and a head for electronics. I was surprised the thing still worked seeing
as a trace on some sandwiched layer had swollen so badly from the current spike I could notice it from the outside.
If ever I am buying or building an EFI system, I will stick with 2-layered design.
Sorry for the O.T.

It's not OT, IMO. Good info on the board design. 4 layer, and inner layer carrying high current with insufficient track width to blow a fuse = fail. The thing is, though, those cars have ignitors, so what caused the high current? Usually you'd burn out the ignitors and/or coils by doing that, or blow a fuse. The MS is only typically damaged if it's trying to power the coils directly. Also, 4 layer is usually 5V/GND on the inside and traces on the outside, so I don't understand how a small trace ended up in there at all :-/ Any insight appreciated.

I wont pretend to be an expert on MS-PNP hardware.. it really is too hard to tell what goes where on those 4-layer boards and with the availability of proper schematics for the SMD board being what it is at the moment. All I could tell whas that it was a 5 or 12V trace going to a pretty big capacitor (that looked like it was added as an afterthought). BTW, he also made the mistake of not removing a fuse mentioned in the manual when flashing once, which should have fried his coil, but somehow seems to have gotten away without damage.

Personally I feel the design on these old MS1 based PNP's is a disgrace (considering they where sold commercially).
I see wire jumpers soldered all over the place, capacitors soldered in place as an afterthought.
Not sure if there is much that can be done about behaviour when flashing firmware, but I'd at the very least expect some
consideration for robustness to stupid monkey users (known in our line of business as average customers).
I like the idea of a baseboard with an expansion board for PNP use with OEM connectors very much, but how hard can it be
to come up with a baseboard design that doesnt need wire jumpers, or for that matter: with PCB fab costs being as low as
they are these days: why not build a batch of more specific baseboards?