SBEC running with latch adapter and Ostrich.

[shackwrrr]

Ok, I have had some issues with the ostrich when running with the latch adapter on a SBEC. Member CNH320 has been having the same issues. 22shelby cant get his to work and I have heard of the one that drained the battery. CNH and I have the same issue of the car only starting with the USB plugged in to a computer.

Who has successfully run an ostrich with the latch adaper and the SBEC.

To me it seems that the ostrich signal is too weak to make it through the latch adapter and then to the board. GM's have a similar problem and they run a Booster socket that boosts the signal.

Any input?

[ShelGame]

http://forum.pgmfi.org/viewtopic.php...0305&view=next - Last post may have a solution...

http://hondaswap.com/ecus-electronic...04/#post639887 - maybe something in this post (about having the ECU power on when writing the bin)...

[shackwrrr]

Hmm, unless there is another switch I have them both on 28. And it worked in a LM fine.

[x.Gen]

bunch of us tried figuring this out last year in a thread started by AZShadow. he was running an adapter on his. after a whole lot of confusion, he RMA'd his Ostrich and after replacement had no issues. so it has been done. I don't think he needed the booster - it was one of the first suggestions I made to him early in the thread. he also had one of the early adapters (I think), which might have been questionable, but got a later one at some point.

if you feel like running thru an 8 page thread...

http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/sh...strich-trouble

[shackwrrr]

I have read that thread, and I did RMA my ostrich because of that. So maybe some ostrich's have better signal.

[CNH320]

My work around right now is plugging the ostrich into a usb-to-cigarette lighter adapter to keep it powered when my laptop isnt in the car. Not a perfect solution but it works.

[shackwrrr]

My work around right now is plugging the ostrich into a usb-to-cigarette lighter adapter to keep it powered when my laptop isnt in the car. Not a perfect solution but it works.

Nice to know that it works. I might have to try that when I get my shadow back together. Those +40s are melting a hole in my desk drawer.

[x.Gen]

I have read that thread, and I did RMA my ostrich because of that. So maybe some ostrich's have better signal.

hard to isolate it out without actually probing the whole setup to figure out where the problem is...but he did try the socket booster also, which should compensate for a 'weak signal' - posted that didn't work. I haven't tried it myself (no sbec), but it seems like it has to be elsewhere than the ostrich (if two acted the same way for you). although it might be possible to have a couple go bad, to have two bad ones back to back seems unlikely.

[22shelby]

subscribed... i havnt had a chance to mess with it much more, but im still interested in getting this setup to work.... i tried with both laptop and no laptop... no fuel pump prime, it does crank, but the tach is "fluttering erratically". popped my chip back in and boom...i tried a few cals, and by no means do i really know what im doing, but its a trial and error thing right??? so i may not even be loading a good cal...

i plan on going thru AZ's thread again...

[shackwrrr]

subscribed... i havnt had a chance to mess with it much more, but im still interested in getting this setup to work.... i tried with both laptop and no laptop... no fuel pump prime, it does crank, but the tach is "fluttering erratically". popped my chip back in and boom...i tried a few cals, and by no means do i really know what im doing, but its a trial and error thing right??? so i may not even be loading a good cal...

i plan on going thru AZ's thread again...

I am thinking it has something to do with sensitivity of the ground's for the ECU. my harness is majorly fubared and towards the end I started even having weird problems with the stock computer. I would be able to find out if I had a freakin shop. I have all the parts to put my shadow back together but I can't do it in the parking lot of the apartment. my boss promised me some shop space but that never happened.

[ShelGame]

Are you guys using my latch adapter? I found a problem with at least a couple of them where a 27C256 chip will work fine in them, but a 27SF512 won't. I'm not sure why, but it might be related to the A15 address line (which is tied to ground - maybe it needs to be floating). Anyway, the Ostrich might have the same issue as the 27SF512 chips...

[shackwrrr]

Are you guys using my latch adapter? I found a problem with at least a couple of them where a 27C256 chip will work fine in them, but a 27SF512 won't. I'm not sure why, but it might be related to the A15 address line (which is tied to ground - maybe it needs to be floating). Anyway, the Ostrich might have the same issue as the 27SF512 chips...

possibly maybe

[CNH320]

Yes i'm running your latch adapter Rob with the Ostrich. As long as i keep the Ostrich powered via cigarette lighter-to-USB i've had no problems... But if i dont plug it in to the adapter or the laptop the car runs like garbage. Must be something with the power up routine because it will wipe my adaptive memory as well if i dont plug in the external power. To get it running again, just have to disconnect the battery, plug in the ostrich and refire. If you have a known good latch adapter for the 27SF512 i'd be willing to try it with the Ostrich. I'm almost done tuning and i'll be putting either a 27SF512 in or if that has the same problems i'll put in a 27C512 and try that. Planning to piggyback your doubleplay with the latch adapter...

[ShelGame]

Yes i'm running your latch adapter Rob with the Ostrich. As long as i keep the Ostrich powered via cigarette lighter-to-USB i've had no problems... But if i dont plug it in to the adapter or the laptop the car runs like garbage. Must be something with the power up routine because it will wipe my adaptive memory as well if i dont plug in the external power. To get it running again, just have to disconnect the battery, plug in the ostrich and refire. If you have a known good latch adapter for the 27SF512 i'd be willing to try it with the Ostrich. I'm almost done tuning and i'll be putting either a 27SF512 in or if that has the same problems i'll put in a 27C512 and try that. Planning to piggyback your doubleplay with the latch adapter...

My guess is that if it works with the Ostrich, it will work with any chip. I think the problem is in the timing of the latch chip itself. Some of the ones that I had were slower than others and I think that's the problem. I have a new batch of latches that are very high speed. So, it shouldn't be a problem in the future. I've only had 1 customer complain about them. But, when I tested the 2 I have built up here, I got the same thing. Though, I know it worked on previous batches.

[22shelby]

i too have one of your L adaptors... does this mean we get a free trade up ??

[CNH320]

i too have one of your L adaptors... does this mean we get a free trade up ??

[ShelGame]

i too have one of your L adaptors... does this mean we get a free trade up ??

That depends - does it work with the 27SF512 chips? It's not really an 'upgrade' if it already works. I didn't get new boards or anything - it's still the same design. I just made sure to get the high speed latches this time around. I probably got ones that are really much faster than needed, but better safe than sorry.

The issue about the Ostrich losing it's memory won't be solved by the fast latch chip.

My guess is that the Ostrich is keeping the MCU powered up (even though it should be shut down) by the battery through a ground or power loop on the main SBEC board. I'm not sure how (or even if) that can be solved with the latch board. It's odd that the SMEC doesn't have problems like this.

[risen]

That depends - does it work with the 27SF512 chips? It's not really an 'upgrade' if it already works. I didn't get new boards or anything - it's still the same design. I just made sure to get the high speed latches this time around. I probably got ones that are really much faster than needed, but better safe than sorry.

The issue about the Ostrich losing it's memory won't be solved by the fast latch chip.

My guess is that the Ostrich is keeping the MCU powered up (even though it should be shut down) by the battery through a ground or power loop on the main SBEC board. I'm not sure how (or even if) that can be solved with the latch board. It's odd that the SMEC doesn't have problems like this.

I can confirm your suspicions, though with a SMEC. When I bench tested the ostrich with my bench smec, I found that it would, in fact, have enough juice to run the smec MCU even if the smec was off. When tracing I would see the smec requesting FFFE and FFFF in the trace with just the power off to the smec and the power to the ostrich through the USB. So, it wasn't coming out of reset but the MCU was definitely requesting data on the bus.

[Aries_Turbo]

mark and i tried again today to use the latch adapter with a 27sf512 chip with no luck. both tt3 and a stock 393 cal.

i had some 27c256 chips with me (not empty though) but i didnt have the UV eraser with me though so i didnt get to try that yet.

im going to grab a bin and put all my cal stuff and scanners in my daily driver lol.

Brian

[ShelGame]

Hmm, well maybe it's not the latch chip. I have 4 boards here, 2 work, and 2 don't. All have the same latch chip on them.

Also, for some reason, these work fine in-circuit; but I can't read the chip on a burner at all. I'm not sure why. I tried it as a 27C256, 27SF512, and a 87C257. The '257 gets a different result than the 256 or 512, but still wrong.