CSX3170 first time out with new engine

[Cobra #3170]

Originally Posted by ScratchBuilder

Bad things: I am going to have to provide separate ground circuits for 5 separate pins on the ECU back to the battery 3 are 10 gauge to try and prevent noise contamination.

Hello,

I'm an Electrical Engineer and I would suspect that the larger gauge wire will help with voltage drop, but not during cranking or noise issues.

Can you get some EE support from FAST? I would think the noise source would be from the ignition system and maybe different routing of it's power connection may help or adding some capacitance to the input power pins to the FAST ECU which can help with noise and brownouts.

I find it curious that the system jumps into flash mode.
I can see a low voltage causing a brownout and the controller to reset but not go into upgrade mode. Can you try another FAST controller, maybe this one has an issue with it?

Best,

SB

I too am an electrical engineer although trained many years ago I still build many micro processor based projects and write my own code in low level language. I am familiar with filtering and isolating inputs with my own projects
so it seems odd to me that they would put a product on the market that is susceptible to low voltage spikes or electrical noise within a vehicle environment. They did not bother answering my email at all regarding these questions. I am getting help from a gentleman that is familiar with all these after market systems and helped with the tuning effort on the dyno. He is not sure why it goes in to flash mode but says it can happen with a low voltage condition. You would think they would make it more difficult for that to occur say require multiple pin inputs of 12v or more but who knows what the designer was thinking. If you look at comments on the product there are lots of complaints about low voltage stability so the basic design has issues. Changing ECU's is not an option right now because FAST does not care what I think. I suppose if this isn't resolved I will switch to Holley and try to use some of my FAST tables as a starting point. The car runs in alpha n mode so it just uses look up tables based on MAP, TPS temp, and RPM. I saw some fluctuation in alternator output so there may be an issue with the Nippondenzo alternator regulator. The MSD ignition is grounded to the block and it's source voltage is significantly isolated from the FAST input voltage.
The problem with most aftermarket electronics is poor engineering, that is why I run a Bosch fuel pump for the injection. I am trying to make this work so I don't have to drop another $2200 on a new ecu and then reprogram it.
I think the ECU pins have lots of room for improvement like gold plating them for corrosion resistance, my battery terminals are gold plated why not dry circuit ecu connectors? It doesn't cost that much, again poor engineering.
Now that I am home I can run the engine with a computer connected to the system to monitor error codes and put a scope on to look for noise and voltage spikes. Since I have that ability now, it will probably run fine while being watched and then fail at the next event July 1 when I can't do anything about it. (joke) I will get off my soap box now and get back to work on it.