Alex Wong1697456877 Posted August 28, 2001 Share Posted August 28, 2001 Anybody had one of these fail? Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swiss_Tony Posted August 29, 2001 Share Posted August 29, 2001 No problems at all. Mine lives under the bonnet. I have been a bit worried about water getting inside. Are they sealed? James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveK Posted August 29, 2001 Share Posted August 29, 2001 Alex If you speak to alan @ dta ,I,m sure he will diagnose fault/repair your existing ecu. He upgraded mine to latest spec when i changed from mbe earlier this year Give me ring at work tommorow if you need his numbers cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pied Piper Posted August 30, 2001 Share Posted August 30, 2001 I once had a very heavy current positive feed wire short to the DTA box. Smoke came from inside! I removed the board to find that the earth track had acted as a fuse. I soldered a wire in to replace this track on the pcb, unit the needed a special code putting in to get it up and running again with the software Alan Warburton gave me the details to do this, it was very easy, no problems at all since then. PS, if anybody wants a DTA control box and pc lead I can do them very cheap. regards, Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Martyr Posted August 30, 2001 Share Posted August 30, 2001 No Alex - mine is fine so far but I am suprised at how hot it becomes which is not due to engine bay conduction but internally generated. I assume your question is generated by some sort of failure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swiss_Tony Posted August 30, 2001 Share Posted August 30, 2001 Martin What is the control box? Thanks James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pied Piper Posted August 30, 2001 Share Posted August 30, 2001 James, It's for mapping the ECU: The control box for the DTA ecu allows you to adjust the ignition advance/retard and adjust the opening duration of the injectors whilst driving the car,either on a rolling road by the operator or actually on the road by an assistant. This means you can adjust the map to iron out weak spots, hessitancies etc. It is best used in conjunction with a device that can monitor the CO levels such as the Lumenition unit in conjunction with a Lambda sensor in the exhaust. I managed to get rid of a few weak spots that showed up under acceleration on my car and drastically improved the performance/drivability. The control box plugs into the comms port on the ecu where the PC normally goes, the pc then connects to the control box. It has buttons to save the setting if you like it, one to switch the engine off without switching off the ignition (kill) and one to change the controls from fine to coarse and one to switch the knobs on and off.. Its much easier to map the engine with a control box as its much more controllable than trying to adjust the numbers by typing them in! you just turn the knobs to get the figure you want or the engine likes best, then save it to the ECU. Its basically an essential tool to map and get the best from your DTA ECU, most rolling road or dyno operators will have their own. Sorry its so long winded!! Martin Edited by - martinfox on 30 Aug 2001 23:27:11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pied Piper Posted August 30, 2001 Share Posted August 30, 2001 Tony, The heat from the DTA Ecu is generated by the internal transistor drivers, driving the injectors and the ignition coil. Some other Ecu's have an external amplifier ie Lumenition and Gems I think, for the coil, like the one mounted on the standard Vauxhall ignition coil on a 16V 20XE, so they dont get so hot. The DTA box is finned to act as a heat radiator to get rid of the heat by increasing the surface area of the box. Regards, Martin Edited by - martinfox on 30 Aug 2001 23:26:27 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swiss_Tony Posted August 30, 2001 Share Posted August 30, 2001 Martin how much were you looking for the control box? James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Wong1697456877 Posted August 30, 2001 Author Share Posted August 30, 2001 Not all DTA ECU's need the control box for real time mapping, although it is easier to use than the keyboard mapping. The earlier ones can only be real time mapped via the control box. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pied Piper Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 James, I can supply a contol box for £75 including cables (i think DTA charge £195 + Vat). Real time mapping is a pain in the arse using just a laptop pc, you cant make instantaneous changes like you can with a control box. Let me know if you want one. E-mail "martin@mefmotorsport.com" cheers, Martin Edited by - martinfox on 1 Sep 2001 08:21:39 Edited by - martinfox on 1 Sep 2001 08:22:42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Martyr Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 Martin - thanks for the info. I rather gathered that it must be the power switching devices generating the heat but Im surprised the case is not more finned to get rid of it. Don't electrical components of this sort get a bit more prone to failure at above 40 degrees C? I have probably made it worse by mounting it on a plate above the relays using industrial velcro which must act as an insulating mat. It would be better to have a meteal to metal contact across the whole base. How do others hold them in place - tie wraps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Riches Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 When mounting the electronical box of wiggly amps if you can get some heatsink compound the heat transfer to the heatsink will be improved, hopefully increasing the life of the box, Steve Motts seems to have access to the Farnell catalogue, may be able to give you a price and availability for a tube of this stuff, be warned, it gets everywhere, even when your not looking!!!! Regards Nigel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pied Piper Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 The DTA ecu should run quite happily without any additional heatsink. If you think it's getting excessively hot I would contact Alan Warburton at DTA for advise in case there is a fault. I have experience of installing and mapping several of these units: I installed one on my own Caterham, I fitted an alluminium plate to the cross rails directly under the batter but inside the car, then I made a strip of ally clamp the ecu in place to the plate so it as dirctly above the passengers feet. Never had any problems with it. The second on I've installed was on KennyHPC's Caterham. We installed this one on the scuttle just behind the battery, again with an ally clamp but we put the ecu in a plastic bag (it was a genuine caterham item with little "7" logos on it !!) because I was worried about the rain dripping in through the bonnet louvres and getting inside the ecu, they dont seem to have any waterproofing at all. (thats why I put mine inside the car) The 3rd Dta box is on my rally car, this one is clamped to the bulkhead behind the dash, no special heatsinking was used, just an ally strip clamp about 50mm wide. I made a lead up to extend the comms port out to a "D" type connector on the dashboard, it makes it much easier to connect the pc up! You can buy a "PC monitor" VGA extension lead to ectend the comms port, but you must ensure you get one with all the pins connected through as some don't. Hope this is useful, Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilyhands Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 A VGA extension cable is 3 row 15 pin a Serial port connector (small type) is 2 row 9 pin.. could be fun getting that to work. Maybe an old EGA cable or a proper serial extension cable will do it. Oily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pied Piper Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 Oily, The comms port on the DTA box is a 15 way "high density" D type the same as on a monitor ie 3 rows, its the PC serial port thats a 9 way. I was just talking about extending the DTA socket out from a difficult location, to an accesible one. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilyhands Posted September 2, 2001 Share Posted September 2, 2001 Blimey, that's a shedload of pins for what should be a simple interface :-) The M3DK manages on just 5. Oily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Wong1697456877 Posted September 2, 2001 Author Share Posted September 2, 2001 All fixed now. The sender side had been shorted out. Have looked through the car and all seems ok so I changed all the senders to be safe. It's running fine (although the water temp sender is 10deg out from the previous one - will need to tweek the compensation map cos it's running a little rich) A big thank you to Alan at DTA and to the guys at QED. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pied Piper Posted September 2, 2001 Share Posted September 2, 2001 The reason for so many pins on the dta comms port is that several are used for the connections to the realtime programming control box (8 I think), leaving the usual ones for the serial data. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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