Mapping box with rotary knobs?

[Chris Wilson]

I believe Motec, some long while ago, had either a production, or maybe a pre production mapping box, whereby you could set ignition and fuelling via rotary knobs on a control box, and then eneter the settings in the ECU memory by simply pushing a button. EFI Technology and some other ECU makers offer this, is this something Motec might one day release? What are the pros and cons of this method? I am no mapper, but to me, as a hater of keyboards, the concept appeals.

[RossB]

Hi Chris,
I believe MoTeC may have made a box like this for a customer many years ago but we do not have any intention of producing one. I have had a lot of experience with tuning using this type of box and I can say without hesitation that I wouldn't want to have to use one again! There are 2 main reasons, firstly the additional box takes up more room either in the dyno control room or in the cramped enviorenment of many competition cars you end up sitting in either on a chassis dyno or tuning on the road. Secondly the adjustments made are not very precise. The Quick Lambda function on MoTeC ECUs also means that we do not have to make several adjustments up and down to get the mixture we want. I am not a great lover of keyboards either but I can tell you that it is much easier to tune using one, It is just a matter of becoming familiar with it.

[IJ.]

Ross: Any chance of an input assignment that would activate the Quick lambda keypress from a remote button?

[RossB]

If we were going to do anything like that it would be incorporated in ECU Manager but there are no plans to do this with M800 at this time.

[AlanB]

While pot boxes are not always ideal they do have some useful features, in particular for slewing channels whilst logging torque. For instance, if you have an engine on a testbed and slew the ignition timing you can log the torque output from the dyno and then post process the logged data to show your MBT torque. This same method can also be used for target lambda determination.

You can make your own pot box quite easily using a couple of rotary pots from RS. Input the pots to the ECU (AV inputs) and set them up as the axis on the fuel and ignition user comp channels with appropriate breakpoints and table values. You can't replicate the 'store' functionality unfortunately.

[CRD]

I just had flash backs and a sickening feeling just remembering those boxes.
Still got one stored away under lock and key so it will never see the light of day again.
Just the though of having to go back to that again gives me the creeps.

[Chris Wilson]

Interesting! As a none mapper I envisaged they'd be good for pulling timing in a hurry, or adding fuel, if things looked like they were going pear shaped. Goes to show you shouldn't judge things without hands on experience. I guess my main concern, if I did map, was my ham-fistedness with a keyboard. Thanks for the replies.