Why do ecus come with such small amounts of logging memory?

[Chris Wilson]

On another forum a user of a Syvecs ecu was asking why they come with such a small amount of logging memory, joking that his alarm clock has more than his ECU, which in itself has a lot more than even an M880. It's not something I had really thought about, is the reason technical or fiscal? Memory, to a layman like myself, seems as cheap as chips, why so little, why not gigabytes of the stuff?

[stevieturbo]

Does seem strange. But then you could say so does having it built into the ecu already, but still a cost option.

IMO every single ecu should have logging as standard. Both for the users own purposes. But in many cases as a tell tale for tuners who get involved with damaged engines.

Often the owner was just taking it easy and never abused the engine when it blows up. If there was a "tuner read only" memory available....some of those stories would soon get blown away with factual evidence that the user cannot erase.

So a tuner read only memory available, maybe secured via a password and then a regular memory, even via an SD card or something for normal logging purposes.

[Holmz]

If you have an external data logger then the ECU can be logged there.
Usually there is more stuff than the ECU to worry about, like GPS, wheels speeds, and other "VIM stuff".
A Dash (ADL) also does this.

[MarkMc]

Yes the logging memory space can be an issue but you have to remember it is mainly for engine running purposes, if you are starting to do a lot of race track development then you are asking a bit much of the ECU, its main job is to run the engine after all. Things will be different in the future though.

The cost option is simply the reality of having to pay for the I2 software which is able to be downloaded for free from our web site. We could make the logging upgrade free but then you would have to buy I2.....you can understand that that software costs a lot to write/maintain/upgrade.

Also you would be shocked at how many people don't consider logging to be worthwhile and do not want to pay extra for it.

[stevieturbo]

I do consider it very worthwhile. I still dont want to pay extra for it lol.

Out of interest. How much logging does the upgrade on a M800 pnp give ?

Minutes, hours ?

[MarkMc]

The total time for the logging depends on your logging setup. The OEMs have 1Mb like the normal M800. If you log a lot of channels at high rates then you will have a short amount of logging time, if you log the same amount of channels at a lower rate the time is longer. The idea is to only log what you want, and each channel at a rate which is relevant to what you are doing.

[Holmz]

The total time for the logging depends on your logging setup. The OEMs have 1Mb like the normal M800. If you log a lot of channels at high rates then you will have a short amount of logging time, if you log the same amount of channels at a lower rate the time is longer. The idea is to only log what you want, and each channel at a rate which is relevant to what you are doing.

Or spit it out the ECU into a dash or ACL.

[stevieturbo]

Say basic functions at say 10hz ?

RPM, MAP, TPS, ECT, AT, LGspeed, IgnAdv, La1, InjDC, InjPW, Batt.

Minutes ? hours ?

[JamieA]

63 channels at an assortment of rates, gets me 12 minutes of logging

I reduced that down to 13 essential channels, now have 66 minutes of logging.

That is a bit of an idea for you on storage time. Feel free to play with ECU manager to see this for yourself.

As for why so little memory, the logging hardware used isnt the same as the cheap USB stick or flash card memory. It is relativly expensive, but fast and reliable. It is also the type of storage what was availble when the ECU was designed.

As you will notice, as we produce a new piece of hardware, memory has increase. Early MoTeC's ECU's had 256k, whilst the M880 ECU has 4 meg. Our ACL logger can store 1 gig of logging.

As new devices are released, logging storage is increasing.

-Jamie