Laptop causing issues?

[Rob W]

Long story short with this ecu. Having some tuning issues with it.

I can walk out to the car and start it and will start and idle fine. Put a laptop on it before hand and it becomes unstable - won't idle, does respond to AFR adjustments in the fuel table but needs light throttle to idle.

The connection baud rate is set at 625k auto. I follow the instructions in the handbook and help files for connection.

[sardengineering]

Good day.

Is that laptop on battery power or is it using a power pack connected to an inverter connected inside the car?

Can you share a log of what happens please? Or can you describe what happens? Does the engine speed drop low stumbling the engine, almost in a manner where load devices such as radiator fans causes a high current draw which exhausts the available torque for the engine at idle. Does that sound similar to what you are experiencing?

[Scott]

Some good suggestions from Damien.

Another thing worth checking may be the actual connection speed between PCLink and the ECU. This is in the top right corner of the PCLink screen and is typically somewhere from 36.0 to 65.0 Hz.

Also which maincode firmware version are you running in the ECU? This can be checked under Help > ECU Information.

 

[Rob W]

I have it on one of those gadgets you plug into the cigarette lighter for power to the laptop.

It is worse than dropping to a stumble. As soon as I take light throttle off it will stall.

I can't give you a log as I haven' been able to get far enough into using the ecu/software due to this issue.

I'll report back on the connection speed, and I'll try it just on pc battery rather than on the cars 12v power. I had been thinking  about an earth leakage issue but had not considered it being anything to do with the laptop power supply.

It's the latest G4+ ecu with the latest software update.

 

[sardengineering]

Thanks for sharing, we will be looking forward to having this diagnosed and resolved for you so that you may go on to enjoy your investment.

Cheers!

[Rob W]

Connection speed is around 56Hz.

Got back to it today with the laptop on battery only. prior to that I changed the power setting to the USB connection. So not totally sure what has helped the most but the vehicle is now idling with the laptop plugged into it and is much, much more responsive to fuelling adjustments.

 

 

[Dave Kriedeman]

Hi Rob W,

If you were using a power invertor as in a box plugged into your cigarette lighter that transforms 12 v DC to 240 V AC then there is a very good chance that the battery voltage would have been influenced  enough to create issues relavent  to injector voltage dead times.

Those invertors can create issues with power supplies causing alternator outputs to vary therefore effecting the power supply to the vehicle electronics.

This would have effected the injectors response to commanded changes from the fuel table or trim tables that would have resulted in poor response.

Regards

Dave.

[Rob W]

Thanks Dave. Yeah I was starting to regret buying the Link. Feeling a lot better about it now though.

 

[Rob W]

Got a mate to drive the car today so I could adjust the fuel trims and pretty happy with the way things went after all the trouble. Thank you all for your help. I was starting to think I must be a bloody idiot. No more AC adapter for me thanks.

 

[Dave Kriedeman]

Hi Rob W,

You should not have any fear or regrets in the Link or no longer available ViPEC brand.

These ECU's are brilliant and same for the software.

I have installed and tuned that many I wouldn't remember.

I have never had even one failure.

Enjoy.

Regards

Dave.