[Killer94]

I'm looking at buying a megasquirt ecu that I have to assemble myself. I want to know what I could be getting myself into before I commit to buying the unit. What other tools are needed beside soldering gun? Maybe a dumb question but I would still like to know.

 

[Blue Knight]

subsribed..

 

[Five9dak]

Soldering iron, solder, solder wick, nice tiny *****. I would build another smaller through hole board before attempting the MS. Not because it's difficult, but you want some experience in case you mess up the first couple joints.

 

[JOHN BRADY]

What he said. One of my guys in the shop here has Mega Squirt and his car ran sporadicly at idle during warm up. After it got warmed up it ran fine. Long story short it was a bad solder joint on one of the components. He had his board resoldered by a guy here in town that does A LOT of that stuff and it went away.

 

[Matt Cramer]

If you don't have that much experience soldering, figure on 10-12 hours to build the board. Five9dak did a good job of summing up recommended tools.

 

[Killer94]

I have experience with soldering. I use to a lot of work r/c cars when I was younger. I really like the the way diyautotune has everything labeled. Look pretty straight forward. I will be assembling my own unit for sure now, only to gain the experience and knowledge. I went with a simple ms1 board just to control my fuel for now. Wow took me 4 days to read the megamanual, lots of good info. Blue knight- megamanual.com ton of info in megasquirt stuff. I going to keep this thread alive and post pics as I'm assembling everything.

 

[93NotchLX]

Its a lot easier than you would think. Took me a few hours over a couple nights after work building it while watching TV to get it together. I have no experience with computers, circuit boards, etc. I read through the Megamanual assembly steps a few times before I started. They kit is just a bunch of small zip lock bags that are individually labelled, very nicely I might add. One bad may have one part in it, another may have 5 of the same part in it, and the label will read what all they are used for. Assembly is just taking the piece out of the bag at the appropriate step, making sure the piece is the right way around, then soldering it into the labelled spot on the board, and then snipping the leads.

Do yourself a favor and buy a MegaStim when you make the purchase, or borrow one from someone. I didn't use one on my MS1 build until everything was done, but it still helps to have one to test everything at the appropriate intervals while you build the board.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[Killer94]

93notchlx- i may pm you if I have any questions.

 

[JOHNBOY66]

I have worked a good variety of aftermarket and stock ECUs. I have been wanting to build a Megasquirt. I think it would be fun and I would have a better understanding of what is going on.

 

[93NotchLX]

93notchlx- i may pm you if I have any questions.

No problem. I don't have all of the answers, so you might be better off posting any questions on here or the msextra forum, but either way feel free to pm me.

 

[CMofo86]

What are you looking to do? The newer pre built Microsquirt and MS3 Pro have some nicer features if you need them. Also have better signal conditioners.

 

[Killer94]

What are you looking to do? The newer pre built Microsquirt and MS3 Pro have some nicer features if you need them. Also have better signal conditioners.

I will be controlling fuel only. Kind of on a limited budget at the moment. Got the stim, and ecu kits on the way, found a good place to mount everything. Intake is being built right now. I'm still mocking up the hotside. So got to continue playing the waiting game. Hope to have pics of everything soon.

 

[RegalRocket]

The ECU is easy to build. Where it gets tricky is when you try to expand the ECU to add car specific features like inputs and outputs. But it works great and you can't beat the satisfaction level.

Sure I can buy a big name motor, but I rather build it myself.

 

[Toma]

Also invest in one of those plastic wwedge things that help youbend legs to specified spacing. Makes a neater job.

also, I would use the ms3 with the ms3x expander only, and no form of ms2.

Also invest in a magnifier. You have to be vigilant and check your solder joins for proper flow. And I have much better luck with old school tinlead solder. The lead free just doesnt flow as well for me.

Awesome features today, unmatched by aftermarket ecus.... bump box, progressive nitrous control, multi variable boost control, traction control, time based retard, 3 step etc.

LOVE mine. My 8.5 outlaw build is getting the ms3 pro.

 

[Killer94]

Here is my stim put together. I'm going to do the relay board next, need to sharpen my soldering skills before I start ecu assembly. Plus I still have to get the tunerstudio firmware and megalogg junk.

 

[Killer94]

Also invest in one of those plastic wwedge things that help youbend legs to specified spacing. Makes a neater job.

also, I would use the ms3 with the ms3x expander only, and no form of ms2.

Also invest in a magnifier. You have to be vigilant and check your solder joins for proper flow. And I have much better luck with old school tinlead solder. The lead free just doesnt flow as well for me.

Awesome features today, unmatched by aftermarket ecus.... bump box, progressive nitrous control, multi variable boost control, traction control, time based retard, 3 step etc.

LOVE mine. My 8.5 outlaw build is getting the ms3 pro.

I got the lead bender. It came in very useful. I have a friend that has ms3pro, and he really likes it.

 

[Killer94]

Relay board on the way now.

 

[archy355]

That was the first part i started with. I put the stim together to get the hang of it. right now i have an ms1 3.0 in my truck just controlling the timing and i love it. Wasnt overly hard to put together. just a couple night sitting in front of the tv. Im acutally in the process of building another one for a friend.