DIY remapping

[Khare]

If it's a push fit chip then yeah go for it as it's simple, but if it involves removing old chip with a soldering iron then leave it to the pros. with specialist equipment. Danny_p who has years of experience behind him managed to break a few copper tracks while removing it and I had to buy a new ECU. Leave it well alone dude, seriously 

[Ess_Three]

You  don't need any specialist equipment for Mk3 EPROM soldering - only a knowledge of soldering techniques. As long as you have the correct gear and take your time, you'll be fine.

The 44 pin EEPROMs in the 1.8T ECUs are a different matter...you can just about do them by hand, but really need an infra red heater thingy.

As long as the Mk3 tweaker takes his/her time, and understands basic soldering and static precautions, there is no real problem...as long as they take their time.

If they aren't confident - leave it to someone who is.

[danny_p]

problem i had with khares ecu was tracks wanting to lift from the pcb.   those PCB's are getting old   whitch makes removeing chips a bit tricker.

big chips arn't an issue to fit really  just use solder paste and heat gun, sod to get off tho

[axewielder]

Im not worried about buggering up the ecu particularly, ive got tons of soldering experience, but agreed if youre not that confidednt practise on some old electronics removing+ replacing similar size chips til your happy you wont f it up, alternatively have a spare ecu around. I was just as interested in the remapping and how for a small outlay and a bit of time you could be writing your own maps + experimenting that way. Alot cheaper than paying someone/ buying standalone+ not the hastle of rewireing whole car, but obviously with enough mods standalone would become preferable eventualy but until then its something else to mess about with to make your car faster/or just break it in another ingenius way 

[Khare]

to write your own maps though don't you need a special socket to plug the chips into the pc so you can load the map into them, and the cabling, and spare chips etc etc? I don't know how much all that costs but for £250 you can buy megasquirt 2 brand new and that will have everything you need for your own maps

[axewielder]

chips are less than a quid each, eprom programmers vary from less than a tenner(from bulgaria/hong kong) to over 100+ you use a pretty standard pc cable depending on what programmer you get, the software if free, then theres wideband o2 sensors which vary+ youd need with MS ect. so all in all is a fair bit cheaper+ a hell of a lot less hastle than wiring + getting MS to work+ with Ms there gunna be other things that need buying to get it all working properly. Im not against standalone, just going to use the standard setup for as long as its practical to as it can handle quite a few more mods+ i can get expert in the remapping wizardry 

[axewielder]

http://web.archive.org/web/20040208064917/www.pgmfi.org/phorum/
http://www.chiptuners.org good forum, but have to joint to get the good info
+ forgot you need uv eraser if you want to reuse chips, 10er on ebay
+ if youre not happy with the soldering part im sure it wouldnt cost much for a pro to fit a socket, some already have sockets standard, ive seen pics of TDIs with sockets

[Ess_Three]

chips are less than a quid each, eprom programmers vary from less than a tenner(from bulgaria/hong kong) to over 100+ you use a pretty standard pc cable depending on what programmer you get, the software if free, then theres wideband o2 sensors which vary+ youd need with MS ect. so all in all is a fair bit cheaper+ a hell of a lot less hastle than wiring + getting MS to work+ with Ms there gunna be other things that need buying to get it all working properly. Im not against standalone, just going to use the standard setup for as long as its practical to as it can handle quite a few more mods+ i can get expert in the remapping wizardry 

You can buy and build MS cheaper than that...
You can use an old ECU case and multi-plug to make a break out box, to use all the original sensors and relays (This is what I did)...
You don't need a wideband lambda with MS - you can use Megatune and the standard narrow band, letting Megatune tweak the settings based around the stoiciometric switching point...
True, MS is more complex...but then it will do anything you want it to do - ITBs, boost, coil packs, dizzy etc

Bottom line is, you'll need a dyno to finalise the settings anyway...

[axewielder]

fair enough man, im not saying either way is better, ive looked into building MS from bare basics too+ yes it is more flexible, this is just another option.
I know you dont need wideband but it sounds like a better option
Dont necessarily agree with dyno but deffo makes it simpler
but compared to MS this way may be easier+ more accessable to some ppl + as there aint much info about i thought id post some up to have a right old handbag swinging natter with the gti bois
Im no preacher about this stuff, i may sound abit like a know it all but i think thats some kind of mineral deficiency