Omex, Motec or other?

[Quarterless]

Just been informed Omex ecu does the same as Motec one but is cheaper. I want one that is able to run 8 injectors for NA and turbo use with as many useful extras for the best price. Whats best?

[cossymax]

http://www.omextechnology.co.uk/Ecus/ecus.htm

Im using the omex 600

[Graham]

i dont knwo about the never omex units but the older ones had very few features i know the one on my m8's alfa will drive a tacho, or a fuel pump relay but not both!!

i would go for an emerald myself apart from the usual it will also run 4 or 8 injectors switched in stages or symataniously,
it can control boost pressure,
can operate EGT in closed loop
has the facility to have 3 different maps, which is very handy if you run more than 1 type of fuel or want a wet map, a normal map and a silly high power map

[tarmac terriost]

dta are pretty good
have heared good things about omex and motec ecu's
thing omex is cheaper one i thought

[TTommy]

have you considered Autronic?

[zetecpower]

I have a omex on my zetec and their support is very good, they supplied me with several maps when setting up

[cossymax]

As said above,I have omex600 which is very good and there very helpful

[RChambers]

A second for Emerald here! Best bet is to talk to the people that run your chosen rolling road to see what they recommend. They will have seen every type of ecu so will know what is best for your needs.

[Clint]

Motec are in a different league to all the other mentioned.

if you can afford it go Motec !

[david_white]

Motec are in a different league to all the other mentioned.

if you can afford it go Motec !

True, but if not I'd go for a DTA, mines an S80 pro and has all the features I'll ever need

[Clint]

Its not so much about features, it’s about ease of mapping, ease of changing things and support.
Lots of cheap ECU’s can’t support all types of injectors, can not support custom sensors, cannot add in load sites in the middle of a map when you need to.
Omex are not very good in my opinion, they have lots of little things they don’t do that you would think an aftermarket ECU should, they also cannot run sequential injection which is very important for low and mid range efficiency and is a must for tuning turbo cars accurately; Ford knew this when they built the Cosworth even a 25 year old Weber ECU has sequential injection.
Emerald are quite good ECU's however Neil from NTS has had a complete nightmare with his, at one point if his mobile phone rang the ECU would reboot, cutting the car out in the process. Neil has found support to be rubbish too, he (and I) have phoned them loads of times to find that there’s only one guy that can support them technically and if he is out or busy that’s that for the day, you can email them though and after a few days and a few emails going back and forth you will get a sensible answer.
The other thing to think about is the mapping, often the money you save buying a cheap ECU will be well lost in the mapping, I have watched Omex and DTA ecus take 2 and3 days to map whereas Motec, Pectel and Autronic often taking less than a Day. Remember Dyno and Rollin Road time is very expensive.
There is something quite interesting quirk to look out for, cheaper non professional ECU’s seem to have ignition drivers built in and the professional ECU’s do not, (they need to use ignition amplifiers.)

[david_white]

Well I just gave my requirements to Steve G and asked him which would be easiest to map as he will be dealing with all of that side of things for me, and he chose DTA, so job jobbed.

He does mapping day in day out so I have just left it to his discretion really. I have had good experiences with MBE also but must say that I have heard more than a few dodgy things about some of the omex systems, I guess to an extent you get what you pay for and as Clint says if you get a real pain of an ecu to map you will make up the cost of a dearer one in operator charges

[lowscorts]

The lesser systems dont seem to be as stable or consistant, spent today mapping a Jedi with an MBE setup and its difficult to get a consistancy from run to run, the a/f changes making mapping more time consuming.
Admittedly it was on a ZZR11 carb motor and bike engines built for carbs dont seem to take to FI very well

[trig]

What do you poeple think about weber alpha systems???
Bolt stright on lot of back up easy to get set up.

[v8ian]

I use an Emerald M3dk, Had absolutely no problems with the system, A good thing with Dave Walkers system is the Rolling Road, I think its £250 all in for a set up on his rollers no matter how long it takes, Any E mail questions are normally answered within 24 hours, or over the Phone is not a problem, even Physical upgrades are generally back from Carl within a week.
Ian

[TTommy]

that sounds liek a very good price.

[Graham]

i've been running emerald ecu's since they first appeared, yes sometimes tech support can be a little iffy due to the small nature of the company but then again your not paying motec money and all the software is free and available, and in my opinion the small nature of the company can work in your favour as your dealling with real people face to face if you want and they can and do go out there way to accomodate one offs, and i do have to say i there would of been many race meetings i would of never made if dave and carl haddnt been prepared to go the extra mile top see my car ready for the track, even working until the early hours if needed.

my ecu has been upgraded many times and gained a lot of features over the years always FOC , most manufactures would of at least charged for the upgrades, and a lot would of just flogged you a new ecu, and as V8ian said dave does a seroiusly good deal when it comes to time on the rollers

[Quarterless]

Are there any existing charts showing what each one can do in comparision?

[dobuy]

I use the Emerald M3D as well, upgraded to the K3 self-mapping software. While a good dyno operator can never be beaten, my car has done 5000kms self-mapping using a wideband and it works brilliantly

[Miniliteman]

Has anyone used or tested all (or most) of the available systems? Or has a car-mag done a test of these ECU's?

Personally I have used a couple of the ECU systems and found the Emerald not good at all. But that was some time ago so build quality and userfriendlyness could have improved.

Recently I used several KMS systems from van Kronenburg, yes a Dutch company: http://kms.vankronenburg.nl/
Anyone else used these systems?

[Sonus]

I beleive Practical Performance Car Magazine did a comparisson between a few ECUs a year ago or so. I'll see if I can't find the issue in my pile of mags.

[Quarterless]

Nice one Sonus. Eagerly waiting.

[Sonus]

Found it, Practical Performance Car Magazine Issue 30, October 2006:

Compares the following ECUs:

KMS
DTA E48EXP, S60Pro, P8Pro
Pectel SQ6
Emerald K3
Autronic SM4
Motec M800
Omex 600 series
MBE992E
Haltech E6X
Gotech MFi, MFi Pro, Pro X

Questions answer for each of them was:

Price of extras
What trigger patterns will it read
Can it handle batch and sequential injection
How many cylinders can it control and in what configuration
Does i thave self mapping facility using closed loop lambda
Does it have turbo boost control
Can it run eight injectors on a four cylinder turbo engine
Can it handle variable cam timing or duration systems such as honda v-tec or rover VVC
Does it future knock sensing
Does it have a can-bus for connection of a digi dash systems
Can it runmultiple maps? if so how many
What aftermarket support is there.

[Quarterless]

Being a lazy bum I don't want to go out and buy the mag. Any chance you could scan it in or put the results up?

[alladdin]

Being a lazy bum I don't want to go out and buy the mag. Any chance you could scan it in or put the results up?

your newsagent is having a laugh if hes selling that edition still

[Sonus]

Being a lazy bum I don't want to go out and buy the mag. Any chance you could scan it in or put the results up?

Won't be able to scan it in a few weeks as I'm of on holiday to the UK on Sunday and won't have access to a scanner before that. Sorry.

[PIG]

ive just had autronic fitted to my motor.great back up and free remapping as well.and mr sheed is only 5 mins from my house

[Tone]

What do you poeple think about weber alpha systems???
Bolt stright on lot of back up easy to get set up.

binned mine,no back up and all closed shop mapping can't do anything yourself no software downloads i've gone for an EMERALD myself