Possible cheaper wideband lambda controllers for sequential 5 port?
Turbo Mini Forums

Seem cheaper than other options I've seen. What do you think?

http://www.ecotrons.com/products/wideband_...ller_alm-board/

Interesting.

It's not a complete controller as you are going to have to mount it in something and it needs a 5V power supply.

The concept of selling these kind of small boards for integration into engine management systems is nothing new, I use the 14point7 SLC-OEM boards and TechEdge sell a similar product.

The specification of that one is interesting (I downloaded the whole manual and went through it) as it is using the standard Bosch chip - a lot of the aftermarket controllers do but not all - and controlling it with an S12P series CPU. You don't see it in the webpage photo because it's on the back of the board but it's actually the same series processor as the MS2 so is capable of a lot more than they are offering, ie, they offer CAN or SCI or analogue, but you have to choose which one at purchase.

It has been noticed by a few people in the Megasquirt world and it looks like James has incorporated its CAN protocols into the latest MS3 code (I don't know if anyone has tried it yet) but that is still a very limited market.
Of course it may be that its CAN protocol is already supported, or standard enough, to be compatible with some other ECUs already, I don't know enough about others to comment, but just because others say they can use CAN isn't a certainty that it will work. You would need to specificallly ask the ECU manufacturer.
So unless some other EMS manufacturer already supports it, or you write your own CAN or SCI code and build your own interface, or you use an MS3, it pretty much limits you to analogue.

The 14point7 SLC-OEM modules have both a digital (I2C) output and analogue and their digital output has been supported by Jean for quite some time so they interface perfectly with any of the MS2 or MS3 products (provided you have one of Jean's IOx's).

There is actually a newer 14point7 board available now where you have to choose between digital or analogue at purchase so maybe that is a market trend.
But the ones I use will still be available for at least three years (so Alan assures me) and they, and the newer version, are only $40 whereas the ALM one is $59 (but you do get a connector cable included).

So, interesting, but as I would want the accuracy that comes with digital data, and I have no need to upgrade to an MS3 (MS3 doesn't run the specific siamese code anyway and I prefer the way the MS2 siamese code deals with injection timing rather than the way you have to do it with an MS3) I'll stick with the 14point7 product.

EDIT - typos and sentence added.

Edited by Rod S on 18th Jun, 2016.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???