Adaptronic Modular

[NiHaoMiaoMiao]

Hey all,

Have been trawling through various threads about ECUs and I will need to make a decision of what one to use quite soon.
For initial break-in, I will be using my standard GTT ECU.

The general consensus is Nistune is more than enough and if budget persists, a Haltech Platinum Pro or Link G4X.
Engine will be a RB25/30 Neo.

However, during my research I did come across the fairly new Adaptronic Modular ECUs which are also plug and play.

https://adaptronic.com.au/collections/modular-plug-in-ecus/products/emod006-r34-skyline-gtt

Has anyone had any experience with these, as looking at the specs, it's pretty feature packed for its price.
I'm no ECU expert, but how would they compare to the Haltech and Link?

My only hesitation with going Nistune is the thought that I may move away from MAF to MAP in the future...
Tuner wise, I think I will go with Trent from Chequered Tuning as he is VERY reputable.

Cheers!

Daniel

[GTSBoy]

Did you know that Adaptronic was bought by Haltech recently, and despite promises to the contrary, it seems like there is less support than there used to be. The guy who started and was Adaptronic works for Haltech now as one of their main ECU designers/product dev guys. His focus must have been moved onto Haltech stuff. Or at least it appears that way.

I would use Nistune (on a Neo) unless you're looking to run quite a bit of boost or power. AFM remains easy with Nistune - just put an R356 card AFM into the intercooler cold side pipe. But there are other tuning unpleasantnesses on Neo ECUs that can make life a bit hard when you push things a bit harder.

Otherwise in Oz, yes, Link or Haltech. Haltech if you're into the cool-aid. Link otherwise.

[NiHaoMiaoMiao]

GTSBoy my saviour! haha

Wow, no I didn't know about that. The lower cost enticement is diminishing if support is cr*p.
As it currently stands, once the motor is done, it will be running a standard turbo for the time being.

However, it will definitely be getting a decent power upgrade down the track, perhaps one of Hypergears AT45s, G35 or 3582r etc. so that rules out the Nistune I guess? Is there more details as to why the Neo ECU has issues with lots of power? 

I do like the Link, but it seems that I will need to fork out extra to delve down the path of MAP sensors where as the cool-aid ECU has inbuilt 1.5 bar...

[GTSBoy]

Neo ECUs have a weird VQ map tuning method that significantly differs from the earlier ECUs. Once you push them past "boosted stock" it starts becoming harder to defeat the various protections/annoyances, and rescale stuff.

I put one into my ECU and I went through the effort of rescaling the load and rpm scales to expand them, all years before it stopped being necessary to rescale (because of changes that Matt made to how Nistune handles the K factor), and I think I have a handle on all the protections and stuff. But I'm only running 12 psi on stock turbo. If I ever get around to wasting money on a bigger turbo, injectors etc I'll suck it and see and it will probably be fine. But the experience of many is that it becomes harder and harder to get things right.

[NiHaoMiaoMiao]

Thanks for info GTSBoy!

It does look like I'll be ruling out the Nistune now..

Hopefully Trent will be back up and operating soon. Need to have a chat with him ASAP!

Damn covid...

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

As much as I love Adaptronic and used to install/tune them for the price of a Haltech Platinum Pro (used) you'll be silly not to use that instead.

I find Eugene (the software) is buggy and isn't as polished, I preferred the older WARI software on the Select series much more as it was stable and didn't insert random values during the read/write.

Anyhow, if you're not going to mod your NEO much, just get a Nistune like said above. I personally hate Nistune on R34 Neos because they're a pain in the ass to tune. They're amazing on SR20DETs, amazing on R32/R33, just absolutely shit house and aids as fuark on R34 NEOs.

[NiHaoMiaoMiao]

53 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

I find Eugene (the software) is buggy and isn't as polished, I preferred the older WARI software on the Select series much more as it was stable and didn't insert random values during the read/write.

Thanks Johnny, that's really good to know.

I think you boys have definitely helped sway my decision. Definitely between the Link and Haltech at this stage.

While I would love to think I'll be keeping my mods mild for the 25/30, the mod bug is already itching and engine is still getting final measurements done at the shop (rings gaps etc.) ?

From your experience Johnny, do you have a preference between the two?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Link in terms of capabilities has more, there's already native keypad canbus integration, where this is only available on the top tier Haltech Nexus R5.

Apparently it's coming to the Elite series - however who knows when? Elite 2500 in terms of motorsport function is on par with the Link.

Personally tuning wise, I prefer Haltech as the GUI is much sexier and well thought out. Link is much harder to navigate and feels like you're looking though encyclopaedia Britanica 97 edition first CD release lol.

If you're not tuning the car yourself, best to ask your tuner what they prefer out of the two, both do the same thing well, both are as powerful and support DBW, strain gauge input, traction, rolling AL, nitrous control, flex, etc.. however Link wins for the additional canbus keypad support.

[robbo_rb180]

Link plugin g4x would be the go. They have plenty of features for future upgrades and the help/user manual is alot better than haltech in my experience. The thing I really like with haltech elite is the wiring assignment and table allocation but the connection time to ecu is horrendous. 

If you are going to get Trent to tune it have a chat with him first and are you going to do the install & initial setup? 

 

[NiHaoMiaoMiao]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the info and experience!

I think I may be swayed to the Link G4X due to the features, I will definitely have a chat to Trent first before jumping the gun.

11 minutes ago, robbo_rb180 said:

are you going to do the install & initial setup? 

Yep, I was planning to install it and get it drive able before it goes to get a tune.

I initially wanted to tune it myself, but with no experience, I thought it best be taken to a professional. 

[Murray_Calavera]

12 minutes ago, NiHaoMiaoMiao said:

Thanks guys, really appreciate the info and experience!

I think I may be swayed to the Link G4X due to the features, I will definitely have a chat to Trent first before jumping the gun.

Yep, I was planning to install it and get it drive able before it goes to get a tune.

I initially wanted to tune it myself, but with no experience, I thought it best be taken to a professional. 

We all start somewhere, if you are keen to tune it yourself I'd say go for it for sure. There are so many resources out there now and plenty of us here can help you as well. 

At the end of the day dyno time is expensive so unless you want to pay a small fortune, you'll have to compromise somewhere. If you tune it yourself you can take your time and set everything up as perfectly as you'd like. 

[robbo_rb180]

43 minutes ago, NiHaoMiaoMiao said:

Thanks guys, really appreciate the info and experience!

I think I may be swayed to the Link G4X due to the features, I will definitely have a chat to Trent first before jumping the gun.

Yep, I was planning to install it and get it drive able before it goes to get a tune.

I initially wanted to tune it myself, but with no experience, I thought it best be taken to a professional. 

As has been said lots of info out there and being sensible and not just jumping straight in and adding all the timing. 

27 minutes ago, Murray_Calavera said:

We all start somewhere, if you are keen to tune it yourself I'd say go for it for sure. There are so many resources out there now and plenty of us here can help you as well. 

At the end of the day dyno time is expensive so unless you want to pay a small fortune, you'll have to compromise somewhere. If you tune it yourself you can take your time and set everything up as perfectly as you'd like. 

When It comes to paying if all the features are being set up correctly and there is no issues with cold starts, rough/surging it is worth it. I had Trent tune a car a long time ago and it was spot on. 

If you have a go yourself ensure everything is set up correctly with injector info, trigger setup, inputs and outputs as a missed/incorrect setting will stuff up/cause small issues. Have a good look through the link ecu forum. There's plenty of us here that can help you. 

[Murray_Calavera]

19 minutes ago, robbo_rb180 said:

As has been said lots of info out there and being sensible and not just jumping straight in and adding all the timing. 

When It comes to paying if all the features are being set up correctly and there is no issues with cold starts, rough/surging it is worth it. I had Trent tune a car a long time ago and it was spot on. 

If you have a go yourself ensure everything is set up correctly with injector info, trigger setup, inputs and outputs as a missed/incorrect setting will stuff up/cause small issues. Have a good look through the link ecu forum. There's plenty of us here that can help you. 

I don't mean the tune wont be good if you pay someone to do it, I just mean there will be things that won't be done because it's not cost effective. A good example is with the flex tune, say the car currently has a tank of e40 in it, how much additional timing do you dial in to make use of that? 

I imagine most tuners would be of the opinion that as long as it's safe, thats fine. They know you'll fill up on e85 when you get a chance so as long as you've got a good 98 tune and a good e85 tune, the in-between doesn't matter as you won't be spending much time there anyways. 

But if you enjoy the tuning process and are keen to put in the time, you can fine tune all the in-between areas and make some extra power. 

[robbo_rb180]

Best thing these days is flex fuel scalers and offset tables. I don't add any extra timing under 60% ethanol. A decent tuner will set everything up correctly the biggest time factor is actually confirming 98 to e85 tuning having to test add/remove ethanol content to the fuel tank. 

I know a lot of people who add 33-36% fuel and blanket 5-6 degrees and not scale it correctly for ethanol percentage. 

[GTSBoy]

28 minutes ago, robbo_rb180 said:

I don't add any extra timing under 60% ethanol.

Why so? It was my understanding that pretty much all the main benefit from ethanol (in terms of knock resistance and hence ability to add boost or timing) is in by the time you up to ~40-45% ethanol. Everything thereafter being much smaller benefits.

[robbo_rb180]

Just something I've done to be safe as never had the time to try things (Dyno hire is expensive up here) and most just want e85 tunes for power figures and generally only use 98 or e85 when flogging their cars. Do the flex thing so car is still able to be driven when no e85 available. Rather be safe than have dead engines. 

[GTSBoy]

Fairy 'nuff.

[NiHaoMiaoMiao]

You guys are legends! Thanks for the in-depth discussion and support.

I had a chat to Trent/Cat and they do offered a really competitive price in terms of supply and tune. They do prefer Haltech as they believe Links are harder to tune.

I've been watching a lot of videos on tuning lately, so learning lots as well.
Picking up head today and start re-assembling, get clearances done on that, and hopefully bottom end mid next week.

Keen as a bean if you can't tell ?

Definitely will have lots of questions if I go down the tune it myself path.

Cheers again fellas ?

[dr phil]

I have an Adaptronic Modular in my R34 GT4, which has a neo turbo Stag motor. I’ve had no problems with it so far, I actually got it 2nd hand for cheap.

I’m not a pro tuna - just a home tinkerer. The only other experience I’ve had was with an Autronic SMC on an FJ20det.