new link ecu anygood? opinions

[sergei]

if they would half their price, they would ten fold the market, hence twenty fold the profits (exaggerating here, to make a point)!

[Ako]

Dude, the market for cellphones, microwaves and home PC's is a hell of a lot bigger than it is for boyracers and racecar drivers wanting a new computer for their car.

Like someone said - economies of scale. If the market was bigger they could reduce margins, but its not, so they can't.

[RedMist]

fivebob are you referring to the new link? or links in general? or something else?

The new PCLink V3.7 software, and I stress at this stage I'm just commenting on the quality of the user interface, not the hardware functionality of the new G2 ECU. Which, although it looks to be a good improvement on the old model, I don't see it as being "on par with a M400" as some have stated.

I'd have to agree about the PC Link interface. Although its not as bad to work with as it looks. It's easier to select a tuning category and logically laid out. The only bug I've found in it so far is that it deletes 010 and 110 when importing an older map from the previous version. Looking at the back end, it doesnt look to be the work of a professional programmer. It seems unstructured. A reactonary, feature creep, developmental approach. (my perspective) I know that the previous version was programmed in Europe and Link had some issues correcting the bugs I reported due to either locational or personal issues. I suspect they dragged the PC Link programming in house.

[gmacrae]

yes i would agree with the fact that the computer is only as good as the person who tunes it but after speqaking to gizzmo when i was investageing ecu options i was told by them to stay away from link as theya re very seasonal and do not hold tune well where as wiuth a microtech i could get a much more reliable tune

That made me laugh. NEVER listen to ANYONE at Gizzmo. Chumps.

[Drifter4ag]

ill say it again ...
MEGASQUIRT[b]

[Mr Revhead]

megasquirt is an option for the few, not the many due to the technical knowledge required to set one up......

[Stu-]

Overlay maps on the g2 unit are pretty cool, along with the definable table and numbers down to 0.1. Haven't played with one yet but have been talking to a guy I know that went on the first training course Link ran.

[JamesM]

wrong drifter4ag
MEGASQUIRT 2 with V3 board!!! yea baby

[atmosports]

Possum originally ran possumlink plugins on the gorupN cars basically up until the new MY2000 model came out with variable cam timing(early spec) Link didn't at this time do it & most other system where the same the only system apart from factory subaru that could control the cam timing properly was motec, hence the reason they went with motec. Motec still is the only system at a reasonable price that can control the subaru cams properly. The WRC car(goldrush car) originally run a Pectel however once the modification became greater no one here had the software/cable/dongle etc to access the pectel & the cost of getting Prodrive here to sort it out was prohibitive so it was fitted with what was one of the very first Linkplus ecu, the year it won the Goldrush it ran a Linkplus(I should know as I know the person who built the motor & tuned it)

[fangsport]

Possum originally ran possumlink plugins on the gorupN cars basically up until the new MY2000 model came out with variable cam timing(early spec) Link didn't at this time do it & most other system where the same the only system apart from factory subaru that could control the cam timing properly was motec, hence the reason they went with motec. Motec still is the only system at a reasonable price that can control the subaru cams properly. The WRC car(goldrush car) originally run a Pectel however once the modification became greater no one here had the software/cable/dongle etc to access the pectel & the cost of getting Prodrive here to sort it out was prohibitive so it was fitted with what was one of the very first Linkplus ecu, the year it won the Goldrush it ran a Linkplus(I should know as I know the person who built the motor & tuned it)

AMEN to that. didn't qoute the hillclimb WRC as i thought it would have still used the Prodrive unit to handle all the fancy bits.
so to answer the original question..........nothing wrong with a Link ECU.

i'm sorry for the bling masters, it just hasn't got a worldwide following like a Motec or Megasquirt and the name Link dosn't roll off your tongue when you're going for wank points when listing mods

[atmosports]

From memory(My memory is stuffed these days) the car ran the Linkplus for engine control. It had a Magnet Marelli or PI Dash/Datalogger(could be wrong, it displayed all sorts of stuff) or something like that might even be a prodrive dash/datalogger. I'm pretty sure all the diffs/gearbox where mechanically controlled but could've been prodrive controlled as well. I'm not 100% sure on those as I only really had an involvement in the engine/tuning side of things.

[matt dunn]

You only have to down load the linkplus and the motec tuning software and have a play to notice where the price difference is.

An owner of car I fitted a linkplus to that runs endurance racing asked me about upgrading to motec.

I told him what I believe which is,
the upgrade will give you many more options like pit speed limiters, traction and launch control etc etc,
but when he asked me about overall lap times I said that I did not believe it would make a noticable difference.

In the end he did not upgrade.

Matt

[Tukumi]

My turn,
I had the fun job of fitting the first LinkPlus G2 that Link let us have early before they were released for testing purposes. We put it in one of our customers cars, a Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500. Theses cars come standard with 8 staged injectors although only the primary 4 are hooked up unless you buy the Ford motorsport ECU to run all 8 correctly. The engine has had $25000 spent on it with Steve Webber engine builder.
Neadless to say the customer wanted something that was going to run this thing properly plus its actually a road car, not a race car. He drives this thing daily. We installed The LinkPlus G2 and tunned it to 5000rpm and 7 psi as it has to be run in still. It made 265hp at the wheels. Nothing to special but the engine is built to handle around 30psi so its not bad for 7psi.
Anyway, that car has outragously huge cams (considering he wants to daily drive it) but even so in the morning you can reach through the window and start the car with no throttle and it starts and idles at 1500rpm untill warm then backs it off to 800rpm and runs very stable the whole time. Anyone thats dealt with big cam setups will no how hard they can be to get the fueling right down low in the revs.
I drove the car once the base tune was complete and was most impressed with the almost factory like drivability from the setup.

We have fitted another 2 LinkPlus G2 ecu's since and I have one going into my new drift car, and after driving all of these cars fitted with them i wouldnt recomend anything else.
The main thing that I would say is be very carefull who you get to tune the ecu as it is alot more complex making it not so easy for the backyard mechanic to toy with.
At the end of the day all ecu's have there strong points, I guess im quite loyal to Link as my Business "NZEFI" is the biggest Link dealer in NZ

Dont know if this helps, just thought id have a say.
Cheers Phil

[fivebob]

The main thing that I would say is be very carefull who you get to tune the ecu as it is alot more complex making it not so easy for the backyard mechanic to toy with.

Especially seeing as the online help is next to useless and does not appear to be truely context sensitive, at least not enough to be useful

Then there are the oddities such as;

Some trigger patterns support digital triggering so that the actual trigger pattern may be selected (via the Triggering Mode) and processed by the Link ECU.

Other trigger patterns must be decoded by an internally fitted sub-board. In these cases the triggering will need to be specified when the ECU is ordered so that the correct sub-board can be fitted. This sub-board converts the actual trigger pattern into a basic pattern with one trigger event for each TDC (1Trig/TDC).

Which seems that if you want to change vehicles and install the Link in the new vehicle then you'd better hope that it shares the same ignition triggering, or it's back to the factory for a new sub board, assuming one cane be retro-fitted. Also if you want to change to a different trigger system the same would apply.

At the end of the day all ecu's have there strong points, I guess im quite loyal to Link as my Business "NZEFI" is the biggest Link dealer in NZ

Indeed, but what are Links strong points? User interface is crap, hardware is so-so, past customer support history isn't good, and now, with the increase in price with the new G2, it's no longer a cheap ECU.