Is there any reason I couldn't use a Moates Ostrich in place of a prom, for permanent use? I only have one thirdgen, so I'm not worried about wanting to use it for other cars. I see that it takes a battery, so I assume it won't be erased if the car battery is disconnected, is this true? Also, does it replace the whole memcal, or just the PROM?

The Ostrich would replace just the PROM. Still need the MEMCAL for limp mode and cylinder select. It does have an internal battery to keep the RAM alive (which holds the BIN/calibration). If/when that dies so does the calibration, ECM will be in limp mode.

RBob.

Mine has been in my car for at least 2 years now with no hiccup....

When Craig initially came out with the Ostrich he stated that the amount of power that is used out of the battery should last something like.. 45 years! However, I don't know what the life on these batteries are, even thought the Ostrich will not kill the battery I would think that there will be some type of chemical breakdown at some point, when that is????

Isn't cylinder select a setting on the EEPROM itself?

The Ostrich can replace the EEPROM. For myself I'll use an EEPROM, once I get a tune that I am happy with until my next tuning session. I've had a couple times where the bin file gets corrupted on the Ostrich, at key off, or key on. This is with the Ostrich connected to my laptop, so being disconnected might not have this issue.

There is a cylinder select in the calibration. Along with a hardware cylinder select on the MEMCAL. Note that not all ECMs use a MEMCAL. And not all ECMs have or need a hardware level cylinder select.

RBob.

Ward, thought of getting one of those myself. is it worth the $$$ !?
and did you get any results of the blacksmoke at WOT yet ?
Will change to ford 19lbs injectors soon and need to redo my prom,
maybe we could help each other out ? And make them run good ?
If you want please give me an PM or message , im using msn : theking_v8@hotmail.com

have a nice day Ward, (and all other guys at this great forum)

Mine gets quirky at times when I've had the laptop out. Sometimes something does not save correctly or something and I get the dreaded flashing light on the next start up and have to get the laptop back out and reload. Once I've started a tuning binge I learn to unhook and recrank the car a couple of times to make sure things are ok........

I really do need to burn a backup chip or two for insurance though.........

I guess this is axx backwards to my statement of no hiccups.......

Is there more information about this?

I think I should have mentioned I've noticed the bin corruption only on a '7730, '7747 hasn't shown this issue (yet).

I'm running Rbob's EBL. It may or may not be an issue with the Ostrich itself as I remember seeing on Craigs site long ago about a fix for something to do with key on key off loading. I never fixed mine or sent it to him to be corrected. One just has to keep a watchful eye on things.

[quote=DM91RS;3774695] One just has to keep a watchful eye on things.

No, I haven't been able to tune the car yet. I'm still trying to decide which setup to buy, if I can just run the ostrich, then $175 isn't bad at all. No erasing or programming chips, just tune on the fly and go. The ford injectors only seem rich at WOT, whenever PE mode kicks in. If my understanding is correct, the ECM doesn't adjust according to the O2 sensor in PE mode. It does run nicely, and I'm pretty confident it will pass emissions testing.

This would be for a '165 ECM, for the time being, until I can find a decent '445. The one I have seems to be working well, but I dont know for how long. I'm actually relieved that it doesn't replace the limp mode stuff, so that if it dies or corrupts itself, at least the car will make it home. I would probably just get in the habit of backing up my latest bin to the laptop too, every time I make a major change. That way if it did get corrupt, I could just re-load it and go.

I've run the Ostrich in my Z for 18 mos with narry a hic-up the car couldn't care less what you use Ostrich or EEPROM. It's real easy if you use Moates G1 memory adapter to piggyback the memcal and use the Ostrich with a zero insertion force socket to install the Ostrich to the G1. I like the convenience of being able to play with the program without removing the ECM.

Have been running Ostrich 2.0 for almost a year with a 165/6E and no problems. I even left it in the car over the winter with the car battery disconnected and it started right up after 4 months of hibernation. I do have a drivable backup chip in the car as a “just in case”, but there has never been a need for it. For me the Ostrich really works as advertised. Craig did a great job on it!

Sweet, I'm convinced. I do have a spare memcal from another 88 305TPI, but an auto trans. I didn't think of that though, but I could keep it in the car, and worst case scenario, pop it in to get home. I had initially liked the idea of MegaSquirt, because of the tune-and-go ability, but if I can do it with the factory ECM, that's way better. Looks like I know what I'll be spending my stimulus check on

So it runs around 128 blm in everything else exept the WOT part ?
are you running lean somewhere or rich at some places ?
Just want to know what I should expect when I change my injectors again.
Maybe we could talk about that later, when I got the new injectors in place and home..

Checksum disabled? If you make changes with a laptop while the engine is running without disabling the checksum, everything will be fine until you shut down the ECM and then re-power it. At that point, the ECM will do the checksum verification, note that it's mismatched, the ECM will enter limp home mode.

When making changes via emulation, make sure the checksum is disabled. In most applications, this is done by changing the mask ID byte to 0xAA.

Thank you sir and you're probably 100% correct about the checksum. I have not and do not emulate very much. Mostly I VElearn and then reload when stopped. Those cases where the problem happened most likely I was fiddling with something in the tune while it was running.

Thanks for the heads up.....DM

thankyou for that tidbit about the checksum, thats caused me and a buddy lots of grief, hopefully that was it.