i owe this to my buddy zroc, goes for 350 and is a COMPLETE setup no assembly required!

innovate motorsports

 

Looks very nice!



/N.

 

I bought one a few weeks ago. It should be shipped soon. I will post comments as soon as I am done playing around with it.


From what I heard they are going head to head with the $3000 systems. In the next month or so a magazine will be taking their system and comparing it to the others that are offered.

 

please do post comments on this little bad boy im eager to here about it. im sick of my DIY wb always needs calabrating.

 

man that is sweet! especially for the price.

 

I received it in the mail while I was on vacation. It looks like a nice unit.

I have not gotten around to setting it up though. I would do it now, but the display isn't backlit.

With a bit of luck I will get some readings this week. I need a co pilot to log data at the same time... too many gizmo's at once!

 

I'm liking it. Let us know what you think!

 

So how do you like the unit?

 

I have to say this unit has made a HUGE improvement with the power in my car.

I have been using it to tune my Talon. I run 2 boost settings; 10 PSI and 18 PSI. Now, granted that when I have it on the low setting, it does creep to about 14-15 PSI. Before it would spin the tires only with the high setting from 5.5 to redline. I can now light the tires up from 4.5K to redline on the LOW setting. I would call that an improvement. I am not talking about dumping the clutch either. This is from a roll: In first, get it going and then lay into it.

I have/had a few gripes about it. I called Innovative and talked to them about it. The cable that connects the sensor to the unit was crap. The connector at the unit end was only held together by a thin plastic cover. That has now been changed to a completely molded unit. I did kinda screw up the display. I took it apart to try and move the display out of the unit to another location. I hav since lost a few lines, but it is totally my fault and I need to go back in there and align the circuit board with the LCD contacts.

If you plan on hard wiring the unit to the car, I HIGHLY recomend that you wait for the LM-1X. I told him about what I wanted to do with the display (move it out of the unit) and he advised me against it. He said that with the current setup, the display can be no more than 12" from the PCB (can any electronic guy confirm this?) The LM-1X WILL have a remote display unit. With the one I have, you can take a digital voltmeter and configure it to the analog output of the unit though. That is what I will be doing.

I must say, because I read through the DIY WB board I did opt to directly wire the unit to the battery. It now warms up faster and shows 2V higher solidly. Of course, the Talon's electrical system blows. The alternator is WAY under sized.

Anyway. I have had great success with it. It just sits there spitting numbers at me all innocently. It's not flashy, but it sure is a powerful tool.

-edit- The display IS backlit, it only comes on when the power supply is plugged in. I only had the battery in the unit on. Whenever the unit is plugged in, it doesn't use the internal battery.. it is only really needed when you take the unit inside to download the data.

 

Right on! Sounds like a great cheap tool to tune your A/F ratio's. I plan on picking one up too. My friend is buying his own WB02 setup to tune his Supra and the cheapest one he found was $500 (inc the Honda WB02, not the Bosch one). I did see one interesting thing at the website though, a converter that will take the output from the WB02 and convert it to display on an Autometer A/F Ratio Guage. I think this will be the best bet for those of us that want to view the A/F ratio while we drive (wont need to carry that tool around).

 

You will still have to carry the unit around, but it can be stored under the seat. I didn't see that it was compatible with the autometer gauge. The engineer I spoke to said a standard radio shack display would work. I do like the autometer option though... it will look good with the rest of my gauges.

As I said, I am very happy with it. I need to order another sensor though... the price is so good at the moment that a cheap spare would be a good idea.

 

Check it out:

http://www.plxdevices.com/NB_WB_GaugeConv.htm

It costs $35 and converts wideband signal into narrowband signal for use with Autometer guages. You are right though, you would still have to carry the Innovative unit around (under the seat sounds great). This website (plxdevices.com) also sells a 8 foot sensor extension wire. The only thing I dont know is if these products from plxdevices.com (converter or sensor extension) will work with the Innovative equipment.

 

Well that question is only a phone call away. I will give them a buzz tomorrow.

Thanks for the info!

 

So, if this device converts the signal from a WB O2 so it can be used with the A/F gauge, why couldn't you also connect it to the factory ECM? Then, the computer would get more accurate info and only 1 (W/B) O2 sensor would be needed instead of 2!

Also, does anyone have any experience with the M-200 O2 controller? Since I already have a NTK L2H2 sensor on the shelf, I may just go this route.

 

Good question! Would definately make more sense than mounting the tuning device somewhere in the car just so the A/F ratio guage works (after you've completed the tuning of course). But as for having multiple sensors, I thought the stock sensor was narrowband, and the wideband sensor needed to be mounted in a different part of the intake to tune effectively? So you would need 2 sensors anyway? (1 narrow, 1 wide)? I'm a NOOB at this stuff, so please forgive me if I'm wrong ...

 

If at all possible I would avoid the units from plxdevices.

I all seriousness at this point in time there are only two units in the price range to consider: Innovate's & FJO's.


RBob.

 

Um the plxdevices isn't a WB unit, it's an add on TO a unit for an easy viewing gauge.

BTW what is wrong with plxdevices?

 

The WB sensor can be permanently or temporarily mounted. It is used for tuning, but can be left in all the time if you want. You are correct; it is different than the OEM O2 sensor. The innovative unit is able to simulate a narrow band sensor though. That means you just take out your existing one, put the WB one in, and run one of the analog outputs to the ECU. This feature doesn't work on all cars. Heated sensors can get tricky. I am pretty sure our crap one wire sensors can easily be delt with.


I have never heard of the M-200. That sounds just like the DIY WB setup... they use the same sensor. You have the expensive portion of the kit, just spend the $35 for the parts and PCB.

 

After evaluating one of the Plxdevices WB units I couldn't recommend anything of theirs. If one can do good design then that design ability carries throughout the product line.

RBob.

 

Yeah the Link I posted was just the conversion box for using Autometer Guages. PLXDevices also makes a WB02 unit (M-200 Plug and Play) but its around $350 just for the unit (no sensor), and $500 for the unit with the sensor (Honda sensor). Makes the Innovative unit seem like a much better deal at $350 with the sensor. The only thing I'm considering from PLXDevices is that $35 conversion box I was talking about. I would like to have a A/F ratio guage next to my boost guage.

 

My question is, if the conversion box will convert the signal from a WB O2 (regardless of controller) so it can be used with a standard A/F gauge, why can't the same signal be used to control the ECM? Seems like a viable way to use the more accurate WB with the ECM vs using the less accurate narrow band O2.

 

Guess if I had read a little closer, I would've seen my question was already answered!

So, has anyone done this?

Bill

 

I dunno if i'm wrong but the way I read the converter is that you use the autometer gauge and your narrowband 02 sensor and it converts it to a wideband o2 output so your gauge acts like you have a wideband o2 sensor in. Do I have that right?

 

a WB o2 has a 0-5volt output, and a narrowband has a 0-1v, which is what the autometer accepts, but isn't very accurate (because of the narrowband sensor's inaccuracy). This converts the WB's 0-5v to 0-1v so it can be displayed on the guage, but will be more accurate due to the WB sensor.