Well guys I got to meet a few corvette forum members and have a pretty fun day at the track.
We went to Numidia, in and out of rain the whole way there When we got there the outlook of the track canceling looked either way. As it turned out the weather broke and the day turned out beautiful.

There was a nice guy parked next to us keeping us posted on DA measurement the day swung from ~1600-1900, so the weather wasn't all that great, but who was complaining I was pumped as always just to rip off a few runs.

First run out I maintained a cooler than normal engine, ~130 when I did my burnout, and then staged, running a 57 chevy all tubbed and sounding mean. I nailed it on the third yellow getting a R/T of .535 and the car hooked like never before, I could tell I was sailing! 1-2 right at the light and the 57 was no where to be seen. The car instantly hit 2nd, then right into 3rd GD'in shifter! Since I changed from the stock shifter cable, it harder than heck to feel the "clicks" when going through the gears and easier than pie to overshoot 2nd. If I go even a nats hair past 2nd the car goes righ into 3rd. So I kept her floored all the way through the traps. If you didn't know better, from the way that thing pulls you would never even know you missed 2nd gear. I blazed through the traps with an 11.31@119MPH I think for sure that was my 10sec run with a 1/8 mile time of 96.4MPH!!! If I would have just hit that Damn Second gear. I returned to the pits and dad said that was it if you wouldn't have missed that damn second gear! I couldn't do anything but agree.

I said lets check everything over real quick and get it ready for the next run. After about 2 hrs I got to run again. A guy blew apart on the second 1/2 of the track so there was a big delay while they cleaned up the track. Also on the first run the 60' time did not register, so I was a little ticked and did not know what to do with the air pressure. I ran 13 in the drivers side and 14 in the passengers. It seems to really hook well, so I just maintained that pressure for the next run.

I went out for the second run and was feeling pretty good about a decent run. The DA went up considerably as the sun came out. I did my burn much longer than before till I had a hard time holding the car and it actually pushed me forward. Seems to be the technique, that works best. I staged and again hooked like mad on the launch, with a R/T of .525 I pulled a new best 60' time 1.528 I hammered through first and was gentle to hit the shifter and may have even overrevved 1st by 100-200 RPM, I hit 2nd and she held, so I managed not to overshift I hit the shift light on the 2-3 and pulled through the traps feeling great that that run might be it. I eagerly made my way back the return lane to retrieve my slip. I got it and as I pulled away I tried to read it. Here were the results.

r/t .525
60' 1.528
330 4.622
1/8 7.144
MPH 97.40
1000 9.336
1/4 11.186
MPH 122.10

The car is definately getting stronger indicated by the 1/8 MPH and the new best 60' time followed by the near new best in 1/4 wih pretty crappy DA.

I am more than happy with the car and the results, but I am still after that 10sec run I KNOW is there, given the right conditions. I am still learning what the car wants and seem to be improving in every aspect.

To make a long story short, the 3rd run was a BIG disappointment. I was running with the Romulator and found a flaw in the system I think. I had it happen yesterday while taking the car for a ride, but dismissed it and in the back of my mind I was thinking about it all day. While driving through town the car just shut off like someone turned the key off. I pulled off the side of the road and tryed starting it, it fired right up and never did it again. So today my intention was to try the first run, wih the rom, then switch back to my chip. I had a few changed like I leaned it out a tad more down low in the 2k-3.5k RPM range, and the results seemed better so I just stayed with it. When I staged for the first elimination run I got matched up with a Crustang I wanted to SPank bad, just for giggles. I was nailing pretty consistant light and felt very confident that I was gonna be able to catch most anyone in the class they threw me into, Trophy (mostly 12-15 sec cars). Just as the guy poing to me to stage, I start out and bam the car just shuts off! WTF! I turn the key all the way to the off position, just as I did the day before, praying it starts with no problem. It fires right up, but again hesitates badly a few times. Everytime it hesitates the SYS light illuminates for as long as it cuts out for. Gash Darn SCHLEPROCK's screwin with me! I get to the burnout and almost called it quites, thinking I am not going to run it if its not right, but quickly decide to pray the guy red lights, and then I can spit and sputter through for a win, since he had to leave before me, and then I can straighten out the ECM with my regular chip. I did a half assed burnout and then the car stalled out completely. By then the other guy is prestaged and just as mine starts he if fully staged. I decided to roll quickly into the lights and hopefully mess with his mojo, and throw off his timing enough to rattle his cage. I rolled in very quick and lit both lights, praying he red lights I had to keep the Rs of mine so high to keep it from stalling at one point I felt the times start to spin The lights came down and he launched, damn no red, so I waited an eternity for my lights to come down, with the car bucking and jerking the whole time. Wanting to give it one last run I decided that if I nail it and I feel any hestitation, I'm leaving off and calling her quites. I hit it on the 3rd yellow and blahhhhh 1/2 way through second I putted through the traps at about 1/4 throttle with it bucking and cutting out for long periods of time. The one guy with the corvette bunch came over right away with some others to see what happen. I was out of the car and in the passengers side fiddling around with the wires. I put my regular chip into the car and it ran perfect The one guy laughed and said hey, you still turned a 14 sec 1/4 mile I don't know what I turned as I did not even stop at the booth to pick up my slip

So I learned a valuable lesson today, but also had a great time with the guys there and ran some new bests. I will keep you all posted on the exact cuase of the intermittant problems associated with the Romulator. But no means do I think its anything to cause someone that is serious about tuning to avoid the product, it may even be my fault in the end as much as stuff slides around in the car on lauched. I will call them tomorrow and let you all know what I find.

( I thought this was suppose to be a quick story)

Are any of you other guys having any problems?

 

clean contacts are everything with the romulator.

 

I can't image they are dirty since it was unwrapped from the package, plugged together and not undone since I did that on wed/thursday. But it worth a check tonight.

I don't like how the cable doesn't connect to the rom with screwin things. They aren't long enough to reach the threads.

I wanted to try running it with the cable not hooked to it and see what happens. Then I know its rom to ECM problems, in which case they are going to have to sort out. If it was caused by the loose connection to the serial cable, then that is an easy fix. I will let you all know what I find.

 

**************************
**** The Pocket Romulator ****
**************************
##########################################
# Warning: This device uses a replaceable coin battery for Data #
# Retention. The battery will Die after time and NO Data #
# will be Retained. Use for Testing Purposes ONLY....... #
##########################################
**Very popular with EFI hackers. Also use for Microprocessor developers.**

The above are quotes from their web site, and instruction .txt.

Like I suggested when I originally wrote about it.
When your done with what your doing, burn a chip.
Please note, **developers**, as in a temporary useage application.
It's not meant to be a full time replacement for the eprom, least as I read things.

 

I would totally agree with you Grump.

But tonight I went out and disturbed the entire neighborhood with open headers in my garage to see what was up with it. I had put my chip back in to move the car around. So tonight first thing I did was plug the romulator back in to see if I could get the same results.

I plugged it in and the car started and ran flawlessly. Its definately not the cable that runs from the laptop to the rom, as I plugged it in and out and jiggled the connection and the car never missed a beat.

I then programmed some different parameters for idle in and they worked too, so here is my thought. something obviously in the romulator is causing this to crap out on occasion.

The battery as you allude to is I believe used when the unit is not connected to the car or laptop for storage purposes as you said. But when you hook it up to your car or laptop I think it gets its power from whatever its hooked to, indicated by the red light that comes on as soon as you turn the key to the on position.

I do not know the powering scematics of this unit, but think the only time you would loose a program that was installed on the rom is over an extended period of time with no connection to an outside power source.

Why mine flakes out occasionally is still a mystery, but it definately did not loose the bin I loaded the other day on it.

 

ski_dwn_it

I drove around with my Romulator hooked up for more than 80 miles today 37miles to work and 37miles home and made at least 12 WOT runs from 30mph to 120 + and it never missed a beat.

I'm using two laptops, one for data logging , and the other runs the romulator.

Are you running both softwares from one laptop?
If so mabey thats somthing to think about.

 

Curiosity question for everyone using a romulator. Mine will only work on my machine downstairs and my newest laptop(monitor is blown and have a reg one plugged in).. Both the newer ones let me load bins from rt tuner and from the romulaator software itself.

If i install it on my older laptops, it will not work correctly. I can read from the Romulator and the computer recognizes it, but i cannot program it. Anyone else having any issues with older machines? What speed laptops are u guys running the Romulator successfully on?

thanks and later
Jeremy
PS 5 laptops, 2 dead screens and 2 with dead batteries , I dont win lol

 

Just running the tunercat, I did not run the logging software or have it even hooked up for that matter.

Still not 100% sure why it flakes out. My exhaust is off the car and I can't drive it around to see if I can get it to do it again.

Ran the car in the garage last night and it worked flawlessly. If it continues to act up, I will have Xtronics send me another, maybe something is wrong with mine.

Not real concerned.

For the other person with laptop problems. Mine is a Dell 300 mhz.

 

3.8TransAM ,
I have a Dell 233mhz running Windows 95, and a IBM notebook
600mhz running Windows 98 and it works great on both laptops.