noise and connection drop-out

[flatbill]

I some questions with my MSII version 3 unit.

I am running a Chevy TBI with a Mopar locked electronic distributor. I have taylor spiral wires. I have, as best I can, kept the wire harnesses away from the spark plug wires.

I have what I think is a lot of noise in the system. See the short MLV attachment, without the MSD box. I was using an MSD 6A with a big cap across the battery power input power leads to try to get rid of the noise. Any suggestions? I disconnected the MSD box to see if that would help. It didn't seem to do much if any good. I now am triggering the coil off of the relay board. I have pulled the ignition dwell down to 2.5 from a much higher setting that is suggested for the MSD box. The suggestion was 25, but I could never get it to be "happy" at much over 12 to 15.

The reason that the MLV datalog is so short is that it keeps going off line when I am trying to use it. Many times, I have trouble connecting the tunerstudio to the MS. I have the db9 to usb adapter that I got from DIY. Lately, it will hook up, only to drop out within a minute or two. Sometimes if I disconnect the USB cable from the laptop and reconnect it, it will hook back up, only to drop out soon thereafter. Can anyone comment on success with the newer Bluetooth connection?

I am running an MSD Blaster II ignition coil. The literature says with most electronic ignitions, a ballast resistor is not needed. I did not use one with the MSD box, nor do I have one now with the direct coil triggering. I did not pay attention before, when using the MSD box, but now the coil seems to be getting pretty warm. Just how warm is normal? Would it be good to use a ballast resistor? Would this lower the coil temp?

The motor seems to run OK with the noise. Is this common?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Billk

[trakkies]

Your battery volts seem low. With the engine running they should be more like 14v. While this may not be a problem as such, it suggests there may be something wrong with the main feed. Is your main relay fed direct from the battery? And the grounds to the engine block?

[LT401Vette]

Connection drop out does happen with USB, but not with a good cable.
I recently posted an article in the FAQ section of my site to help explain why USB is more susceptible and what to look for in a cable to avoid it.
http://tunerstudio.com/index.php/faqs/7 ... nnectivity

EDIT:

I have the db9 to usb adapter that I got from DIY.

That adapter generally works great, but use it without the USB cable extension. Just plug the USB to serial Adapter directly into the laptop, then run a real serial cable from there. That usually works fine.

[flatbill]

This link says to use TS 1.17 with BT. My TS is at 1.004 and the check updates says there are none.

http://tunerstudio.com/index.php/cablesandbluetooth

Is there a suggested place to get the TS 1.17? Thanks Bill

I have tried the db9 to usb adapter without the usb cable and it hooked up OK. I need to run it for a longer time to see if it will cut out. I was able to do a datalog and the plots looked a lot less jittery. Thanks. Billk

[LT401Vette]

That should say beta... 1.17 was the beta track, that is up to 1.21 now.
There was a good bit of work done to make TunerStudio play nicer with Bluetooth for version 1.17

You can get the beta here:
http://www.efianalytics.com/TunerStudio/beta/

If you install the beta, then you will get beta auto updates. With the stable track there are no auto updates past 1.004 as any of the newer installers were just to package newer ini files.
The beta will turn over to a stabile release soon getting a the new features out for this season.

I have tried the db9 to usb adapter without the usb cable and it hooked up OK. I need to run it for a longer time to see if it will cut out. I was able to do a datalog and the plots looked a lot less jittery.

I have had several users have trouble when using that thin usb cable, running without it has fixed it every time

Bluetooth seem to be pretty resistant to EM noise. But there is a lot of variance between different adapters in range, connection consistency and throughput.
With MSII B&G firmware you may need to raise interWriteDelay to a high number like 20...