Botch El-Shitronic & Piggyback Unichip

[RonHorowitz <RonHorowitz@domain.elided>]

Feeling fiesty today. Thought I'd stir the pot.... Apologies in advance!

>Subject: Unichip piggy-back ECU for L-Jet cars
>
>There has been some discussion of this device on gtv6.org.  It is
>essentially a 2nd ECU that piggy-backs onto the stock ECU.  It seems like
it
>could be a viable solution for those of us with L-Jet cars that cannot be
>'chipped.'

The Botch El-Shitronic is an old-fashioned analog computer. Since, AFAIK,
Botch STILL refuses to release schematics (Top secret! "Pay no attention to
the man behind the curtain!")  you're on your own, but anyone capable of
writting linear differential equations who's handy with a soldering iron
and has a month to waste tracing the circuit around can reprogram one. Why
you'd want to waste the effort is another question.... Mine was the last
graduating class they even bothered to _teach_ this technology to! Rather
than monkey around with quarter-century old  technology, why not start off
with a computer designed sometime since the demise of the Timex Sinclair?

>According to what others have said, it's only supposed to cost
>about $160 or so.

So you're waiting for... what? A hundred sixty bucks is about two hours
worth of a technician's time. Buy it, program it, tell us how it goes. If
it sucks, throw it away.

>I spoke with the US distributor for the Unichip, The Racer's Group (707)
>935-3999, & they said that they've gotten the Unichip to work on an L-Jet
>equipped Porsche 944.  I spoke to a guy named Jack, & he said that if
>someone is willing to provide a car, they'll tune a Unichip for L-Jet Alfa
>V6's.

I hate to spoil the fun, but I do beg to disagree....

OK, so I'm the devil's advocate. If someone loans them a car, they'll
program for THAT car. Unless that car is _exactly_ like yours, the
programming won't be the same. You could program the thing for a totally
stock engine, but with all this talk about headers, AFM's, K&N's, cats, big
valves, porting, intakes, throttle bodies, exhaust systems, cams,
compression, 2.5's, 2.8's. 3.0's, rod lengths, fuzzy dice.... OK, well,
maybe not the fuzzy dice part, but you get the picture. The whole
"technical" point of this widget is to make the L-Jet easy to re-program.
If you're leaving your engine stock, the stock computer works just fine, so
why would you need to reprogram it? Likewise, if there's a drivability
problem with a stock motor and a stock L-Jet, you'll need to fix it
_before_ you add another layer.

BTW, did I mention I had a Clayton chassis dyno and a National Instruments
16 channel data aquisition card?

> this could possibly become a viable
>solution for L-Jet tuning.

"Solution?" Tuning an El-Shitronic has never been an _insoluable_ problem,
just one few people were dumb enough to pursue. Take a look at the Legends
Industries turbocharged Fiat 2000, f'rinstance. OK, so call me a skeptic,
but I think what this widget may be is a viable _product_ for the L-Jet.
OK, OK, call me names, but a viable product isn't the same thing as the
solution to an engineering problem, it's a solution to a _marketing_
problem.

>  Owners
>have been quite happy with them  I'm hoping that the Unichip can do the
same
>for L-Jet Alfas.

(Long sigh... eye rolling... head shaking...)

>  I'd just like to see whether or not
>this will work.

Probably. Make it happen.
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