That sucks. Wish I had 50 degrees, although tires don't hook up but actual power is insane at the cooler temps. We've got like 75 degrees and raining. Crap weather. Maybe next week it'll be nice. Need to test out the motor some more, just relashed the valves. Heck, tires never hook anyways. But that cool dry weather makes it feel so crisp, doesn't it?

How's this, while relashing the valvetrain (0.016 intake, 0.022 exhaust 0.680 lift), pulled the serpentine belt off (and the plugs to turn the motor over at 12.5:1 compression), and found that the cast aluminum bracket for the alternator had BROKEN! The pivot bolt had loosened up, and the hold-down tab on the other side had snapped off! Luckily, it was under tension, but heck, I don't need the alternator to go through the hood at 6500 rpm! So now it's time to go ahead and get serious with the front of the motor. Everything else is serious, why not?

TunerCat is bin editing only, but it will also do realtime emulation. No datalogging.

TunerPro RT can do the datalogging, or you can use another program like TTS DataMaster.

Ok, so if someone was looking at my website, they could go with the following as an 'all-you-need' combo:
- GP1
- ALDU1+CABL1
- Ostrich
- BURN1

If you don't want to burn chips, delete the GP1 and BURN1, and get the following:
- G1
- S2

If you don't care about datalogging or you already have something for that, delete the following:
- ALDU1+CABL1

The Ostrich comes with drivers, interface cables (USB and ribbon cable), and what-not.

The TunerPro RT program is free ($30 donation if you want), and TunerCat is also very reasonably priced.

Oh, and you'll want to have something for datalogging. The coolest stuff in TunerPro RT is that you can perform datalogging and realtime emulation simultaneously. So you can monitor all the vehicle operating parameters and make changes at the same time from the same program.

Kenny gave me a heads-up, so I'll chime in:

The Ostrich is a fully capable realtime emulator. It acts just like a chip, except you can make changes on-the-fly while the vehicle is running. The realtime changes do NOT disturb the vehicle operation, and the emulator content is battery-backed to last for years.

So there's a ribbon cable that goes from the Ostrich box to the ECM. You connect it to the ECM at the same location you'd normally connect a chip. If you're going to do a lot of chip swapping and emulation, you'll definitely want to use a good ZIF socket like the Aries 28-6554-10 (S2). I'd also definitely consider using some sort of chip adapter (G1).

On the other end, there's a USB cable that you connect to your laptop. If you're using TunerPro or TunerCat, you can just connect the Ostrich, start the software, and load your binary (either from the Ostrich or a file). Then you synchronize the file with the Ostrich (takes less than a second), and whatever changes you make will take effect immediately (a couple of milliseconds).

If you want to stick with the Ostrich full-time, you can just tuck it up in there next to the ECM and run a USB cable out to an easy-access location. Just plug in whenever you want to make changes. Personally, I had an Ostrich strapped to my own personal ECM for a couple years. Never had any problems.

The advantages of realtime emulation are that you can tweak things right then and there and see what the vehicle response is. This is especially helpful for nailing down part-throttle tuning, idle control issues, and cold-start transients.

If comparing the Ostrich to other 'realtime' emulators, consider the following:
- The Ostrich is compatible with all legacy-type applications (TunerCat etc).
- It is USB-based, so powers itself. Uploads can occur with the car on or off or not even connected.
- The batteries will last forever, so you won't lose the binary in memory.
- It is 8x faster than other emulators, and $4 cheaper.
- It comes in a 'cool' black box, not some pasty-colored thing.
- It is also capable of emulating larger chips (27C512, even 29F040!), up to 4 megabit. That's 16x larger than other emulators.
- You can upload and verify entire binaries without disturbing the target device (car). Try that with other emulators ;^).

My stuff is always guaranteed 100%, so if it doesn't work for you, you can't figure it out, or you just don't like it and you come back 6 months later to tell me about it, no problem, 100% refund. However, I almost never get stuff back except for minor repair work and that sort of thing.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

Hope this helps,
-Craig

It looks identical to the 730 ECM. Here's a really good link that details all sorts of stuff.
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~davis/z28/
While the pinning of the 727 looks a little different, I wouldn't sweat it. The guts of the 727/730 are the same.

I've created patches for both 165 (6E) and 730 (8D) code in the past to allow wideband data to come in the unused pins. It's not too bad really. You just need to play with the datalogging practices to capture it. I have a patch that I made running in my own 730-based car, and it works great. I put together a custom datalogging definition file that does exactly what I want in terms of lookup, just straight linear from 9-19AFR with 0-5v (0-255 integer).

Some folks have gone so far as to use lookup tables within the code and then render the AFR directly as a replacement for values like 'Target AFR'. In my case, I wanted to hang on to the target AFR as an ALDL useful value and just add one. But it's pretty tricky to add and subtract variables from the packet. So I brought it in under the guise of 'Fuel Pump Voltage'.

So, if y'all are looking to bring this to the light of day, I'll be glad to help if I can. If you're already down the road, that's cool too. Just let me know.

Best regards,
-Craig

Folks,

Sorry to nose in here, but I'm new to this website forum. It has just recently been brought to my attention.

I won't bother adding any drama or merit any baseless accusations with a response. However, if anyone needs any help and I'm able to provide it, I'll be there. Please get with me offline with any questions, and I'll do whatever I can to help.

Best regards,
-Craig