Adaptronic? Anybody used them for standalone ECU?

Anybody ever used an Adaptronic ECU?  How well did it work?  How was tech support?

I am looking at their solution for a Renesis swap into my 1st gen RX7.

They sell a plug and play RX8 ECU that plugs right into the factory harness.  On paper, it looks like it does exactly what I want - basically duplicating all OEM engine functions like controlling OMP and multistage intake/fueling and eliminating the need for all the CANbus modules like immobilizer, and instrument cluster to be present. 

Sounds perfect, but I had not really ever heard of them before. 

Other options like megasquirt have drawbacks like no OMP control and no way to control the 3rd stage of induction and injectors without a custom solution. My research so far on using the stock ECU seems like it's a no go without transplanting the instrument cluster and maybe other CANbus items.

I installed an Adaptronic in my 2nd gen RX 7 last year. My system is very simple but it did allow for use of factory harnesses. I have no tuning experience and with a friend that did we were able to get the car running well enough to drive in an afternoon. I then took it to a shop for final dyno tuning. It made a huge difference in engine performance. The US Importer was decent to deal with. I didn't use tech support after the purchase but did bug the Aussie folks with alot of questions beforehand. They seem to be massive rotorheads and were responsive via email. They helped me choose the parts that would work properly together to fit the needs I had. I think you will be pleased with their product if  they say it will work , it likely will.

In general not much easier or harder than anything else really. Most CAN things can be addressed in these new ecus if you know the addresses and values that they are looking for. Immo is usually inside the stock ECM and gets deleted with standalone anyway. I generally don't like most logging/evaluation software for tuning so I export to mlv or an excel tool I have to make quicker work of that and then do some splicing in the actual tune files. 

PS what is OMP control and can you explain what it needs? Short of direct injection there is nothing I haven't been able to do on the ms3 platform. 

OMP = Oil Metering Pump. Rotaries inject oil into the combustion chamber as well to lubricate the apex seals, and on later rotaries like the RX8, those oil injectors are also controlled by the ECU.

Cool, thanks.  Glad to hear it worked out well for you.  I did email them, and got a quick response to my questions plus a couple of other bits of info. So, good positive impression of them so far. I don't have any ECU tuning experience either, so hoping for something that gets me 80% there, and use a local tuner to get the last 20%. 

I have the option to copy a friend's megasquirt install, but it doesn't allow for Oil metering (would have to pre-mix) and I think he wired all the ports open, so gives up some low end torque vs stock.  Fine for his racecar, but I am shooting for a street friendly, low hassle driver.

You know how the oil metering pump is controlled? I have done PWM controlled fuel pumps, water pumps, fans and all sorts of other I/O. MS doesn't have a non idle stepper output but a PWM to stepper could easily be added if needed. https://www.efisource.com/wp/shop/microsquirt-iac-stepper-adapter/ I have used these for the cheapass LSX guys that want to make 1000+ whp on a cheap Microsquirt ecu.

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Interesting and good to know.  I am really not familiar with the theory of operation on the OMP control on a Renesis, but I do believe others in the rotary community are.  I have seen tuners post ideas about how to control it, and I think it is very doable, but I haven't seen anyone say they actually have done it.  If I recall correctly, there was some discussion of whether controlling based on engine load vs throttle position was the better method. On my 12A dinosaur, it is connected to throttle position - as in literally connected with a rod from the throttle linkage to the OMP, lol.

Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

You know how the oil metering pump is controlled? I have done PWM controlled fuel pumps, water pumps, fans and all sorts of other I/O. MS doesn't have a non idle stepper output but a PWM to stepper could easily be added if needed. https://www.efisource.com/wp/shop/microsquirt-iac-stepper-adapter/ I have used these for the cheapass LSX guys that want to make 1000+ whp on a cheap Microsquirt ecu.

It's, if I remember correctly, sort of like a stepper.  There are four positions on the older ones, not sure about the RX-8.  Personally, I'd just premix about 80:1.  Reading between the lines, this is what Judge Ito was doing to get a stock RX-8 in the 13s (he was censured by Mazda) and personal experience suggests that rotaries like more injected oil, up to and including having visible blue smoke.  Racing Beat used to premix at around 20:1!

Adaptronic seems to be pretty popular on rx7club.

Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

In general not much easier or harder than anything else really. Most CAN things can be addressed in these new ecus if you know the addresses and values that they are looking for. Immo is usually inside the stock ECM and gets deleted with standalone anyway. I generally don't like most logging/evaluation software for tuning so I export to mlv or an excel tool I have to make quicker work of that and then do some splicing in the actual tune files. 

PS what is OMP control and can you explain what it needs? Short of direct injection there is nothing I haven't been able to do on the ms3 platform. 

Interesting comment there.  Looking into options- but they had not been available in the past.  If I find something, I'll let you know.

What we use is freaking awesome.  Just that it's not generally available outside of the main code.

Would be super cool to see what the oems have access to. When push comes to shove I put some things in R or jmp for statistcs of really big sets but I tune mostly drag cars now so 5-12s logs are cake.