Superchips ICON - anyone know anything a

[Brian Warburton, c/o Turbo Systems Ltd]

>===========================
>EMAIL:    paul.rodda at ukonline.co.uk
>===========================
>I am curious - admittedly I haven't spoken to Superchips but am still
>curious about just how much the behaviour/response of these nasty
>'tamper-proof' ecus can be modified by the Superchips' ICON box.  From the
>bits I've read, it sounds damned simple in concept and clever in execution -
>but very little info appears to be in circulation otherwise.  Anyone know
>much about this clever device?
>
>This is sheer curiosity - sounds to me to be good for 'mildly' modified
>engines (somehow don't get the feeling that it'd be able to handle too much
>variation (particularly on the ignition side - injection pulses can still be
>delayed ever so slightly without killing things too much)).
>

Having looked at a similar idea a couple of years ago coupled with
seeing an advert for the ICON, my guess on how it works is that it
connects between the coil drivers coming out of the standard ECU and
the coil pack. It intercepts the coil on/off signals from the ECU,
modifies them dependent on an RPM-in Spark-Modifier-out 2-D Map
(RPM being calculated by looking at the time between spark
events) and then sends them on their way again. Plus points are that
it allows you to vary spark on previously unmodified ECU's, minus
points are that you apparently can't modify the maps yourself, you
have to request new maps from Superchips, Second concern is that any
ECU requested spark advance will always happen one event late as you
can't tell the ECU's advanced the spark until you've got the
coil-off from the ECU whereupon it should already have happened so
you can't adjust it until the next firing event. 

For what it's worth, I'd guess it has a PIC inside and probably not
a lot else apart from some coil drivers and circuit protection
logic. 

Of course, Peter from Superchips is a member here so he may correct
my asumptions .... 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian Warburton,   "Still searching for the perfect curve....."
email: bwarb at turbo.win-uk.net
                               Advanced Automotive Electronics Ltd,
                               Van-Nuys House, Scotlands Drive,
                               Farnham Common, England.  SL2-3ES
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