Trouble with Prospeed RDX and ECU upgrade

Blackhorse06 · 17 June 2013

I tired to short it, but could not find anywhere to put the paperclip? According to the service manual you need to jump it at the plug on the relay and that one has male ends. So I am trying to figure a way to attach the clip. That's why I just unplugged it to see if it would turn over and it did. Should the car have started with the relay unplugged?

Alas-NSX I have had the mod only installed less than a month and probably have about 45 miles on it when it worked. I really appreciate the offer and will take you up on it if the problem still exists. Either way you are more than welcome to hook up and talk NSX's. I am not sure where to start to look for a tech, any suggestions? Radio shack or something like that maybe?

NSXGB · 17 June 2013

IMHO the IC soldering looks very low rate and if it were mine, I would want that checked to cancel out of the equation.

Blackhorse06 · 17 June 2013

As I look at it, that will be something I will check (Soldered connections). After learning a little more about the "Back-up" mode (CEL, TCS and not rev'ing past 4K) where it by-passes the ECU it allow you to limp home, the problem may be the board. Right now I am looking at everything! Hell, I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it could help!

geometro · 20 June 2013

General Beringer?

Blackhorse06 · 20 June 2013

LOL

Mr McKittrick, after careful consideration, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks!

neonshaun · 21 June 2013

So, did you revert to stock? Problems resolved?

neonshaun · 24 June 2013

Went to get some ribs tonight, there were a few people around my car as I came out.

Sat and talked to everyone for a few minutes... went to leave, car stalls out.
Waiting for my rebuilt injectors. This shit is too embarrassing.

I thought it could be a main relay issue, so I resoldered it.
Checked all fluids... everything is perfect. What a waste of time.

neonshaun · 28 June 2013

Just pulled my ecu....
whoever soldered this chip should probably learn how to solder before messing with people's ECUs...

So I resoldered it. One of the pin sockets was pushed out of the plastic zif.... and was barely soldered in. Several other posts looked like they had no solder.
Bad soldering on the chip would make sense, since I would typically drive around for a half hour before the problems started. Just enough time for the ecu to get a little warm and jiggle around?
We'll see.

Also, the socket and chip that prospeed uses are interchangeable with the stock chip. You can pop the prospeed chip out, and put your stock chip back in no problem.

Blackhorse06 · 29 June 2013

Neon,

Funny you should mention the soldering. A buddy of mine who works in the electronics field said the exact same thing! I bought a new relay as well and I am going to install it in the morning. If that does not fix the problem I am going to pull the ECU AGAIN and have him take it to his shop to give it a better look.

Also I found that the pervious owner had a friend living in the car with him. I pulled the right side panel off to look at the wiring bundle and found a large nest of some sort. As far as I can tell it did not eat through any wires. The problem would have manifested a long time ago before I got the car. But none the less a surprise to find.

Blackhorse06 · 29 June 2013

OK...

Well it is NOT the Main Relay. Put the new one in this morning and still have the same issue. After reading Neons troubles as well I am now hoping that it is the soldering causing the issue because a skilled tech can resolve that issue pretty quick.

At least I now have a new Main Relay and the old one as a spare.

A little over a month of great weather and ZERO driving time, I keep trying!

neonshaun · 5 July 2013

So:

resoldered main relay, no fix
got new air filter, cleaned throttle body, no fix
resoldered chip socket, no fix

removed it all, and installed cleaned stock injectors + stock chip + resistor, fixed.

Car idles rock solid, doesn't dip on stops, starts every time.... no more stumbling when decelerating in gear.
It sounds a lot quieter, though. No more burbles when decelerating anymore.
And the stock injectors are soooooooo loud and clicky.
It definitely is a little slower... but at least now I know it will start every time, and I know it's definitely running the way it should.

Ko-nsx · 5 July 2013

Interesting thread, neo I was hoping you would get to the bottom of your issue but can understand your frustration.

Blackhorse06 · 5 July 2013

Well... This what a very tech savy friend of mine sent me after I took the ECU to him:

I took it apart just now, it doesn't look good. The board has a few pads
missing where the socket pins go, although I don't think that was the problem.
It looks like either the socket wasn't making good contact to the chip (crappy
socket was used), or pins 13 and 14 were shorted due to poor rework. But I
can't be sure of either right now.

Good news is, it probably won't get any worse. I will take it to my office
tomorrow, clean it and look at it under the inspection station. I have higher
quality sockets, and I am pretty sure I can wire around any pads that broke.
There's only 28 to check.

We shall see where I go from here.

Blackhorse06 · 13 July 2013

NSXcitement · 13 July 2013

Glad you got it "soldered" out!

NSXT · 14 July 2013

Photo of original ecu chip showing pins 17 and 18 with solder pads/vias torn from the PCB.

I believe the real failure of BlackHorse's ECU was either pin 13 trace broken near the pad, and/or pin 14 (GND) not soldered correctly because its PCB pad was missing as well.

If I were not capable of reworking my own circuit boards, then I would probably give BrianK on these boards a call or find a PCB shop locally and ask them to rework it. Whoever removed this chip should not be soldering.

Ponyboy · 14 July 2013

Congrats on getting it worked out. As I was reading the thread, I was considering loaning you a spare ECU! At least you would have a semi-functioning car.

Please posts your thoughts of the upgrade after more driving.

L_RAO · 14 July 2013

I don't mean to hijack this thread but - Hey Ponyboy / Shawn - your inbox is full. Please clear out so I can send you something.

neonshaun · 14 July 2013

Blackhorse06 said:
<style>  </style> Well, low and behold it was the soldering and original chip removal/bad ZIF socket. It seems when Prospeed removed the original chip, they pulled several pads off the circuit board and the soldering was done very poorly. While I am extremely frustrated by the amount of down time that I had to endure, I still think this is an excellent mod for the money.

If you are thinking about doing this mod you might want to have Prospeed send you the chip and have someone who has more experience with soldering techniques and chip removal to do the work for you instead. If you have had this mod done and start to experience any issues, that is the first place I would look.

Damn... jealous that you got it working. My car (back to stock) is still having no issues (besides the clutch master cyl blowing out last night).
I'm through tinkering with this, and will sell my kit soon and start saving for a supercharger.

JD Cross · 15 July 2013

As someone thinking about ordering this kit, has there been any support from the vendor on all this?

docjohn · 15 July 2013

JD Cross said:
As someone thinking about ordering this kit, has there been any support from the vendor on all this?

I was wondering the same.

Blackhorse06 · 15 July 2013

A HUGE thanks to Spencer (NSXT) for all his help in resolving this issue. He definitely save me loads of money by not having to fish around and exchanging parts and pay for shop diagnostic work! A few hours in his "Garage Ma Hall" and less than a week at his shop and viola... I am back enjoying my car!

Ponyboy: I really appreciate the offer should it have come to that. That is what makes this car and the community the BEST!

Neon: Sorry that it did not work out. I know you were/are as frustrated as I am! I think that out of this last group buy with Prospeed 2 of us had this issue and I believe more are possible if the work was done the same way. It is just a matter of time.

I am going to try and find time to take it to a dyno and see what true gains are made but after driving it for a couple of days, the car does pull stronger. Like I said before this is a great mod but I would strongly suggest that you have someone else do the chip removal/install. That being said; there are a lotof people here on prime who have done this mod and not had the same issues that Neon and I have had, I am not trying to bash Prospeed but my experience was alittle more than frustrating.

JD: See above. Brian from Prospeed was difficult to get ahold of at times. He did offer to look at the ECU again after my troubles began but shipping back to him was at my cost. He did fail to find the issues with the soldering and and pulled pads and was never able to really solve my problem. Again, this is agreat mod for the price and Brian seems to be a great guy when you can get him. I understand that he is a college student and can be very busy (we’ve all been there!) but he is also a business owner and customer service should be a very high priority!

Joseph · 17 July 2013

f*ck that. Why would you buy from a business if the product quality & customer service sucks.

sr5guy · 21 July 2013

The ECU board is a 4 plane board (top trace layer, +5volts layer, ground layer and bottom trace layer) it is extremely difficult to desolder a through hole chip since any solder sucking apparatus has a hard time reaching the top pad. This is why I use a custom adapter on a hot air rework station to remove these precisely so that this wont happen. This looks like it will have to be repaired using some jumper wires, not really hard just time consuming.

-Matt

NSXT · 22 July 2013

Correct. Perhaps Prospeed should be contracting with you to do ECU rework since they evidently didn't have the time, tools, nor knowledge to find and fix the problem they created.

Particularly disappointing, since Blackhorse's ECU was at Prospeed a second time for verification after he specifically questioned the original soldering.

Trouble with Prospeed RDX and ECU upgrade

Blackhorse06

NSXGB

Blackhorse06

geometro

Blackhorse06

neonshaun

neonshaun

neonshaun

Blackhorse06

Blackhorse06

neonshaun

Ko-nsx

Blackhorse06

Blackhorse06

NSXcitement

NSXT

Attachments

Ponyboy

L_RAO

neonshaun

JD Cross

docjohn

Blackhorse06

Joseph

sr5guy

NSXT

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