Holding the down arrow while powering up will do the self test. If you hold down the left Select button while powering on, that will put you in programing mode for the 2-stage ramp. Thats when you would see the 00 flash. You shouldn't have to play with the ramps unless you are blowing the tires away and want the boost to come up slower.
Basically all you need to do is use the left button to select stage 1 (the LED for 1 will be highlighted) and use the up and down arrows to set it to the desired boost. Every time you power on the car it defaults to stage 1. This would apply to all the time you drive the car on the street and could be used for the track too.
To use the stages, you need a trigger while staging (such as a transbrake) to power the brown launch wire to put the MSBC in the launch stage. After that, it will go through the various timed stages based on the times you programmed in. If you want to run the same boost the whole run then you set all the stages to the same boost while setting the launch mode boost to whatever boost you want. To set the boost for each stage just select the stage with the left select button to highlight each stage LED and set each one. The main reason to run the stages is if you want to run lower boost in 3rd gear compared to earlier in a run. Then you could set the timer for stage 1 for 5 seconds, for example, so that it would go to stage 2 after 5 seconds. So you could set the launch stage to 8psi, stage 1 to 25spi, and stages 2-5 to 23psi. On a 1/4 mile run you would launch at 8, go to 25psi and then after 5 seconds it will drop to 23psi. Easy enough, right? Remember, for the stages to work a switch has to power the launch wire while staging, or else it will just stay on stage 1 forever and not go through any stages.
Also, the only way to have a wastegate spring that will launch at 8psi and then go to 25psi is to use CO2 because you need a weak enough spring that won't go over 8psi (and CO2 covers the rest of the pressure to get you to 25psi). Without CO2, if you have a strong wastegate spring that goes to 25psi on its own, then while staging it will go right past 8psi because nothing will stop it. In that case, use a Bob Bailey 2-step for launching by limiting the rpm and this will allow the launch stage to work better to limit boost.
As far as wastegate mode, there are two things I like about it compared to operating the MSBC in manifold mode. First, the boost is controlled more accurately in wastegate mode as manifold mode seems prone to boost spikes. Second, spooling seems better in wastegate mode because the wastegate regulation happens when wastegate mode is enabled whereas in manifold mode you have to wait until you get to 3psi before the MSBC is activated. Wastegate mode requires different plumbing for the boost lines and requires the yellow wire to be grounded for it to be activated. The yellow wire can be grounded with a switch at the starting line or whenever you want to on the street (you don't want it on all the time because as you heard it activates the solenoids). Alternatively, you can do it like I did and hook up the yellow wire to a Hobbs switch that grounds out at 1psi (so anytime I go over 1psi wastegate mode is turned on automatically).
Most people have the MSBC wired in manifold mode and it gives boost spikes and a lot of criticism. Using wastegate mode gives much better boost control but requires a switch as outlined above and is how mine are set up. The AMS boost control units that everyone loves always use wastegate mode. The negative about using wastegate mode is that the boost you set the MSBC to is not the boost you are going to run, it is the pressure to apply to the top of the wastegate in addition to the spring. It takes some trial and error, or data logging, to figure out what numbers to type in but its consistent. In one of my cars I have a stiff wastegate spring so I only have the MSBC set to 8 to get 24lbs of boost. In my other car with CO2 I have a weak wastegate spring and have the MSBC set to 17 to get 22lbs of boost.
There you go, all I know about the MSBC in a nutshell. :smile:
;
I did print your post and place it in my files though. 
