Is the LS1 maf translator the same as ours?
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REDS HOT AIR
Buick Tweaker
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i dont think so cause when we use it on ours it changes the readings so our old computers can understand it.
Goddammit. I'm an electrical engineer. I could make this stupid thing myself. If I had the specs on what signals the stock maf sends out, and what signals the ls1 maf sends out, I could make the translator myself. It's likely a very simple circuit. I see all these electronic gizmos being sold for outrageous amounts of money. I see digital gagues being sold for $60 a piece. wtf? I can make any digital gague with a $1 microprocessor and a $.30 seven-segment display. Knock gague is $80? Again, I could make it for a few bucks.
Man. Maybe I should start a career thinking of electronic devices people need for cars, designing the simple ass circuits they really are, and then selling them for ludicrious amounts of money like all the vendors do. Some stuff is actually complicated, like the new HKS boost controllers using fuzzy logic and such. But things like digital gagues, scanmaster, maf translators, 'blank' thumbwheel chips, etc all are extremely easy to make and extremely cheap to make.
REDS HOT AIR
Buick Tweaker
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YEAP REDICULAS AINT IT...im not into electronics but i have a friend who is and i've seen him build some cool stuff for cheap money.
look at the tps teck a switch that closes at a certain voltage wow a couple bucks but yet they're $70-$80
SilverSleeper
Senior Member
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Back to the original post...
I dont see why they would be different, the dip switches specify what car they are supossed to be for, and what maf is being used. Maybe I am wrong, but then I have barely had mine for a couple of weeks and Im still messing with it
According to a site with the instructions, switch 1 is to tell if it is a 6 or an 8.Switch 2 tells if it is early system (TB) or late model (ls1) system being used.
See this: http://www.turbomike.com/translator_switches.htm
I dont see why they would be different, the dip switches specify what car they are supossed to be for, and what maf is being used. Maybe I am wrong, but then I have barely had mine for a couple of weeks and Im still messing with it
According to a site with the instructions, switch 1 is to tell if it is a 6 or an 8.Switch 2 tells if it is early system (TB) or late model (ls1) system being used.
See this: http://www.turbomike.com/translator_switches.htm
BLACK6PACK
1 sec reaction King
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Berman,
yes you are correct about the cost of producing electronic gizmos, but then you also have to have a 2000 sf warehouse and several employees to put them together. You will also need insurance, and someone to actually ship them. The cost of doing business gets expensive quick. Now if you only do 10 gizmos a month, you could do them on your coffee table after work, but if you start getting orders for 200 a month, then the costs go up also.
I know what your saying though, I do graphic design and websites. I see what some people pay for a cheapo website and flip out. Thats why I do a little side work at $75/hr for play money, but I don't need the headache of running my own ad agency right now.
yes you are correct about the cost of producing electronic gizmos, but then you also have to have a 2000 sf warehouse and several employees to put them together. You will also need insurance, and someone to actually ship them. The cost of doing business gets expensive quick. Now if you only do 10 gizmos a month, you could do them on your coffee table after work, but if you start getting orders for 200 a month, then the costs go up also.
I know what your saying though, I do graphic design and websites. I see what some people pay for a cheapo website and flip out. Thats why I do a little side work at $75/hr for play money, but I don't need the headache of running my own ad agency right now.
LOL, they even printed the circuit in GM High Tech Performance, I made it for a few bucks. Kind of stupid actually. When you go 3/4 throttle, it goes full throttle. Big whoop.
I've done things for my cars that could likely sell for money. Built a stepper motor driver for the IAC valve on my LS1. Basically it allows you to turn a knob and adjust the idle up and down. It would probably sell for $150 or something
salvageV6
Daily Driver
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Obviously your time is very cheap! 
I am an EE too and the time to design and make the stuff certainly ain't worth the effort for $60-$70, heck even $200.
I can work a side job or overtime at something I am more of an expert at and pay for the TR parts plus dinner and gas, and work a lot less on design and more on the car mods.
Just my .02, plenty of new stuff to be designed out there for our cars go for it.
I am an EE too and the time to design and make the stuff certainly ain't worth the effort for $60-$70, heck even $200.
I can work a side job or overtime at something I am more of an expert at and pay for the TR parts plus dinner and gas, and work a lot less on design and more on the car mods.
Just my .02, plenty of new stuff to be designed out there for our cars go for it.
Originally posted by salvageV6
Obviously your time is very cheap!
I am an EE too and the time to design and make the stuff certainly ain't worth the effort for $60-$70, heck even $200.
I can work a side job or overtime at something I am more of an expert at and pay for the TR parts plus dinner and gas, and work a lot less on design and more on the car mods.
Just my .02, plenty of new stuff to be designed out there for our cars go for it.
You might have a point there about the time required for some of the stuff. stupid tps controller I could design very quickly. Scanmaster would take longer obviously. My specialty is digital devices and microprocessors, though, which basically matches up exactly to car devices. Now if I was a RF engineer designing cellular phone transcievers, then I would be out of my area some making car stuff. I'm just lucky that what I do, and what I'm best at, is what's needed for the car stuff
Now for all that patting myself on the back, I should go make something useful..
boostcreep
New Member
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With all the EE's here...how the heck do you turn the stock rpm led gauge into a knock sensor readout?? I've been trying to figure that one out for some time now and it's keeping me awake at night
Nick
Nick
Originally posted by boostcreep
With all the EE's here...how the heck do you turn the stock rpm led gauge into a knock sensor readout?? I've been trying to figure that one out for some time now and it's keeping me awake at night
Nick
You'd need to totally take apart the dash, and the tach circuit is in a printed circuit board obviously, so it would be a real pain to do to be honest. It might be near impossible to do. Unless you can remove just the tach/boost portion of the dash?? (all the TR's I've owned have the digital dash so I don't know about the analog dash)
BoostMasterK
2 boys now, need more GNs
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Hey, I resemble that remark!
Mike [
I too am an EE. As far as the stock MAF goes, the signal info is printed somewhere (maybe GM svc manual?, I'll have to check). The stock MAF is simply a airflow-to-frequency convertor. 0 to 255 (I think) grams/sec of airflow equates to 5 to 150 (? or something) Hz. The newer MAF's output voltage not frequency like our old units. I'm sure the newer MAF's airflow-to-voltage characteristics are well documented somewhere. So a "translator" would simply be a ...what? I'll leave that as an easy trivia question and see who gets it right.
Definately 0-255. You should know that if you're an ee
255 is the max value for 8 bits of data. FF in hex!All the translator is then is a simple circuit with a voltage controlled oscillator. Damn and that sells for $150. I need to be in the car electronics business. Now if you had to go the other way, from a frequency to a voltage ... that would be more difficult. Can't think of how to do that in a manner good enough for a car off the top of my head. That would be the most useless device ever. use your GN maf on a ls1!
Heheheeeee
Sell your GN MAF as a "Performance Turbocharged MAF" upgrade to all the unsuspecting little F-Body kiddies... Muahaha!!!! Since we are on the subject of designing... I want an in car control system....via touch panel, that would be installed using the entire AC/Radio "box" multiple guages, climate control, and...maybe radio control. I will do this when I get really old, fat, and lazy.....and rich. But being 19....I cannot afford that type of cash. I believe the skyline has a panel similar to this in it...
Sell your GN MAF as a "Performance Turbocharged MAF" upgrade to all the unsuspecting little F-Body kiddies... Muahaha!!!!
Since we are on the subject of designing... I want an in car control system....via touch panel, that would be installed using the entire AC/Radio "box" multiple guages, climate control, and...maybe radio control. I will do this when I get really old, fat, and lazy.....and rich. But being 19....I cannot afford that type of cash. I believe the skyline has a panel similar to this in it...Steve Wood
Active Member
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You should give it a try. I suspect when you multiply your projected sales price against the actual volume of sales, subtract the cost of liability insurance, tools, wages for a helper, utilities, parts, etc, you might understand why you are suddenly starving to death.
You might appreciate why your current employer charges what he does for the end product in order to pay your salary and make a decent return for himself.
Everyone should have to run his own business for a couple of years rather than wasting time taking a meaningless economics class.
Originally posted by Steve Wood
You should give it a try. I suspect when you multiply your projected sales price against the actual volume of sales, subtract the cost of liability insurance, tools, wages for a helper, utilities, parts, etc, you might understand why you are suddenly starving to death.
You might appreciate why your current employer charges what he does for the end product in order to pay your salary and make a decent return for himself.
Everyone should have to run his own business for a couple of years rather than wasting time taking a meaningless economics class.
Amen, Steve.
Also don't forget that these are sold wholesale to the vendors who then also have to make a living. God forbid anyone make a profit off a Buick guy.
All the translator is then is a simple circuit with a voltage controlled oscillator .
Ding..ding..ding..Yes! A simple V/F (voltage-to-frequency) converter with a few knobs to turn and you have it.
Damn and that sells for $150
Yup, knowledge is power...err...money.
Ding..ding..ding..Yes! A simple V/F (voltage-to-frequency) converter with a few knobs to turn and you have it.
Damn and that sells for $150
Yup, knowledge is power...err...money.
