Power Commander

[ScottW]

How many teams plan on using a Dynojet Power Commander or similar engine managment system and if not what are the disadvantages of using one?

Thanks, Scott

[ScottW]

How many teams plan on using a Dynojet Power Commander or similar engine managment system and if not what are the disadvantages of using one?

Thanks, Scott

[Jersey Tom]

Again, not an engine guy, but we had been using a Power Commander.

My understanding is while you can do some tweaking of fuel maps with it, its just a piggyback unit modifying the stock ECU. You can't get as in depth as you would with a fully programmable ECU - adjusting fuel maps, spark advance, rev limiting, iplementing traction control..

[mtg]

Scott,

Were you at the FSAE Seminar back in early fall? I know a handfull of guys from your team were there. How's the car coming along?

I've driven an FSAE car with an F4i/Power Commander and a bunch of FSAE cars with ECU's such as Motec, etc.

The advantage of the fuel injected bike/Power Commander setup is this:
For a team with no engine dyno, it's a relatively cheap, easy, fast solution to get an engine that should do pretty decent in an FSAE car.

The advantage of using an aftermarket ECU is this:
With an engine dyno and a crapload of manhours, you can tune the engine to be more efficient (ie more power) than with the Power Commander.

The car I drove with the F4i/Power Commander setup (the '03 South Dakota School of Mines car) had a better running engine than some of the old UMR cars that were using MoTeC ECU's sans dyno tuning. Although, once UMR got an engine dyno and a LOT of manhours were put into tuning, the MoTeC setup was definitely better than the Power Commander setup.

So, if you don't have the manpower, money, and resources to go the aftermarket ECU route, the Power Commander is not a bad way to go.

[ScottW]

Thanks for the input. No, I was not at that seminar and we are a little behind but I think we'll be ready by competition.

[stu.pattison]

The power commander can't adjust the ignition side of things, only the fueling, but an aftermarket ecu can. Most bike ecu's are setup well enough for this not to be a huge problem, although there is another unit that plugs in in a similar way to the power commander that allows the advance etc to be adjusted. If I remember correctly, it's a dyno or dyna 2000, and it should be available from the same place you bought the power commander from

[Pennyman]

We're using Power Commander this year. Seems to be a good compromise between price and features for a first year team.