LM-1 Any opinions?

[ronin]

anyone have any experience with the LM-1? what, if any, are your impressions? observations?

[Purrybonker]

I've been playing with an LM-1 to set up every engine in the place . It's become indispensible.

As an example - I have run about a half dozen different versions of Steve W chips trying to get AFRs right on that sweet spot using the LM-1. That little box has taught me that big differences in fuel mixtures, like running considerably over lean or rich are not necessarily detectable in the driver's seat or elsewhere.

LM-1 (or similar device) should almost be mandatory for even minor engine modifications.

[ronin]

good info, thanks! are you using the unit strictly for AFR, or have you bought other periphs for deeper analysis? (such as the AuxBox) also, how's the pc software?

[Purrybonker]

I don't have the aux box, but I've really only been concerned about getting AFRs setup properly to take advantage of exhaust/intake mods on my car.

Software (eg Logworks) is simple to use and pretty effective. Logged data can be yanked into excel - so you can pretty much do whatever you want with it from there.

I have captured WOT switch, RPM, AFR and AFM/MAF signal on runs with the LM-1 - you can drive up to 5 signals into the LM (without aux box).

Probably the only beef I have with the unit is the silly parallel port. You hafta get a parallel/USB converter to plug this thing into any laptop made in this century. I like to run the LM linked to a laptop in the car when doing test runs. You can use the LM stand alone in the car and then dump data into a desktop later. I guess you could save the price of the parallel/usb interface that way.

Interesting the number of guys I see running around with LMs sitting on their consoles - particularily turbo cars that. Pushing boost increases the worries about engine-damaging AFRs I guess.

[klatinn]

Hi PurryBonker,

The LM-1 has a serial port, not a parallel port.
There are several reasons the LM-1 uses a serial port, not USB:

1. We are coming out with a range of other products that can be daisy chained on the serial port of the LM-1. Both display products and logging products up to 30 channels. Daisy-chaining USB would be prohibitively expensive. Also USB cable length is very restricted.

2. Noise immunity. A full spec serial interface is much less susceptible to electrical noise radiated into the cables than USB. USB is high speed with 3.3V signal amplitude and noise threshhold of 0.5V only. Serial RS-232 is +- 12V signal amplitude with 2.5V or more noise threshhold. It's not susceptible to high speed pulse noise like USB (ignition noise). This is not a problem in an office environment. In a car its extremely important.
The only high-speed interface as robust as serial would be CAN-bus.

3. A lot of people using the LM-1 with a laptop in the car use older laptops (don't want bang around an expensive new one) which don't have USB, but do have serial ports.

Regards,
Klaus'

[304065]

Klaus,

Do you know whether innovate plans to offer analysis software for the accelerometer data? I have a DL-90 data logger which has an excellent analytical program, is there a way to convert the output from the Aux Box into something like CSV that could be read by the DL-90 program?

Thanks

[klatinn]

Do you know whether innovate plans to offer analysis software for the accelerometer data?

Yes, that's planned for LogWorks 2.0 (after the current show season SEMA, PRI .... ). I don't know the DL-90 software, so I can't say what's required to interface to it.
For LW 2.0 we also plan to introduce a Visual Basic interface, so users can add their own features as VB modules.

Regards,
Klaus

[304065]

Klaus, thanks for the update. I can't wait to try your product.

[Purrybonker]

Originally posted by klatinn
Hi PurryBonker,

The LM-1 has a serial port, not a parallel port.
There are several reasons the LM-1 uses a serial port, not USB:

1. We are coming out with a range of other products that can be daisy chained on the serial port of the LM-1. Both display products and logging products up to 30 channels. Daisy-chaining USB would be prohibitively expensive. Also USB cable length is very restricted.

2. Noise immunity. A full spec serial interface is much less susceptible to electrical noise radiated into the cables than USB. USB is high speed with 3.3V signal amplitude and noise threshhold of 0.5V only. Serial RS-232 is +- 12V signal amplitude with 2.5V or more noise threshhold. It's not susceptible to high speed pulse noise like USB (ignition noise). This is not a problem in an office environment. In a car its extremely important.
The only high-speed interface as robust as serial would be CAN-bus.

3. A lot of people using the LM-1 with a laptop in the car use older laptops (don't want bang around an expensive new one) which don't have USB, but do have serial ports.

Regards,
Klaus'

Thanks for the correction serial port vs. parallel. Always get those two confused.

I take it that I should not be running the LM and laptop in the car using a USB interface?

Not a big deal - but I like the convenience of being able to monitor all the inputs real time with the laptop.

Thanks

Ken

Edit: BTW - what is the timeline for logworks 2 release?

[klatinn]

Hi PurryBonker,

I take it that I should not be running the LM and laptop in the car using a USB interface?

No, that's not what I mean at all. A USB to serial I/F has a very short USB cable typically. For such a short cable the noise problem is minimal or non-existent. If you have a USB cable longer than about 3 ft in a car, the problem can be much bigger, specially in the engine compartment.

BTW - what is the timeline for logworks 2 release?

It's planned for a Jan/Feb release.

Regards,
Klaus

[widebody911]

Do you have a linux port of LogWorks?

[klatinn]

No,

Unfortunately we are busy enough developing the MS version. 99.9% of our customers use Windows, so it does not make economic sense for us to port it to other OS's.

Regards,
Klaus