DTAForum.com - a forum for the DTA ECU

Hello!

I am new user here and I have this old E48 ecu in my motorbike.

Model: E48
Version: 1.0A
F/Ware 27.0
Serial No. 4056

My battery just literally died today, and after I replaced it with new one, this is what happened:

When I turn ignition on, i can see my meters wakes up but can't hear any priming from fuel pump. I can crank my engine but fuel pump does not make any sound and there is no spark coming.
I am also unable to connect to ecu with my laptop (some error messages while attempting to connect).

BUT when i took the ecu to my hands and accidently put it down laying on my bike's steelframe - the fuel pump started to prime. Also tried to crank while it was laying there but still no spark coming. So, when i lead the ground from the battery to the body of the ecu, something happens?
Same behavior comes also, when I connect the RS232 cable to the ecu port.

Is there any proper way to inspect if the ecu is dead or is there any specific electricial components that might get easily "burned"?

All the wiring and fuses are OK (+12v and ground comes to ecu connector pins) and the ecu and the vehicle has been working all fine before.

so its been powered up with no real ground? apart from through the case of the ecu?
could have fried something

Have you tried disconnecting the battery again?

No, the connetcor has been connected to the ecu all the time and i have made all the power and ground inspections also when the connector is connected to the ecu. I havent opened the aluminium body of the ecu at any time. So the power and the ground has been coming to the ecu all the time from the original connector and while its fitted in. The ecu "wakes up" (or atleast the fuel pump wakes up) when the ecu body touches the ground.

Yes I have tried to disconnect the battery without any results.

(sorry my bad english, i am from finland)

your English is better than my Finnish ha ha

I'm sure Alex will be along soon with an answer.

I dont know about the E series ECU's, but the S series has an earth post on the case for a good ground connection.

If you have somehow accidently flashed +12v cable onto the case then this melts an internal track on the rear of the PCB which sometimes can be replaced with a piece of wire, sometimes its fixable, sometimes not! Does it smell of burning inside the ecu?

Or the ECU earth is broken and grounding the case bypasses the fault. Either where it ground on chassis or battery or in harness... or internal as you say.

I opened the aluminium body of the ecu and noticed one broken pin. Its one of those black small boxes wich are attached on the side of the ecu body. (see the pics)

Also got into the ecu with my software on laptop using the masterpin-number and noticed the map has gone really fucked up. Weird values etc. So i reloaded the real map to the ecu and while i crank the engine, the bike tries to fire up but still not enought to make the engine run. And still the same weird behavior, the fuel pump primes only when the aluminium body of the ecu touches the negative ground.

I made a little test:

I connected the ecu to my bike, and put it down on my bike's leather seat so the ecu body didn't get any negative ground touch. After that i turned the ignition on and used a small screwdriver to reconnect the broken pin of the component in the picture i uploaded earlier. The fuel pump started to prime, and the engine started normally and ran idle speed.

I took the ecu now to the local electrician mechanic and he will re-attach the broken component.

I have a feeling that the problem was the broken pin of the component I will make one more update when I get my ecu back and get it tested in riding conditions.

It's nice when problems are solved before I log on!

I have seen many like that it usually means the ecu is finished, you will need to check the underside of the board to see if a track has been burned, as MEF said you may fix it with a piece of wire but the ground plain is usually fried so no fix.