ok, who has the technology to read/ program a 420a ecu??? I have an eprom stuck in mine that I need to get working. I had it put in my original ecu by some guy in oregon who has since quit doing it. my coil pack blew and fried the ecu. we pulled the chip out and mounted it in a good ecu but now the car doesn't start. I'm trying to figure out if it just needs reprogramming or if it's shot. when the ecu fried the car still ran on 2 cylinders so I'm pretty sure the chip is still ok. the chip was supposed to be similar to the turbo "stage 3" chip- raised rev limit, no fuel cut etc... the car did run like it was kicked in the ass before it fried and I'd like to get that feeling back. I'd appreciate any kind of help or advice.

well, a chip for the 420a is news to us...there isn't one for the 420a mass produced and no one to read/program them. The only place we know of that modded 420a ECU's was Howell automotive, and that was only for 97 MT ECU's... me thinks you're SOL...

what trim car do you drive? We don't have an EPROM, but the GST's and GSX's do.

i have a 97 talon esi. the chip is an atmel (i have pics at home i can post) i don't know jack about electronics or programming, but the guy who did the mod sent it somewhere to be programmed after he installed the chip (satan maybe?) timberline dodge is close to where he was and they sell perf ecu's for neons so maybe someone there did it.

Originally posted by bitchmagnet
i have a 97 talon esi.

MTX? I wonder if this is the same thing as the AFX/R ECU? Not sure what they do there, or how they do it, but even so. Curiosity in the house.

Originally posted by bitchmagnet
the chip is an atmel

I doubt this means anything to anyone here.

Originally posted by bitchmagnet
(i have pics at home i can post)

Please do so.

Originally posted by bitchmagnet
i don't know jack about electronics or programming, but the guy who did the mod sent it somewhere to be programmed after he installed the chip (satan maybe?) timberline dodge is close to where he was and they sell perf ecu's for neons so maybe someone there did it.

:shrug

Is this chip actually ON THE BOARD or is it some sort of piggyback converter? I can't think of anyone that has taken the time to figure out our ECU's internal code to the point that they would pull the stock chip and then put a reproggramed EPROM in. Not saying it's not possible, but you're the first one to ever mention its existence and now you're asking us how to work on it. First thing I would do in your position is call the guy who installed it, why isn't he doing tech support for you? Secondly, take pictures of the SOB and post them so you can prove you aren't full of shit, as there will be those acqusations soon. The third thing I would do in your position is take a few electronics and programming classes so, if this chip does work, you can relocate it to outside the ECU and access it for reprogramming much easier. The problem with a chip is that when you want to add a new mod you gotta pull the chip and reprogram it for best effect.
I did a quick search for 'Atmel' and the only real automotive application I saw was for GPS. It would make since to me that someone took one of these chips and programmed it to acgt as a piggy back, but I don't know why they wouldn't just use a Stamp instead. Oh well, good luck.

There is actually a company in either Brazil or Argentina (i think) that has done this - unsoldered and socketed not the PROCESSOR (because the processor is dumb) but the FLASH, because that's where all the important stuff is stored anyway. never heard of anyone doing it in the states, or to a 2GNT ecu, even though internally it should be the same as a Neon controller.

A coilpack dying shouldn't "fry" an ECU, however speed sensors shorting to ground have been known to kill the ECU's 9v+ circuit.

electauto in argentina and they have many resellers

http://www.elecauto.com/

and atmel is mostly a manufacturer of flash rams and some micro-controllers

Alain

Doesn't an atmel chip have a socket, or something similar, that they plug into? I'd like to see some pics of this atmel chip, along with where you removed it from within the ECU. If I can get my hands on an atmel programmer, I'd be willing to try to pull the info off mine and see what it's got and if I can decifer any of it.

**EDIT**
Just got word that my brother has an atmel programmer. Let me know where the chip is in the ECU (pic prefered, or numbered location), and I'll see if I can read the data on my chip.

Not all 2GNT ECU's use an AMTEL flash chip. Most i've taken apart use an ST chip. I've taken apart several 2GNT ECU's and none of them used an AMTEL chip, come to think of it, but if the pinout and internal architecture is the same between the ST variations i've seen and the AMTEL chips you're talking about, no reason why it shouldn't work.

I've got an ECU I can hack up and see what we can do with it. If we can read it, the next step is figuring out what data does what.

Originally posted by cougar694u
I've got an ECU I can hack up and see what we can do with it. If we can read it, the next step is figuring out what data does what.

cool, i have a couple extra ones i can hack on too. i have a pic of the chip on the home page of rochesterdsm.org (my usual hangout). i'm not sure if i can upload pics to this site, but i can add some on rochdsm. the original chip was pulled out and replaced with the atmel, unfortunately not socketed. the guy said he sent it out to be programmed afterwards so i assumed that it was done either from the plug or an obdII. my guess is that it would be like flashing a bios once we figure out how to communicate with it. i wanted him to do a second one but he said it was too much work for the money and he was getting out of it. (his email address has been dead for over a year now).

I know for a fact that my brothers programmer won't work with that. I believe his is for a DIP16.

Originally posted by bitchmagnet
my guess is that it would be like flashing a bios once we figure out how to communicate with it. i wanted him to do a second one but he said it was too much work for the money and he was getting out of it.

it's not even close, if you try the pass-through programming method. I've read the documents, and unless you have a DRB3 programming tool and can reverse engineer the checksum to allow a modified flash image to be programmed, you'll never make it work.

the one ecu i have has a sticker on it that says something about a drb3 scanner. the dealership we had good relations with just closed up 2 weeks ago and the other one in town is, well.....satan. i'm going to find a way to crack this thing and will post when i find something that works.

here are some pics of the chip finally.

http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=9/25022015365.jpg&s=x4
http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=9/25022041696.jpg&s=x4
http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=9/25022045369.jpg&s=x4

Originally posted by bitchmagnet
here are some pics of the chip finally. http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=9/25022015365.jpg&s=x4 http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=9/25022041696.jpg&s=x4 http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=9/25022045369.jpg&s=x4

i wonder if you've got one made for the neon...supposedly they will work with a few re-wireings done in the ECU plug...

I have a 96 eclipse base model and was wondering if there is any place that sells ecu chips for my car and how I can get a hold of the place. thanks for any help.

Originally posted by dziredmitsu
I have a 96 eclipse base model and was wondering if there is any place that sells ecu chips for my car and how I can get a hold of the place. thanks for any help.

NO
If you would have read/understood this post you would have seen that only AFX (howellautomotive.com) sells a modded ECU for the 97 manual cars ONLY. thats it.

Who knows where this guy got one dropped into his ECU or if it even is a 2gnt ECU and not a rewired neon ECU.

Holy back from the dead! I almost forgot about this post, never reall got resolved either, I was kinda wanting to see where it would go and what we decided had happened to his ECU.