I had extensive engine modifications in progress, and planned, so I needed a programmable ECU to tweak and optimize the result of each modification. After much research I chose the Zemulator from Ashley Powers as he is a renowned 300ZX tuner and performance parts supplier with a record of many happy, satisfied, customers. Ashley quickly sent me a Zem and gave me access to the latest version of the software which installed on my laptop, but did not run, but then supplied an earlier version that actually worked. Because I had a Hitech Performance chip installed and did not want to potentially void the warranty by opening and playing with the box, I purchased another ECU with a ZIF socket and I tested this ECU with the standard chip to prove it was a good one. I followed the instructions, to the letter, and installed the Zemulator and was disappointed in that the Zem did not communicate with the ECU. Ashley said that the ZIF may be the problem and I should tin the legs of the plug to ensure good contact. I did this with no improvement. I was really disappointed and decided I did not care about the warranty on the Hitech so I opened the box pulled the chip and fitted the Zem. Same problem as with the ZIF. Ashley said it may need a machined socket so I purchased another ECU and went to my local electronics repair shop and had the old chip removed and the machined socket installed. I plugged in a standard chip into the machined socket to test the ECU and it worked well. I pulled the standard chip and fitted the Zem and it appeared to work for a brief time. Long enough to take the car to a dyno, spend hundreds of bucks and be told that the program is not allowing adjustment of timing of fuel. The Zem then failed to communicate at all with the ECU. Ok so now three different, proven working, ECUs do not wish to work with the Zem and I have spent tens of hours and hundreds of dollars with no satisfaction. If this product does not work for me, then I should stop now. No more money or time on an electronic device that has only displayed potential as a conversation piece. The Zemulator is returned to Ashley. If another Zemulator is ever returned to me, under warrantee, then I will offer it for sale on the Forum. A good working Zemulator in a good working ECU would be hard to surpass, regardless of price but I personaly could not trust a product that has betrayed my trust so completely. See chapter 2. The Haltech E11V2 ?Power without Accessories?.
wow man that really sucks, awesome write up though... dont you love how it works just long enough so you can spend hundreds on the dyno with it...
thats interesting. wonder why it won't work on jap ecus. is there any physical difference between the US/jap ecu?
Sorry you didn't have any luck with the ZEM.... No offence but 99% of the time its a user error or just something that has been overlooked. I think zemulator is a great piece of software and ash has done well to implement things such as live trace, etc. The zem is basically a rebadged romulator combined with the zemulator software and a few other bits and pieces. I'm not sure what planet your tuners are on but the zem allows full control of the fuel and timing maps of high octance, low octane and the fifth gear maps. The best function of the zem is live trace.... love it! That's my 2 cents anyway.... Sorry you didn't have a good experience with retuning the stock ECU however good luck to you in the future! :zlove:
does the zem actually physically perform a live trace, or just use the TP equation to determine which cell is being queried?
