Smarty, the new CaTCHER tool.

[Marco]

FTwardoch,



That's the SAME thing I noticed in the truck I drove with the " surge ".

Want to give Barry's findings a try?

 

[BJMarshall]

Marco's right. The surge has been totally eliminated in my truck. In the short time we were testing Marco gave me 18 different programs to try. I managed to test 5 yesterday and he worked up 9 more for me to test today based on the best results from yesterday. I am very impressed. 3 of the 9 I tested today eliminated the surge completely.

All of the aggressive throttle response we love (I'm assuming we all love it) is still there, but the application is smooth all the way from 1400 (the lowest I could test without forcing a downshift) to 3200 (way faster than I needed to be going)

It may be a little easier to test further and fine tune a little with someone who has a stick simply because of the high speeds I have to test at. Since I have an automatic that still operates as a stock one ie no mystery switch or controller, I can only really load mine up in 3rd or 4th with the converter locked. I have a fairly loose converter by choice, so trying to test something that only occurs around 1800 rpms is impossible.

The only issue, and I really dont consider it an issue is I can see an ever so slight increase in power as I am releasing the throttle. Let's say I am at 3/4 throttle and slowly back off. As the throttle passes back through a point somewhere around 1/2, I may see a little blip in boost and feel a slight increase in power. The variables that cause this are nearly impossible to identify and even harder to reproduce.

I feel that Marco is a perfectionist when it comes to drivability as am I. That's why I built my own transmission and pulled it 3 times and pulled the valve body about 15 times is so that I could get it just right. This would be much simpler if we were only trying to get max power out of an engine at full throttle, but we want great power, and perfect drivability as well.

 

[BJMarshall]

FTwardoch,

Your symptoms are identical to mine. You should try the changes Marco has made and see if they help you as well. Power still comes on strong as the turbo begins to build boost, but the application is much smoother, and the dead feeling has been eliminated.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Driving normal (not aggressive) going through the gears, upon going into TCC lockup, if you are in the 1300-1600ish rpm range, it feels like it stops pulling (as measured by the SOP meter). Pushing the loud pedal does nothing to make it feel stronger until you kick it hard enough to downshift.

That's GOTTA be a sensor vs software issue!



The APPS is asking for acceleration, and the resulting "discussion" between speed sensor, and other sensors is denying that you need, or can have it under those conditions - until you REALLY get agressive and DEMAND more fueling, jumping conditions up to another "page" of programming - then all hell breaks loose...



I'd bet on a sensor vs programming "hole" or conflict.

 

[Marco]

Gary,

various guys have swapped out each and every sensor that Cummins provided the engine with. To no avail.



WHAT causes the surge, I still dunno! :{ :-{}



Not a biggie, seems like the cure has been found. .

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Gary,

various guys have swapped out each and every sensor that Cummins provided the engine with. To no avail.



WHAT causes the surge, I still dunno! :{ :-{}



Not a biggie, seems like the cure has been found. .

I guess the most revealing event. will be to see if a SINGLE software "adjustment" will correct each separate vehicle - and if that can be done with no noticeable sacrifice in Smarty performance.

 

[Marco]

Gary,

Yes, of course!



That's why I want to have a lot more people test the changes before I release an official update! Barry's results need to be confirmed by several others. For what I know today, I've fixed just one truck...

HOPE is that it fixes also the other trucks. We'll see...

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Say, Marco - since I'll be on a fairly long RV-towing trip in widely varying conditions, and use both the Smarty and the Comp together, any specific tests or settings you'd like a report on?

 

[MCummings]

The only issue, and I really dont consider it an issue is I can see an ever so slight increase in power as I am releasing the throttle. Let's say I am at 3/4 throttle and slowly back off. As the throttle passes back through a point somewhere around 1/2, I may see a little blip in boost and feel a slight increase in power. The variables that cause this are nearly impossible to identify and even harder to reproduce.

I get this with my truck as well. It is hard to reproduce, but it is wierd. If I lug the motor really low, say 500rpm, then get on it really aggressive, when the truck is idling back down, the rpm will flair up a few hundred all by itself.



When my trans gets done I'll take a video of it.



Merrick

 

[kshimizu]

Marco,



I just sent you an email as well. If you can email me the different programs I can test them out with a manual. SW5 was surging on me this morning on the way to work. I'll have more time to test it out this weekend so if you can send it to me soon I'll check what happens with my truck. Thanks

 

[FTwardoch]

That's GOTTA be a sensor vs software issue!



The APPS is asking for acceleration, and the resulting "discussion" between speed sensor, and other sensors is denying that you need, or can have it under those conditions - until you REALLY get agressive and DEMAND more fueling, jumping conditions up to another "page" of programming - then all hell breaks loose...



I'd bet on a sensor vs programming "hole" or conflict.

Gary,



This dead spot developed literally an hour after REMOVING an Edge EZ and downloading Smarty #9. Sensor? I don't believe in coincidences like that.

 

[FTwardoch]

FTwardoch,



That's the SAME thing I noticed in the truck I drove with the " surge ".

Want to give Barry's findings a try?

ABSOLUTELY! I'll PM you right now and give you my email addy. Thanks for the great ongoing Customer Service.

 

[MCummings]

Remember a long time ago when Dodge got in trouble for a delayed schedule in teh '98. 5 ECM's that allowed more power, and fell outside of EPA's limits after hard driving for 15 minutes?



Maybe this has something to do with it?



Merrick

 

[Marco]

I've spend the last couple hours test driving the three files that fixed Barry's truck. One smokes more than what I like. The others; NO difference in my truck.

Power is smooth and predictable exactly like the original CaTCHER softwares.

Go figure...



Well, from a certain point of view it's a good thing. Those softwares can be used also on the trucks that don't exhibit the surge. Another step towards the final solution is done.



Marco

 

[SMolteberg]

I have been following this thread for time to time, and I want to chime in now. I also have the "flat spot" or surge. Mine is a 01. 5 with stock auto. I drive with a light foot and have been mostly using the "FS" program. I have now changed to #5 and can feel it more now. I have only tried #9 once and found out that my stock transmission would most likely take a dump after a couple of days if I kept it at that level.

Could this issue mainly be with the 01. 5? If I don't remember wrong you have had some issues with the 01. 5 software back in the catcher days?

For your use Marco my truck has 285/75-16 tires with a 3. 55 rear end. I rarly drive above 62mph. It don't matter so much to me, maybe it's the best for my stock transmission

 

[GMcLeod]

I'll try to describe what *I* feel as it (the dead spot as I call it) happens.



Truck is an '01. 5 Auto - twin disk converter, beefed internals and a hard shifting valve body. 3. 54 gears, 315 tires - a natural setup for 'lugging'.



Driving normal (not aggressive) going through the gears, upon going into TCC lockup, if you are in the 1300-1600ish rpm range, it feels like it stops pulling (as measured by the SOP meter). Pushing the loud pedal does nothing to make it feel stronger until you kick it hard enough to downshift.



Once it hits 1750ish (all rpm ranges are approximates) it is like it gets a kick and starts pulling hard once again. It only happens when in lockup.



It did NOT exhibit this characteristic with the Edge EZ on it before - which is primarily why I originally asked about this. All things equal, I went from the EZ to Smarty and the flat spot appeared.



Dunno if this helps or if it is the same symptoms as most are describing (the surge discussion may be the same as the flat spot - surge being the sudden 'take off' in SOP-felt power after the flat spot is experienced).



Either way, I love my Smarty... ... ... ... .

This is exactly what my truck is doing! I haven't called it a surge but it sure sounds exactly like your truck.

I notice it in my boost gauge along with the dead feeling of power. I have had my boost fall off as much as 15lbs before it would pick back up

Today with warmer weather here in Wyoming the truck started to do it in some of the lower gears, 2nd and 3rd. Perhaps it is temp related along with altitude.

Marco if you need a tester that has a truck with an upgraded trans let me know I would be happy to help out if I can. Oo.

 

[Fishin Guide]

This is what my '02 is doing.



Dave

 

[NoSeeUm]

I can't say that my truck does it, only one thing weird ever happened to me running at SW9.



I was re-starting after stopping at a light. I got into 3rd gear and was pushing on the accelerator pedal as normal. I was not really paying that much attention, just normal city driving. When all of the sudden the truck literally jumped out from under me. The back of my head smacking the seat head rest was my first clue.



This is not an un-normal hard acceleration for my truck in 3rd (the cam really lets the turbo light) but the weird part was the truck just did it on its own. Read through some of the posts above I must have hit the "dead spot", and did not realize it. I was certain for a bit of time afterwords that my truck or the Smarty needed exorcism.



Never has done it again though.



Jim

 

[Marco]

News

Gang,



It's been a looong Saturday...



I've just received an E-Mail from Kyle. He's still testing the updated software but it looks like the surge is gone.



I've just published a beta update version with the "surge fix" on our web page

Here: http://www.madselectronics.com/downloadfiles/Smte5_06.rar



If you want to give it a try... Please just make sure to let Us / Me know how it works for you. Thanks!



At this point it would be also interesting to see what happens when this update is used in a 2001-2002 truck that does NOT have the surge. Using those files in my truck, nothing changed. If that's confirmed by others also then I'll use that update as the regular software for Smarty.



Also just published are new USB and USBL downloaders. It takes now less then half the time to do an update to Smarty. If you had already downloaded them, get these new ones! WAY faster than before! A complete update for Smarty takes now 7 minutes. 15 before...



Coming soon...

We have improved the ECM update protocol further! It takes now 30 seconds less to update an ECM than before! 1 minute and 33 seconds!!! That's a world

record... :-laf :-laf

We're still testing the new protocol but should be able to get the update validated sometimes next week. At that point ALL Smarty's out there should be updated with the new software.

Stay tuned I'll let you know ASAP!



Marco

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Marco, I know your plate is full, and you have LOTS of higher priority stuff demanding your attention - but as a request and suggestion, it would be a BIG plus for those of us with oversize tires needing the ABS function, to still be able to adjust tire size while the Smarty/ECM are in "stock" mode, rather than having the ECM default back to the older invalid tire size and losing the ABS updated one.



Maybe that's not possible without compromising the VIN lock, but if it is possible, it would be a big plus.