New Miller Alpha-N System

[brody]

I am "shocked" that you do not know what Cyntex is/was. Cyntex had one of the first Alpha-N products in the US, worked with Jim Conforti. I forwarded the link to the folks at MAXX Automotive, I would like to get their input on not using wideband. You are right, I am not an electrical engineer.

SHOCKED again LOL. Wow.

They went tits up before we were ever in business I guess. Been around for 10 years now and JimC's hayday has come and gone at least in terms of attention to these older models. Not really on the radar at all anymore.

Of course maxx will have something negative to say as this is now a directly competing product! We decided to go ahead and develop this system because of the inadequacies of the MAXX system caused by the use of his piggyback. We had a customer bring in his maxx powered car wanting to switch to our MAF. Curious as to why he was unhappy and what was causing his issues we analyzed the system and monitored what was going on from the perspective of the ECU. The funniest thing is he doesnt consider his "controller" to be a piggy back. Anyway, we adressed the issues and were able to deal with them with no external box and dramatically improved the performance of the car.

As for e36 stuff, we plan on playing with alphaN for sure. I want to do something for my WAR machine and it should be even easier to do with M3.3.1 than it was to do with M1.0

We can do alphaN for m88, s38, m20 and M30 on the stock ECU, its just a matter of getting around to it now that we have developed a proper ECU-only method.

[jhaurimn]

future alpha n for e36 m52 with itb?

Doubtful. Extremely small market for that kind of engine setup

[King Mufasa]

future alpha n for e36 m52 with itb?

[cdeason]

Alpha-N

I am "shocked" that you do not know what Cyntex is/was. Cyntex had one of the first Alpha-N products in the US, worked with Jim Conforti. I forwarded the link to the folks at MAXX Automotive, I would like to get their input on not using wideband. You are right, I am not an electrical engineer.

[brody]

Sure narowband is old technology and yes it was replaced by wideband on recent models but it is definitely NOT a requirement... If we feel it is totally needed, you are right, it can be added somewhat easily at no cost other than a sensor and time and a free updated tune for the WAR chip. If you saw how things worked and understood how we have done things you'd calm down a little on this "shocking" statement.

And what is Cyntex?

[cdeason]

Alpha-N

"No wideband control with the stock ECU. We haven't found it to be necessary with proper calibrations thus far."

I am shocked by this statement. If narrowband was adequate, it would never have been replaced by wideband, plus the cost of incorporating wideband into your system is minimal.

[brody]

Sounds like a chip Alpha N ala Cyntex. Wideband closed loop capability?

Not sure what a Cyntex is referring to. The WAR Chip is included with our Alpha-N kit so that the end user can adjust all fuel and timing values, RPM limits, idle speeds O2 sensor control etc. etc.

No wideband control with the stock ECU. We haven't found it to be necessary with proper calibrations thus far.

[reelizmpro]

Sounds like a chip Alpha N ala Cyntex. Wideband closed loop capability?

[brody]

Hey guys,

We decided it was finally time to tackle Alpha-N and do so the right way using ONLY the stock ECU without a piggy back like other systems. We had to do a lot to recalibrate the the factory ECU to use throttle position as a reference instead of "load" for all the relevant tables. We have also added new tables and reconfigured others to be able to achieve 100% Motronic controlled Alpha-N.

What was the kicker to get this started? Another customer, this time local, who wanted to switch away from a popular Alpha-N system and convert to our MAF or back to stock simply because of the lack of satisfaction he had with his piggyback controlled system. We figured we would be installing our MAF and making the car perform the way he expected. First though, we looked at what the deficiencies were in his initial alpha N system, what was causing them and figured we would be able to make a better control system using the factory computer on it's own.

We will have a couple more kits installed in the next couple weeks while we are in L.A. and one of those customers is planning to be with us at BimmerFest if anyone is interested in seeing the car etc.

As time progresses we will tackle the US/Euro M5 and M6 cars as well as look into the M20 and M30 for those customers with ITBs since they are all easy enough to recalibrate and reconfigure like we have done with the 071 ECU.

Here is a little blurb from our site: https://www.millerperformancecars.co...-system-detail

The Miller Alpha-N system is the only 100% Factory ECU controlled “MAF-less” engine management system for early model M cars. Unlike competitor’s products that require a piggyback to intercept and convert the signal; or worse, a completely new standalone after-market engine computer, the Miller Alpha-N system was developed to be fully plug and play and utilize the factory ECU for the entire calibration method.

To achieve the stock ECU control of an Alpha-N system we have recalibrated and recoded key aspects of the ECU’s operating functions and tables, how they are used and how they interact with each other so that the stock ECU can run the car as if it left like that from the factory. This ensures great performance not only at wide open throttle, but for idle and partial throttle as well.

The benefits of an ECU controlled system



When using competitors piggyback based systems in parallel with the stock engine management, you are sacrificing performance and control. Other systems out there which use a piggyback to intercept signals, make their changes and send that to the factory ECU. Sounds simple – and it is. However, you lose signal response by doing so and in an Alpha-N system, signal response is everything. After studying these popular alternatives and watching how the ECU reacts to the information provided by the piggyback controller, we felt there was a superior way to design and implement this management system. Allowing the factory ECU to use an uninterrupted signal DIRECTLY from any given sensor, creating new tables, reconfiguring existing tables and their inputs and how they interact with these tables provides superior performance in drive-ability and tune-ability.

Another thing that these competitors systems cannot offer is full control of the factory tune parameters. These piggyback style systems only allow you to modify fuel. They do not offer you control of ignition timing, RPM limits and idle speeds and so on which actually limits the optimization of your vehicles tune. Don’t be fooled by the statement from competitors products like, “Timing does not need to be changed, a suitable complimentary chip is provided to optimize timing, etc. for your car.” This is simply false.

Sure, you can be provided with a one size fits all timing map but that will leave you power on the table as it must be safe for EVERY car that uses it. Another major thing that many people do not understand is that no two engines are alike. Even if they are built the exact same, they will NEVER perform identically. With an Alpha-N type system, specific car calibration is key to extract the most power SAFELY from the engine.

With the Miller Alpha-N system, you have full control over both FUEL and IGNITION making your engine run at its best performance. The Miller system allows standalone-engine-management-like control and adjustability for your factory ECU which saves you from the time and money spent on essentially starting from scratch.

So what is Alpha-N?

It refers to an engine management approach that does not have a true load input available for fuel calculation. “Alpha,” refers to throttle angle and “N” refers to Engine RPM. On a typical engine management system the ECU requires a load signal from a metering device. An Air Flow meter (which is found on this era of BMW’s) a Mass Air Flow sensor, a Manifold Absolute Pressure sensor etc are all devices used by stock ECU’s to help calculate engine LOAD. Engine LOAD is simply a calculation based on this load signal, RPM and a constant that determines how much air is entering the engine and how much fuel needs to be supplied for that given amount of air. With an Alpha-N system, you do not measure that intake of air so you need to deal with fuel differently. You pre-calibrate fuel requirements based on engine RPM and throttle angle only and use other sensors and correction maps to adjust the fuel required for determined conditions or environmental factors.



The reason someone would want to use this on a BMW M car would be in situations when a massive inlet carbon air box is being used. When your inlet is too large you dramatically reduce signal quality across a load sensor such as a MAF. When you lose signal quality you lose performance and drive-ability. Alpha-N is a great solution to this kind of intake system as it offers excellent drive-ability and much better performance.

There is no one size fits all software for an Alpha-N system and is why the WAR Chip is included in the system package. We have done our best to be able to provide near perfect base tunes to start with, but one must realize Alpha-N systems require car specific refinements to operate at 100% no matter what. The WAR Chip editing software is laid out in a relatively simple manner so the user can massage the tune on their own; if one does not feel comfortable with this, we can help tune your car remotely as well provided you can supply us with the required running data.

We recommend Alpha-N for track use only. With the ability to change your fuel and ignition timing with the Miller Alpha-N kit, you will be able to extract the most power and performance from your engine safely.