How hard is it for an idiot (me) to assemble a megasquirt kit?

I just saw Matt's sale and have been planning on getting an MS2 or 3 for my 1uz challenge car. I have soldered a little bit but am not all the great at it. I am a little afraid of spending close to 300 bucks and screwing up my build.

I'm interested as well...

+2. I have four cars I'd like to be given a carburation exorcism.

I wanna build one also, not that I need to but want to learn it. Wonder what kinda can 'o worms that'll open.

Not that hard. I had very limited soldering experience before I built mine. I "practiced" building a Jim STIM, then built the MS2. Make sure you get a good fine-point soldering station.

I have an electronics background but still qualify as an idiot.

I built an MSI from a kit many years ago. As I recall the instructions were easy to follow. The build up is done in several steps and you test each test before continuing onto the next step. You can download the instructions and sort of read through them if you like.

A signal simulator board is available that plugs into the Megasquirt and allows you to artificially simulate rpm and a few other sensors. The simulator is well worth the extra money.

Soldering skills can be mastered relatively easily but for a true novice a simple el-cheapo electronics kit can be picked up from radio shack or ebay. Its probably better to learn soldering on something cheap.

I just bought my first megasquirt today early black friday sale,

http://www.diyautotune.com/blackfriday.html

Do I really need a jim STIM?

In reply to echoechoecho:

When I built the MS1, I found the simulator to be real handy. I didn't encounter any problems during the build but if I had, the simulator would have been a welcome asset for troubleshooting.

The simulator isn't mandatory but it can help solve a bunch of headaches during the build. Once the MS is built you can run it on the bench and fool around with the tuner studio software in the comfort of your workshop.

Its not terribly hard, especially the MS2 and MS3 as the surface mount stuff is already installed, so its just adding a few pieces and assembling the case and wiring.

Get a good soldering station, a flat surface, good light and a soft sided vice to hold the board while you add the components.

Another option would be to buy someone's assembled and working MS1 and install the MS2 or MS3 daughterboard into it.

The Stim is pretty handy, but sometimes you can just borrow one from a fellow MegaSquirter instead of buying your own.

The newest jimstim is harder to build than the MS. Some of the joints on the board soak up preposterous amounts of heat.

A small low watt soldering iron is a must. 25 watt or larger irons will put to much heat in to quickly. I have a 10 watt iron that is my go to for this kind of thing.

Building an MS is much easier with the proper tools.

Just do it, and build the stimulator. My only warning is if you have ADD or ADHD make sure to take some rittilan and stick with it...

It was extremely easy for me.

On the other hand, I bought a prebuilt unit, so all I had to do was fork over a VISA number, wait a week or two, then plug it in.

I value having no doubts over the quality of workmanship pretty much exactly as much as they value their time. I'm better at doing what I do to make a living than I am at hand-soldering a PC board's components at the rates charged for doing it for me.

Not too hard. BUT Please, please, please use a good quality iron with appropriate sized tips, keep them clean, use enough heat (not too much!) proper amount of solder and clean all the flux off with Ipa afterward. The transistors are the hardest part for a noob I would think. Just go slow one pin at a time on all of them to let them cool to keep the chance of bridiging low. I have another trick to do them fast but thats for after you have built ten or twenty.

Get a stim of some kind.

Ms on a 1uz? Early or late block? Going turbo? If not, don't bother, you won't gain much for the money and labor.

And don't even think about throwing sexy ITBs on it! Get a good head job and cams. You'll have more gains.

Early block and planning boost.

Thanks for the information gang. Now to decide if I need an ms3 or if the 2 is good enough

THe two will suffice. Technically the 1.5 will work. From what I've read and what Matt has told me of the 3, it's a good system for a pro racer. Does a lot of stuff that most of us won't use.

Interesting, this is. I have a 1986 GTi 8v wis CIS that needs an upgrade. Before I ruffle any feathers, the CIS only gave me problems once in the entire time I have owned the car. It is good stuff. For it's time.

Ordered my MS2 today. Looking forward to getting it put together.

In reply to singleslammer:

Hey, do a write up or diy on it. I feel if more people did a diy video on these there wouldn't be as many questions. Also, post up your final tune man! (Basically, I'm asking you to do all the leg work for future me! Lol)