LC-1... three grounds... where?
 

Got the LC-1 from Innovate. I did read the instructions and I did do a search here, but I'm still not absolutely sure where the best place to place the three grounds are. The instructions seem to contradict themselves.

"The BLUE, WHITE, and GREEN wires should all be grounded to the same ground source and although these grounds are of the same source, the BLUE wire should be wired separate from the WHITE and GREEN wires to avoid analog ground noise."

Then in the very next paragraph it says:
"Note: The LC-1’s heater ground (BLUE), system ground (WHITE), and analog ground (GREEN) wires should be grounded at the analog input’s ground."

In my case, the analog input's ground is the eManage Ultimate, which doesn't have a local ground, but rather is connected only to the ECU harness.

I read on Innovate's forums that the three grounds should be connected to the same area, but not the same exact spot or grounding lug.

Anyone have any experience or advice for this? I doubt I'm going to find a perfect ground in the ECU box that has two points I can connect to that are the same ground but not the same point, etc... UGH

Take the White and Green and splice them together and take some extra wire and run a ground from the PCM/EMU ground, which will be the black wire and has a "bullet" type connector and tie back to the white and green.

Now, take one more pigtail and wire into the three, being the white, green and the wire running to the pcm/emu ground. Take this pigtail and secure it to a good ground such as a bolt or existing ground from the OEM electrical system. The reason for this grounding is to avoid a ground offset. This will allow the LC-1 and say, the EMU datalog to show the same AFR.

Then, route the Blue wire near but not directly with the others. Again, a bolt close to the others will be good. You want to be close and not spliced together to avoid ground noise.

If you have the XD-1 gauge you'll be set, if you don't, connect the a momentary push button switch between the main ground and the black calibration wire.

Great question and at the perfect time! I am getting ready to install my LC-1 and I don't exactly know how I should wire it either? I plan on using it with the emanage ultimate.

I know that the LC-1 power can be wired to the cigarette lighter but I was wondering if it would be alright to wire it to PCM Pin 4Q? In the EMU turbo upgrade kit harness, this is where the EMU power wire is connected. This would allow both the EMU power and LC-1 power to be wired to the same place.

Also, it looks like there are 2 grounds in the ECU. One is PCM Pin 4J. In the upgrade kit harness, this is where the EMU main ground wire is connected. The other is PCM Pin 4A. In the upgrade kit harness, this is where the EMU Injector ground wire is connected.

I was thinking about wiring the LC-1 system ground (WHITE) and analog ground (GREEN) wires to PCM Pin 4J (with the EMU main ground). Also, I was thinking about wiring the LC-1 heater ground (BLUE) to PCM Pin 4A (with the EMU Injector ground wire). This would allow the BLUE wire to be separate from the WHITE and GREEN wires to avoid analog ground noise while still keeping all three grounds connected to the same area. Anyone else have any thoughts???

GTAW, thanks for your help. Just to be sure I understand you correctly, in part of your explanation you are saying to make a pigtail that will connect the existing PCM ground to a chassis location ground? In doing this, aren't you creating another ground path for the PCM? That's not a problem?

tdiddy, if your scheme worked, it would be easy to implement.

Well no, I'm talking about where the wires from the LC-1 come together....for example, I placed the LC-1 above the transmission and then drilled a hole directly in front of the shifter and ran the wires from the LC-1 into the car directly below the trim piece around the shifter. I installed the XD-1 gauge in the lid of the cigarette lighter/ash tray compartment. So I have all the wires in an easily accessible area. There is a bolt for the emergency brake that I connected the Blue heater wire to....and wired the other grounds together which are connected to one of the studs that hold the rubber shifter boot down. I originally didn't have this "pigtail" grounded to the stud and the AFR between the gauge and EMU were off.....once I tied the pigtail in.....the AFR's where basically dead on.

From this group of grounds (The system, analog and pigtail grounds) I then ran a seperate wire all the way to the bullet connector found on the EMU harness. This ties into the oem pcm and EMU grounds. Seems redundent but, it grounds everything together and I haven't run into any problems what so ever.


Connecting to the power from the EMU harness (pin 4Q) should work, it has a 15 amp fuse, although there is quite a bit connected to it. Seems like it would work....also, grounding to the injector ground (pin 4A) should do the job. Over all seems like a good alternative.

Well I got the LC-1 installed and for the life of me can't figure out how to get the EMU to read the AFRs properly. I am pulling my hair out here and searching isn't helping me, and reading the EMU manual and LC-1 manual doesn't help either. I've played around with the settings and can't seem to get it to read AFRs that match what the Logworks LC-1 software is reading (it's not a little bit off... it's WAY off... like the Logworks is reading 14 and the EMU is reading 6...) Does anyone know what settings to use in the EMU config? Argh!

yeah grab one of mazdamaniac's maps or search his posts, he made a comment about setting the voltage range of the AFR gauge in the EMU so it displays properly
I don't have the right answer on me right now though, sorry.

Thanks for posting this.. coincidentally I was reading the LC-1 installation instructions yesterday because I got bored. I'm probably going to order it and the gauge right before I get home!

What analog output are you using? Since there are two, the Yellow and Brown.....you need to configure the analog ouput your using in the LC-1 to match the EMU. If you used the Brown wire.....

...using the supplied cable connect to the 2.5mm stereo output from the LC-1/XD-1 and the serial/usb to a laptop. Then, with the LM Programmer (the LC-1 comes with this CD) click on analog ouput 2 and set the voltage from 0-5v and the AFR from 10-20 and click program. Take the same settings, being the AFR, and input them into the EMU under "Front Panel" in the EMU under option 2, pick A/F meter then other and finally the AFR settings, such as 10 and 20. Now, if you used the yellow, just program the analog output 1.

Wow. I'm an idiot. Thanks for the help. I failed to coordinate the settings of the LC-1 and the EMU. I won't tell you what I was doing wrong, because I don't want to embarrass myself further. :spank:

Got it working. Thanks again!

No problem.....I'm glad I can help. :)

I can't emphasize this enough! I'd read this thread 2, maybe 3 times before getting my LC-1/XD-16 and I still forgot to program the LC-1 and pulled my hair out wondering why the readings on the EMU were incorrect. :)

Version 2.0 of the EMU software now has the Innovate as an option in the drop down list!

those of you that have this installed...
can you post your tuning results! i'm sure lots will be interested now that there are options from racing beat, cobb, & several other tuners.
thanks