I looked into this fairly comprehensively as I was going to megasquirt the Kadett.
I am not a Computer Geek by any stretch of the Imagination neither and I a particulary good electronics wizz ;D
Which where megasquirt is concerned leaves me playing catch up to begin with.
I also share a house with two of the top Calibrators in the Country ;D one of whom has mapped ecus and contol systems on at least 2 of the Fastest vehicles on the Top-Gear leaderboard
He has a 450hp ZZR1100 turbo and a 400hp skyline all calibrated and mapped by himself to OEM standards
We sat down and looked at all the option, read the forums and downloaded and looked at all the mapping software for all the systems that looked as if they would do what we wanted to do.
Megasquirt was by far the most complicated to understand and the least intuative.....
By the time i had added on all the bits I wanted I was not far away from an Omex/Emerald box anyway, add a wideband for home mapping and it was more expensive.
The main benefit of Megasquirt is if you are into writing code, as you cand treat it like a Dead ECU and program it to do anything you want.
I have another freind who is fitting it to a Supercharged Pug 205 for that very reason, he like writing code and wants to try some stuff that other ecu`s below about £4000 wont let him do ;D
I know people that fit and Map Cossie ECU`s to other stuff because thats what they have been doing for years and it works.
Its down to how good you are with electronics and Computers whether you want to go MS or not.
All I would say is download the Megasquirt software and have a play with it, then download the DTA software and do the same....
One has been written by a guy who understands Mapping engines and the paramaters you want to change and what order you want to change them in while seeting up and then again while running and the other is a collaboration by some admittedly clever software people but predominently open source with no control or oversight.
Its also going to depend on what you want to do with it ?
If you are running a typical retro motor on some nbike throttle bodies and Edis Ignition then pretty much anything can be programmed for fuel and spark to run it.
I am running a modern 16v Det sensitive engine, with a standard 10:1 C/R and supercharger running 9psi boost.....on a fabricated chargecooler/Inlet manifold
in a lightweight car where Traction will be an issue, more so in the wet
And I do a lot of Motorway miles where being able to run safely at Lambda 1.2 is going to give me a decent 20% fuel saving
;D
So from all that we can deduce that I need Knock sensing input and control of spark accordingly.
I am also running thermocouples in each exhaust port so I can check even mixture distribution (New Manifold might not be spot on straight away), so the ECU needs to be able to sense and react to that by trimming fuel in individual cylinders.
I want the ability to run Launch control for sprinting and I want the ability to run differnt ign and fuel maps for different conditions and be able to switch between them when needed within the car.
I also need to have a good lambda strategy and wideband controller to run closed loop on part throttle/light loads
When I can get this all in one ECU for not a lot more than a fully built megasquirt, from a manufacturer who the Mapper is used to dealling with and has mapped these ECU`s before then to me it becomes a no brainer
;D
I have not got the time or the base knowledge available to become fully proficient with the Megasquirt system, for me that time is better spent earning some more to pay for the fully supported product, I admit that is not the same for everyone.
I feel happier with using the DTA software than the Megasquirt which is what you need at 9 o clock on a sunday night trying to sort a problem so you can get to work the next day !!
If I lost a days work through the MS not working then That pays for the additional cost of the DTA anyway
;D
The guy that will help map it (Steve Greenald at Track and Road) has mapped pretty much every known system, run a lot more cars on the rollers too and has been tuning and building engines for over 30yrs........
He has NEVER seen a Megasquirt running........ which he finds a little strange
Sorry for the war and peace post but I did look into this in quite a lot of detail before spending any money
Cheers
Dom