I made a mistake and I hope others may learn from it. I am not bashing the PCIII, I'm bashing myself.

On the other hand, if the "delicate electronics" have to be worked on my a professionals and I have to pay them to do it and dyno the bike when they are done, then it kind of defeats the purpose. If I can buy a Tmax with autotune for under $700 then maybe I should have done that rather than spending $300 for the PCIII. I was trying to fix an issue with my PCIII and I didn't follow the directions to the letter.

I'm pretty sure that everything will be fine when I get it back from Dynojet. I should be able to slap it in and take off for a ride. Plug and play. That's what I was looking for. Not plug, then hook up a laptop, then mess with the map, then test ride, then mess with the map again . . . just to get a bike that runs right. If decel popping and other issues are happening to me and others, there should be a fix without having the bike tuned and dynoed. Agree? Maybe I'm full of it. Just tell me.
Thanks,
Steve

 

My happiest day with a PCIII? The day I sold it on fleabay for almost what I paid for it and bought a SERT.

 

So you're running the stock ECM that has been tuned by a Harley tech.? You also had to have your bike dynoed, right? So how much did all this cost you? SERT + dyno = ???????

 

Hi Steve,
I didn't say you were bashing the PC111.
No need for a Dyno, just order the PC111 premapped
for your configuration and it works fine.
Please forget about the Tmax, there is NO such thing as autotune !!
With the PC111 there is no need to mess with the map,then test ride
and mess with the map again.
I really hope things will workout fine for you

Peter (Netherlands)

 

The 12V is stepped down to 9V inside the PCIII.
The reason they don't want you to have the bike on is so you dont accidentially turn it off during the update.
Again, you can do it with the 12Volts... but like you said the Book does say have it off....

I've done it both ways.

lp

 

Thanks Peter. I'm the problem here. It seems that I'm never 100% happy with anything. My bike ran great with the canned map EXCEPT for the deceleration issue that I mentioned. I was messing with the map and firmwareto try to cure that. I'm glad yours runs great with the canned map right our of the box. For me, I had to load a map before I could ride it.

I should have just plugged it in and lived with it BUT I've always got to mess with stuff. Gets me in trouble from time to time.

I'm sure things will work out. The PCIII is a tried a true product. It will just take a little time.
Steve
(Washington State)

 

IF you have a power interruption or surge during the programming phase of any EPROM , the programmed instruction set will most likely be corrupted. This can also happen when using the SERT to directly program the ECM (which is also an EPROM). If your laptop battery dies during the programming session (which usually lasts abt a minute), then you will have to do it over and hope it reburns correctly. The PCIII will (should) run on a range of voltages, including both 9 and 13.8 volt systems. I've used both the PC and the SERT. Both work, but the SERT works better for most purists. The new PCIII of course utilizes USB connectivity to the PC. There is a 5volt line on the USB ports and computer voltage regulation is known to be flaky at best. So be careful and you should be fine....maybe.

Good luck with the PC...and remember...is the PC III goes bad on you (which is rare) you can always remove it from the EFI harness and limp back to wherever you need to go (and the limp may not be real noticable). The sun will come up tomorrow!! Joe

 

Thanks for the help. I think that is exactly what happened . . . the laptop went into hibernate mode due to a low battery. I borrowed it from my daughter so I wasn't sure about the battery. After that I hooked up the power cord to the laptop and tried again but I kept getting an error code when I tried to load the firmware upgrade.

What do you think about having the stage 1 upload done to my ECM and then running the PCIII on top of that. Is that OK to do? I don't see any maps available through Dynojet for a flashed ECM. Can you give me some advice? Or anyone else?

The reason I am asking is that I would feel much more comfortable "limping my bike" if I had to remove the PCIII. With the stage1 upload, the bike will not be running nearly as lean as it would without it. Does that make sense or am I proving once again how dumb I really am?

Thanks,
Steve

 

Steve,

There are no stupid questions here. We are all here to share experiences and try our best to help each other...with no agendas. That said....

The PC should work just fine with the PC piggy backed in the EFI stream of a dealer-burned ECM Stage I map. In fact, I believe my 2000 road king, which utilizes a PCII (serial interface to computer), is working just that way. Of course that model bike does not utilize the Delphi injection system, but the results the power commander brings to the table are for all intents and purposes, are the same. Other owners on this forum are doing what you are advocating based on some of the posts I have reviewed in the past month. So all that to say that the PCIII does not NEED a stock ECM to do it's thing fooling the ECM into whatever it needs to fool it into to doing. As long as the burn in the ECM has room on either side of most of the data table values to allow the PC room to move. It may need a few tweaks, but I bet a call to the PC people would be worth the dime and diminish any anxiety you might have going forward. Harley's ECM burns are designed to create a somewhat optomized "street legal" bike, all the while utilizing only Harley or Screamin Eagle hardware. They are never out the door with AFR's we prefer, spark advance at the cylinder level, or tweaked out parameters dancing properly with known manifold pressures. Once we start venturing away from the bone stock bikes (as we all do that are eager to learn, sweat, cry, cuss, and ultimatly think "hell ya, it was worth it") with higher volume air flow, header pipes, non-harley mufflers, beefed up cams, etc,etc, then it starts getting interesting. And remember, Im not an expert on anything, just ask my wife. Good luck Steve, Joe

 

I bought the SERT from Chicago HD for their standard 20% off and had my Sert work done at an independent shop for less than two hundred dollars. Yes, this included dyno. My bike is much happier now. That hesitation was dangerous and that decel popping drove me nuts. I'm not a die-hard sert guy. I am also very interested in Thundermax if I do a stage II.