Author Topic: Blown Injector FETs  (Read 59362 times)

Offline GintsK

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1257
  • BHP: 50
Re: Blown Injector FETs
« Reply #75 on: September 09, 2009, 04:04:41 am »
Interesting detail! I did not note what diodes come on latest boards.
Does anyone had FET problem with latest boards?

One more detail. Old Megasquirt V2.2 use ultra slow 1N4007 in this place. and I can't remember any damage of FET. Usually one chanel is loaded by 2 or more injectors.

Offline Ignitec

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 90
  • BHP: 7
Re: Blown Injector FETs
« Reply #76 on: October 26, 2009, 08:19:27 am »
Today i just had FET failure on newer (v3.5) board, two cylinders went for a diving at a time. Everything was just perfect, car run very nice, V3 harness used, XXX times checked grounding, 30V TS flyback, and they still died, just in front of a man who wanted to buy a car, while he was testing launch control...  :-[
If you have everything under control, you\\\'re not fast enough!

Offline dnb

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 837
  • BHP: 19
Re: Blown Injector FETs
« Reply #77 on: October 29, 2009, 04:49:12 pm »
If you replace them like-for-like then you should replace the FET drivers too.  It seems that the FETs damage the drivers somehow when they blow.  Everything still works fine, but there is a vastly increased chance of the FETs blowing again.

The other solution is to replace them with IGBTs.  They won't blow then, even if you chose to not replace the drivers.  The downside of this is slightly increased power consumption and the additional cost of the IGBTs vs the FETs.

Check your injector config carefully - make sure the PWM is disabled (set to 100%) and the peak time is set to 25.5ms if you are not using PWM.


Offline Sprocket

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 867
  • BHP: 29
Re: Blown Injector FETs
« Reply #78 on: October 30, 2009, 03:03:47 am »
As the begining of this topic shows, I suffered numerous FET failures without any real reason, and no one can to this day tell me what the cause was other than the box being a self build. With the advice of one of the developers, I installed the IGTBs and been running since ;D

I did everything recommended to replace blown FET devices, I changed all the FET driver chips, 4 in total, the FET gate resistors and the FET driver capacitors. The loom was completely pulled apart to check for faults. The loom was ALL new wire and built as per the guide lines, injectors were changed, grounds were remade closer to the ECU, and it made not one blind bit of difference.

IGTBs would appear to be a quick solution where there appears to be no answer to the FET failures and when all other avenues have been exhausted. You MUST use ALL IGTBs for ALL injectors on the same engine. I would expect that if IGTBs start to fail in this situation that not all probable faults have been eradicated.

I have just replaced the last of the FETs in the box with IGTBs (excluding WBO2). I am now only 4 short on the ignition chanels for a full house :D

Looking back, I can see possible where the prime mover for these failures came from, but I am not clever enough to actualy understand it if it was. I used what I thought was a bipolar stepper motor, when infact it was a DC motor and a switch (four wires) I did not check the reistance. This smoked one of the stepper chip drivers. this was at first start at the time i suffered the first failures. While mucking arround, I split the grounds as strongly suggested NOT to do and then smoked the P259 chip, at which time I think it damaged the Mcp ADC chip, which showed up as EGT chip failures or at least I thought.

My black box has had a hard time of it, but its still going and I have become quite good at replacing surface mount chips with only the basic tools :D And I dont think its going to be the last I do :-\
« Last Edit: October 30, 2009, 03:54:05 am by Sprocket »

Offline gox

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 198
  • BHP: 6
Re: Blown Injector FETs
« Reply #79 on: November 01, 2009, 06:10:11 pm »
My FET's stoped to blown after i installed better grounds...even after installing good grounds i think 2 of my IGBT's blown,one igbt destroyed my msd gm coil and i was out of wastedspark,i got myself 3x2 coil and i was back and running on wastedspark again,but the happiness didnt last long,again one igbt was dead...so i switch back to some VW/Audi single coil and i`m running it like that for a while now and didnt had a single problem....
E30 2.7 - VEMS,KKK K27.2,Schrick,1bar

Offline GintsK

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1257
  • BHP: 50
Re: Blown Injector FETs
« Reply #80 on: November 01, 2009, 06:51:27 pm »
I had more than 30 units installed and two cases with dead FETs. And both using Low-Z with built in PWM-ing.( It is strongly sugested not to do from developers).
But I have two differences in most of my installations: FETs itself - I mostly use STP20NF06.
And grounding. Usually I use separate wire for sensor grond. It comes from same place as power grounds, but from other bolt.