Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > JHP chip

[Nigel C]

Do you have a JHP chip if so which way round do i plug it in ?? it has writing on it but no directional arrow as a guide

Cheers

nigel c

[Edited on 6-1-2004 by Nigel C]

[Jools]

Yes, I've got one, but I've never seen it 'cos Nelly fitted it ages ago.

However, I spent many years repairing mainframe computers so I've fitted a lot of chips. Invariably they have some sort of marker to indicate which end Pin 1 is at. It'll either be a small dot on one corner or the chip will have a semi circular indentation on one end - something very similar. The chip that's currently in the bike will have the same sort of thing (it may not be exactly the same marking, but it performs the same "this end up" job).

Sometimes the pin numbers (or at least some of them) are marked with tiny raised numbers, occasionally they may be screen printed. All you need to do is make sure that Pin 1 on the new chip goes where Pin 1 of the old chip lived. It may not be as obvious as a dirty great arrow, but I've never seen a chip without some sort of orientation mark.

Some words of warning. Static discharge can zap a chip literally as quick as lightning, sometimes it doesn't destroy them completely, just introduces a few 'unexplained' glitches. So the chip should remain in its antistatic bag with all it's pins inserted in the little chunk of conductive foam it should've come packaged in until you're ready to use it.

Before you do that, creep down to Maplin and get yourself an antistatic wriststrap. Slip it on your wrist, clip it to the bike and you'll both be at the same potential. If you're being really serious you may also want to run a piece of wire between a good conducting bit of the bike frame and a good earthing point in the house or garage, like a radiator. (dont plug yourself into the mains, although you can get earthing mats from Maplin that connect to a dummy plug with only the earth connected and non-conducting plastic prongs instead of the live and neutral).

You might also want a chip puller to take the old chip out, this'll help you extract it without bending or snapping the pins off (although you can also do this by gently prising it up with a small screwdriver from each end alternately - small twists of the screwdriver should do it). You never know when you might need the old chip again, so it's as well to keep it safe.

When you put the new chip in, make sure that all the pins are straight to start off with, then as you put it into the socket, make sure all the pins are lined up and starting to engage in their individual connectors. Just keep pushing it very gently until you're sure that everything is lined up and engaging correctly, and only then give it a firm (but still controlled) shove to seat it properly. Pins on chips are very easy to bend and don't like being straightened. Although you can straighten a pin if you do bend one, it;s always touch and go whether it'll snap off.

Despite all thes warnings it's really not that difficult. Take your time and check everything twice before you do it and you'll be fine

[antonye]

Here's an example pic of what a chip looks like from above - you should notice the "notch" in the end and/or a dot to indicate pin one:



You should be fine changing chips in a garage as there's very few sources of static around, and you discharge naturally over time anyway.

Avoid things like carpets and nylon fleeces though, as these can really build up static - in the same way you should never pull your PC apart on the carpet!!

[Jools]

Good diagrams Antonye.

Disagree about the static though. Static builds up anytime you have two insulating materials rubbing together and can easily be tens of thousands of volts even when the current is so low that you would never feel it. It doesn't have to be the type of zap you sometimes get touching a handrail or doorknob to do damage to a chip. Just walking around you can build up a good old static charge, even in a garage.

When I was a computer engineer, we instigated the simple wearing of an ESD wriststrap (£3.99), there was a dramatic drop off in the number of 'faulty' chips and circuit boards we found, particularly in the intermittent faults. I wonder how many "bit of a fuelling problem at 6000rpm" type faults are caused by damaged chips that otherwise work perfectly except for the few bits of memory that hold this bit of the fuelling map, and how much time, frustration, trouble, expensive dyno time is spent tracking them down? I've read other threads about how such and such a chip is crap and people have set off on a chip hunt trying DP and JHP chips before settling on a FIM chip (or any combination). Now it may be that one type of chip actually is vastly superior, but I can't help wondering when I read things like that, about the care that was taken fitting the first few chips?

If you bought anything else for the bike for the price of a JHP chip (about £30), you'd make sure you didn't bollox it when you fitted it, so for the price of a £3.99 wriststrap it seems like cheap insurance.

Oooerrr, I need to get off my soapbox don't I...I'll get my coat.

[rcgbob44]

Chaps, a good earth strap can be made by using a watch with a metal strap and conecting a wire to the earth pin of a 13A plug and connecting it to a socket!

Cheap and effective.

[antonye]

Jools, I was as an electronics engineer for over four years at the BT Research Labs, and have been doing my own PC upgrades since. I've never managed to zap anything yet and usually don't bother with a wrist strap, even though I've got one in my *ahem* borrowed toolkit

Some components - pc memory chips in particular - are more prone than others due to the very minute thicknesses of the silicon involved (a few microns thick! ) but you tend to find that EEPROMs like those used in most aftermarkets fuel chips are a lot more rugged as they need to be blanked/programmed, sometimes many times over.

That's not to say that it won't happen, and you're right that 3.99 is cheap insurance, but I wouldn't personally bother as you don't need to (shouldn't) touch the pins anyway.

[Nigel C]

Cheers guys unfortunately there is a big white plastic thing covering the chip and it won't budge! got a chip puller but don't want to pull to hard in case i bust something

[Felix]

Call JHP!

[Nigel C]

iv'e got 2 bike shops 10 mins ride from me one services ducatis would it harm the bike to ride to them with the original chip in ??

[Felix]

Seriously doubt it, mate. It might pop and sputter a bit, just take it easy and you'll be fine.

[Edited on 6-1-2004 by Felix]