major update. today marks day 6 of not hearing back from dynojet (4 business days and 2 days of the weekend). i emailed chris at dynojet around 5 times (once per day after the 2nd day before i FINALLY got a response. this is the issue i've been having to put up with for dynojet and why it's been such a lengthy process. they seriously need to get their shit together in terms of customer service.
turns out that on friday, chris forwarded my email/request for a fuel start up code (confirmed this is what it's called, thanks bucky!) to a guy named dusty who appears to be the senior product manager. i got the email from dusty late this afternoon with a fuel start up code but no instructions on how to use it like i requested... i emailed dusty back pronto and thankfully he responded a few minutes later with simple directions, sweet!
i was in the middle of my fork spring grief/install so i got that out of the way (different story) before messing with the power commander. i was instructed to connect the power commander to the computer and have it communicating with eachother (on), then hit ctrl F and a "power commander features dialog" box will pop up. put in the code you are given and click on "add feature."
i got an error and checked everything, which everything was correct so i went ahead and clicked ok.
i then clicked on power commander tools, lo and behold there it was! "fuel start up," SWEET! i immediately got to playing with this feature with the engine being cold and found out that right around 50 revs seemed to work just right. she fires right up without any throttle input, doesnt sputter, or die. HAPPY!!!!! i'll play with it some more tomorrow to make sure that 50 indeed is enough. if not, i'll play with the revs a bit more.
now onto the good bits. dont bother going through the channels i had to go through or the issues i had to deal with. email dusty directly and request a fuel start up code for your honda 919. briefly state that you have cold start issues, this is very common for the 919 with power commander 3 installed and you've tried everything else to no avail. IMPORTANT, you need to include your serial number so they can send you a fuel start up code that pertains to your PC3 unit. when you get your fuel start up code, follow the instructions i posted above and play with the rev numbers until you get a nice smooth start first try with a cold engine.
hope these emails save whoever needs the code the time consuming trouble i had to go through in order to get mine. if you get the code, report your results and if it fixes the issue for you.
note: i started a new thread to make this easier for people to find later, or if it needed to become a sticky without all the confusing mumble jumble of the other thread.
i'm not sure exactly what it does. all i know is that it worked for me. ask bucky, he seems to have a better idea of what it does since it was his suggestion in the first place lol.
as for the code, i know it's based on the serial as other sources have said/tried the same thing.
Awesome! I have had this issue only a couple of times, but am definitely going to follow through on it. I will email them and post results after a few weeks of testing.
Thanks for your diligence in figuring this out! This is a great benefit to everyone here!
And whatever happened to the rep power thingy! I'd be giving you rep for this one!
bucky, it's not that i didnt believe you or think the option was there. the issue for me was dynojet's customer service which was awful to say in the least. i had access to two different tuners who said they were trying to solve the problem. 1 fell off the face of the earth after tuning my bike and the other actually upgraded my pcIII free of charge and gave me loads of advice about it. even dynojet told him there was nothing else to be done.
in short, this was a long tedious process for me and i had asked for the code 4 times before finally getting it. the first 3 times i was denied with claims stating that it didnt exist or that there were other issues that needed to be addressed. i got the full on run around.
don't mind my griping. not aimed specifically at you, but this topic has come up before and i've shared my experiences on it before but it keeps getting forgotten. point being, i've gone down MANY unexplored paths of the aftermarket in building a specialized and unique bike. i had the time to do so, and a little extra money to throw at certain problems. i've had manufacturers create new parts for me that didn't exist for the 919. Dynojet makes an ignition module because of me. because i sent them photographs and descriptions of wiring and information about our bike. Trac Dynamics had my stock swingarm for months and took 7 months to build the first, and probably only stretched swingarm for a 919. as i mentioned, i have had 12 ounces machined out of my rear rotor because i shipped my rotor to and sweet talked a laser-cutting machinist into writing the code to do it on his machine. for the amount of banging my head on the wall that i've done in building this bike, i just wish somebody else could take advantage of the meager fruits of my efforts sometimes. POOR ME !
also, re: Dusty. i said he's a racer. well, you can see by me that sometimes racers aren't the most sociologically adept folks !
ok time for an update, i may have spoken too soon... the weather is flunctuating so much here that it's still causing start up problems. i'll have to tinker with this feature a bit more. it worked great the day of testing, the next day it didnt work since temps dropped further, went back to old behavior. yesterday it was a bit warmer and it "almost" started without any help. today is warmer still so we'll see what it does.
hey Fritz, i completely forgot about this thread lol. indeed progress have been made and to be honest, i dont really understand it??? i put some satos on and got the bike retuned to address the low end issues that i was having in cold weather when the bike would get up to temp while in stop/go traffic. as a side bonus, the cold start issue improved immensely! it's still there, however it does not occur very often anymore.
before, i HAD to blip the throttle in order for it to hold it's idle. HAD to, every time, no matter what, unless it was still warm and it was 70+ outside. now, i never have to blip the throttle. i just thumb the starter for a second or two after it catches and she just purrs. outside temps doesn't seem to have an effect, nor does the amount of time the bike sits before being fired up. in the rare occurence that it doesn't keep running the first time, it only takes 1-2 more tries after that to hold it's idle, all without blipping the throttle.
doesn't make sense to me so as soon as i get the map loaded up and sent over to mcromo for analysis, i wont have much of an answer. however, you SHOULD keep the pcIII. just blip the throttle up to 1.8-2k rpms after it catches and it should hold it's idle, every time (at least it worked for me). i had worse experiences with the pcIII off than i did dealing with the cold start issue. stay tuned.
edit: as a side note, the tuner monitored the tps as per my request and he said it performed flawlessly. he also checked out the pcIII and said it was fully functional and responded as it was supposed to. he did notice however that the fueling got rich when he didn't want it to under certain loads at the low rpms and it drove him crazy. he couldn't replicate the issue consistently and only seemed to happen after the fan kicked on and gave it some load from low rpm. overall, he removed as much as 18% fueling on the bottom 3k rpms and it made a HUGE improvement.
Would please post your map? I'm running satos as well. I've tried everything except the "fuel start up", would you say that it showed improvement from there on out or did it fall back into the slump? Thanks.
I've tried everything except the "fuel start up", would you say that it showed improvement from there on out or did it fall back into the slump? Thanks.
i tried that as well and it was too inconsistent and after 3 days of messing with it i got tired of how unpredictable it was so i turned it off. in other words, i didn't see any improvement on my end. i'll see what i can do about the map.
I wonder if this has anything to do with a 'cold' or 'hard' reset of the Power Commander.
You know, like when your computer gets a crazy memory hogging program, or when the SD card on your Android gets a corrupt sector (BAH! ) causing a force close on all of your apps.
For you ancient guys, this would be like a piece of sand in your slide ruler.
I wonder if by resetting it back to factory 'stock' settings, maybe unplugging it from a power source for a day or two to let it drain, and then re-loading your map, if this would have any affect.
Mine has started the cold start issue over the last winter.
I wonder if this has anything to do with a 'cold' or 'hard' reset of the Power Commander.
one of the first things i tried, no luck for me. didnt make a difference. i transferred the pcIII over to the 2nd 919 (the first had the problem) and the problem carried over with no delay.
thanks for all this info i find it interesting....to the guys who had pc3 and went back to stock...you feel and difference between the 2...except for better start up performance
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dont need a bike to ride the fast lane
thanks for all this info i find it interesting....to the guys who had pc3 and went back to stock...you feel and difference between the 2...except for better start up performance
yes, the throttle became a lot more twitchy, very on/off characteristics. Hated it so much the cold start issue was minor in comparison. Riding in the rain, predictable and smooth throttle input is imperative to survive here if you ride in the rain.
I'm going to be seriously pissed if years down the road I fit the spare used PC3 I bought last year, to my 919 or some other 919, and find it has The Cold Start Gremlin inside it !
Mine does not have it, thankfully.
But I wonder about that spare in the basement inventory of treasures.
I'm going to be seriously pissed if years down the road I fit the spare used PC3 I bought last year, to my 919 or some other 919, and find it has The Cold Start Gremlin inside it !
Mine does not have it, thankfully.
But I wonder about that spare in the basement inventory of treasures.
Have you developed an electronic parts tracking system so that you can organize and manage your inventory of spare parts? I think you should invest in something like that, maybe the tech savvy people here such as Googleit can help you.
I'm going to be seriously pissed if years down the road I fit the spare used PC3 I bought last year, to my 919 or some other 919, and find it has The Cold Start Gremlin inside it !
Mine does not have it, thankfully.
But I wonder about that spare in the basement inventory of treasures.
if you can find it to begin with....
edit: posted right after undercover by a split second, great minds think alike!
edit: posted right after undercover by a split second, great minds think alike!
No worries I think I am also stock piling parts as well. So I may need information on his "warehouse management" so I can properly manage mine as well.
Guess I didn't see what you had for sale lol. I've just been on the forum and happen to snag up things when I see them (given I have the money). After looking at your post, I could possibly use the fender in the future, but I'm going to be doing the 900rr swap here in the next few weeks so I won't need it then, I'm trying to sell the swingarm I got from Byrdman and I have 2003 forks which if I were to get any it'd have to be 04+.
map has been sent to google for him to add into the drop box. check it out fritz.
map was also sent to mcromo for him to compare and see if he can help pinpoint the cold start issue?
edit: ok so i tried several different maps after ensuring that the cold start issue wasn't present with my map. the cold start issue didn't appear across several different maps so now i highly doubt it is map related. i'll ask my tuner if he remembers doing anything to the pcIII before setting the tune. this is driving me crazy now as we're no closer to pinpointing the issue.
Thanks Pvster, I'll try and get around to loading it tonight.
I went out and cranked the bike this morning at 50F and it fired, but died when I let off the starter. I started it again and revved it every so slightly and it held its own. After 30 minutes of riding I killed it and tried starting back up with a warm engine and it fired and stayed up on it's own without me having to rev it.
Don't want to jump the gun, but I can live with it the way it is now.
On a side note, when I was digging into PCIII cold start issues on other forums, the general consensus was that if you turned your key over and hit your starter button before the FI pump kicked off, it would bypass the PCIII temporarily. I tried it and had no luck, but then, I was still using the non-stock button settings then also.
mine felt twitchy when i first got it when going over bumps..gas on / off..after riding it a while i dont feel or notice it anymore.. .your talking response twitch ..like hotrod itching to go ...15 tooth twitch......know a few guys who twitch i try being nice to them
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dont need a bike to ride the fast lane
but no instructions on how to use it like i requested... 
i emailed dusty back pronto and thankfully he responded a few minutes later with simple directions, sweet!
and checked everything, which everything was correct so i went ahead and clicked ok.
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