ESM Chips - Information & Help

[dapinky]

Steve,

If you are going to fit an O2 sensor to go closed loop, then you will need a 1499 chip.

[ESM]

At the moment chips are not for sale on my site. I am, and for some time have been, very busy at work and I went away around the bank holiday because I was knackered. Because of this my delivery time went out beyond a week on a couple of recent orders and my responses to emails has often not been rapid either. As a consequence I've been getting complaints from purchasers. Frankly, I don't blame them service has not been stellar.

The result is that I've shut up shop for the moment. I aim to bring it back reasonably soon, once things settle down a bit here. If anyone really needs a chip, to pass an MOT or whatever, email me (email rather than PM please) and I'll sort something out.

[Mike_H]

Hey Alan as a recent customer of yours I have to say your response to my recent purchase was excellent .

Enjoy your break ,take it easy for while and recharge those batteries

Many thanks Mike.

[ESM]

Update on ElanChips

I have packed in my horrible job (I've nearly finished the notice period). After that is safely behind me I'm setting up my own company. I'll do chips through that business and perhaps make some other new Elan stuff as well. I'll re-open the chip shop once the company is up and running. I don't want to complicate my tax return by selling anything now so please be patient for a couple more weeks.

[esprit888]

HI Alan,
Smartest thing i ever did was what you are doing right now, good luck, i'm sure you'll never look back

Update on ElanChips

I have packed in my horrible job (I've nearly finished the notice period). After that is safely behind me I'm setting up my own company. I'll do chips through that business and perhaps make some other new Elan stuff as well. I'll re-open the chip shop once the company is up and running. I don't want to complicate my tax return by selling anything now so please be patient for a couple more weeks.

[Tannerman]

Good on you....I did the same last year my last day was Friday 13th of November 2009, I finally left 17 years of finance and banking behind me, No more being treated like a 4 year old...

It sort of came to a head in my appraisal when i decided that i wanted to tell my boss what i thought of him (in front of the directors also) He dropped in the usual smart comment and after i pointed out that i would like him to follow me into the car park it sort of all went down hill from there.

We have expanded my wifes company and opened up a shop which is going well especially in this climate... You go for it and any time you feel stressed just think of what you left behind you will soon be smiling again, I am loving life again and month ends and stress is something i left behind nearly a year ago now.

Their faces were a picture as i have always been very composed but that day i decided to get my backbone back.

Best of luck

John

[GeoffSmith]

No more appraisals - how do you live without them?

[esprit888]

I find the self appraisal can be even tougher but i appointed my wife as a director of the company for income splitting tax purposes so its an easy talk over dinner

No more appraisals - how do you live without them?

[Sy V]

Update on ElanChips

I have packed in my horrible job ....

That's ICI minus one... Bugger! I've forgotten that long-named speciality you had Alan. But whatever the case, good luck mate and take it easy.

[GeoffSmith]

Update on ElanChips

I have packed in my horrible job ....

That's ICI minus one... Bugger! I've forgotten that long-named speciality you had Alan. But whatever the case, good luck mate and take it easy.

Tribologist - as opposed to you who is an undoubted master Sibollockist.

[John_W]

Tribologist

Gosh, that's nearly the same as my dad was - a trichologist.

Good luck with the new venture Alan. It must have been a big decision. Or maybe it was just a "sod this for a game of monkeys, I'm off".
John

[HJ2]

... You are a hero

[howardlock]

Hi Alan,

Sounds like you actually had the balls to do what most people dream about or feel like saying to their boss after a few pints lol

Hope all is going well? I am desparate for a chip (my second one off you in 5 years).

Do you have any idea when your chip shop will reopen?

Best Regards

Howard

(1) Calyspo red Elan SE M100 reg H696 XHD......R.I.P. 23/7/2008
(2) Calypso red Elan SE M100 reg J65 HTU..purchased 24/7/2008

[ESM]

What a couple of months it's been! A couple of weeks after I finished at Intertek my mother got quite ill and I spent 4 weeks up there looking after my dad (he's very disabled) and my mum (after a week in hospital). Family comes first but I was a bit worried that it wasn't the best start to my new business. Anyway, when I finally got back down to the NE I got a small job writing a report. Then it was two, then three reports and it ended up that I'm writing up or editing most of the work done in support of one side of big legal case! So I'm working stupidly long days and weekends right now.

With respect to chips I've been having a few problems. All the chip work is done on my desktop PC. When I switched the PC on recently to burn a chip (a replacement for a faulty unit) it froze about a minute after starting and it has continued to do this ever since. After much messing about I've decided it is a hardware problem. However, all is not lost I have a backup on a NAS and I recovered all the chip images to my laptop. The next problem occurred after I plugged in my EEPROM writer. There is no 64 bit Windows driver for it and my laptop has of course got 64 bit Windows on it. So I set up the XP virtual machine in Windows 7 on my laptop to get around this. I installed the driver and the XP VM saw it no problem. But when I try to use the burner software the virtual machine crashes every time...

I'll have another go with VirtualBox but I'll have to get hold of an XP license... Failing that I'll get another chip burner that has Windows 7 64 bit support.

I will get there...

[saska]

What a couple of months it's been! A couple of weeks after I finished at Intertek my mother got quite ill and I spent 4 weeks up there looking after my dad (he's very disabled) and my mum (after a week in hospital). Family comes first but I was a bit worried that it wasn't the best start to my new business.

Sorry to hear about the family health problems.

With respect to chips I've been having a few problems. All the chip work is done on my desktop PC. When I switched the PC on recently to burn a chip (a replacement for a faulty unit) it froze about a minute after starting and it has continued to do this ever since. After much messing about I've decided it is a hardware problem. However, all is not lost I have a backup on a NAS and I recovered all the chip images to my laptop. The next problem occurred after I plugged in my EEPROM writer. There is no 64 bit Windows driver for it and my laptop has of course got 64 bit Windows on it. So I set up the XP virtual machine in Windows 7 on my laptop to get around this. I installed the driver and the XP VM saw it no problem. But when I try to use the burner software the virtual machine crashes every time...

The problem here probably isn't the virtual machine but the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) in Win7-64. Think you may have the same problem with Virtualbox.

A few suggestions:
1. Dual boot the laptop WinXP-32 & Win7-64 -- I can probably sort you a valid XP License that will work even on an OEM laptop (Windows activation in BIOS)
2. Fix your desktop -- if you send me the desktop box I'll fix it. It's one of the things I do for a living. Since it's for the Elan chips, I'll do it for free and post it back.
3. Since all you need for the chips is a reliable WinXP-32 box -- I can probably whack something together with a valid XP license and post it to you.
Strikes me 2 or 3 is best since then everything is setup and ready to use and you don't risk losing a finger with the Bootmgr/Partition differences in XP vs Win7 on the laptop.
Email below works.

[ashm]

Anyway, when I finally got back down to the NE I got a small job writing a report. Then it was two, then three reports and it ended up that I'm writing up or editing most of the work done in support of one side of big legal case! So I'm working stupidly long days and weekends right now.

Good that you're not struggling to get work though!

[addict]

shame your having a few probs will pick up a asylum after xmass and ur all sorted

[hoppy66]

Hi Alan, good to hear that you are back, albeit with maybe still a few issues on your plate. Hope all goes well for you and family. As a newbie I'm constantly reading about your chips (quite jealously) so look forward to your manufacturing resurrection as and when it happens.

[ESM]

Nearly finished the reports - deadline is next week so it has to end then... It'll be good to come up for air.

Saska - thanks for the suggestions and the very kind offers. As it happens I got XP installed in VirtualBox (I had VirtualBox installed already - Fedora is installed in there for some embbeded computer development I'm working on and I've got an XP OEM disc) and it worked perfectly with the EEPROM writer. I do still need to get a license it is in the 30 day activation period now. I also have a new motherboard/CPU/memory sat in a box here now so hopefully my (Win 7 32-bit) desktop will be back in action very soon.

[tigerdog]

Congratulations on overcoming the "painful hardware syndrome" and getting the burner working!