AutoBlip for drive-by-wires
 

Well a month or two ago I signed onto s2ki and saw a thread about the new Autoblip chip. I found it interesting because I find heel-toeing much trickier on this pedal set compared to my old turbo Mini Cooper. I read the thread and they said they were offering a few free to testers, so I wrote to them and got chosen! Thus, when I finished finals (I'm a medical student) I installed this guy right after my master cylinder install. Here's my first impressions:

Shipping, Packaging, Communication, etc. - 10/10
I've gotta say I'm blown away with the customer service of this product. The people on staff are super quick in email responses, they're kind, and knowledgable. There are testers on a Mustang forum too and the staff is great about answering questions and being quick with responses. The packaging and build quality of the product are also spot on. The piece looks well made, wiring looks strong (and well color coded) and shipment was instantaneous.
Here's the package I received:
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...psb9634eb8.jpg
As you can see, you get the module with wiring harness, connectors, all in a foam lined box.

Installation: 9/10
Installation is very straight forward and taps into current wiring using T-connectors and spade plugs. The .pdf they provide makes for an easy installation and troubleshooting is equally easy. The hardest part is getting up under the dash :feint:
http://www.auto-blip.com/pdf/2006+_Honda_s2000_v1_0.pdf
^there is the install guide.

Performance:
Now for the actual meat of the product. The product blips the electronic throttle whenever the brake and clutch pedal are depressed (fully depressed clutch pedal). There is an adjustable delay from when both are triggered and when the chip blips the engine. The amount it is blipped can also be adjusted (see the chip - the controls are very easy). The module also has LEDs so you know when everything is hooked up correctly, etc.
I haven't had any chance to drive the car on a track or auto-x course with this installed. For purists, they might say this is cheating or takes skill out of it. Honestly, most sports cars nowadays have this feature already installed.
On the roads though it is very nice to rev match without much effort. S2000 drivers know that skip shifting is a no-no and constantly rev matching going from 6th -> 5th -> 4th-> 3rd-> 2nd-> 1st can be a bit annoying. You can get this very well dialed in for daily driving. It helps you save the clutch and speeds up shifts not having to blip the throttle on decel. It's also nice for downshifting into first and eliminating the clunking of the transmission and difficulty going to first.

Overall, it takes a little while to get it into your own preferences, but once you do it is quite fun. If you are too much of a purist, it can be fun for DD'ing then be turned off at the track. Great way to save the clutch!

Thanks again AutoBlip for the trial!
http://auto-blip.com/auto-blip by Tractive Technologies

sounds promising!

I installed one of these as well last week. I'm also impressed with it, but it is different from what I envisioned. It's not an "auto-rev match" function, like what I think the 370Z has. However, it definitely does a good job performing a throttle blip.

I plan to post a thread about it soon, and will include an in-car video. I'm really looking forward to using this at the track.

We can just make one big thread on our reviews if you'd like and make this the "autoblip" thread. I totally agree that it's not a rev matching function - it simply is a little jab of the throttle to get the RPMs up

I wonder how hard it would be for them to take this to the next level and make it like the 370's rev-matching function. Programming in the gear ratios for the car and getting the computer to determine what RPM to hold couldn't be that hard... could it?

Edit: I guess this would only work given that the car could tell the computer what gear it is in / is leaving when you push in the clutch.

They could definitely add more features by adding an OBDII interface, but the transmission doesn't have the sensors that the 370Z has on the gear shifter to tell the ECU what gear the driver is about to select. It would be nice if the Auto-Blip had programable features that would allow the driver to disable Auto-Blip in certain conditions (speed below XX or RPM below XXXX). That would make it more enjoyable on the street.

Does the tranny really not have a sensor for gear? My last 2009 Mini cooper had a gear readout through the OBDII....

The ECU calculates the current gear using the engine RPM and vehicle speed while the clutch is engaged, but once the clutch is disengaged, it has no idea what gear you are about to select.

The ecu know the gear just with speed and rpm to get the correct gear

Like 60 at 3500 rpm =6 gear

So if you changed the final drive ratio it wouldn't know what gear you're in? Or would it adjust?