Not sure if this is popular on here or not

http://www.jandssafeguard.com/VampirePage/Vampire.html

Not only does it detect knock but it retards timing to the individual cylinders 1/4 of a degree at a time till knock is gone. It's supposed to detect knock long before you can hear it. Seems like one heck of a fail safe.

I've read and hear great things about them. Anyone here using one? I'm considering getting one for the Civic.

 

Seems like a pretty cool device, and it would certainly come in handy for people who live in areas where the climate/temps. change a lot from season to season.

Get tuned in the spring when air is dense and temps are low, then beat the crap out of your car in summer when it's hot as *****,too much timing could definitly jack some **** up.

How much does it cost?

 

Orders and Payment

J&S Electronics ships retail orders FedEx COD secured funds. COD orders must be paid for with cashier's check or postal money order. To avoid COD charges, you may pre-pay by personal check. Contact J&S Electronics for exact shipping charges. Credit cards are not accepted. California residents must include appropriate sales taxes. Foreign orders require pre-payment by wire transfer.

sounds a little weird

 

I haven't used one of those for years, but a few people still used them. With the changes in a lot of the ECU management possibilities, they are a nice additional safety measure, but not a requirement.

 

Well there still is only one knock sensor. To get individual cylinders you would need individual knock sensors also would need COP to able to change timing to individual cylinders...Seems like it would be taking timing out on all cylinders not indiviually.

From my understanding individual knock monitoring and individual cylinder timing is Extremly expensive like on set-ups in F1 racing...

Again this is out of my rhelm of knowledge. I am only giving an opinion

Edit...Just read The unit is suppose to remember the last cylinder that fired to was the one that was knocking....i like how the put it tho "knows" lol

 

Not really. Nowadays many larger vendors do not do credit cards. They either want certified funds like Cashier's check or money order. The fees alone don't make it worth the trouble. Believe it or not, that's now become practice for those that do that and don't want a large e-commerce website and use. (Believe it or not, many more will become this way).

J&S has been around for a LOOOOOONG time. They were never one to take credit cards.

 

Off topic but why in the world would a large vendor not take a CC? That just makes no sense to me.... this unfortunately is a world of overreachers, and people in debt. However not accepting puts you at huge disadvantage. Especially if your selling non essential things. I bought my business from a guy that never took CC's......from the day i reopened till now I've minimally doubled his 10 year best week every week since. I meen **** even at quick check people will seriously swipe for a coffee and newspaper. I can't remember the last time I've seen cash.

 

Yeah I agree it seems like a wonderful tool. A car that's properly dyno tuned and found the limit of spark advance and then pulled several degrees out is going to be safe and probably not benefit from it. However if you like to advance spark closer to the edge or account for failures, bad gas etc. this is a wonderful option.
In my case I'm an amateur tuner and I think it'll make a great fail safe.

As for cost. I contacted the seller and he said $595 for the universal version we'd use on these cars and $55 for the sensor kit. Seems like an expensive investment initially but with a boosted motor you only have to put in a couple degrees to much and you can blow the motor. One save and it's paid for itself.

It's monitoring RPMs, number of cylinders and exactly when they are firing. When it detects knock it'll know exactly which cylinder that was based on which cylinder just fired.

 

Sorry you feel that way... but in the end, it is the business's issue to deal with. In many major component companies, credit cards aren't used. mainly from those who sell their products in BULK where they don't deal with the everyday public, and their rate is even contracted with their vendors. You'd be surprised who doesn't deal in CCs. or even credit card via paypal. For all those transactions, there's also additional costs involved. Bigger businesses in bulk do ACH payments, Certified funds, etc. Its the only way to ensure full payment is made. No surprises.

You're thinking like the everyday consumer, which is fine. But for many businesses that even deal with the end user lately, CASH IS STILL KING.

 

Not to divert the thread but from talking to John over at J&S I get the impression it's a one man show. He builds the units, changes up the software on them, answers people's emails etc. I'm assuming a hobby he's making money from. I can see where it wouldn't make sense for him to have monthly CC processing fees. Although you'd think some sort of convenience like paypal even if he passed the paypal fee on to the end user. I'd much rather pay that than drive out somewhere and get a money order and old school snail mail it to him.

 

I don't know if he's changed infrastructure or not, but he used to have quite a few people employed years ago. But this has become the nature of the import industry after 2006. People were getting cheaper and cheaper, and with eBay and other companies trying to either dominate or buy-out, a lot of one and 2-man shows are the bulk of what's left; when it comes to the quality stuff for hondas, the quality names are small operations, period.

 

Are you the guy that wrights for import tuner?

 

Nope. I Don't write for anyone.

 

So anyone on here using a Vampire? Would love to hear from first hand users on the Honda.