How is drilling something out easier than merely plugging something in? You're done in 5 minutes with the Duc-EE. Not only that but with the condition I've left the bike in it would be trivial for someone else to claim a replacement exhaust under warranty. On the other hand, if you'd drilled it out it might not be so straight forward to convince someone that you hadn't just vandalised it.
Horse for courses I guess, but by the time you ordered it, waited it for it to arrive, paid for it, and fitted it ? Probably not 5 mins eh ?? It took me a few mins to get the end can off and a couple of mins to drill it, permanent fix. Motorapido actually thanked me for not claiming and said "wish everyone would do it" I shit you not. Also, if your Duc.EE should fail, same old problem. Drill it out, never hear from it again. The only downside would be a warranty claim I guess, but my dealer was sound with it and what I had done. I guess if I sold it inside 2 years, and the next owner wanted the flapper in (Why ??) then it could be an issue maybe ? But I'm more than happy that its been out nearly a year now, and I ain't heard a peep from it, and yet i know it's seized to buggery cause I had the pipe off for a tyre fit recently, it's stuck solid, but I don't care cause there ain't nothing in the gas flow https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/hacksaw-to-the-butterfly.50478/
Not quite - I disconnected the cable which took 5 seconds and induced the engine warning light and I just rode around for a couple of days whilst waiting for the DUC-EE to turn up. After which it took less than 1 minute to fix. At no point had I disassembled anything and couldn't have just ridden it if I needed to, so waiting for it to be delivered resulted in no more inconvenience than an extra portion of the TFT display shunting some pixels that it wouldn't normally have to worry about. Ducati Aylesbury pretty much said the same thing - they said they'd be happy to process the warranty claim but appreciated that fitting the Duc-EE would be cheaper in terms of my own time and were happy for their to be one less DVT exhaust warranty to process both now and in the future. I've not heard of one failing, but that doesn't mean it won't, however the problem only being a warning light isn't going to cause a panic. I'd still be more interested in getting a faulty Duc-EE replaced via post as I'm buggered if I'm paying £30 for something which doesn't work but can easily be replaced before reaching for the drill. You're right in that it isn't going close anyway so there will never be a performance issue - from that perspective it's fixed regardless of whether you drill it or not.
MotoRapido actually bought me a small gift for drilling it out as they said the same thing, one less to worry about. Mine had slammed firmly shut in Spain on 2 occasions thus giving me about 5-6k rpm max and very slow throttle response. I found myself on the side of the road trying to re-open it with a stick, and it eventually cleared with the stick and loads of throttle. £30 quid is £30 quid mate, and drilling it out cost feck all But like I said....Horse for courses, both methods work
My Duc ee caused problems. Everything was ok a month or so until I rode in high elevations. The idle became variable from 1k to 2k. When at stoplights people on the street would look at my bike in a disgusting way. When down to low elevation that continued to a lesser extent. I took to dealer who disconnected Duc ee and reset my bike computer. It been fine for the last year. Maybe I just got a bad one (Duc ee) but it was another variable to go wrong.
Yours was not the first one I had heard of that caused the odd issue, hence drilling the butterfly out, mines been drilled for 10 months now, ridden in all conditions, no issue thus far....
I can't see how the DUC-EE would have had any impact on the running of your bike. It literally intercepts the fault signal from the exhaust valve, and sends a good signal onward to the ECU. It's super simple and it plugs inline between the two parts and that's it .... unless you installed it into the wrong socket, which is totally possible.
The signal from the exhaust valve is binary - high or low - meaning exhaust valve is working or not. The ECU logic won't interpret anything other than high or low as it's not expecting anything other values from that system. It is highly unlikely, because if the original servo controller were to develop a fault it could cause havoc - and that simply doesn't happen. The one and only issue with installing the DUC-EE isn't so much an issue with the DUC-EE itself, it's that Ducati use the same connector in other areas and obviously nothing is labelled. If you didn't visually identify the exhaust valve servo controller by following back the control cables from the exhaust vale to the servo, and then chase it's signal cable back to the next connector between the servo controller and the ECU, then it's totally possible to have connected it in between the ECU and some other system instead. One would hope that since nothing is labelled that most DUC-EE users would have half-a-brain and just check that they're plugging into the correct place. If a DUC-EE was to fail it could only go one way - if it goes "open circuit" then you'll get the warning light come on, but that is literally all that can happen. If installed correctly the DUC-EE won't affect engine running at all, even if it does fail. It's just not possible. You can validate this just by disconnecting the servo controller cable to the ECU and see the result for yourself.
I may be wrong here, but if the digital signal from the Duc'EE is indeed binary, so its high and low (a one or zero) is still a voltage right ? IIRC from many years ago training on this stuff, a one is five volts and the zero is zero volts ? Well if the Duc.EE was not putting out a 5V or 0V but a random collection of various voltages neither making the binary high or low, would this not confuse the ECU and possibly upset the bike running ?? By removing it, I understand where your coming from, but if it remains in situ and developed a fault, who knows how the ECU could interpret this ??
We'll, if I plugged it into the wrong socket why was the flapper kept open after installation? I'm just reporting fact, not speculation.
No. This isn't going to be a straight forward 5v +/- signal, it is likely to be a digital system with some type of encoding and I was just trying to explain how simple the DUC-EE is in operation and that rogue data is unlikely. The DUC-EE is merely saying "servo ok" or "servo not ok", in place of the actual servo controllers message. It is also likely that the communication has to be "duplex" and data has to flow both ways - ie the servo controller or DUC-EE doesn't even produce any data unless it is requested, which is why the servo doesn't freak out and why something needs to be plugged into the backend of the DUC-EE with it sitting inline. The connectors, being common to a few different areas, would indicate that this system is likely to be part of a CANbus or more likely a proprietary Ducati data bus of some description, since the ECU's tend to be encrypted (which is also why you can't get a custom map at the moment). Upon which we don't just push through random voltages and certainly nothing as high as 5v - the reasons for which should be obvious, as you've already alluded to the fact that a random voltage fluctuation of sufficient power could wreak utter havoc. Vehicle control systems, such as this simply cannot be allowed to push out high voltage if the controller goes open circuit. If you check the wiring to the servo there will be discrete isolated power supplies for the servo itself and another low voltage low current supply for the controller. It is an digital encoded transmission system, using extremely low voltage and low current - which is kinda why the DUC-EE commands a £30+ price and not a £3 price, or why you just couldn't cobble something so simple together yourself with a relay. If the DUC-EE was to play up, it is more likely to just stop doing anything, since the controller uses such low power it just can't feed anything to the ECU that would be catastrophic and if it did then the ECU wouldn't interpret something as crude has a continual high voltage line to look like everything was ok. Also, there will be protections built in on the ECU side, to protect against all manner of issues that might arise from a short circuit from potentially anywhere on the bike. The ECU will be looking for a signal following a known digital protocol which would identify a particular circuit. If it gets something other than that which it's expecting then the incoming data is ignored or discarded. There is protection on both sides.
Your statement implies that you've left the servo control cable connected to the valve. If you've purchased a DUC-EE then I would have thought you understood what it actually did before plugging it in? If you still have the servo cable connected to the valve you're supposed to remove it. There should be nothing operating the exhaust valve if you've connected a DUC-EE. That's the whole point of the product. The DUC-EE doesn't operate the exhaust flapper. The flapper's default position is open and it has a spring on it. The problem is that once it corrodes and the flapper is pulled shut by the servo that it stays shut. If the flapper stays open then it's because the flapper seizes up to a point that the servo can't close it either, which can put a strain on the servo - which is why you still want to remove the control cable, in case you remove the DUC-EE and the servo attempts to operate a seized valve. Whether it seizes open or closed is a bit of a lottery but it is immediately noticeable when seized shut because it won't rev over 5K RPM. Once it's seized it can only be moved with a pair of pliers and you just move it into the open position and disconnect the servo cable, however doing so throws an error on the dash because there is no longer a load on the servo. The DUC-EE sole purpose is to clear the error, it does nothing else.
You can achieve the same result mechanically as a Duc-EE does electronically by disconnecting the operating cable and putting a short sleeve around the exposed wire to restrict it being pulled fully up. That's the system used by Arrows when I bought and installed a full decat exhaust. On a previous 1200 I'd fitted a MIVV decat and they did something similar but with a small spring rather than a solid sleeve. Both worked without any problem or error message.
Indeed. I'm sure there is a load-cell somewhere inside the servo housing which detects the required load on the servo when it actuates the valve. The only issue I see is that a mechanical solution can also fail - spring tension deteriorates, etc. Cheap to fix mind you. The added benefit of the DUC-EE is that you can remove the servo and all the control cables, saving a bit of weight and making a tidier under the seat by not carrying redundant components around.
