Posted on Leave a comment

Velocity Stack Air Intake Chit Chat

An up close and personal video clip of Mac talking about the high quality stainless features of the MACSBOOST Velocity Stack air intakes. Custom designed and manufactured specifically for your high performance personal watercraft application they are the best you can buy. This is the highest performance air intake solution for your Yamaha Waverunner SHO/SVHO Personal watercraft and Supercharged Yamaha sport boats.

Posted on 1 Comment

Spy pics: Ultra High Performance MACSBOOST Air Intake for your SHO/SVHO Yamaha WAVERUNNER

If you don’t have this air filter on your SHO/ SVHO you could be going faster. 

Don’t be a loser.

Incorporating a state of the art elliptic curve this is the highest performance air intake solution ever created for your supercharged watercraft.  Custom engineered for a precise fit and only available at MACSBOOST.com.

Designed to fit all years and models SHO or SVHO equipped Yamaha Waverunner personal watercraft.

preorder now while you can! MACSBOOST velocity stack air intake filter for Yamaha SVHO Waverunners

Posted on Leave a comment

McPi Raspbery Pi Case Thermal Performance

So, you like the way the McPi case looks but are afraid to ask how she performs? Is this box too hot for you? We realize the importance of a first impression and that beauty is more than skin deep. Hot boxes can be intimidating so we opened the hood and did the dirty work for you. Here is the telemetry.

Can you believe the size of that heat sink? We have been assured it’s for real. No hollowed out die cast junk here.

First we enabled overclocking and set the pi to a max of 1.55ghz. We told you the stig may not be able to handle it. That’s ok we at MACSBOOST are trained professionals. Too lazy to pick up a keyboard yet we enabled the retropie overclock feature from our joystick.

Next up, some keyboard action was required. Using this post from Core Electronics a few test stress test scripts were installed. https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/stress-testing-your-raspberry-pi.html

Stress Testing

Once the stress test was installed we ran them hard. Our results were a peak of 45.1C after 900 seconds. Not bad! But wait, can you hear it?

Nope, we can’t hear it either. There is no fan on this case and we love the silence.


cpuburna-53

After a successful run, we ran the dreaded cpuburn-a53 test. No worries here, After 20 minutes we were only at 66.6C and still no throttling. This must must be work of the ice devil… We digress.

Stabilized McPi case temperature of 66.6C while running the cpuburna-53 test.

Wow, the performance is phenomenal! No throttling after running the most extreme processor test at full load. No fan needed. Excellent! Passive cooling FTW.

How does it work?

1: Physics my boy. Heat transfer is largely a function of cross sectional area. More real area = lower thermal resistance to extract the angry watts trying to escape. Thus, our heat sink feature is solid 6061 chunk of billet fury, not a die cast hollow illusion of a heatsink. Plus using our extra gravity technology we gain a significant amount of thermal inertia.

2: Virtually all crappy pi cases use thermal pads. In kindergarten we learned pads are for sissies. How quickly we forget. While thermal pads are better than air, they are no where near the performance of a properly machined surface. Think for yourself. If pads were better cpu fans would use them. The McPi Case is precision machined so the processor and Ethernet chip are directly and precisely matched with no pads.

Performance never looked so good:

Perhaps we should have painted the case in British racing green? After all, this thing hauls the email. Fortunately we didn’t satisfy that urge and left the McPi case in its natural state. We can always keep our Pi’s British racing green PCB heritage faraday caged and out of sight. Bare aluminum with the naked carbon looks sooo much better.

Wifi?

Don’t be ridiculous, Wifi performance is still great. We use Wii U pro bluetooth controllers for retropie and have a great wifi signal back to our network at the official MB HQ.

#piday

#piday is just around the corner and there is no better way to enjoy a slice!

Order now and see what high quality is all about!

The McPi Ultra Premium Rapsbery Pi case on Faux wood desk with P-touch labeled SD card.

Do you have more Questions? Stay tuned, we have answers. Will it blend???

Posted on Leave a comment

We can almost taste the Raspberry Pi!

Is it McPi day yet? Our “McPi” Raspberry Pi cases have been precision machined and anodized. No, this picture is not a rendering. Check out that sweet heatsink!

#notarender Our Machined Raspberry Pi Carbon Fiber Aluminum Case #precisionmachined

We also have our awesome waterproof blue ring LED switches. We went the extra mile and used a high quality bespoke push on connector. This case takes the Pi to a new level of competition.

Pre-order today the highest quality pi case you can buy!

https://www.macsboost.com/product/mcpi-carbon-fiber-aluminum-racing-raspberry-pi-case/

Once you purchase your case, you will want to know how to configure the power switch. It only takes 2 lines of code.

https://www.macsboost.com/2019/01/24/how-to-configure-your-mcpi-raspberry-pi-case-power-switch/

Posted on 13 Comments

Improve Your Yamaha Waverunner Supercharger Reliability with a MACSBOOST Blow off Valve

You can hear the improvement!

Planned obsolescence is a fact of life in 2019. Light bulb conspiracy anyone?

Have a look at the hose clamps in your Yamaha Personal Watercraft. Look at The screws. They are not stainless steel. While the bands are stainless the clamp will only last as long as the screw will. Perhaps it is not a deliberate effort to create a product that will fail right after the warranty ends. Perhaps it is. We will give Yamaha the benefit of the doubt and place the blame on a cost cutting bean counter. Hulls are light weight, but also not as forgiving as those made in the past. Kudos to Yamaha for improving quality in those areas on the GP-1800.

Either way, if you want a factory new personal watercraft you can only get what is available on the showroom floor.

Yamaha’s Supercharged 1.8L engine is a beast. The latest SVHO variant has taken performance to the next level. Then in an amazing feat Yamaha combined their lightweight and stable VXR hull with their highest output engine to create the GP-1800. The GP is an amazing example of factory hod-rodding and the result has been one of the industries best selling PWCs.

This future racer is all smiles on his 2017 GP-1800 with MACSBOOST Blow off Valve

Where are we going with this? Yamaha’s supercharger has a weak link. They incorporated a sprag clutch to reduce the torsional load on their over revved gear driven supercharger. This is different from the clutch pack design from Sea-Doo with its own pro’s and cons. This is a reliable system when used in a boat that never leaves the water, however when used on a PWC that spends a significant amount of time airborne the equation changes. Under extreme conditions such at P1Aquax racing it is not uncommon to need to replace the clutch after 2 motos or 2 tanks of fuel! These boats all run aftermarket blow off valves doing their best to keep their clutches healthy. When the clutch goes the rider typically experiences intermittent full power before it reverts to a docile 0psi of boost. Obviously losing 1/2 of your horsepower is going to knock your off the top of the podium.

Yamaha 1.8l Supercharger with broken shaft, minced gears and grenaded sprag clutch.

So, what can the rec rider do to keep your clutch in good working order? We off a high quality MACSBOOST Blow off Valve kit in a pre-assembled kit with an industry leading price.

What does the MACSBOOST BOV do? When the throttle is abruptly closed the pressure generated by the supercharger has to go somewhere. The pressure spikes until the supercharger stalls due to flow abruptly stopping.. This pressure surge causes the load to spike on the supercharger clutch and causes the most wear and tear on your clutch sprags. How do we reduce this pressure spike and thus reduce the load back fed into the supercharger system? The MACSBOOST BOV uses the vacuum signal behind the throttle plate to open the BOV and allow the air to escape back into the hull.

MACSBOOST Blow Off Valve installed on a Yamaha Waverunner GP-1800

Our kit includes a super high quality blue silicone hose. This hose is manufactured on a true spline curved mandrel to minimize pressure loss and improve fitment. The transition is super thick and reinforced with many layers of polyester fiber. This extra reinforcement ensures our product can take the pounding of marine duty year after year.

You will notice we use an ALL stainless hose clamp on our valve. Not just any clamp, but a gapless euroseal clamp. Our vacuum hoses are oversized and need no zip ties. That means no zip ties to break or fall off. Our T is also barbed and interfaces between the factory MAP sensor and manifold. We make the extra effort to include the highest quality 9mm silicone vacuum line, nylon tee ,all pre-cut and configured. Our valve is held in place by a stainless circlip. We go the extra mile to provide the highest quality product at the best price.

Yamaha blow off valve map sensor connection macsboost bov
No drilling necessary, attach your BOV here!

Don’t wait until you have a dead clutch to wish you had been to MACSBOOST.com first!

Posted on Leave a comment

MACSBOOST Module Production and Calibration

In 2019 we re engineered our MACSBOOST module, the worlds only plug in Honda Aquatrax turbocharged watercraft performance solution to incorporate Bluetooth and a new 32 bit 180mhz dual core microprocessor.

Our Performance improving module revolutionized the PWC performance industry in 2004. Since then thousands of modules have been sold around the world. Our new version turns up the performance to “11”

Here is a behind the scenes look at the factory calibration step of the MACSBOOST Module Pro.

MACSBOOST Module Pro Factory Calibration


Each module is meticulously calibrated using the worlds smallest oscilloscope…. Though dimenutive just like the xprotolab scope the Module packs a powerful punch.

The end result is a trouble free and more awesome experience on the water.

Get your module today and enjoy the ride!



Posted on 1 Comment

How to Configure your McPi Raspberry Pi case Power Switch

Below are instructions on how to configure your McPi Raspberry Pi case power switch.

The Raspberry Pi, the $35 mini linux computer rocked the computing world on a small scale but in a big way. They ended up being way more popular than even Ebon Upton imagined. This allowed them to improve the performance and increase the feature count dramatically. Current Pi3s are 10X the practical speed of the 1st gen boards. Wow.

I was an early adopter of the Pi. Years ago Donour Sizemore and I designed a motorsports scale system that incorporated four Pi model Bs. These were great except when power was abruptly removed they were not gentle on SD cards . Shame. Our fix was to implement a button on the HMI panel that allowed for easy shutdown and make the file system read only.

Race car on Scales powered by Raspberry pi model Bs.
Scale data was received via UDP packets over Wifi from the Raspberry Pi Scale corners.

The Motorsports Switch Fix

From experience, we can assure you having a user friendly power switch is a necessity on the Pi. That said, Why not use the best looking and highest performance switch available? Our case includes a waterproof stainless steel momentary switch with blue LED ring indicator.

Now that we have a switch, we need some user feedback to indicate if the pi is operating or not. The indicator output is a bit of a hack but works beautifully. We simply enable the serial port to determine whether the Pi is active. When active, it provides a 3V signal an illuminates the blue LED ring light.
See below for the raspbian modifications to make the power switch and indicator operate properly.

Please note that on the Pi3b+ this is not a total power shutdown. The processor does halt and power consumption is decreased dramatically, down to approximately 90ma. The red power led does remain on the main board. The onboard LEDs can be seen through the two ports on the side of the case. Note that clear PETG filament makes a great light pipe!

Press the button again and the pi will wake from power down. Reboot and you are good to go after the normal boot process. EZ as pi!

Stainless Steel Blue Ring LED Soft Power Switch

Code

Edit /boot/config.txt
sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add these lines at the bottom:

#Added below for the MACSBOOST.com McPi Raspberry pi case soft shutdown and start blue ring led switch.
#https://www.macsboost.com/2019/01/24/mcpi-carbon-fiber-aluminum-racing-raspberry-pi-case
dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown
enable_uart=1

You can easily edit the config.txt on a pc. Insert the SD card on a PC. You will see a folder with the config.txt in it. Just edit the file, place the SD card back in the pi and hit the gas!

Wiring loom

Attach the switch wires (blue) to header pin 5 and pin 6.
Attach the LED wires (white) to header pin 8 and pin 9. Polarity does not matter.

Posted on 2 Comments

McPi Carbon Fiber Aluminum Racing Raspberry Pi Case

The McPi case is precision Machined from 6061 aluminum and anodized in matte silver.  Topped with an aerospace grade carbon fiber bonnet and assembled with stainless fasteners this case has all the technology you need to put your Raspberry Pi in the winner’s circle.

Yes this is one awesome looking case but does it perform? Rumor has it the performance of this case is so high even the Stig may not be able to administer it.

MACSBOOST McPi Racing Carbon Fiber Aluminum Raspberry Pi Case
Carbon Fiber Aluminum Motorsports inspired Raspberry Pi Case Rendering
The actual McPi case, just after being machined!

High performance thermal characteristics are provided by the precision machined heat sink risers that touch both the processor and ethernet engine. Think high W/(mK). Ebon Upton eat your heart out.

Internal view of the MACSBOOST McPi Raspberry Pi Case

Internal access is provided for the Pi’s Header, however the huge heatsink might get in the way and will likely not fit your hat accessories.  The good news is you get thermal performance that obliterates the competition. This pi case is best suited for hat free duty such as Pi Research, Coding, Hackathons, Street Racing, Octopi, Kodi, Mining, Emulationstation or Retropie. Check this site for great torrents of retropie images: https://www.arcadepunks.com/64gb-pi-3b-3b-pi-loaded-image-all-killer-no-filler-from-budz71/

A functional stainless steel power switch serves as both Pi(t) command and a telemetry indicator.  The ultra blue indicator ring LED illuminates on power up and turns off with shut down after a brief modification to /boot/config.txt.

Don’t let your underpowered pi case get blown off your desk or entertainment center! Our case is wind tunnel tested and leaf blower approved. Is yours?  You never know when the next office leaf blower office chair race will commence.

Now featuring our proprietary internal *Extra Gravity* technology and low CG optimization.


Pi R Squared design provides optimum (CL) and minimum (CD) at 45 degree angles of attack.

McPi Racing Motorsports Raspberry Pi Case MACSBOOST
Rear and side view of the MACSBOOST McPi Raspberry Pi Case

Radio performance is still awesome despite the premium materials surrounding your pi.  If you need better wifi performance you can hack an external high gain antenna or plug in an external USB wifi adapter.   (not recommended if your are under FCC surveillance)

Carbon Fiber “Bonnet” on the McPi Raspberry Pi Case

Optimized for the Pi 3B+ form factor.  Older Pis will fit but your mileage may vary.

Design cues were provided by the high performance motorsports electronics cases from Techmor.  Go check out some of their great motorsports products.

Custom Designed by MACSBOOST in Race City, USA

Posted on 2 Comments

I have an R-12X Honda Aquatrax, what mods should I do?

If you are on a budget. We recommend to start with the infamous MACSBOOST module. This by far is the most cost effective modification for your Honda Aquatrax R-12X Turbocharged PWC.

In an instant you will see higher speeds and much greater acceleration. Boost is increased and lag is electronically reduced. Jumping waves is far more fun as peak boost recovers much faster than stock.

check out this customer video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evx8Ke_E6M&t=41s
Honda R12X with only the MACSBOOST module