Is it safe to power the ecu through a pdm (chances of pdm failure?)

I had thoughts of investing in a pdm in the future and thought about what if the pdm fails, the engine wouldn’t be powered as well.

Do most owners power their ecu’s through the pdm, or do they have the ecu powered separately by fuses and relays for injectors, ignition, and fuel pump? So that would leave the pdm to do body operations, lights, cooling fans, etc…

Curious of their failure rates on pdm’s and do pdm manufacturing companies warranty them?

I find it fascinating of the concept of powering a car with a pdm. I come from a bmw background of over 10 years.

When I started my career in 06, the e65 7 series started to be produced with power modules and control different parts of the vehicle, which are now integrated with one module now with the later models. These modules can detect and turn off outputs. The ecu was never powered through a power module.

So cool seeing how technology has progressed from the oem and now aftermarket can provide this tech to the masses.

The PDM does everything possible, there are some limitation with PDM's (for example, I am unaware of any PDM on the market that can correctly control power windows directly) but for electrical items such as ECU's, Ignition systems, Fuel Systems and fans, these would all be powered and controlled through the PDM.

Most PDM failures that I have seen are from end user caused issues, such as triggering the reverse polarity protection by hooking jump leads incorrectly, or supplying high current into an output.

BlackRex - I have a HP Electronic HP8840 from which I am running outputs to the power windows in my Z32 300ZX. The windows (via the stock window switches) work as original. I'm curious why this wouldn't work with any other PDM or, are you referring to a different style setup?

He's referring to the PDM actually raising and lowering the windows from a CAN message or switch input to the PDM, not just supplying power the the existing window controller / circuit.

In my opinion, there is a higher chance of having problems with fuses and relays.

PDM is state of art (at least the ones we have worked with: HP8440, HP8441, MoTec PDM15, PDM30, PDM16 and PDM32). We are about to wire one car using the AIM PDM32 and I expect that it will be as good as the ones I've mentioned.

About power windows, if the PDM have dual half bridge I think it would be possible to directly control a power window.

Another solution would be using an external dual half bridge module, motec has one and ECU master have a better one (in my opinion, since it have CAN capability).

https://ecumasterusa.com/collections/power-management/products/dual-h-bridge-module