I just wanted to say how impressed I was by ECUflash. As is usual for a computer junkie, I went in feet first: e.g. no RTFM - just hook it up and see what it can do.

I wanted to save my current ECU settings before AMS reflashed my car today. And of course I ran out of time and so I ended up hooking up ECUflash in their parking lot while Martin was watching. Using the software is fairly intuitive and I was able to download the code off my ECU without any major issues. The only "issue" was that the USB cable has to be connected before you open the software - no biggie. I think it took Martin about all of 30 seconds to go from being merely curious to being very impressed. After we reflashed my car with his software (eehm, ancient ... DOS based ... hex editor ), we went back to ECUflash to make some minor adjustments to my idle settings. It took literally 2 minutes to dial in the idle on the car. VERY NICE! Especially considering how many hours I've spent in the past trying to dial in the idle using the vodoo of the BISS.

The software reminds me in a lot of ways of the various piggyback software systems. I used to run a XEDE, and I'd say ECUflash is every bit as easy to use and it is, of course, MUCH more versatile.

Having said that, I would STRONGLY CAUTION anyone who does not have a good understanding of engine management. If you are going to tune your own car, remember to take SMALL steps and make sure you have the appropriate supporting tools to help with the tuning (i.e. wideband sensor, egt, logging, etc.).

For those of you who don't want to tune your own car, I would still say that ECUflash is a worthy addition to your mod list, since it can easily do a number of simple things that used to be fairly difficult or even impossible to accomplish:
1.) Use it to backup your ECU. Keep an image of your stock ECU before you get any kind of flash. Then backup the flashed ECU.
2.) Dialing in the idle with large cams is very easy to do
3.) Get rid of the speed limiter

These are just three things off the top of my head that, IMO, easily justify the $89 for the cable.

My hat's off to everyone that was involved in developing this. It is a very impressive product.

l8r)

 

I was able to demonstrate the ECUFlash software to a few people today at a small meet I had here in my area.. I also demonstrated my car's idle with 280 cams and lets just say there was alot of interest in this software/hardware.. I can forsee many of the tuners moving away from other products to use this one.

 

wow my head is spinning with all the developments in this area in the few weeks.

I wonder if pandoras box has been opened. going from expensive hardware or software or raw hex editing to a effective, easy to use freeware program and $80 cable is kinda like handing your kid a box of m-80s and saying becareful

I hope everybody that starts tuning their cars follows ludikrauts advice" I would STRONGLY CAUTION anyone who does not have a good understanding of engine management. If you are going to tune your own car, remember to take SMALL steps and make sure you have the appropriate supporting tools to help with the tuning (i.e. wideband sensor, egt, logging, etc.)."

 

It's an awesome tool if you know what your doing.

Good luck and if you have any questions let me know.

 

The the openecu guys' credit, development has been going on a lot longer than a few weeks. It mainly the completion of the workig cables that sparked so much interest by the general community.

d

 

Yea they've had a working version and cable for the WRX for a while now.

 

What did you do to get your idle dialed in? Ive added fuel and increased timing and bumped up the rpm and it still isnt as smooth as id like it.

 

You might be missing the cells you need to adjust.. If your getting stock vacuum (15 in/hg or so) then it may be the 10%-20%, if its less vacuum, then you have to also look at the 30-90% cells too.. Also the RPM range from 0-1500rpm

If you set your idle for 1000rpm, is it settling on 1000rpm? Thats the first part, it idles alot smoother at 1000rpm to begin with..

 

Ive adjusted my idle to 953 and adjusted idle and timing in columns 10-40 and through 1500rms. I increased the high octane timing map up to 15* in this area and smoothed out the transitions to the surrounding cells. Fuel is in the high 13's in the same area. Ill see anywhere from 12-18hg of vaccum. You think I should adjust out farther than column 40?

 

well it all depends on how acurate your guage is. It wouldn't hurt to do do specially if you feel it could dtill be smoothed out a bit.

 

Just to verify, is my approach correct?

 

Yeah it sounds right.

 

awesome, thanks for the insights!

 

You can expand it to one more column, also don't forget the low octane timing also, its possible your sitting on either, or in between..

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't adjust close-loop fuel with the existing fuel maps. You would need some kind of O2 sensor offset.

So, what you mentioned about putting fuel at 13.xx, wouldn't cause you to idle at 13.xx. The ECU will still use the O2 feedback to idle at a stoich 14.7. All you are doing is messing up your closed-loop fuel trims.

I would move your fuel settings back to normal until someone finds a definition for an O2 offset or something similar to where you can actually control the closed-loop AFR.

Just use the Idle RPM and timing maps to help your cams idle. Also, if you have and adjustable cam gear, you can try to decrease overlap a bit, but I am assuming that you just have stock cam gears and want to use ECUFlash to tune the cams.


Eric