I did a write up for a local board's DIY section, trying to round people up and get an open source tuning community going. I figured it might be a good start for people on bigger forums like this too, that have heard about this stuff but don't know where to begin:

I wanted to throw together all the information I've found about open source ECU editing and flashing. I have the Tactrix cable and have saved my stock rom for safe keeping, and flashed my ECU with another rom. I'm just now getting into the editing part of the game. My hope is to get other locals that have the cable and software to come out of the shadows, and new people interested so we can all start sharing knowledge. The first step is knowing where to go to get the information you need, so here we go.

First things first, you need the Tactrix cable. Only this cable will work for flashing. Others can be used for logging, but that's it.

http://www.tactrix.com/

Besides a computer (preferably a laptop), that's all the hardware you need to get started. Next is the flash software. This is what allows you to copy the contents of the ECU down to the computer, and push new roms up to the ECU.

http://www.openecu.org/index.php?title=EcuFlash

Note that to be able to write to the ECU, you have to make some connections under the dash. It varies by model but a good description can be found here.

http://www.scoobypedia.co.uk/index.php/Knowledge/ConnectingToYourECU#toc4

Now that you have the ability to download and upload ECU images, you'll want to be able to edit them so you can make comparisons to see what’s being changed and why. There are many options available for editors. The current favorite seems to be Enginuity, most likely because it comes bundled with the most complete set of XML definitions (more on those in a bit), and is fairly user friendly.

http://www.enginuity.org/viewforum.php?f=2

There are others. ECUFlash (link above) has a built in map editor. There is also ECUEdit,

http://www.epifansoft.com/phpBB2/index.php

and TunerPro.

http://tunerpro.net/

The editing software you decide to use comes down to personal preference. The bottom line with any of them is that you need the proper definition files for them to be able to read your specific ECU rom image correctly. Images are made of various tables of data, called maps. The locations for the maps in the raw hex file you download vary by ECU, and even by what revision of the same style ECU. In the early days of open source tuning, people (that are WAY beyond my knowledge level) were using hex editors to look at different roms and find pattern matches to determine where the tables lived. This was a very black art, but was made a bit easier when XMLWrite came along. XMLWrite is a piece of software that will look at a raw hex file and try to build a proper definition file for some of the tuning software packages out there.

http://www.tinywrex.endoftheinternet.org/XMLWRITE_rh.html

So now you can download, edit, and upload. That’s it, right? Not even close. The real trick to all of this is to tune your car to its optimum level without doing any long term damage. This is where real time logging comes in. You have to be able to tell how your car is doing out of the box to know what kind of changes to make. You also need to monitor the car’s performance after you make your changes to be sure it’s responding to them the way you think it should be. There are many logging options out there, but the favorite seems to be ECUExplorer.

http://www.tari.co.za/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=ecuExplorer_LatestReleases

Something like this should be used in conjunction with other monitors, such as a wideband O2 sensor (which I’m currently in the market for),

http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products.php
http://wbo2.com/default.htm

an EGT gauge, and so on.

What does the future hold? Nobody knows for sure, but it looks promising. From what I’ve heard, the software authors are looking to integrate wideband O2 inputs into the various logging software packages. Further down the road, there is talk of developing software for real time tuning. This would be the proverbial holy grail for the open source tuning community. The way I see it, as with any open source software, the best way to push forward is go get as many people involved as possible. I hope this article is a small step in that direction. Here is a listing of forum links to get you started.

http://forums.openecu.org/
http://www.tari.co.za/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
http://www.enginuity.org/index.php
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=142
http://www.plasmatize.com/osecuroms/index.php
http://www.wrxhackers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=39
http://www.scoobypedia.co.uk/index.php/Knowledge/ECU

So what are you waiting for? Join the community!

Justin

Excellent write-up. OS ECU Roms has some great modified roms to compare to the originals for those just getting started.

A lot of that info and more is found here:
http://www.enginuity.org/about444.html

Excellent post, Im running stage 2, and it's awesome.

Good write up!

You should put it up on openecu.org (I didn't see it there yet, may be blind tho)

I'm sure it would deserve a sticky.

Excellent write-up. OS ECU Roms has some great modified roms to compare to the originals for those just getting started.

I registered over there and took a good look around. Looks like a great resource.

I'm running an Accessport right now. If I wanted to try out one of the osecurom maps before buying the tactrix cable, could I load it using my AP? Or do I have to buy the tactrix cable first?

I registered over there and took a good look around. Looks like a great resource.

I'm running an Accessport right now. If I wanted to try out one of the osecurom maps before buying the tactrix cable, could I load it using my AP? Or do I have to buy the tactrix cable first?
No, you can't load any roms with an AP and you can't use the AP cable to read or flash with Ecuflash. You must have the tactrix cable (and flash jumper if you have an 02-05 wrx). If you do get the cable, you would want to back up the married Cobb rom (or alternatively, you could unmarry it) and then flash one of the osecuroms' images. Then, if you want to go back to the AP, you can flash your backup copy back on or marry it if you decided to unmarry it before. If you don't back up the Cobb image or unmarry the AP before flashing the new map, you're AP will no longer be functional.

No, you can't load any roms with an AP and you can't use the AP cable to read or flash with Ecuflash. You must have the tactrix cable (and flash jumper if you have an 02-05 wrx). If you do get the cable, you would want to back up the married Cobb rom (or alternatively, you could unmarry it) and then flash one of the osecuroms' images. Then, if you want to go back to the AP, you can flash your backup copy back on or marry it if you decided to unmarry it before. If you don't back up the Cobb image or unmarry the AP before flashing the new map, you're AP will no longer be functional.

THANKS for the reply, which is consistent with what I have been reading. I did see that ev8siv3 was planning to offer maps for AP users, but I wasn't sure if we were there yet.

I've ordered the Tactrix cable. Looking forward to an interesting journey.

THANKS for the reply, which is consistent with what I have been reading. I did see that ev8siv3 was planning to offer maps for AP users, but I wasn't sure if we were there yet.

I've ordered the Tactrix cable. Looking forward to an interesting journey.
If so, he's probably going to offer in streettuner format which would have nothing to do with any of the openecu tools.

good write up
Im in same boat and level
next i need a WBo2 to do my own tune

may be a bad suggestion can we get a chat group goin in the PM so instead of asking and waiting maybe we can get quicker and more feedback in a chat group

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I just wanted to get a collection of "go here firsts" out for people, since there are so many little pieces to the puzzle when it comes to open source stuff. Didn't know if it was sticky material or not, but I thought it would help.

Now, would someone put together the same type of thing for logging and tuning?? This is where I want to go next.

Justin

Very nice writeup. I am starting to consider the open source tuning approach. Currently, I am running with AP Stage 2 map and I love it but I am at a point where in order to move further in power, I will have to spend lots of money to move further. If I can do my own tuning, I can learn lots of things about my car and spend less. Sounds like lots of fun. Obviously, proper equipment is a must: wide band O2 sensor and gauge along with EGT gauge but I can start learning now.

So, here comes my first question:

Why can't I use the AP cable with serial->USB adapter to do the flashing? The cable obviously supports all proper voltages in order to do this and the tactrix cable is just a ODB2 serial cable with an integrated serial to USB converted. Has anybody actually tried it? I know there are different tactrix cable revisions which work with only certain model years so there might be more to it. Anybody?

Why can't I use the AP cable with serial->USB adapter to do the flashing? The cable obviously supports all proper voltages in order to do this and the tactrix cable is just a ODB2 serial cable with an integrated serial to USB converted. Has anybody actually tried it? I know there are different tactrix cable revisions which work with only certain model years so there might be more to it. Anybody?
The Subaru ECU requires very specific baud rates to flash. Colby found the cheapest chip he could that would do those rates. No one has found a USB->Serial converter that will as well, unless it used those chips.

wow good thread i was looking for this!! thanks

wow that was a awesome write up man. Free bump for anyone who wants to try opensource

A lot of that info is now incorrect/out of date.

To get started in FOSS tuning, you'll actually want to start with the Getting Started with Enginuity and Open Source Tuning FAQ (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1410201).

yeah I was reading and seen it was outdated. The link above is all you need to get started.

A lot of that info is now incorrect/out of date.

Ya think? I posted it in September of '06...

Glad to see there is still so much interest in open source tuning. What is the status of enginuity.org?

Still MIA, hoping it doesn't turn out to be KIA.


And I wasn't telling you it was outdated, I was telling the guy who bumped this ancient post and seemed to think it was new and exciting.

*EDIT -> wrong spot