PCMTec Development Blog

[luke111]

hey rolls,

do you have an update for us?
How are you going with your editing program?

[rolls]

hey rolls,

do you have an update for us?
How are you going with your editing program?

I'm going to become one of those "when its done" guys.

Getting there, just loads of work still to go. Spent a lot of time working on the server and web api, licensing model and coming up with a file format that allows compare, read-only tunes etc.

I've also set up a bug tracking framework with issue emailing etc so I can easily track who is having bugs/issues and fix them. This will be very important as if it crashes I need to be able to figure out why.

Still lots to do to pull it all together but it is coming together nicely. Been doing ~10 hour days the past 2 weeks and will continue to do until I'm back at work in feb. Hopefully get most of it nailed by then however everything just seems to take longer than expected, and I'm already very pessimistic with my time estimates. I work out what I think and multiply it by 10 these days.

The other bloke who is helping me with the auto definition creation and corrupted strategy detection has been doing a lot of hours writing descriptions and content as well. So between us I think we are doing pretty well and have come a long way.

I'd say we are approaching maybe 75% of the way there though hard to tell, every time I finish something I uncover 10 other things I want to add, then we need to thoroughly test everything!

A feature we have been working on that you guys will love is the ability to view "unknown" parameters. Eg the software will automatically pull out all tables and addresses, even those that are unknown (hundreds of them). So you can browse the tables and if they have a common axis you may even know what they do. We will have a user submission page where you can update descriptions, help and names if you find an unknown table or find errors in what we have described. This should help keep the quality high and set us apart from the competition.

[DarrylC]

The other bloke who is helping me with the auto definition creation and corrupted strategy detection has been doing a lot of hours writing descriptions and content as well. So between us I think we are doing pretty well and have come a long way.

I'd say we are approaching maybe 75% of the way there though hard to tell, every time I finish something I uncover 10 other things I want to add, then we need to thoroughly test everything!

A feature we have been working on that you guys will love is the ability to view "unknown" parameters. Eg the software will automatically pull out all tables and addresses, even those that are unknown (hundreds of them). So you can browse the tables and if they have a common axis you may even know what they do. We will have a user submission page where you can update descriptions, help and names if you find an unknown table or find errors in what we have described. This should help keep the quality high and set us apart from the competition.

As some of you may have been looking at other forums you will know that I am the "other bloke". As Rolls says we are both putting in masses of work and I am lucky in that I am retired so I have the luxury of working on this all the time. It has been a real bonus that Rolls has this month off and his side is now progressing at 10 times a normal programmers pace as apposed to only 5 times

I believe what Rolls is describing about the unknown parameters is very exciting and there are quite a few people very interested. In order to give you a hint on how this works for the Ford it basically boils down to the manufacturers using well defined algorithms and variables. So with a bit of massaging you can map the parameters across the different calibrations without any manufacturer data or code (unlike some big companies we do not have any of this to work with). This technique allow us to do calibrations very quickly so that a few master files and you can do the mapping with a push of the button. It also gives us the ability to expose the parameters to the user and they can define and submit them (if they wish) and the community will benefit.

Now the fun bit. I have found the exhaust cam controls for the I6 turbo. I have tested independent control of this cam (a first I believe) and have a person testing the infamous Ghost Cam. Not only the fun stuff but more importantly it will give us the ability to control wild(er) cams at idle but allow us to remove the angle changes Ford put in to reduce back pressure up top caused by the factory exhaust (turbo back).

I have this in for all the BF calibrations at this stage, FG next and then I will look at the BA but I doubt the ability to do this exists (possible hardware limitation). Will be bringing on another tuner to do some research on how effective this can be so we should see some dyno results as well.

Here is the reference to the other forum:
http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic ... nt-1628410

[VX L67 Getrag]

This is a bit off topic, but it may be implamented in the software being discussed in the future "hopefully"...

I was wondering if anyone knows how to or can convert the Ford VBF (or has a full binary copy of similar) attached file to .bin.
It is to suit the Ford Ranger which is the same as the BT50 & is an auto 3.2L turbo diesel.

I had to zip it as the site doesn't allow .vbf extensions

Thanks in advance.

[rolls]

This is a bit off topic, but it may be implamented in the software being discussed in the future "hopefully"...

I was wondering if anyone knows how to or can convert the Ford VBF (or has a full binary copy of similar) attached file to .bin.
It is to suit the Ford Ranger which is the same as the BT50 & is an auto 3.2L turbo diesel.

I had to zip it as the site doesn't allow .vbf extensions

Thanks in advance.

File format is discussed here if anyone else has any spare time.

http://mhhauto.com/Thread-JLR-Volvo-and ... ersion-3-2

[VX L67 Getrag]

I'm not sure if it is the same as that search as those VBF files are only 565KB where as that actual file I need in question is 1552KB, but I could be wrong.

[ejukated]

Any chance of looking at reading the Ford Territory TDV6 ECU and 6R80 TCM? The ECU is similar to what's used on the Jaguar and Land Rover applications that use the same engine but the seed/key routine appears to be different so the tradititional tools can't unlock it.

[jay woo]

I have not looked but I would expect a set predicable structure for table look up. Once it is known it would be pattern matching.

[luke111]

hey rolls,

do you have an update for us?
How are you going with your editing program?

I'm going to become one of those "when its done" guys.

Getting there, just loads of work still to go. Spent a lot of time working on the server and web api, licensing model and coming up with a file format that allows compare, read-only tunes etc.

I've also set up a bug tracking framework with issue emailing etc so I can easily track who is having bugs/issues and fix them. This will be very important as if it crashes I need to be able to figure out why.

Still lots to do to pull it all together but it is coming together nicely. Been doing ~10 hour days the past 2 weeks and will continue to do until I'm back at work in feb. Hopefully get most of it nailed by then however everything just seems to take longer than expected, and I'm already very pessimistic with my time estimates. I work out what I think and multiply it by 10 these days.

The other bloke who is helping me with the auto definition creation and corrupted strategy detection has been doing a lot of hours writing descriptions and content as well. So between us I think we are doing pretty well and have come a long way.

I'd say we are approaching maybe 75% of the way there though hard to tell, every time I finish something I uncover 10 other things I want to add, then we need to thoroughly test everything!

A feature we have been working on that you guys will love is the ability to view "unknown" parameters. Eg the software will automatically pull out all tables and addresses, even those that are unknown (hundreds of them). So you can browse the tables and if they have a common axis you may even know what they do. We will have a user submission page where you can update descriptions, help and names if you find an unknown table or find errors in what we have described. This should help keep the quality high and set us apart from the competition.

This is so good to hear! I was starting to think you might have pushed this project to the side.
Remember to keep my name down for a BETA tester if needed.
I'll put my money down for the finished version the day its ready.
I was about to buy a HP Tuner on the weekend, but to hear that your software will have live tracing is fantastic. Im so excited!

In the meantime, I'm planning on a rear mount GT42 turbo upgrade later this year so I'm wondering if I can configure a NA ecu to work with a turbo.
Looking at the BA wiring diagram, it seems that the C plug on the ECU has 3 wires, 2 for the map sensor, 1 for the wastegate solenoid.
Is there a later turbo ECU I could look for that does this just on 2 ECU plugs? (To keep it simple)
Or is it possible to re-scale the MAP sensor on a NA ecu and do the boost control manually?

I just had a look at the factory BA manual and it shows 2 separate wires for control of the VCT Phasers. In the description of VCT it also says that the pcm controls the camshafts separately. So, it seems the hardware is there to do it, maybe its in the software?
I have a few HP tuner files here for ba,bf,fg. It looks like the BF, FG has an extra table to control the max overlap (BA doesnt) but still only has one table to control the camshaft degrees? I'm assuming that its only controlling the intake cam then?

Ive done a lot of ecu tuning/flashing etc of the 16 bit denso ecu on my GSXR1000 2001.
From factory Suzuki had done something similar to what you call a GHOST CAM.
Suzuki uses +2 deg ign timing on cylinders 1,4 and -0.5 deg ign timing on cylinders 2,3. Its a bit leaner too (around 14:1 AFR) so it gives it the idle lope.
People stand there thinking, man that GIXXER sounds bad ass lol.
I ended up using about 6 deg timing at idle on all cylinders, set the AFR at around 13:1. It idles sweet, sounds like the cams are small.
Smooth running engines are far more impressive IMO.

[VX L67 Getrag]

Any chance of looking at reading the Ford Territory TDV6 ECU and 6R80 TCM? The ECU is similar to what's used on the Jaguar and Land Rover applications that use the same engine but the seed/key routine appears to be different so the tradititional tools can't unlock it.

I tried using the HPT to read said territory as it's the SID204 from memory & no dice & powers that be say there not likely to look into it.

But thats a VERY similar path I'm looking at for the Ford Ranger/Mazda BT50, for the SID201 & SID204 there is a tool by ECU 24 that can supposedly read/write over the OBDII without any mods to the controller like all other softwares guys say HAVE to be done.