OpenFlash ECU Tune thread deleted??

Boy the posts on these two threads are getting deleted so quickly that I swear I’m going crazy...

I really hope this all gets figured out and everyone can live in peace!

 

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They bought a 2WD truck? What are the planning on doing with that thing?

 

Mainly, the truck is used to transport our motorcycles to the track for testing. But it's also used to transport things like our Mazda MX5 center exit exhaust:


So 4WD would pose more of a hassle (for dyno testing) than be of any real benefit here in no-snow CA.

 

You should be aware that a large majority of Tacoma’s are 4x4 and they drive much differently than your 2wd variant. Just some advice when you actually try to get into it

 

How does the 2wd drive differently than the 4wd, let alone "much differently"?

 

More weight, stiffer ride usually, etc. unless things have changed since my last 4x4 truck

 

Same motor, transmission options, rear gears dependant on tranny choice, same front suspension... Weight difference between 2 or 4wd is only about #100. I don't see the lack of a front diff making a significant difference.
For tuning purposes I don't see an issue with it. 4wd tacos are driven in 2wd mode 95% of the time anyways.

But I don't have a dog for in this race.

 

Uh no.

 

AFAIK, everything in the 2WD and 4WD ECUs is the same except the dormant 4hi/4lo maps for the transmission, as well as some code for the Crawl Control that also lies dormant when the CC isn't present.

I could be wrong, though?

 

I suppose things have changed in the past few decades

 

Yeah EFI and tuning with computers. Exactly what this thread is about, 2wd or 4WD doesn’t matter.

 

[Typical forum board herd mentality. It happens on every forum board where a vendor has gained popularity. I for one welcome the competition.[/QUOTE] The tuner I bought for my motorcycle gets bad mouthed on all the forums,despite the fact there are many people happy with it.According to these motorcycle forums the only way your bike will run correctly is if you buy one brand of tuner and get it dyno tuned by certain people on dyno equipment manufactured by the the same company that makes the tuner......
I too like to see the competition.I also have read with interest OVtune's explaining or trying to explain or help us understand the transmission
programming.More people looking inside our tacomas ECM can only be a good thing right?

 

That’s true. No doubt the 4wd variant drives different due to mechanical differences. But as you said, doesn’t matter when it comes to ECU/TCU tuning.

 

Regardless of this, the reality is that without a 4WD variant in your stable for testing purposes, you will only be able to rely on 3rd party feedback around the impacts on drivability in 4WD. Yes, the core ECU changes should be the same but I've seen on this and other platforms where things don't always equate properly when you start playing w/ shifting / engine braking / etc., where some of your changes could have unintended consequences if not fully tested on a truck that most resembles the community into which you hope to sell. Right?

 

Getting a 4x4 for in house testing will require not much more than phone call. So all our calibrations will certainly be tested in both variants. But from the testing/research we have done this far, it's highly unlikely that 2wd and 4wd cars will require different mapping. But I appreciate your concern.

 

No. They are changing the tables. The tables don't care if they are hooked to 2WD, 4WD or transformer arms. This stops at the engine.

 

So what is the ETA on your tune?

 

We should have the ECU side of things ready to go in a few weeks. So this would be suitable for 6MT users. For AT users, we will be adding TCU reprogramming shortly thereafter (available as free online software update). Our developers are busy adding the read/write protocols to the OFT platform right now

 

Since we've been getting a LOT of emails about the OFT in anticipation of the hardware release, I figured I'd post an update here:

Our development is going well! Our engineers are actively working to port our current reading/writing protocol over to the OFT. We should be testing ECU reading and flashing within a couple weeks -possibly days.
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The Openflash Tablet is actually a very stand-apart tool from any other vendors product offering (sold as Alientech Powergate 3+).

While the OFT shares the same hardware design as the Alientech PWG3+, we have proprietary software which brings the added functionality; including datalogging, data-graphing, enhanced ECU diagnostic/interactions. These features will never be available from any other vendor (unless they are licensing the software from us directly).
Our interactions with Alientech are very different than any typical producer, reseller relationship. We have exclusive (direct) access and interactions with Alientech engineering teams that gives us the opportunity to add vehicle flashing support, nearly on-demand. == This is the only way OFT support could be achieved, as Alientech had no intention of ever supporting the 3g Tacoma via PWG3+. This is the same reason other vendors could never offer a PWG3+ device to customers for the 2016+ Tacoma; until we came to market. We drove our AT engineers to add support (directly).



All this is to say that unless you're using an OFT you can expect read and flash ONLY functionality from any other vendors retail PWG3+ device.
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More about development:

A production delay for OFT (and PWG3+) began on Jan 7th, and ended Jan 24th. This delay has actually required a lot of attention that took some engineers off of protocol development/work for a few weeks. We recently got back to work on the protocol and expect to be testing very soon, privately. Once we have the ECU protocol finalized, we will begin work on adding the TCU read/write protocol. We've already completed 95% of the reverse engineering work to add TCU support.

Once we have our ECU protocol ready, we will be able to fully support Manual Transmission Tacomas; they only require ECU read/write interactions and datalogging. As for the Automatic Transmission Tacomas, we'll have ECU programming fully supported, with TCU support soon to follow. When transmission flashing support is finalized/added (a short time later), any OFT's already sold and in-use will be able to apply a free software update using our OpenFlash Manager software to ADD the new transmission flashing support to their device. No need to wait or return their OFT's to add support -really easy!

We expect to release more information about development and product release very soon, and don't have a finite timeline for product release just this moment. Please let me know if you have any more questions. Expect my replies to be transparent, open, and complete.

AnthonyC.