darkhalf

This has been an interesting one. Firstly the board installation in the ECU had issues. Overall the installation was done quite neatly but I noticed that several of the pads on the Type 4 board connector had not been soldered properly. The solder had not flowed all the way through the through hole in the ECU. This caused issues with write verify fail errors when tring to change things like rev liiter. Once it got posted here and I fixed that up, was posted back. The tuner was originally supplied with a laptop containing a 'trial' copy of Nistune with. This also ended up causing delays, because trials no longer tune boards due disabling it because of noted licence abuse!! So once I sent through a licence they installed in on their new laptop However they had issues with the drivers for the third party ECU talk cable. This is because the cable was plugged in and the laptop didnt have drivers on it. We ended up going over the phone and reinstalling Nistune and the ECU talk FTDI drivers for this cable on a separate laptop Yeah this is pretty bad. The software does integrity checks on the data it sends/receives. If the recieved data doesnt match then it will retry, retry, retry until it throws its hands in the air and disconnects. That is why it is slow on the maptracing and raising errors all the time If you run most consult software (or Nistune in 'stream mode') you wont see this, since any dodgy data just goes straight to the guage needles and might look like the occasional flickering. It will get worser with higher RPMs ... Okay the reasoning behind this is a combination of the car and vehicle! My R34 GTT has run both blazt and PLMS cables with no problems in connection on the dyno. This means the laptop is getting a nice clean USB signal even in high RPMs on my vehicle As you know the consult port in your vehicle is connected to your ECU which is then getting solenoid feedback from injectors and coils. The recoil on the release on the solenoid is massive and can send big spikes back in your ECU if it is not grounded well. Good and proper grounding in your vehicile is essential for avoiding noise continuing down the line Back to your consult port, if spikes come out of your consult port and then into your cable and via the USB connection, things are going to get ugly. USB uses a differential line pair. It means that if there is a spike then both lines carry the spike, which generally works. However if the spikes get too close (which happens on higher RPMs) then it messes up the USB comms. USB will attempt retries and pass through data. Sometimes with too much rubbish on the consult line the data gets messed up. This is what is happening. The software on the end (Nistune in this case) will read invalid data against what it sent and request a resend. Well the problem started with supplying the tuner with a laptop loaded with a dodgy licence. Thats fixed and now there is the vehicle and third party cable to deal with. I'm not sure on the filtering the ECU talk cables have but PLMS has researched noise issues in vehicles and improved their cables to handle this, which is why I have sent out a cable (you are not in a next day express post area so that will take time to arrive) to replace the ECU talk one with. However the vehicle is also generating a lot of noise (as I mentioned before my R34 GTT not a problem with disconnects), so I suggested cleaning up all the grounds from battery to EFI loom to start eliminating that issue. We cover this in detail in the diagnostics documents about problems with vehicles and consult on the Nistune website, but problem is that people dont always read these when hitting issues. I'm going to put more diagnostic pages into the software for people that dont read docs, but there is no more improvement we can do on our end with noisy comms issues when its a vehicle issue Guess I am stipulating it is not a Nistune board or software issue, but something vehicle/cable related. Try and help where I can with these and can see the frustration also on the tuners end which should have been a 1-2 hour job if all went well, and someone usually has to foot the time One of my main points is that if you are going to take Nistune to a tuner, make sure it works first! In this case making a connection to the ECU after installing it and making sure you could at least connect to the ECU, do a data log, and perhaps even change the RPM limiter would have found these issues earlier. It suprises me how often vehicles (running any system for this matter) end up on the dyno and then there is some sort of electrical or mechanical issue to sort out and the time is ticking whilst on the dyno. Fix problems first before taking it to the tuner and time and money will be saved. Preliminary connection checks etc are definately advised

We found that injector wires dont need swapping for RB20/VG30 ECUs with the RB25 so that information is now redundant Whilst we could do this mod with the USDM 16 bit ECU (Type 3) we would need to redocument the mods and also the mapping information is a bit thin for these ECUs compared to the more common 8 bit ECUs (EDM, JDM and USDM 1990-1992 models)

Use an aftermarket VCT controller (RPM based) for the HCR32 ECU if you want to go that way, but Z32 ECUs have VCT TP and RPM controlled (and also switch off in higher rpms) so that is the preferable ECU

Chris with the 3071 you should get something like this (middle of page... skip past the 31) about 279rwkw on my R34 http://forum.nistune.com/viewtopic.php?f=2...50&start=15

After using the Japanese ROM hex editing packages and having some information about the decoding, not to mention the information that came about at the time from PLMS about the consult interface it was just a matter of putting a good interface on there and then using NVRAM boards instead of emulators made things a lot easier. At the time we had no idea it would be taken up so well!

how does the engine computer affect the AWD in the transmission on these? With Z32 ECUs you still have VCT but with R32 ECUs you need an external VCT controller (based from RPM signal) I was planning at one stage but the extra work with complete new board design, prototyping etc, new firmware and very difficult installation made it a difficult one to approach Coupled with Z32/R32 ECUs now provided as viable alternatives means the effort to make boards for these is no longer viable (especially with my current work load)

Locking probably depends on the implementation. With the Nistune case reading maps to / form the ECU becomes disabled inside the firmware of the board until the correct pin is presented whilst all other functionality remains available. Nothing is fool proof and there are specific companies set up to reverse engineer and read data just about out of anything. I dont see the locking functionality used that often to be quite honest as most tunes are paritcular to a vehicle as mentioned previously and based from factory maps to begin wtih PIN locking was requested for copy protection (prevent copying of a collection of tuned maps which may fall under copyright) and to also stop users fiddling and then causing damage and then later blaming the tuner for it. Over the years I've seen quite a few tuners maps (remembering which takes time/money to develop) then being redistributed or sold by third parties. Some aftermarket systems require tunes built from scratch which take a lot more time as they arent provided with initial values for particular vehicles by the manufacturer. This is a lot of time getting cold start, idle and then normal operation correct. If the tune was to be treated like a software licence with an explicit agreement, then in this case the tuner owns the copyright behind the tune whilst the customer is granted an unlimited licence to uses it. With software agreements the licence is made to the customer to use the software but not own it However there is no specific agreement such as this with a tuner in the typical scenario of adjusting maps to tune for optimal but safe performance on a vehicle. Copyright is debateable and locking is used in some cases as a physical rather than legal (and hardly enforceable) substitute. One would think that given the scenario before, providing indication of pin locking would be a good practice if it was to be used to avoid potential problems down the track

the daughterboard can be reprogrammed for different ROM images. bascially we can put a manual program in auto ECU no problems GTR ECU is completely different you wont be needing that in a GTS-4 unless doing an RB26 transplant with twin AFMs

yep. 278rwkw with my R34 using these http://forum.nistune.com/viewtopic.php?f=2...50&start=16

What is the criteria for an aftermarket system to meet ADR over there? Nistune board can be PIN locked once the tune was able to meet emissions. The only way to retune it then is use the original PIN or reflash the board outside of the ECU Transport SA documentation I have previously read states that any aftermarket/reprogrammed ECU will not be accepted due to the cost of the emissions testing required. However things may have changed since that was published

Another note - if you do use a BOV make sure you pipe it so that it goes into the turbo and none of the air feeds back into the AFM otherwise you will get overfueling and potentially stalling when going off boost

yeah looked like a ceffy. ACA also mentioned that they are looking for a Nissan Skyline. FAIL

ECU auto/manual doesnt matter. We load the correct transmission type into the board

Yes you cant modify the ECU because there is epoxy over their chips to prevent removal. But you can download the maps from the MINES ECU and view them, change them and put into another ECU if you really wanted do. If the AFRs are fine for your car then great, from what I have seen the MINES chips dont change them much from factory anyway As far as the PFC goes it all depends how the tuner maps it. You could map in the MINES tune to the PFC or Nistune if you really wanted to. Doesnt matter either way... but with that MINES ECU you are stuck with that tune with that ECU and no way to adjust it further, even remapping to another EPROM chip. The ECUs are useless because of that inflexibility, especially if you go the way of upgrading injectors/AFM Taking a ECU with a generic map or even specifically programmed map with no idea of the boost which the fuel and timing maps were programmed to is more of a gamble than tuning a vehicle and knowing what injection time and timing you are appling into the ECU at each RPM and load point and watching the feedback of the AFRs and listening for knock whilst doing that. We find that most of these mail order ECUs will play it safe with the tune meaning most times it could be better optimised

Yeah its not hard to erase and reprogram once you know how. Thats where I started about eight years ago when first using ROM Editor and LiveEdit. Have you used Nistune at all? You can download and use trial for name/email. It basically overlays the hex with human readable parameters. Its much easier to change K constant on the fly using up/down arrows to change live and then monitoring your AFRs and injection time etc to see the effects of the changes

Prices and details are on the website, I'm getting the website updated soon to quote people on everything... R34 GTT - Type 4 board $260, installation $60, postage $15 + GST = $335 Call around Tassie and see who is willing to tune it since we dont have anyone listed there yet. I know a few people there have gotten tuned using their licence but no one has signed up as a workshop. Most workshops have signed up after using the system as we dont advertise in managzines etc its been mainly word of mouth... internet helps too!

Even with the emulator you still need the tuning software to drive it otherwise you are just working in hex! TunerPro is the only other software which works with moates for Nissans but has no user support and doesnt have integrated consult/logging capability. btw Nistune software drives the Moates and Romulator emulators We have found that most workshops would rather work with the boards than tune with emualtors since they are plug and play similar similar to FLASH units Trent was mentioning. As I mentioned R32/Z32 are the few ones which can do this without additional hardware. Older ECUs dont have consult and newer ones require some type of daughterboard regardless

Yeah for R32/Z32 it is a cheaper option but also depends on whos doing the tuning and if they have the equipment to erase/program the EPROM chips. The firmware on the R32 boards also offer knock reporting to the software as an added bonus

You do! There is no way in hell you can modify a mines chip. They cover all their EPROMs with solid epoxy which cannot be removed without destroying the ECU! Later model Mines ECUs usually replace the MCU rather than install a daughterboard in SR20 ECUs also. Not to be said for other though like Central20 and a stack of others which can be changed or have a jap daughterboard installed Agreed. Some tunes could be for 100 octane, but most that I have seen in my time are fairly miminal changes to the timing, some change of fueling for different boost levels (how much boost?) and increase the speed rev, air flow cut and limiters and put a whole heap of fuel at the top for some flames I would not recommend getting any of these since they are overpriced and you dont know what the tune is for. I purchase quite a few factory ECUs from ebay so we can rechip them and have had to remove previously rechipped ones so we can chuck a board in

highly doubt it!

hey guys so your nerves are eased heres an update. sorry there were no emails on Thursday. Its the end of the GST quarter and I'm pushing crap uphill trying to get it sorted by the 28th and I'm still not finished - QWK32 - 19/10 - Received, returned last week - hibino - 21/10 - Recevied 28/10, returned 29/10 - darrinspencer - 22/10 - Received 28/10, returned 29/10 (changed mapping for 480CC/Z32 MAF as requested) - RBPowaTJ - 27/10 - Received 28/10, returned 29/10 - Stagea_Neo - 27/10 - Received 29/10 returned today 30/10 yes I had 3 ECUs do install in one night! ones returned yesterday should arrive today canarygsr - check your spam folder in hotmail. I've sent two emails to that address (three more last night) with the registration details etc. any probs shoot me an email and I'll sort it out. I need a ROM image download for the last two boards form the OV811 ECU

Z32 ECU modifications without modifying the loom... see document here. With pictures! http://forum.nistune.com/viewtopic.php?p=8386#8386 We have covered each wire and the differences/what it does. In theory you can get away without changing anything, but some of these wiring changes are advised

Boards have been posted out this morning except for the two Stagea 23740-0V811 boards on the second group purchase which I'm chasing a ROM image for These codes are a result of running your ECU on my bench setup with not all the sensors connected at that time. Once you hit the 'clear DTC' button on the consult display they will go away

activation emails will go out once the group buy order has been processed

if the Z32 ECU has a board loaded with R33 maps then I've had feedback that the maps which I've grafted into the R33 image are sufficient to get the vehicle driven to the tuner. I've grafted in the R33 injectors and VQ (AFM) map as well as fuel and timing maps onto the board so those things arent a problem