Ben's Obs2 Journal (Something a little different)

[Drakuun]

Love the wagon and those UK 17's Nice looking ride man!

[01rs25]

Color combination is awsome. Love the wagon and what you have done to it. I say keep the wheel the color they are.

[Soon2BturbodRS]

My OpenEcu Project Begins!

So, today I got my OpenPort 1.3 usb cable for drive-by-wire normally aspirated Subarus and began trying to pull some information from my ECU. I hope to start by datalogging and learn a little bit more about my car and the way it functions.

Well... A few developments.

First, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't read my ECU. I'm using EcuFlash with, what I thought was the newest definitions but it must not be(?). Everytime I go to read the ECU, the supported cars/ECUs are never the new ones .

So, after an hour or so trying to grab a ROM and save a base ROM, I decided to screw that for now. I then moved on to at least getting some datalogging out of my damn $79 cable (from tunertools.com).

I am definately going to try to flash my ECU sooner or later but for now, I am sticking to the logging and gathering of info.

So, using Enginuity I was able to use the OpenPort cable to log tons of sensors and information from my car. It was exciting to see things like accelerator pedal angle and intake air temperature in realtime. By now, tho, my stupid lil Dell notebook (Inspiron B120 ftw ) had been 3% from dying four or five times. One thing I definately need is a damn cig lighter charger for this stupid laptop. Also, because I had no battery, I wasn't able to capture any pictures or 'print screens' of the logging activity. I am still a little confused as to how to record a serious of logs. Somehow I did log some activity when I was stopped but I'll figure that out tomorrow.

Next, I wanted to communicate w/ my car thru a program called PCMScan. It has a good deal of parameters and monitoring tools but the things I was most interested in were the rolling dyno and drag strip utilities. I have an ElmScan bluetooth (bah humbug) scan tool that works fine and I finally figured out how to get PCMScan to communicate with the scan tool. I did get one dyno run in but there were all these text prompts that I didn't read because it was 11:30pm and dark and I was driving :/

So... Cliff notes:
-Logging sort of worked
-Reading my ECU did not work yet
-Rolling dyno also sort of worked but my computer died so I didn't see any numbers and I haven't figured out a good technique to get a relatively accurate figure


Software:
Enginuity v0.4.1b
EcuFlash v1.34.1435
PCMScan v2.1.1

Hardware:
ElmScan Bluetooth Scan Tool
OpenPort 1.3 USB Cable for Drive-By-Wire Subarus
Some stupid lil bluetooth adapter
Dell Inspiron B120 Notebook w/ shitty battery

Tomorrow (err, today technically) I will experiment some more. I want to get some logs on the drive to work in the morning... There is one up side to working at 5:15am.. There is almost no one on the road

[Soon2BturbodRS]

So, 3 days into the OpenEcu thing and I love it!

I've gotten some successful logs although it took me a few tries to figure out how to save the logs instead of just arbitrarily having my computer datalog in my passenger seat . I've logged w/ Enginuity and Ecu Explorer and I think I like Ecu Explorer's logs better. You can read them in Ecu Explorer or in Microsoft Excel. Pretty slick.

Here's 2 logs from 2nd gear

1500-rev limit (after 1-2min of driving)


Log 2 (same deal but after 12-14min)


Enginuity does have some cool digital dash stuff and you can monitor and log with it while Ecu Explorer is pretty bland and to the point. It'd be cool to have a dedicated carputer/carPC that's constantly logging or at least at the flip of the switch (both of the programs can be set to start datalogging when the rear defrost button is hit). It'd be real easy to just throw the ECU images and logs on a flash drive and read them in the house as opposed to bringing the laptop everywhere. Either way, that's in the plans for a little later.

Now, I just need to get more familiar with reading these logs. There are so many parameters you can monitor that it seems ridiculous. I love it!

Also... I finally read my ECU! Omg when it happened it was the happiest I've been in awhile

Here's my ECUs info that EcuFlash was able to extract:



I mean, how fuckin cool is that? I set EcuFlash to "beginner mode" because I ain't trying to fool nobody. When it comes down to it, I don't know jack about what I'm doing w/ tuning. Hey, this is stage 1 and everybody's gotta start somewhere, right?

All beginner mode does is limit how many parameters you can edit on your ECU.

Fuel Adjustments


My car's "Open Loop Fueling" Map & Graph

EcuFlash has these cool little graphs. Editing a setting is as easy as clicking on the cell and modifying.

This is how the same info looks in Enginuity. Still cool as hell but the graphs look kinda freeware. The graphs are rotate-able in both programs and adjustment is just as easy.


Ignition/Timing


Base Timing


Maximum Timing Advance

[Soon2BturbodRS]

Misc.


Speed & Rev Limiters

Yes, that's a limiter above 133.5mph and below 132.3mph

Idle

Not sure what all 5 maps are for but there are some subtle differences between a few and others are almost identical
B=C=F
D=E
Possibly one has to do w/ air con or something? Not sure but I do remember instances where my car will have a "weird" idle around 1800 or so for a few seconds. This explains it all


Next step, edumacate m'self

-Ben

[Soon2BturbodRS]

Well, she hasn't gotten a wash in forever but that doesn't mean no pix...








Matte silver looks hawt!

Christmas Eve Day








Snow of Christmas Day! (For the first time in 70 years in Portland)








Some random pix


The Cusco strut brace


My Datalogging setup (complete w/ Orbit gum to hold my USB in place & a missing "M" from the wagon mafia word)

[1nsp]

Mine hasn't been washed in sooooo long. Car's looking good. Whats next other than the wheels?

[01rs25]

Looks great, and I can't wait to see what you can get out of the open ECU work you are doing.

[williaty]

Actually, that's a good point. I've been tuning my 05 RS with Enginuity this month. How are you coming with yours, what are you changing, and what do you think of the changes?

[Soon2BturbodRS]

Originally Posted by 1nsp

Mine hasn't been washed in sooooo long. Car's looking good. Whats next other than the wheels?

Whiteline 22mm front sway bar is in the mail

I've been craving some power too but sooner or later I'll begin to reflash (read below)

Originally Posted by williaty

Actually, that's a good point. I've been tuning my 05 RS with Enginuity this month. How are you coming with yours, what are you changing, and what do you think of the changes?

Right now I'm not sure. Currently, I'm just datalogging and trying to see what my car is doing and why. After I grasp that a little I'll begin to delve into the world of actually tuning it. Right now, I'm having a ball just logging. I'm in no rush to increase power until I have my car at a handling stage that can compete.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I'm just loving the ride
-Ben