It's finally here. What are your guys thoughts?

http://www.obdscan.net/RX8_PGM.htm

 

Without software to modify the ECU maps, it sounds like it will be a while before it's useful to us. But the price is right

 

Sounds interesting - but like a hot falling knife, I wouldn't dream of touching it - I love my (working) car too much!

I know my own limits - Good luck to those who dare tread in there...

 

At this stage it seems pretty useless

 

I've emailed Dan and asked for details.

 

I'm sure there are a select few on this forum who would love to mess around with this....

 

Its not useless because it keeps people who are out of warranty from having to go to the dealer to get the most current flash.

 

The price is most definitely right and the possibilities are almost endless.

 

The tuning software is the most important part though. It could be tedious and painful, or easy to use. I've heard people talking about 900+ maps in the stock ECU, and different maps for different gears. It sounds like no trivial task to generate a usable flash unless you're modifying small parts of the map to add or remove fuel and keeping it otherwise stock.

 

I got this reply from Dan:

So it sounds like we can modify the maps using existing tools. But something custom written for the car would speed things up quite a bit.

 

Stuff like this gets me excited. I just checked out WinOLS and it has a "Map finder" feature, so maybe it won't be too bad.

 

Hmmm that seems good so far but I would like to see alot more tests until I give money towards the product.

 

did anyone order this yet to test it??

 

It's going to be released tomorrow. So I doubt anyone has one yet.

Also, this will be the first publicly available reflasher for our car, the only one we can buy, and at a price tag less than half of what we already know some others will sell at.

So Dan has done a great job at compelling us to consider his product.

 

Most important thing is , where can we download the latest flash.

and I have RB flash, can I use this program to save it to disk ? seems like its possible.

 

Did I here correctly? Someone is going to ship a tool that allow you to take a RacingBeat flash from one car and put it on another?

 

usually reflashers mate to a car. So if you connect it to a new car, it stores the map, and you can't use that reflasher to another car till you uninstall it. The uninstall process puts back the original map on the car. This forces you to buy one reflasher per car (Unless you can deal with only having one car with a modified map at a time).

Assuming you have more than one reflasher, you can download the rb flash and put it on another car, but given the low volume of sales the rx-8 market likely generates, I would rather see you pay the price for the flash if you plan on using it. Otherwise there's not going to be incentive to develop anything for the 8.

 

yes,

this a great tool if you know how to modify all 900 tables.. it is missing the software to tune the car..


beers

 

Just to let you guys know, we have emailed RB twice with an offer to protect their tune from being copied by our tool, at $0.00 cost to them, but no one ever responded to our emails. As stated on the RX8 Programmer web page, protecting others pro tunes is a concern to us, and if at all possible, we will work with other tuners to protect their work.

Dan

 

dan,

i would like to understand this.. as i read the page. you have no software tuning tools to offer?? just the ability to flash.

beers

 

Subscribing

 

+1

 

Dan - what can be modified by your "RX8 Programmer"? Can all the Fuel and timing tables be modified? Can open/closed loop and fan temps be adjusted? What all have you unlocked for the DIY tuner to change?

 

So let me get this sraight. As the product is shipped, you can download a tune, weither it is a stock tune or a RB tune, and then modify it and upload that tune back onto the ecu. I think the best place for this would be for people who track the car. You could have your street set up and then when you put 100 octane fuel in at the track, reflash it to pick up the extra power. I think if you are just going to drive on the street, save your money and get the RB flash because you would have to get the RB flash file from soemone else, meaning they need the programmer, and the upload it to your ecu, meaning you need the programmer.

This might also open up the manufactors of FI kits to reflashing the ecu like pettit instead of buying an external computor. They creat the tune, send out the file on a disk and you can flash your own ECU. if the tune needs to be tweaked or you want a race tune and a street tune you could save the files and download what you need, when you need it.

This could be a good product but for someone like me that has no idea how to tune a car, it could be dangerous.

 

I was going to say that too but I just left it alone cause I knew someone else would