Yes, we've been quiet. But here's one of the things we've been working on for the last several weeks:
High Speed CANbus logging!
And as of last night, it's finally done. Still a few finishing touches that need to be made to the user software. But mainly for aesthetics.
Background:
Before this latest advancement, the PROcede (like all piggybacks) could only read the signals it physically intercepted in the wiring harness. While the PROcede had the most, these signals were limited to:
RPM, TPS, Boost, IAT, O2 voltage and roadspeed. This allowed us to make a solid, yet conservative tune. It had to be conservative because the PROcede didn't know what the engine did with the extra power we gave it. We had to assume, through long term map development/testing, that the engine wasn't knocking, running exceptionally hot, running too lean, running with too little advance, etc,. At moderate tune levels, this wasn't an unfair assumption to make. However, customer needs have forced us to push the envelope a bit. And provide higher output/higher boost tunes. One approach was just to raise the boost as others have (and continue to do). Very easy to do. But I don't like doing that on $5000 evo engines, let alone $15k BMW engines. So we dug back into the PROcede Rev.2's CANbus feature.
Specifically, being able to read ALL the hundreds of channels of engine data that travels along the network. First step was to capture the data that revealed exactly what was going on with the engine. That is, is it knocking? If (hopefully) not, how far is combustion away from the knock threshold? How much of the combustion energy is being dumped into the cooling sytem(s)? How is the factory ECU's loading management coping with the extra boost loads?
Until now, you either had to hope for the best and cross your fingers OR get a third party ECU logger (a la BavTech). Fortunately, this is no long the case since we added the following loggable channels into the PROcede Rev.2:
1)
Ignition advance--- the Actual ignition advance angle. Unlike third party logging tools, this channel takes into account the timing offset induced by the PROcede. So if stock timing is 13 deg BTDC and the PROcede (at that given point in time) is inducing a -3 deg correction, the displayed timing advance will be 10 deg. This is the channel a user would look at when determining how aggressive he/she can be with the new user tunable adjustments (specifically Ignition Correction and User Torque).
2)
Knock Status--- Self explanatory. In this particular case, the PROcede is actually counting the occurrence of knock every time the engine is under boost. This knock tendency can eventually be used to auto adjust the PROcede's ignition correction amount. Basically taking role away from the factory DME's reactive logic (which actually lets knock occur to a degree before intervening). But for now, it's simply there for the user to monitor if he/she chooses to fine tune the conservative baseline maps for their particular conditions/car/mods. More on that later.
Here's a log of these two new channels in action:
Next, we added
Actual Throttle Angle to the mix. Now the PROcede (and the user, of course) can see how well the stock DME's torque/boost management system is responding to the tune/extra boost. Is it fighting the tune? Or are they coexisting peacefully. In this particular case, everything looks nice stable. The only time you see the actual throttle close before the applied throttle is above 6500rpm when the DME rolls back boost in anticipation for the rev cut:
And lastly (for the time being at least), we added something we've been wanting to read for a LOONG time:
Oil and
Coolant Temps! With the N54 engine being so thermally mismanaged (especially when not equipped with an oil cooler), we simply HAD TO get access to this data. Relying on the factory to limp the engine when things got to hot isn't acceptable. Especially when running, at times, twice the factory boost pressure.
Now, we not only start dropping boost levels when oil and coolant temps get uncomfortably high, we also drop boost when the engine is cold. So right upon start-up (on a cold engine), the PROcede isn't even doing anything. As oil temps start to creep above 150F, the tune starts to "ramp in" reaching "full strength" at 190F were it stays until ~250F. Then above that, the tune starts to "ramp out" with it dropping back to stock boost/power by 280F. I think this feature will be very welcome for those who don't have an oil cooler or track their car regularly and see temps teetering in the 260+ range.
Here's a log of the temp logging in action:
What's Left to be Done:
Still a few days from releasing this latest round of updates. It will be a simple firmware file. I hope to also have new user software done at the same time. This will have the new custom tuning features that can now be used now that the user has access to the new logging channels.
Eventually, we will make the whole custom tuning system automated (ie, auto tuning). But that is a little while way. For the immediate future, we just want to offer an optimal solution for those who want to be able to dial in maximum power without maximum risk. Those who don't care about that, can continue to run the baseline maps and enjoy their car
More to come...
Cheers,
Shiv