Dr.Drew
03-31-2010, 01:13 PM
Transiting from Megatune to Tunerstudio
Background: Tunerstudio is brought to us by Phil Tobin, the same gentleman who created Megalogviewer. Don't think of it as an upgraded Megatune but as a new way of tuning entirely. While it retains the Datalog->Megalogviewer->Analyze tuning that Jack and I have covered it adds some features that makes the process much easier. If you use his programs I strongly encourage you to register or donate! As a developer he's very responsive and open to ideas and I'm sure, with funding, he'll continue to produce great software.
REMEMBER: As with any tuning program there is no replacement for simple data analysis. I will often review a log in megalogviewer when I've had a long run. I don't mean all the table analyzing but simply hitting play and watching the graphs for problems! I recommend spending plenty of time in megalogviewer reviewing runs and paying attention to what's going on. Not only will it help you understand your engine it will also help you find problems before they get out of hand!!
First off I did not start with TS, I already have a fairly good tune to start on. So I'm not entirely sure about setting idle, GEGO, and so forth. I am using tunerstudio to refine my tune to match my perfectionist nature. So I'll only be covering the additional tools.
Start by creating a new project. Unlike MT TS stores all tune information in MyDocs. You'll want to name your project and, although optional, put a little description in (I used this to record important info I might want to remember like belt sizes, injector sizes, etc). Then you'll want to let TS detect the ECU. If it returns an error try power cycling the ECU. Then you'll want to goto the next screen where you pick your wideband, temp settings, etc. Finally you can pick the custom gauges you'll be looking at when the program is running.
Once the project is started and connected it should prompt you to review any discrepancies in TS and the ECU. Review them just in case but most of the time you'll just want to accept the settings already in the ECU.
You can also load your most recent tune but I advice against this as TS will pull that info automatically from the ECU and the settings in your msq may not be 100% compatible and cause errors.
Note for the AEM Wideband guys: If you have changed your msns-extra settings in Megatune to convert your tables from volts to AFR you will definitely not want to load an MSQ. While you can do the same hack in a TS file the software will do so automatically when it pulls the info from the ECU.
Sweet, you should be ready to tune!
When you connect the car and have it talking to TS you'll notice some tabs towards the top of the main window. In addition to your regular gauge view there's a diagnostics tab and a VE Analyze Live tab. The VE tab is the cool one. Once you're sure you have your tables correct and the AFR Targets all agree (found in the More Settings menu) you can simply click “Start Auto Tune” and let it do it's thing. However, before you do there are some settings you might be interested about. If you find the “Advanced Settings” tab towards the right side of the window you can adjust how the program “Autotunes”
First is the "Cell Change Resistance" this determines how much the Analyzer will respect the numbers that already exist. "Easy" means that it will take more liberties when adjusting your table. "Hard" means that it would take more substantial data to make a change. I recommend leaving it on "Normal" to start with and as the table smooths out you can bump it to "Hard" so the program will only make minute changes on subsequent tunes.
The Authority limits will adjust (in percentage or absolute value) the range in which TS will make changes on the fly. Remember that leaving them at 50% is actually saying they can move 50% in each direction. So if the VE number is 50 it can range between 25 and 75 during the tune (I initially set mine to 25 until I felt comfortable with the program).
Then there is a “Filters” section with a few more parameters. For instance the RPM is set to default at 100 which means TS will not alter any cells while your engine is that low. I changed mine to 500 just to be safe. The other settings refine Autotune's parameters in a similar way but they seemed to be just fine how they are from default.
So now that you're off driving and letting Autotune do it's magic you should notice that your car is staying much closer to it's target values. You can check this by opening the AFR Targets Reference Table found in the advanced settings tab. This works because Autotune changes your ECU's values on the fly which creates a constant adjustment which it then further refines. However, once you get it nice and clean, don't just close the program and turn off the car. Autotune only changes the VE values temporarily, you must click the “Burn” button to make these changes permanent.
Now that you've got the analyzer to tune up your VE tables go back and have a look. I recommend switching to the 3D mode for a bit to really get an idea of the state of your table. Using the tuning theory you learned in Megatune you should know about how your table should look; low and blue at the bottom left, high and red towards the top right, and maybe a small valley towards the bottom middle. Notice any really lumpy areas? Maybe you have a portion of map that is way above or below a surrounding area? Well, go back to the table and smooth em out! If it's too high try dropping the VE number by two or three points and see if it looks better. You'll want to use discretion and common sense though. Sure, changing that 85 to a 50 makes the map look smoother but consider why the program raised it so high. Maybe take it down to ~74 and do another run to see if the program still wants to spike it. If so remember to check your target table, maybe you inadvertently made a mistake.
Hopefully after some time driving Tunerstudio's VE Analyzer Live will have your engine running much more consistently than before. Just remember that although this feature is a great idea it is not perfect. If you notice your AFR gauge going all whacky you might want to stop, reload your best tune, and double check your settings, and try again. Just keep an eye on things and don't let the program overrule your common sense! If it looks too low/high it probably is!
As I work more with this program I'll continue this guide. Hope it helps!!
Background: Tunerstudio is brought to us by Phil Tobin, the same gentleman who created Megalogviewer. Don't think of it as an upgraded Megatune but as a new way of tuning entirely. While it retains the Datalog->Megalogviewer->Analyze tuning that Jack and I have covered it adds some features that makes the process much easier. If you use his programs I strongly encourage you to register or donate! As a developer he's very responsive and open to ideas and I'm sure, with funding, he'll continue to produce great software.
REMEMBER: As with any tuning program there is no replacement for simple data analysis. I will often review a log in megalogviewer when I've had a long run. I don't mean all the table analyzing but simply hitting play and watching the graphs for problems! I recommend spending plenty of time in megalogviewer reviewing runs and paying attention to what's going on. Not only will it help you understand your engine it will also help you find problems before they get out of hand!!
First off I did not start with TS, I already have a fairly good tune to start on. So I'm not entirely sure about setting idle, GEGO, and so forth. I am using tunerstudio to refine my tune to match my perfectionist nature. So I'll only be covering the additional tools.
Start by creating a new project. Unlike MT TS stores all tune information in MyDocs. You'll want to name your project and, although optional, put a little description in (I used this to record important info I might want to remember like belt sizes, injector sizes, etc). Then you'll want to let TS detect the ECU. If it returns an error try power cycling the ECU. Then you'll want to goto the next screen where you pick your wideband, temp settings, etc. Finally you can pick the custom gauges you'll be looking at when the program is running.
Once the project is started and connected it should prompt you to review any discrepancies in TS and the ECU. Review them just in case but most of the time you'll just want to accept the settings already in the ECU.
You can also load your most recent tune but I advice against this as TS will pull that info automatically from the ECU and the settings in your msq may not be 100% compatible and cause errors.
Note for the AEM Wideband guys: If you have changed your msns-extra settings in Megatune to convert your tables from volts to AFR you will definitely not want to load an MSQ. While you can do the same hack in a TS file the software will do so automatically when it pulls the info from the ECU.
Sweet, you should be ready to tune!
When you connect the car and have it talking to TS you'll notice some tabs towards the top of the main window. In addition to your regular gauge view there's a diagnostics tab and a VE Analyze Live tab. The VE tab is the cool one. Once you're sure you have your tables correct and the AFR Targets all agree (found in the More Settings menu) you can simply click “Start Auto Tune” and let it do it's thing. However, before you do there are some settings you might be interested about. If you find the “Advanced Settings” tab towards the right side of the window you can adjust how the program “Autotunes”
First is the "Cell Change Resistance" this determines how much the Analyzer will respect the numbers that already exist. "Easy" means that it will take more liberties when adjusting your table. "Hard" means that it would take more substantial data to make a change. I recommend leaving it on "Normal" to start with and as the table smooths out you can bump it to "Hard" so the program will only make minute changes on subsequent tunes.
The Authority limits will adjust (in percentage or absolute value) the range in which TS will make changes on the fly. Remember that leaving them at 50% is actually saying they can move 50% in each direction. So if the VE number is 50 it can range between 25 and 75 during the tune (I initially set mine to 25 until I felt comfortable with the program).
Then there is a “Filters” section with a few more parameters. For instance the RPM is set to default at 100 which means TS will not alter any cells while your engine is that low. I changed mine to 500 just to be safe. The other settings refine Autotune's parameters in a similar way but they seemed to be just fine how they are from default.
So now that you're off driving and letting Autotune do it's magic you should notice that your car is staying much closer to it's target values. You can check this by opening the AFR Targets Reference Table found in the advanced settings tab. This works because Autotune changes your ECU's values on the fly which creates a constant adjustment which it then further refines. However, once you get it nice and clean, don't just close the program and turn off the car. Autotune only changes the VE values temporarily, you must click the “Burn” button to make these changes permanent.
Now that you've got the analyzer to tune up your VE tables go back and have a look. I recommend switching to the 3D mode for a bit to really get an idea of the state of your table. Using the tuning theory you learned in Megatune you should know about how your table should look; low and blue at the bottom left, high and red towards the top right, and maybe a small valley towards the bottom middle. Notice any really lumpy areas? Maybe you have a portion of map that is way above or below a surrounding area? Well, go back to the table and smooth em out! If it's too high try dropping the VE number by two or three points and see if it looks better. You'll want to use discretion and common sense though. Sure, changing that 85 to a 50 makes the map look smoother but consider why the program raised it so high. Maybe take it down to ~74 and do another run to see if the program still wants to spike it. If so remember to check your target table, maybe you inadvertently made a mistake.
Hopefully after some time driving Tunerstudio's VE Analyzer Live will have your engine running much more consistently than before. Just remember that although this feature is a great idea it is not perfect. If you notice your AFR gauge going all whacky you might want to stop, reload your best tune, and double check your settings, and try again. Just keep an eye on things and don't let the program overrule your common sense! If it looks too low/high it probably is!
As I work more with this program I'll continue this guide. Hope it helps!!