PCMtec

[Vlad Soare]

Thanks, @Rolls. In the meantime I've figured it out.
These maps are just part of the equation. I had already set them like this using HPtuners' editor, and yet at idle the valves didn't seem to comply with my settings. That's what made me think that maybe the HPtuners software wasn't entirely compatible with non-US vehicles (since it appeared to work fine with US-spec ones).
Now I believe my assumption was incorrect. It's not that HPtuners is incompatible with non-US cars, nor that non-US cars somehow manage the active exhaust in a different manner. It's just that some things are missing from HPtuners, though thankfully not from PCMtec.

If you look at the picture below you'll see the green items which you're mentioning. These items are present in HPtuners as well, and I had already set them like you're showing above. But although in, say, Normal mode the valves were configured to be 100% open at any rpm, somehow at idle they weren't. At idle they were always about 60% or so in Normal, and perhaps 80% or so in Sport.
That's because of the items marked in red. Both the 'neutral & park' table and the 'base and extended idle' table were set, in my car, to 0.6 in Normal mode and a bit higher (perhaps 0.8? Can't remember) in Sport.

I've adjusted all of these tables as well, and lo and behold, the valves are completely open at idle now.

Now, as I'm essentially a doubting Thomas, I need to figure out a way of checking if the valves really stay open all the time, in all conditions. But that's not going to be easy. No idea how I could do that.

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[Mike Pfeifer]

Thanks, @Rolls. In the meantime I've figured it out.
These maps are just part of the solution. I had already set them like this using HPtuners' editor, and yet at idle the valves didn't seem to comply to my settings. That's what made me think that maybe the HPtuners software wasn't entirely compatible with non-US vehicles (since it appeared to work fine with US-spec ones).
Now I believe my assumption was incorrect. It's not that HPtuners is incompatible with non-US cars, nor that non-US cars somehow manage the active exhaust in a different manner. It's just that some things are missing from HPtuners, though thankfully not from PCMtec.

If you look at the picture below you'll see the green items which you're mentioning. These items are present in HPtuners as well, and I had already set them like you're showing us above. But although in, say, Normal mode the valves were configured to be 100% open at any rpm, at idle they weren't. At idle they were always about 60% or so in Normal, and perhaps 80% or so in Sport.
That's because of the red items. Both the 'neutral & park' table and the 'base and extended idle' table were set, in my car, to 0.6 in Normal mode and a bit higher (perhaps 0.8? Can't remember) in Sport.

I've adjusted all of these tables as well, and lo and behold, the valves are completely open at idle now.

Now, as I'm essentially a doubting Thomas, I need to figure out a way of checking if the valves really stay open all the time, in all conditions. But that's not going to be easy. No idea how I could do that.

I have a borescope that connects to the iPhone and has a 20 ft or so cable, was like $40 on Amazon, maybe something like that could be used?

 

[Vlad Soare]

I have a borescope that connects to the iPhone and has a 20 ft or so cable, was like $40 on Amazon, maybe something like that could be used?

That looks like a good idea - assuming it can stand the heat of the exhaust. Can you see it live on the iPhone, while it's filming?

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

That looks like a good idea. Assuming it can stand the heat of the exhaust. Can you see it live on the iPhone, while it's filming?

Yes.

 

[Vlad Soare]

This was my problem. Changing these two tables did the trick.
Those ten mapping tables probably do their thing as well, but at idle these two appear to take precedence.

I changed it to this:

and this one:

which I changed to this:

 

[junits15]

Thanks, @Rolls. In the meantime I've figured it out.
These maps are just part of the equation. I had already set them like this using HPtuners' editor, and yet at idle the valves didn't seem to comply with my settings. That's what made me think that maybe the HPtuners software wasn't entirely compatible with non-US vehicles (since it appeared to work fine with US-spec ones).
Now I believe my assumption was incorrect. It's not that HPtuners is incompatible with non-US cars, nor that non-US cars somehow manage the active exhaust in a different manner. It's just that some things are missing from HPtuners, though thankfully not from PCMtec.

If you look at the picture below you'll see the green items which you're mentioning. These items are present in HPtuners as well, and I had already set them like you're showing above. But although in, say, Normal mode the valves were configured to be 100% open at any rpm, somehow at idle they weren't. At idle they were always about 60% or so in Normal, and perhaps 80% or so in Sport.
That's because of the items marked in red. Both the 'neutral & park' table and the 'base and extended idle' table were set, in my car, to 0.6 in Normal mode and a bit higher (perhaps 0.8? Can't remember) in Sport.

I've adjusted all of these tables as well, and lo and behold, the valves are completely open at idle now.

Now, as I'm essentially a doubting Thomas, I need to figure out a way of checking if the valves really stay open all the time, in all conditions. But that's not going to be easy. No idea how I could do that.

Easier than the borescope is just to log the valve position with the datalogger, you'll know very quickly if they are staying open all the time

 

[Rolls]

This was my problem. Changing these two tables did the trick.
Those ten mapping tables probably do their thing as well, but at idle these two appear to take precedence.

I changed it to this:

and this one:

which I changed to this:

Could you post these in our pcmtec forum thread? I'm sure many people will appreciate the testing you have done.

Thanks for contributing! Sharing is caring.

 

[Pistol_91]

Someone sell me this program. No really, seems like a cool program and I seen a guy on YouTube using it on the fly and I thought that was amazing for troubleshooting things. Unless I saw the wrong program? Anyway, what are the benefits of this program compared to hpt? I've read quite a bit on this thread but nothing has convinced me yet except maybe that multi tune option.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Anyway, what are the benefits of this program compared to hpt? I've read quite a bit on this thread but nothing has convinced me yet except maybe that multi tune option.

For me the main benefit was that it includes a few active exhaust tables that for some reason are missing from HPT. Consequently, I managed to configure my active exhaust just the way I wanted, which I had previously been unable to do with HPT.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Well, the endoscope idea worked like a charm.
Now I know for sure that in Normal, Sport and Track the valves are completely open all the time, at any rpm, in any gear, including at idle, including in reverse, you name it.
They're fully open with the engine off, and when the engine starts they stay like that, they never move at all. No need to flick the drive mode switch anymore after starting the engine.
And in Quiet they still close completely, as they should.
Marvellous. Just what I wanted.

 

[engineermike]

, what are the benefits of this program compared to hpt?

Everyone is different but for me the main advantage was lack of phone-home and lightning fast flashing. I can pull over, reflash, and be back on the road in less than a minute with no hotspot. Secondly, as vlad pointed out, they have multiple times the number of parameters available. Hpt is missing probably 2 dozen tables needed to make flex fuel work properly in the mustang or ecoboost and there are many other examples. When a saw all the stuff that hpt doesn’t let you access I was surprised.

 

[mejohn50]

what are the benefits of this program compared to hpt?

All of this.

Everyone is different but for me the main advantage was lack of phone-home and lightning fast flashing. I can pull over, reflash, and be back on the road in less than a minute with no hotspot. Secondly, as vlad pointed out, they have multiple times the number of parameters available. Hpt is missing probably 2 dozen tables needed to make flex fuel work properly in the mustang or ecoboost and there are many other examples. When a saw all the stuff that hpt doesn’t let you access I was surprised.

And also the PCMTEC Custom OS. It’s a game changer. Switch tunes on the fly, rolling rev limiter, sensor-based flex fuel…it’s awesome.

 

[Pistol_91]

All of this.



And also the PCMTEC Custom OS. It’s a game changer. Switch tunes on The fly, rolling rev limiter, sensor-based flex fuel…it’s awesome.

Awesome! Im gunna check it out. Thanks

 

[Vlad Soare]

Ah you live in Europe. Europe is notoriously difficult to ship electronics to especially with the Ukraine situation, requires many extra stickers and tags. Germany is one of the worst and it likely would have had to go via Germany. You'd have to talk to OBDX, every company in the world is going to have similar issues shipping to Romania.

I know other companies who simply do not ship to eastern Europe full stop and recommend using dropshipping companies who specialise in this.

Sorry for the off-topic, but there's an epilogue to this story and I don't want to leave it unfinished.

Europe has nothing to do with it. Lots of companies have no trouble at all shipping to Europe. And those who refuse to ship to Eastern Europe do so on the basis of rumours and memories from twenty years ago. Eastern European postal and customs services, and in particular the Romanian ones, are now as safe and reliable as any others, and have been like this for a long time now. Besides, we can't blame Europe (or Romania in particular) for a parcel that hasn't even left Australia.

In the meantime OBDX has picked up the parcel and has received an answer from the post. What happened is this. The customs official claims that he contacted first the receiver then the sender in order to confirm the shipping location and package contents. This is clearly a blatant lie, since neither I nor OBDX haven't been contacted in any way. Then he also marked the parcel as having an incorrect tariff number, which is another lie - both the post and the customs have confirmed that the tariff number was correct, and in fact it's the one that OBDX is using all the time. They suspect that the customs agent hasn't even bothered to do any checks and just made up some reasons to reject the parcel. They said they will investigate. Consequently the Australian post refunded the shipping fee to OBDX, who in turn refunded it to me.

So, in a nutshell, it was all due to an incompetent, lazy, or downright corrupt employee of the Australian government. It had nothing to do with Eastern Europe or Romania and would have happened regardless of the destination (unless that corrupt guy just happened to have some personal gripe against Romania and chose to reject the parcel because of it).

Not that it matters too much now, as in the meantime I was able to source a Tactrix OpenPort clone locally, which worked like a charm.
I should have done this right from the start, but I was too bent on getting an original (and recommended) device lest I break something. I was afraid that a cheap clone might ruin the PCM and brick the car if it failed during writing. Your confirmation that this is not possible encouraged me to go ahead and give it a try. And it worked. Problem solved.

 

[Rolls]

I'm glad it worked out for you in the end. Australia post is terrible and why almost all manufacturers procure overseas.

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