Quote:
Originally Posted by BuBlake
Thanks. Sounds like ECUTek is sort of like a replacement operating system for the car's computer, right? Does it completely replace the car's factory operating system, only utilizing the hardware? Please bear with me here.
My guess is that a lot of the ECUTek tuners don't really know how the program works, they just know how to utilize it to tune vehicles. I wish Visconti or someone really experienced could chime in...  |
Sort of, yeah. When I said "open operating system" that's not true in the purest definition of course - only ECUTek tuning interfaces can actually change the configuration settings, but that's more open than the stock ECU code which doesn't allow anyone but Subaru. A truly open operating system analogy would require something like OpenECU which allows anyone to mess with the ECU settings. This doesn't exist for our platform at this time.
Your car's ECU is basically a computer, as you already know. It has some stock loaded firmware on it from Subaru that is locked so that nobody else can change it. Simply put, this firmware manages things like air/fuel mixture, ignition timing, and idle speed. As cars became more sophisticated and added more electronic gadgetry, the ECU also became more sophisticated and now ties in things like valve timing, fuel injection, and other things that interface with the ECU that your car has. Assuming you've got an ECU that was unlocked (with an ECUTek flash for instance), all of these functions can be fine tuned by a tuner to meet specific needs (fuel economy, performance, accommodating an aftermarket air intake system, etc).
The more electronic sensors/actuators a car has tied to the ECU, the more functionality you would typically find. For instance, autoblip, launch control, and flat foot shifting - all possible because of our car's drive by wire system. This type of functionality is provided by ECUTek through their programming. It's not clear to me if ECUTek Tuners like Visconti, FA20Club.com, or Perrin have access to that code to rewrite it. They may be able to tweak some settings though.
Again, this is all general information regarding modern ECU's. For specifics on ECUTek and how it relates to the FT86 platform, I'll let one of the ECUTek guys speak to that.