[Unichip Jack]

Happy New Year to all. Let me catch up on the questions since last night.

What are the advantages of the flux2 besides adding more tunes (5 vs 2 IIRC)? You can divide the Flux2 Display’s functions into two areas…

First, it’s a display… OBD2 codes, engine parametric data display, acceleration calculations, boost display, EGT display, etc…

Second, it’s a switch to change Unichip maps.

Obviously, without the display, all of the first stuff doesn’t exist. For map switching, the only difference between the Standard kit and the Flux2 kit is having 5 maps at the touch of a switch vs. having 2 maps ready to use without reprogramming the Unichip via the download cable.

Does this offer any "auto-tune" like megasquirt does, where you can plug in a wideband, give it a target A/F, and then drive it to have the ECU correct? Auto tune is a god send with standalone computers, but it’s not really needed with a piggyback.

Piggybacking offers some inherent features making an auto tune function for the most part unnecessary… too long of a discussion for this venue, but the big picture is with a piggyback, you always have the OE ECU as a starting point. If you don’t make any changes with the Unichip, the car does exactly what the OE wants it to do. As a piggybacker, you use that as a starting point and only need to make changes from there. A standalone starts off with no data in it and you have to create everything… auto tuning is a big help to at least get into the ball park… with the OE ECU in the loop, you’re already in the ball park when you start… even if you’re adding a big change like a turbo.

The Unichip does have some “learning” functionality to speed things up, but it’s not the same as the auto tune you’re thinking about.

If the question is really about running closed loop AFR in the OE ECU’s normal Open Loop fuel management area, that is possible as long as you provide a 0-5v AFR reference signal for the Unichip to reference.

What setup would you recommend for someone who only needs 2 MAPs (premium and e85 for sake of argument), wants VVTi control, wants to be able to tune them-self, and would like the "auto-tune" feature (if available)? Also is there another sensor one would need when going turbo (upgraded MAP sensor, etc)?

To run two maps, the Standard kit is sufficient.

For end user tuning and VVTi tuning, you’ll need the UniTuner software which gives you access to everything the Unichip can do.

I hit the auto tune question above… not really something to sweat with a piggyback.

For a turbo, you’ll need a MAP sensor… we sell one but you can use any 0-5v sensor if you have one lying around.

If you want to run closed loop EGT, you need a 0-5v temperature probe.

If you want to run closed loop boost, you need a driver (computers can’t move values and need to tell a driver to do it) and a wastegate on the turbo that is electronically controllable. You can either add an external driver to the Standard kit or you could substitute a UniQ+ computer for the UniQ computer that comes with the kit; the Q+ version has 2 built in drivers for that sort of work.

Flex fuel, launch control, flatfoot shifting. In testing, in testing, in testing. All should be available shortly after we conclude testing to ensure everything’s seamless.

Unichip - Out of curiosity, which intake/exhaust combination makes the most power (with CatB and premium fuel 93)? i.e. drop in/catb, airaid/catb, injen/catb, or takeda/catb? Seems like a simple question, but not really one I can give you any data for… from our perspective, our interest in the bolt-ons is strictly to develop calibrations for them and so we don't gather data about which one makes how much power without a tune.

Once they’re tuned, they all make about the same power… or at least the results are within the pull-to-pull noise level variance. For bolt-on parts, making power is about (1) flowing more air and (2) changing the OE ECU’s perception about airflow to trick it into injecting less fuel since the cars all run rich in Open Loop. While all of the parts undoubtedly flow different amounts of air, and all probably flow more than the OE parts, as soon as you bolt them to the car, they all flow only as much as the engine wants… the engine is essentially a vacuum driven air pump and how much air it can ultimately flow is defined by its internal design.

For argument’s sake, let’s assume the engine flows a maximum of 400 g/s… that’s all the air it will ever process unless you either internally modify it or go turbo or SC. If you take a CAI that flows 1,000 g/s on the bench and bolt it up to the engine, the intake will only flow 400 g/s because that’s all the engine wants. For that reason, all of the bolt-ons essentially flow the same amount once they’re installed… so the “flowing more air” part of the discussion becomes moot.

The “changing the OE ECU’s perception” part is what we do… when we build a map for each intake, we optimize the OE ECU’s perception to get the desired AFR. Because all of the bolt-on designs are different, they each differently effect the OE ECU and our maps for each brand are different… but in the end, all of the AFR’s end up being the same.

Since they all flow about the same amount of air, and we optimize the AFR for each, the bottom line is that with a correctly tuned Unichip, they all make the same amount of power.

The key words there are “correctly tuned…” where you get into problems is using the map for one type of intake with a different intake type… in that case, the Unichip's map is set up for the wrong engine configuration and you’ll generally get poor performance.

Just a couple of thoughts about the E85 discussion. What the Unichip can do is probably best discussed by people intimately familiar with what it does and how it works. As I’ve mentioned previously, reflashing and piggybacking are completely different and what one system must or can do to create a capability more often than not has no meaning what so ever in the other system.

The Unichip has lots of adaptive tables available to do what’s needed and every Unichip sold for the past 17 years can do cam timing changes… our standard kit is simply not wired for it for reasons previously mentioned. “Not set up” and “not capable” mean different things. The Unichip can make global changes… but every table in the Unichip is an adaptive table. In fact, you can make global changes to an entire table and then make adaptive changes to that same table if desired. None of our maps, E85 included, are simple global changes.

And speaking of “tables,” if needed or desired, you could have 35 separate fuel tables running in the Unichip… each with over 92,000 unique data points and each referencing different sensors… thing is, if you understand how to make the changes, you don’t need that many. Our maps are not stationary and the Unichip has more than the capability to do it.

Thanks again to all for the questions and enthuiasm.