OpenFlash Tablet

[bakerr6]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I'm sure few people own both. However, I plan on eventually buying a 135i. I'm also looking seriously at getting my wife a new Forester. I can even see an Evo in my future. What can I say? I have a big garage. Tactrix supports 2/3 of those cars and will probably soon support the twins. Tactrix cables can be moved from car to car with no lock-in.

I like the hardware idea of the OpenFlash. The single-car lockdown is just a deal breaker. DRM pisses me off.

At this point, the closest thing to what I want is BRZEdit Pro. It's just too rich for my blood. They do lock it down to one Tactrix cable, but I cannot imagine that ever getting in my way.

Baker and Skyllz, silly potshots come from not understanding what I wrote. They are following a business model I won't put money into. I don't buy DRM-crippled music. I don't buy DRM-crippled games. I do buy MS operating systems and software because I have no choice. In the case of ROMs, at this point, I would only go to a tuner who uses BRZEdit Pro and leaves unencrypted ROMs. Are there any in the SF Bay Area?

One thing to consider is that brzedit works differently than what this offers. You are asking for a company to essentially run a same product mind, charge more for something that's only going to fulfill a niche market, while only offering services for 2 specific vehicles at this point. I think this is where we are not understanding each other.

Coming from a business background, I feel they have made the right choice. Maybe providing options in the future would be good, but from a time/cost perspective, I think they hit the nail on the head.

[EAGLE5]

If you take the OpenROM with you, the FlexFuel kit isn't so important. You can just run your car to almost empty then switch ROMs at the station when you refuel. You'll probably want to idle for a bit until the AFR changes then switch. How often do you really plan on switching fuels? I suppose it's worth it if you get crap E85.

I also doubt the FlexFuel would work out of the box. I think FA20 or somebody would have to make an unencrypted ROM. Maybe OpenFlash has encrypted ROM support? I think they said to PM them on that issue.

[Rombinhood@OpenFlash]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I'm sure few people own both. However, I plan on eventually buying a 135i. I'm also looking seriously at getting my wife a new Forester. I can even see an Evo in my future. What can I say? I have a big garage. Tactrix supports 2/3 of those cars and will probably soon support the twins. Tactrix cables can be moved from car to car with no lock-in.

I like the hardware idea of the OpenFlash. The single-car lockdown is just a deal breaker. DRM pisses me off.

At this point, the closest thing to what I want is BRZEdit Pro. It's just too rich for my blood. They do lock it down to one Tactrix cable, but I cannot imagine that ever getting in my way.

Baker and Skyllz, silly potshots come from not understanding what I wrote. They are following a business model I won't put money into. I don't buy DRM-crippled music. I don't buy DRM-crippled games. I do buy MS operating systems and software because I have no choice. In the case of ROMs, at this point, I would only go to a tuner who uses BRZEdit Pro and leaves unencrypted ROMs. Are there any in the SF Bay Area?

The single car lock-down is necessary for us to stay in business. If we sold one OpenFlash Tablet and allowed it to tune unlimited numbers of cars AND provided the XDF files/mapping info/tunes for all of them, it would cost a lot more than $495. It has taken us several hundred hours to define all the tables in the Denso ECU. We have purchased a vehicle for testing. We have also put a world class Subaru tuning on retainer. All this has been necessary in order to be able to launch a finished product with fully tested baseline maps. While still giving the flexibility of open source ROM editing to those who want to take advantage of it.

Within the month, we will be adding datalogging and graphical displays to the Tablet as well. This isn't inexpensive and does need to be justified by a positive cash flow as with all other viable businesses. We have a programming team that needs to make a living after all A $495 single car tuning device that offers datalogging, storage capacity, graphing, diagnostics, open source map editing and free automatic updates is a pretty good deal in my book. If the single car part is a deal breaking for you, that's okay. Everyone has different goals and priorities. For us, it's to be able to keep doing what we are doing and to provide free updates/enhancements as time goes by But if you want to discuss what you want this product to be, instead of what it is, perhaps that is best left for another thread.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by bakerr6

One thing to consider is that brzedit works differently than what this offers. You are asking for a company to essentially run a same product mind, charge more for something that's only going to fulfill a niche market, while only offering services for 2 specific vehicles at this point. I think this is where we are not understanding each other.

Coming from a business background, I feel they have made the right choice. Maybe providing options in the future would be good, but from a time/cost perspective, I think they hit the nail on the head.

It would probably be easier in the long term. One product SKU. One box. One price. One codebase. They already have one piece of hardware. They could make the product much, much more attractive. Right now, I think some home tuners will go for this, but ECUTek is still going to own the market because they already have tons of mindshare and, despite its advantages in some areas, OpenFlash won't be able to beat ECUTek's advantage of providing strong tuner support. Are FA20, FullBlown, and Visconti going to fully support OpenFlash? Possibly but it's no sure thing. almost Visconti is certainly not going to.

[bakerr6]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

If you take the OpenROM with you, the FlexFuel kit isn't so important. You can just run your car to almost empty then switch ROMs at the station when you refuel. You'll probably want to idle for a bit until the AFR changes then switch. How often do you really plan on switching fuels? I suppose it's worth it if you get crap E85.

I also doubt the FlexFuel would work out of the box. I think FA20 or somebody would have to make an unencrypted ROM. Maybe OpenFlash has encrypted ROM support? I think they said to PM them on that issue.

I'm more or less worried about the summer/winter blend here. E85 is extremely accessible in my area, but you never know what blend they are running without testing it.

[EAGLE5]

I understand your business model. I just think it's a mistake. I hope you reconsider.

Originally Posted by Rombinhood@OpenFlash

The single car lock-down is necessary for us to stay in business. If we sold one OpenFlash Tablet and allowed it to tune unlimited numbers of cars AND provided the XDF files/mapping info/tunes for all of them, it would cost a lot more than $495. It has taken us several hundred hours to define all the tables in the Denso ECU. We have purchased a vehicle for testing. We have also put a world class Subaru tuning on retainer. All this has been necessary in order to be able to launch a finished product with fully tested baseline maps. While still giving the flexibility of open source ROM editing to those who want to take advantage of it.

Within the month, we will be adding datalogging and graphical displays to the Tablet as well. This isn't inexpensive and does need to be justified by a positive cash flow as with all other viable businesses. We have a programming team that needs to make a living after all A $495 single car tuning device that offers datalogging, storage capacity, graphing, diagnostics, open source map editing and free automatic updates is a pretty good deal in my book. If the single car part is a deal breaking for you, that's okay. Everyone has different goals and priorities. For us, it's to be able to keep doing what we are doing and to provide free updates/enhancements as time goes by But if you want to discuss what you want this product to be, instead of what it is, perhaps that is best left for another thread.

[Rombinhood@OpenFlash]

Originally Posted by dokterdewe

wow... where can i get this thing then... i need this solution of flashing back to stock tunes immediately to make sure factory warranty intact...

Online order links and official product info will be up on Monday. I'll start a new thread then. Baseline maps will be posted on line as well. Units are in stock and ready to ship.

[utekineir]

Today is monday somewhere.

[xwd]

Asking them to open the device up to flash multiple cars is silly. Nobody does that. They developed the hardware for the device, the software for the device, etc. It's not a Tactrix cable... The business model has worked for Cobb and others since 2004 and I don't think it's a bad one.

I have Ecutek now and will be looking at everything going on with this, I'm definitely not averse to switching especially if the logging capability and everything starts to show up.

[rupert]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I understand your business model. I just think it's a mistake. I hope you reconsider.

In the grand scheme of things, there's no point trying to make them change their mind on a product that's already cheaper than the alternatives (only the ones that are known to be working and already on the market. I believe this excludes the Tactrix argument) and gives you the new feature of freely exchanging maps.

Thankfully, it is a free market. You could always make your own software that does everything you want. Since you hate DRM, you could spend hundreds of hours developing it and make it open source. Based on the replies, I know you would at least have one download.

While I might know some stuff, I couldn't pull off what they have done. Since Cobb won't support us, I'm glad other people are stepping up to the plate and giving me an option besides EcuTek.

[jamesm]

Sure they could open it up to flash as many cars as you want with one device. Then, every local group could just chip in and buy a single unit, flash everyone's car, and everyone's happy. Except for everyone else everywhere when the company goes out of business and can't support their product.

This is the closest thing to DRM-free tuning you will ever find, until you develop your own solution (not using any proprietary API, including tactrix) and open source everything, hardware and all. Take it or leave it.

[StormTrooper]

Ecutek is a joke....plain and simple.

It exists solely because it was the first option and no one wanted to wait.

In almost every other tuning scene they either don't exist or are on the way out.

Honda, DSM, evo, Subaru, vw, focus/ fiesta st. They all use something else.

In two years I highly doubt you'll see them talked about on here either.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by jamesm

Then, every local group could just chip in and buy a single unit, flash everyone's car, and everyone's happy. Except for everyone else everywhere when the company goes out of business and can't support their product.

When I was thinking seriously about EcuTek, I was asking around for who had a cable so I didn't have to buy one. So yes, I feel like that is exactly what would happen. As far as I'm concerned, they can have my $495 right now.

But... I'm still going to wait a bit to see which tuners fully support it. I think FA20 Club is holding off until data logging is finalized before they make a decision.

[bakerr6]

Originally Posted by Anthony

When I was thinking seriously about EcuTek, I was asking around for who had a cable so I didn't have to buy one. So yes, I feel like that is exactly what would happen. As far as I'm concerned, they can have my $495 right now.

But... I'm still going to wait a bit to see which tuners fully support it. I think FA20 Club is holding off until data logging is finalized before they make a decision.

I'm almost positive they will offer some type of tuning solution (at least a base map) for people purchasing their turbo kit. At least that's what I'm hoping. I haven't talked to them yet, but plan on it when I receive the tuner.