New FRS... Should I stay with BrzEdit???

[MrSlay]

Was using BrzEdit with good success a few years ago when I had my 1st FRS,

A few years ago I had good success tuning my first FRS with BrzEdit, but I was really only in the game for a few months. Over the weekend I bought another FRS, thankfully this time ive got a true purpose to my purchase. Idea behind the car for the 2015 year is to get near 200whp with supporting suspension mods for track days. That said, should I buy another license for BrzEdit, or has there been a release of a superior product while I was away from the platform?

Thanks in advance

[mad_sb]

At this point in time I would not.

Epifan started write locking the ecu some releases ago. Openflash or ecutek would be a better investment at this point. I converted over to romraider and openflash (for the convenience of keeping the openflash tablet in my glovebox in case I get stuck without E85 and need to switch back quick).

EcuTek is now end user tune-able on this platform, though still the most expensive option if you want to tune it yourself. OpenFlash allows you to use your own tune files created with romraider, ecuflash etc, or the off the shelf tunes Shiv has been working on for a while.

[akyp]

@mad_sb Does this mean if I take my car to a tuner, who uses BRZEdit, to tune the car, I would not be able to read the tune and do my own fine tuning with a Tactrix cable, or even return to stock for a visit to the dealership?

[mad_sb]

Originally Posted by akyp

@mad_sb Does this mean if I take my car to a tuner, who uses BRZEdit, to tune the car, I would not be able to read the tune and do my own fine tuning with a Tactrix cable, or even return to stock for a visit to the dealership?

No, but it prevents you from flashing over the top of the tune unless you flash back to a stock tune first. Essentially, you get locked into using brzedit since that is all you can use to flash with once you no longer on the stock rom. Not sure if he is read locking as well as write locking, but he is for sure write locking.

This may not be an issue for most, but it is for me. I run e90 full time and there are only a handful of stations here in socal.... So, If i want to go on a trip or get stuck in traffic or just have a brain fart and get too far from a corn pump and need fuel.... I have to be able to flash back to a pump gas map. With BRZedit, I would have to carry a laptop and inverter in the car at all tines just in case I get stuck without corn juice. With the openflash tablet, I can keep my pump and E90 tunes on the tablet in the glove box and not have to worry. The tablet is powered by the OBD-II port so there are no batteries to worry about etc.

Never used EcuTek on this platform so not sure there, but I think you would still need a laptop to flash.

Now, you can open a standard, non encrypted rom with brzedit and flash it with brzedit, but then you must continue to use brzedit to work with that tune. Also, if you try to use one of the newer v2 off the shelf maps from Shiv, that will probably not be editable in brzedit because the V2 maps require a unique definition file for the rom.

Basically, now that open source is available, i have zero tolerance for read or write locking the ecu. Even if I never had to worry about switching back to pump gas, I would still be on romraider / openflash simply for the better logging you get from openport stand alone logging. Epifan never did fix the logging issues i had with ja00c roms.. logging was great right after a flash but within a day or so the sample rate would go to shit making the logs useless.

[Circuit Motorsports]

Originally Posted by mad_sb

Never used EcuTek on this platform so not sure there, but I think you would still need a laptop to flash.

I just want to add that with EcuTek, whether you are self-tuning or getting professionally tuned, you can build in a Gas map(s) and E85 map into the same tune, and use map switching to switch from Gas to E85 and vice versa.

Using EcuTek, you can switch maps with your cruise control stalk. No laptop, no tablet, no flashing required. Very easy and convenient! The EcuTek system supports up to 4 separate maps on the 86 platform.

Add an ethanol content sensor, and you can have a true flex-fuel tune that dynamically optimizes based on ethanol content without worrying about the mix of gas and E85 in the tank.

- Bob

[cameronjones239]

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70796 May want to look into OFT, that's my NA plan until I go FI then I will switch over to ecutek.

[steve99]

opensource tactrix ecuflash info below as well as openflash tablet info

[RA004E]

I have to say as for data logging and a log viewer, BrzEdit / EcuEdit is still the way to go, even though the logging speed of BrzEdit is sometimes unstable. The build-in ecutek log viewer is horrible comparing to ecuedit. And BrzEdit has this ecu self-recovery feature that saved me and my partner several times. I don't know how well the ecuflash could handle when connection was interrupt, but I had my USB cable suddenly detached when flashing, even the computer crashing (blue screen of death), none of them caused a brick ecu by BrzEdit.

[jflogerzi]

openflash for NA all the way IMO.

[steve99]

Originally Posted by RA004E

I have to say as for data logging and a log viewer, BrzEdit / EcuEdit is still the way to go, even though the logging speed of BrzEdit is sometimes unstable. The build-in ecutek log viewer is horrible comparing to ecuedit. And BrzEdit has this ecu self-recovery feature that saved me and my partner several times. I don't know how well the ecuflash could handle when connection was interrupt, but I had my USB cable suddenly detached when flashing, even the computer crashing (blue screen of death), none of them caused a brick ecu by BrzEdit.

Tactrix\ecuflash recovers well from bad or partial flash, had several bad flashes due crook obd port and it recovered using boot mode as opposed to OEM flash mode each time

[brn12345]

I use BRZedit. Have tried all the other solutions and now back to BRZedit. Make your own judgment peoples experiences are not necessarily applicable to you.

[Cockatoo]

Originally Posted by Circuit Motorsports

I just want to add that with EcuTek, whether you are self-tuning or getting professionally tuned, you can build in a Gas map(s) and E85 map into the same tune, and use map switching to switch from Gas to E85 and vice versa.

Using EcuTek, you can switch maps with your cruise control stalk. No laptop, no tablet, no flashing required. Very easy and convenient! The EcuTek system supports up to 4 separate maps on the 86 platform.

Add an ethanol content sensor, and you can have a true flex-fuel tune that dynamically optimizes based on ethanol content without worrying about the mix of gas and E85 in the tank.

- Bob

Is EcuTek the only one that can do multiple maps? What makes it be able to do this vs the other tuning options?

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by Cockatoo

Is EcuTek the only one that can do multiple maps? What makes it be able to do this vs the other tuning options?

Ecutek writes custom code to the ECU that allows the map switching, custom maps, etc. and if I'm not mistaken yes, it's the only one that has switchable maps.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by steve99

Tactrix\ecuflash recovers well from bad or partial flash, had several bad flashes due crook obd port and it recovered using boot mode as opposed to OEM flash mode each time

I second this, When I first switched to corn juice I had a partial flash, and just reflashed and it was fine.

Jaden