This most likely belongs in the Tuning Section, but there are people here that seldom frequent there and I though it would get more attention and possibly help some people out more here. If you want to move it MOJO that is fine :cheers:

I got my Romulator loaded last night onto my laptop. And Headed out to the garage to see if I could get it to work.

The entire setup is very simple. I loaded the bin that I have currently been running, I had it named 406rev3 onto the new TunerCat RT program. Then hit the program Romulator button. Instantly the Romulator indicated that it was in sync with the tunercat program.

I turned the key to the start position and the car fired instantly. :cheers: No check engine light nothing. I let it reach operating temp and then started to play around with the program.

Since it was raining out I did not take the car out of the garage, since my 350 buildup, I have always had one area of my tune in which I neglected, and that was hot startups. I typically have to press the gas to get the car to start then sometimes it stalls if I leave off the key too soon and its a real bear to start then. So that was going to be the area to test last night with the new system. I just was lazy/time deprived before and that is why I couldn't justify burning 10-20 chips trying different crank pulse width settings for the startup parameters.

So off to the tables I went. Those of you with Tunercat, it looks exactly the same, just a few new buttons at the top for Romulator communication. I switched my units of the car over to metric on the digital display to make it easier to locate the cells corresponding to the correct degrees in the tables. At ~80*C I started to make changes. I would make the change then try starting the car. I figured since I had to push the gas in, it was probably getting too much and the extra air with the throttle opened helped it start, so I started pulling pulse width out. It was at ~7ms when I started. I worked my way down and noticed an improvement right away with 5.5. I did this about 15 times working my way towards 1.5ms where I stopped. This was all done in a matter of about 20 minutes :cheers: Now I can just hit the key and brrrrrrmmm!

I have to take my hat off to tunercat and Xtronics for making tuning all that much easier for us time pressed guys. What I did in 20 minutes would have probably taken all afternoon burning/erasing chips. And because of the ease of this now, you can make much smaller precise incriments with little or no trouble.

I can't image how easy dyno tuning this thing is going to be now. :cheers: All I have to do is watch the AFR of the printouts, get in the car, increase/decrease the PE % Change to AFR vs RPM and maybe some timing adjustment to see if there is a benefit or not, then run it again. :cheers:

I suggest that anyone getting into tuning or already in tuning invest the extra ~200 dollars and get themselves on of these units. :cheers:

 

What is the exact setup you are using for the tuning (software wise)? I am looking at starting my own tuning and this seems like the ticket.

 

:cheers: Sounds good,
Your de Man ! :steering:

 

They work with the 870 ecm? Or is it just a waste of time?

 

The setup actually will add about 200 dollars to the cost of getting setup, but will be well worth it in the long run, TRUST ME.

You need a bin editor( I use Tunercat or now TunerCat RT for the romulator http://www.tunercat.com) a programmer (I use the Pocket II programmer http://www.xtronics.com) and lastly a UV eraser, again can be found at digikey or any electronics shop. Best bet is probably Ebay.


The reason you still need a programmer to burn chips is that once you have the tune where it needs to be, then you can remove the romulator and replace it with a chip.

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:


[Modified by ski_dwn_it, 9:11 AM 5/16/2003]

 

Works with any 3rd gen MAF, SD, or TBI system at least that is my understanding. You should be fine, but for insurance, double check with them.

 

Sounds good.

That should make things easier.

 

Could you please explain the romulator? You said "loaded in your laptop" does that mean its software or is it hardware too? How/where do you get one and how much are we talking$ Does it plug in like the stock chip? thanks!

 

Go here and check it out.

What you have is a laptop, the laptop is loaded with TunerCat RT software which allows you to change the settings. The laptop is connected to the Romulator seen here via a serial cable (9 pin DB connector):



The romulator has a ribbon cable off it itself that has a "chip"type end. This replaces the chip that you normally have in the ECM. So eccentually the Romulator is the chip, and it accept and updates with the changes that the software sees.

You can then disconnect the laptop from the romulator after programming and just run the romulator with the ECM as alone like if you were going to continue tuning another day, or you can retrieve the romulators latest configuration and burn a normal chip to run perminately, once you are satified with the tune.

Here is a shot of Tunercats main Screen:



Some adjustable tables





The two websites are:
http://www.tunercat.com

and
http://www.xtronics.com

 

That sounds great! thanks for the info.

 

GREAT!!!!!


[Modified by GRX, 1:17 PM 5/16/2003]

 

Hey Jessie, how much was that romulator thing? So all I would need is the romulator, a laptop and the tunercat (or similar) software, and you're set, right? I think I may look into that :D

 

Let me try to clear some of this stuff up:

Romulator => used to replace the chip and interface with the computer. $179.99

Tunercat RT => 30 dollars if you already have tunercat not sure, see website if you don't have it.

Pocket Programmer or equivalent => You need have this to program chips~200 dollars if I remember what I paid for mine. Check sites.

Laptop => Needed ??

UV eraser => 35 dollars :cheers:

 

Jesse, did you try making a change with the car running? Something even like maybe just turning the fan off if it was already on to see if it worked?

 

Yepper! Works like a charm! I played with the idle vs coolant, it changes after about 3 sec from the time you click into another cell.

I have my car where it starts like a champ now, no matter what the temp. Dad couldn't believe tonight when we loaded it onto the trailor for racing tomorrow how easy it starts now. Before you had to crank and crank with the peddle at different positioins to get it to fire, and if it sputtered and stalled it was a real bear. Now its just crank, crank, brmmmm, with no peddle no nothing involved.

Highly recommend the system. :cheers:

The only glitches that I has seen and I need to try to isolate it was today after driving for about 1 hr with the system attached, I had it stall out of the blue, at idle once, like I shut the key off :confused:

I wipped into a parking lot and though OH no here we go, but it started right up with no problems or lights. Not sure what brought it on, but the car never did that before. But that was the only out of the norm activity I have had, and I can't even say for sure that was the problem. :cheers:

I am going to try to dyno the car this week, if all works out and the weather is oK.

:cheers:

 

VERY COOL! Now if only they could make something for PCM's... i doubt it though. Can't flash those chips instantly. Since my PCM has socketed flash chips, it would be POSSIBLE for them to make an adapter that goes into there, but i'm sure the communications is completely different and would require another complete version of Tuner Cat.

 

Guys,

The romulator is awesome. The sky is the limit with this unit. Tunercat has bridged the gap by allowing us real time updating to our gm ecms! The next project is to intergrate a wideband o2 into the package.

Are you game?

Frank :party: