what little I've learned about tuner boxes

I wrote this in disgust after several run-ins on eBay. This is not carved in stone, I hope that others will be motivated to chime in and expand, but if you were where I was a few months ago, this is a HUGE head start. Thought I'd share...

Shawn


Hi there!
If you don't know anything about these, but just want your car to do better, you need to listen. (I don't sell these, I almost got taken.)


Here is the short version - do NOT buy a locked one, or one where the seller doesn't understand the question, "Is this locked / married?)



If you want to learn.....


What is it for?

In the old days, you could always tell the smart guy in the area on cars because he had a little clip-on pocket screwdriver he always carried. It doesn't work that way anymore. Most of the stuff you used to make better by twisting a distributor, or twiddling screws on your Holley Quadrajet are now adjusted by something the land mobile radio industry calls a softpot.

Now, if you want to improve performance, correct issues with your speedometer or transmission, (allegedly) improve economy, tweak your auto transmissions' shift points, add cool stuff like headers, cams, exhausts, or two dozen other parameters, you gotta learn to flash.

Not flash like macromedia flash; flashing / tuning is the process of altering the reprogrammable part of your cars' 'brain'. (Other names are ECU Emissions / Electronic Control Unit, PCU - Powertrain Control Unit, EEC - Electronic Emissions Control, ECM - Electronic / Emissions Control Module, PCM - Powertrain Control Module and I am sure a dozen others I didn't see researching.)

These things are NOT the devil. They are the logical progression of things. Everything else is becoming increasingly automated. This is not always a bad thing. A computer can adjust things many hundreds of times a second, where in the Olde Days, you had to pull over to the side of the road, get under the hood and Do Stuff.

Another huge reason to like these things is that in the Olde Days, your performance and mileage suffered as parts (like plugs, points, distributor cap, carb needle jets) started wearing. It would get worse and worse until the vehicle didn't run right at all. With brains though, the computer looks at what is going on, and adjusts for wear until it can't anymore. This means you get more life out of parts, and things run better longer.

But, they can be a pain, if you don't understand them. And, instead of capitalizing on a million dollar a year industry, none of the car manufacturers allow you simple access to your own cars' programming, either.

For those that don't want to learn assembly language and surface mount soldering, a few really brainy people did most of the leg work for you. They build what people call 'tuners', or Strategy Flash Devices, or programmers, or a buncha other names. Some of the biggest proprietary names are SCT, Diablosport, and Special Forces. There are also open source like Tactrix, but they seem a little more complicated and expensive.

There is a lot more researchable SCT material, and used SCT units, so thats' what I have studied.

There are two ways these things work:

1- you buy the box. You use the 'tune' that is in it, or you buy one. You load that tune into your box with a USB cable and plugging it into your internet-capable computer. You use the loaded box by sticking the attached cable into a port on your car, and pushing some buttons. Really, that's basically it.

2 - you buy the box. You buy a computer program. You buy a stock tune, or a custom tune from somebody. You load that in like number one. THEN, you use your software to make your own adjustments (like an electronic version of that pocket - clip screwdriver). Some software even lets you monitor what your car is doing, so you can make a change, upload it, drive and monitor the effects, and see what changed good / bad.

Once you realize how awesome and simple this is, in order for you to resist the urge to program a bunch of your friends' cars with your box (in the eyes of the flash box makers, stealing from the people (them) that stole the maker - proprietary firmware calibration maps from the car manufacturers by reverse engineering them), they electronically 'lock' your tuner box to your car. (there are ways you can purchase additional licenses/tunes/whatever to flash other cars on some of these, you need to research that if that is something you may want).

So, you're on here looking for a used one like I am / was. You find one for $20 (new these are around $350 USD). HOLD UP! You need to be assured the unit is not locked to another car. IF IT IS LOCKED, YOU CANNOT USE IT WITHOUT SPENDING AROUND $150 USD MORE!!!!

Seriously. There doesn't appear to be any simple way to bypass this, either.
So, when you see an auction that says, locked, married, or "I used this on my car, then wrecked / sold it", your internet ears need to perk up. I literally JUST got a message from a guy that said he knew how to check, but didn't have a computer to check his box with. (I am guessing he emails with a typewriter or something).

Also, SCT may or may not be ending support for the SCT Xcalibrator 1 and 2. Everything I have read as of 3/2010 says all of the nonfactory tuner people can still do things to them, and you should still be able to use the stock tunes in them, but I am unsure about factory support or if it breaks if they will fix it. As a result, pay attention to what you are paying for these. They were worth $350 when SCT advertised them on their site. They don't advertise them for sale anymore.

And, I am a little hazy on whether or not the latest revision of their software (Advantage, Pro Racer, Live Link) works with the 1 and 2. I have read that Pro Racer 2.9 still does, take that for what its' worth.

DON'T accept any of this paragraph as gospel, just take it as a friendly warning that you better research HARD before you drop 200 on a box and 600 on a software package that may bring some heartache...

Lastly, I am unclear about which version of box goes to what car. GM is not the same as Ford as Dodge/Chrysler on some of them. What I am saying is I *think* the later units are brand blind, but be certain and ask if the unit you are bidding on is brand specific only.

Thanks for reading!

Happy tuning!
Shawn

PS – I am sorry if I cost you some money or an outright sale, but if this guide offends you, buy a dictionary and research the word ETHICS.




other stuff I have noticed, is I've seen several people say if you send a locked box into SCT, it will come back empty - no tunes at all. Also, I've seen people misinterpret the 5 VIN thing. This means that you can change your mind five times before sending the box back for programming. (ie - i buy this car, then this car, then this car). It does NOT mean you can marry that one box to five vehicles. I think you can purchase additional value files, or something, to use it on more cars, but without something special; 1 box= 1 ride.


Shawn

multi-vehicle use

High_Order1 said:

. . . Also, I've seen people misinterpret the 5 VIN thing. This means that you can change your mind five times before sending the box back for programming. (ie - i buy this car, then this car, then this car). It does NOT mean you can marry that one box to five vehicles. I think you can purchase additional value files, or something, to use it on more cars, but without something special; 1 box= 1 ride.
Shawn

Click to expand...

I believe that the above is incorrect but I only have one Ford so I can't prove it from first hand experience. The X3 has a capacity of three custom tunes and five different VINs. One stored tune can be used with more than one VIN as long as it is one of the five.

An additional note: there is no limit on the number of times a custom tune can be altered for any one of the five possible VINs. Technically, the X3 is only legal for off road use in the United States due to federal anti-pollution laws. Most individuals do not own more than five off road vehicles. SCT is in business to make a profit. It probably cost them a lot of money upfront to either reverse engineer the Ford proprietary PCM tables or purchase source code data from Ford. The X3 supports about ten times the number of parameters that my generic Auterra Dyno-Scan software supports.

You can only use the tuner on one vehicle at a time, it gets locked to that car. Your allowed 5 changes, so if you went from car A to car B and then back to car A that would be 3 of your 5 cars allowed.

Eric is exactly right. The SCT flashers can be swapped vehicle to vehicle four times, no matter what the PCM's are. If you swap PCM's in your one vehicle, the flasher sees two different PCM's.

The Excal I is not very desirable, the II is best for the 2nd gen Explorers, the III just holds larger program files that late late Fords need.

techieman33 said:

You can only use the tuner on one vehicle at a time, it gets locked to that car. Your allowed 5 changes, so if you went from car A to car B and then back to car A that would be 3 of your 5 cars allowed.

Click to expand...

Correct.

Rats!

techieman33 said:

You can only use the tuner on one vehicle at a time, it gets locked to that car. Your allowed 5 changes, so if you went from car A to car B and then back to car A that would be 3 of your 5 cars allowed.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about purchasing a Mustang in the future and the Racer Pro software package. I was planning to use my X3 back and forth between the Explorer and the Mustang trying self generated custom tunes.

My understanding (limited), is that there is a way you can purchase additional value files for use with the prp/advantage3, but I haven't read anywhere if that means you can also use a single box. Which would be stupid, but it is what it is I suppose....

By the way, I applied and was accepted @ sct forums, but for some reason I can't read a dang thing still! So I appreciate whatever others more familiar can chime in here with.
It might save someone else from all the forum sifting I had to do just to make that one post...

Do you know if the xcal 1 can still work with last revision advantage? I've read a few places not to go past 2.9.

No the X1 is NOT supported in the latest version of Advantage. You only have 5 unlocks for each device before you send it into SCT. So for example if you have 1 tuner and two vehicles and you want to use 1 tuner for both then after the 5th unlock you will have to return the device to SCT for that service to be performed. An unlock is when the vehicle is returned to stock AND used on another vehicle. Just returning the vehicle to stock and using on the vehicle the device is married to doesn't constitute a vin unlock.

Advantage 3 is the latest SCT software and SCT does not support 2.9 anymore for free or if 2.9 support is a must then SCT does charge a fee. Advantage supports chip burning, ExCal2, X3 TSX & Livewire. Like Advantage 2.9 the X1 is obsolete.-j

Hey James, I've tried contacting you a few times on getting an expy tune, no luck. Think you might be able to email me? srh@esper.com

Have you tried email or phone? Sometimes I do get the occasional customer slip through the seams, if you have then I apologize. If you call leave a message, just calling and hanging up generally I won't return those messages. I ALWAYS return a call which has a message left.-j

And, so I bought a used Xcal 2. Super cheap. I was blessed.

Big writeup coming with pics, just haven't had time to task on it. Short story, all the software (but advantage, no have yet) works on this box. The free software lets you datalog, but there are literally a thousand PIDs, so I am lost trying to figure out what I should be watching to see if changes fix my problems.

Not hard to use, but there is a learning curve, not many instructions out there (soon to solve that, as well..)

James - I guess we just kept missing. I would have liked to have used you, but I ran out of time.

I finally got access to SCT forums. Very interesting site. I also found out 1 box = 1 ride. Period. You want to flash two cars, you need two boxes. The box is like a jar with a lid. You pour the stock tune into the jar, then pour the modified tune out of the jar. Then, the stock tune is kept in the jar. No room for two vehicles best I can tell. Weird analogy, but I think I'm thirsty.... lol

More later

Shawn

I did keep good notes, and took a lot of screen shots. Anybody care enough about this topic (how to program/flash your 05 explorer with an Xcal 2) for me to expend the time formatting it for here?

Shawn