N54 - Tuning Resources - .BIN Files, XDF Files, Firmware, Updates

[V8bait]

Yeah, all this. Never used to be like this at all. I was used to sharing things from the previous communities I was a part of, the fiero community is full of mad scientists doing interesting projects all sharing details, but everyone was DIY there. LS1tech is its own world. Code59.org was incredible for DME logic and assembly changes 10-15 years ago, all the megasquirt stuff. Then I get to this community and treated it the same, yeah I learned my lesson. This platform rewards amateurs due to the level of technology, not sure if that's a good thing to start with or not.

Hella late edit- It's probably good to start on this platform. If you can grasp what's going on in the background, you get to skip a ton of intricacies in older operating systems, skip hours of adjustments, and have a wizard of safeties to catch your n00bness. You can learn to tune without ever touching a manual VE table? Jesus sign me up for that course and burn the old tech.

 

[doublespaces]

Knowledge is power and teaching soneone else how to code/tune is a lot like showing them where you buried your bone.

 

[AzNdevil]

Knowledge is power and teaching someone else how to code/tune is a lot like showing them where you buried your bone.

if you compare tuning to coding... i would say... having a basic list of functions and parameters and examples would allow people to dip their hands in the water but the difference of how each function and parameter is utilized would show the difference between an amateur vs pro tuner

 

[Xyruss]

Very good points stated above. I think there's something to be said about starting on a different platform for learning how to tune, then moving up to the N54

On another topic, under the JB4 ISO firmware, it mentions:

2) Added battery reset and register (when installing a new battery) under the menu 1/7 adaption resets.

can battery registration really be done via JB4? I thought this needed to be done through the OBII (carly, BMW tool, etc).

would someone care to elaborate? can it be done through the iOS app? If this is for real, its great news to me as I just replaced my battery but still need to register

 

[Derek@MoorePerformance]

Very good points stated above. I think there's something to be said about starting on a different platform for learning how to tune, then moving up to the N54

On another topic, under the JB4 ISO firmware, it mentions:

2) Added battery reset and register (when installing a new battery) under the menu 1/7 adaption resets.

can battery registration really be done via JB4? I thought this needed to be done through the OBII (carly, BMW tool, etc).

would someone care to elaborate? can it be done through the iOS app? If this is for real, its great news to me as I just replaced my battery but still need to register

Worked with mine, I have had no issues with it.

 

[Xyruss]

Worked with mine, I have had no issues with it.

No way! how does this actually work though? Does the JB4 "trick" the DME on the battery deatils? my concern is if it isnt "flashed" then there seems room for error... the car will work on the battery either way. The issues will arise later on then something goes wrong because of BMW's special battery charging system. I don't doubt the JB4's ability and saftey as Terry is the man. Just kinda curious

 

[AzNdevil]

if you have the inpa cable just disable jb4 (map 0), install mhd and its somewhere inside the reset adaptions page

 

[cebrailbakan]

+1000 jyamona

 

[Derek@MoorePerformance]

I'll definitely do a write up soon regarding my progress with self-tuning. It's definitely an interesting thing to study and Im making more power now.

Every car is different, every car should have its own tune to run at its best.

 

[TEC]

Yeah, all this. Never used to be like this at all. I was used to sharing things from the previous communities I was a part of, the fiero community is full of mad scientists doing interesting projects all sharing details, but everyone was DIY there. LS1tech is its own world. Code59.org was incredible for DME logic and assembly changes 10-15 years ago, all the megasquirt stuff. Then I get to this community and treated it the same, yeah I learned my lesson. This platform rewards amateurs due to the level of technology, not sure if that's a good thing to start with or not.

I get what you are saying, honestly I do, I've been tuning cars since the 80's. I just feel like in order to get this platform to really expand everything needs to be transparent and not just a pay to play endeavor. This platform really has excellent potential to be better than Hondata, DSMLink, Evoscan or anything else out there. However, it's only because guys were willing to talk about their accomplishments on other platforms that others were able to take those ideas and build upon them. Unfortunately, there will always be leeches. Those that do nothing but sit back and wait for others to spoon feed them, however I can remember the first time I tried tuning a car with the original TEC standalone. I was slow on the uptake but I had someone near me that was patient enough to show me the ropes. I ended up figuring out a few things in the end that he didn't know. The thing is we never know who will benefit from our knowledge and will take it to the next level.

Thanks all of you that are sharing and posting tuning info. I'm a few months in on this platform and it has helped me reduce the learning curve dramatically.

 

[Derek@MoorePerformance]

The biggest issue with this platform I have seen is 70%~ of the people that "tune" these cars all believe that it's pay to win. barely anyone I have talked to really sits down, takes the time to learn their car, learn all the tables and how they interact, look at actual data of how the engine flows, responds, works.. It's just a bunch of people that go HEY I CAN BUY THIS AND HOOK A CABLE OR ADDITIONAL COMPUTER TO IT AND GAIN LIKE.... 200HP!!

In reality thats kinda true depending on everything under the sun but... the point is, they really dont work on their cars much, they don't tinker with them, they pay others to do so, and whenever the tuners see how much money that there is from 1000s of people being clueless. They keep their mouths shut about any progress they have made because they want that money...

Having a place where we could literally go against the grain and share EVERYTHING collectively and do some R&D outside from vendor to vendor is what would really help push everything along. We have plenty of knowledgeable people but, for the most part.. No one really collectively gets together to share ideas/data/discoveries/etc...

We are just now getting a better way of running energy to a spark plug and the only goal that people had doing it was, how much money can I make off it.

It's sad that the community is driven this direction BUT, it only takes one group of people to change all that.

 

[V8bait]

The biggest issue with this platform I have seen is 70%~ of the people that "tune" these cars all believe that it's pay to win. barely anyone I have talked to really sits down, takes the time to learn their car, learn all the tables and how they interact, look at actual data of how the engine flows, responds, works.. It's just a bunch of people that go HEY I CAN BUY THIS AND HOOK A CABLE OR ADDITIONAL COMPUTER TO IT AND GAIN LIKE.... 200HP!!

In reality thats kinda true depending on everything under the sun but... the point is, they really dont work on their cars much, they don't tinker with them, they pay others to do so, and whenever the tuners see how much money that there is from 1000s of people being clueless. They keep their mouths shut about any progress they have made because they want that money...

Having a place where we could literally go against the grain and share EVERYTHING collectively and do some R&D outside from vendor to vendor is what would really help push everything along. We have plenty of knowledgeable people but, for the most part.. No one really collectively gets together to share ideas/data/discoveries/etc...

We are just now getting a better way of running energy to a spark plug and the only goal that people had doing it was, how much money can I make off it.

It's sad that the community is driven this direction BUT, it only takes one group of people to change all that.

Not entirely true. I help novice tuners all the time. There's just so many of them, and when I did make things public, those things turned into profit for people unwilling to figure it out themselves.

Our coils are bad. Upon testing them, they were really bad. On high power cars, I tell people to replace them all every other year. I wanted to fix those issues once and for all, how much money I made from it was never a question. I have a job far removed from this community, this stuff is 90% passion for me. Can't speak for others but it's kinda unfair.

 

[Derek@MoorePerformance]

Not entirely true. I help novice tuners all the time. There's just so many of them, and when I did make things public, those things turned into profit for people unwilling to figure it out themselves.

Our coils are bad. Upon testing them, they were really bad. On high power cars, I tell people to replace them all every other year. I wanted to fix those issues once and for all, how much money I made from it was never a question. I have a job far removed from this community, this stuff is 90% passion for me. Can't speak for others but it's kinda unfair.

I know, you and Snelson are the ones that gave me the right push and direction to start really getting my hands dirty. Since out last Convo, I have read 3 books on the topic and played with my own car a lot. The past 3 months has been nothing but, research, and dedication. The only thing I wanted out of it all was to be able to dial in my own car. Now I drive around with 10x the pride I did because I made the map I'm running. It's a gradual process but, the end result is priceless

 

[hassan_hamdan]

I know, you and Snelson are the ones that gave me the right push and direction to start really getting my hands dirty. Since out last Convo, I have read 3 books on the topic and played with my own car a lot. The past 3 months has been nothing but, research, and dedication. The only thing I wanted out of it all was to be able to dial in my own car. Now I drive around with 10x the pride I did because I made the map I'm running. It's a gradual process but, the end result is priceless

So after reading this thread, I completely understand where you guys are coming from. I recently came from a mazdaspeed6, and I built that motor up by hand back to factory spec, following the factory manual, once I rebuilt my motor I bought a Cobb AP, and did the basic OTS map as the first tune. Started to follow the forums (mind you, for the speed6 community you must pay a memebership fee just access almost anything) so I did and I wanted to start learning to tune. That was until my tranny blew on it and I was offically done with it. Moved to the N54 world, and was a proud owner of my 135i. Now as much as I know about the n54, I really want to learn on how to tune. My question to you is, what books do you recommend if any? Where is a good place to get into understanding the basics? I understand alot of people dont want to give away all the hard work, and trust me as a university I know how much it sucks to give away your answers after spending hours on figuring it out. And my speed6 was no different. The only thing I was able to find was HP academy, and the odd threads here and there, but im curious where guys like me should go to start reading up.

Thanks.

 

[Derek@MoorePerformance]

A really good read on the topic would be:

There's many other good ones but, to cover bases this is an excellent start

 

[PUTC]

Derek, I don’t see a link or a name of a book in your post. I know just enough information to fuck shit up. I’m more copy and paste than a do it yourself tuner right now which is not who I want to be. Would like to be able to start from scratch and gradually tune a car safely to its potential.

 

[doublespaces]

Derek, I don’t see a link or a name of a book in your post. I know just enough information to fuck shit up. I’m more copy and paste than a do it yourself tuner right now which is not who I want to be. Would like to be able to start from scratch and gradually tune a car safely to its potential.

This is a document resource and this is just the associated discussion thread. Go to the top and click the content tab or go to the first post and click read more about this document.

 

[gmx]

Actually, turn it up. Complexity is required.
For example, Requested torque limit (Driver). Cool ok, so I start searching what this does and ... I still don't know except it everyone posting about it has an auto. Conclusion? The only way I'll find out is I fire up and buy IDA to understand this function.

I'm planning to do the same thing as some other posters in here. Self tune, then go custom just to see if they know what they're doing or I can pickup any MSD81 specifics from them.

 

[Jake@MHD]

Actually, turn it up. Complexity is required.
For example, Requested torque limit (Driver). Cool ok, so I start searching what this does and ... I still don't know except it everyone posting about it has an auto. Conclusion? The only way I'll find out is I fire up and buy IDA to understand this function.

I'm planning to do the same thing as some other posters in here. Self tune, then go custom just to see if they know what they're doing or I can pickup any MSD81 specifics from them.

It's a limit on the torque request variable after the Requested Torque (Driver) factor table is applied.

 

[Derek@MoorePerformance]

's a limit on the torque request variable after the Requested Torque (Driver) factor table

Correct, However... One of the biggest things that isn't documented anywhere is a good explanation about what all torque tables do / integrate with. There is bits a pieces everywhere but, no one has fully sat down and said how they interact.

Like the Torque Reduction Factor tables, Torque Eff Divisor, Why there is a Torque Eff Lower Limit, Torque Loss tables, etc.. Honestly, where the platform is setup to be "pay to win" and, everyone is out to make a dollar.. I spent and am still spending a lot of time testing different methods of utilizing the tq tables fully.

If you have any information on this then by all means please PM me but, all else fails I'll keep on the notebook and documentation grind.