Glad to hear it...

Since you did not actually use the S/W to tune your car, and left that to the people who went to school for it, you basically got the same thing any other tuner offers though for a little more $$$.

The tuners who offer remote tunes have to sell you an upload/download devise, or they can not do a tune (unless it is in person). Most of those devises are right about $400 and can store a few different tunes. Then they have to charge you for the tune... Thats going to cost you anywhere between $300- $500 depending on the tuner, and complexity of the tune. Plus the dyno time, that is normally an hourly rate, Ive never payed more than $100 per hour. So on the high side of things, total out the door, you are looking at $1000.00 for somebody who knows what they are doing to complete the job.

With ByteTroniK, the full kit is around $800... Then if you take it to a tuner, the same tuner rate as above is going to apply. (Unless for some reason that tuner likes working for free) the Dyno time will also apply... (3rd gear tops out around 90 MPH, so if you are tuning on the street wrapping out 3rd or 4th gear... You are WRONG and breaking the law...) Then, most people aren't so lucky to have an "Authorized ByteTroniK Tuner" close to them... So you need to commute (sometimes long distances) to get to that authorized tuners business... If they aren't a ByteTroniK tuner, or familiar with the adaptives and inter map population of the Bosch/Seimens ECU, not only are you taking a huge risk, the dyno time is going to increase as they "try to figure it out".

Or you could go through the Mynes BT-lite which offers the same as the other competitions remote tune service, still costing around $1000 total...

 

Had both my cars tuned and including dyno time both cars were at $400 here in Spokane. Yes, the initial investment was around $1,000 but the way I look at it, know I can have the cars tuned and feel comfortable they're running at close to perfection for under $500. True, we're lucky to have a local tuner.

 

Don't forget that if it weren't for your special affiliation with Mynes, you would have needed to buy 2 ByteTroniK kits... Bet you caught a good deal from the guy with the keyboard too...

As for "Perfection"... That can not happen with an ECU that is constantly altering running perameters on its own.

 

LOL..."special affiliation with Mynes"? You better help me out on this one, I did buy two kits and as I recall, paid the initial discount price and retail for the 2nd one.
Yes, Hank the Keyboard wiz has been kind to me and it helps to have 2 cars to tune. Heck of a way to get a discount!!

 

Does anyone have the Vi-PEC plug & play model iPBM installed? If so, what has been your experience? I would like to start this as a new thread but have not figured out how to start a new thread. I'm Too old for this technology!

 

The i-Series ViPEC is still too new for us to know, we just got pricing on the i-series a week or two ago.
That being said the standard V-88 based ViPEC has been working great in all driving conditions for the last couple years with no real problems to speak of. Only thing with the V-series is its not OBD-2 compliant, but the i-series is.

 

According to Vi-PEC the I series "may" be OBDII compliant in that some codes will be generated. BUT, it must be hard-wired into the OBDII port with a Vi-PEC CAN cable (purchased separately for about $60). From what I have researched, the two wires are connected to pins 5 and 6 of the OBDII port. The P Codes (PID numbers) provided from the Vi-Pec are the same as the standard protocol codes but, according to Vi-PEC, "this is not likely to match factory output!"
FYI, Jan was heavily involved in the development of the iPDM plug and play in coordination with APEX Speed Technology. Apex said they would prefer the MoTec over the Vi-Pec! Mo-Tec does not have a plug and play.
Can anyone else contribute to this thread and add either personal experience or is a rep of Vi-Pec or MoTec and will correct the information if it is wrong?
Also, will someone start this a new thread for me please? Thanks,

 

is it not common for modified stock ECUs to still have the adaptations ?

i come from the DSM crowd and our most common aftermarket tuning tool (DSMlink) seems very similar to the ByteTroniK system. it allows you to "alter" the factory ECU maps but if you make improper adjustments the car will try to "compensate" for the adjustments to bring them back to what it wants via longterm and shortterm fuel trims. if thats what everyone is complaining about then it sounds like user error and not a software or hardware issue , but feel free to correct me if im wrong

 

You are correct, the adaptations are written into the code of the ECU and that does not go away. Bytetronik is based off the EcuFlash GUI platform but internal codes are very dissimilar.

With the FA system, we added additional codes to the ecu code to enable fast-data logging and Launch Control (+ a few more features that are dealers-only).

With our Custom Remote Mapping service, out target is +/- 2.5% on the LFT.

 

Wondered what has occurred in the past 5 years concerning the Vipec vs Bytetronik comparison. From what I can tell Vipec has gone down in price (RMW) and Bytetronik has moved to Tx and i’m Not sure if Mike Mynes is still there or what. Seems there are still vendors willing to develop for the r53 which is great and by now there should be enough experience with both to narrow the comparison. What’s up?

 

Not real sure about Bytetronik but I do know that you can by the ViPec (now call the LinkECU G4+ at many other re-sellers. I bought mine at Real Street Performance.

LinkECU has done a really neat thing (they are not the only ones though) and they now offer a Wide Band O2 sensor that is read directly by the ECU via the CAN interface, so you dont have to deal with using an analog input and figuring out the 5v scaling.

The price has gone down a good bit I think I paid 1600 for the ECU and the CAN based Wideband.
Also there is now OBDII support and a way to handle Cruise control (neither is a perfect solution)

 

And yes, the ByteTronik shop in Austin Texas is still the same crew, including Mike.

 

Will Vipec work for streetcar and State inspection OBD? I have Bytetronik now.

 

I live in Florida so we dont have that, but from what I have read, most of the time its a NO. The OBDII port does communicate but it does not show a 'readiness' that the inspection people are looking for. So you would either have to swap back you factory ECU for inspection or find a work around.

 

Can we please revive this thread!?
Are the better options today?

 

FA53 is still a great choice

 

The options haven't and probably won't change, the platform is just too old for a mfg to justify any more time or money.

It's simply going to be a choice between an OBDII compliant custom or canned tune.
Or
A non-OBDII compliant stand alone.

 

Alright... Jan has great parts. But he's a difficult person to do business with. I was just hoping for another option.

 

Depends on what you're looking for, if you simply want to buy a Link-ECU you can also purchase from 1320 in the UK.
For a custom tune for the factory ECU, I still suggest ByteTronik, you can either dyno or road tune remotely.

At least there are some options, to choose from.

 

Remote road tuning is what I'm looking for because I live in the mountains of Colorado. I didn't know that was possible without the vipec.

 

Yes, both ByteTronik and RMW offer this for the factory ECU.
But,
While I've always been a fan of ByteTronik, one of the biggest reasons I still think they are the best option for road tuning is their datalogging feature and the fact that you must install a wideband AFR sensor, since you don't have a sniffer like you would on a dyno.

I'm not a tuner, and I don't know how RMW does their remote on road tuning, but I've never heard of them requiring an AFR sensor of some type to be installed. Maybe I'm incorrect about this or maybe there is some way to extract it from the ECU data. But if not, I can't see how you could get a "full" custom tune without it. Seems to me it would be more of a "custom canned" tune.
But again, I'm not a tuner and most likely don't have enough of an understanding of how the factory ECU tuning works to know if there is a way around it, just seemed to me it's something that you would need to have.

 

It's better info than what I had before. But I plan on going to the tvs900 by the end of next year. So I wonder if I should just bite the vipec bullet. Instead of having to be flip flopping platforms.

 

I have the Bytetronik FA now and have been happy with it. I will be going the TVS route this summer.

 

You going vipec? Or staying with bytetronik?

 

I will stay with Bytetronik. I have a Bytetronik dealer/tuner in my town.