Does anyone have any experience with this at all? I have been debating on this for some time now as it seems like it could be a huge tool for minor changes so that the car does not have to be pro-tuned again and again for every little change. I mean wideband and this together for under $400 and i already have the laptop.
It's a good tool; just make sure you fully understand what you're changing. Also, what are you planning on tweaking? Timing, boost, fuel...?
Start reading. There are a lot of primers out there to give you the basics on tuning. Corky Bell and the forums are a great place to start. After that, you need to look more into the specifics of how to use your program for your car. Tag along with anybody street tuning their car as well. I am in the same boat as you. Interested in the Cobb AP, but I still need to learn the skill of tuning as well. Good luck.
Also, while I know I've been pimpin' OpenECU a lot, it is still worth mentioning that for a $85-90 cable and free software you can tune all you want. Real time tuning is still in the works (but getting very close!), but other than that I no longer see a reason to use anything else if you're really interested in learning and tuning on your own.
No I hear ya on the Open ECU. I have looked at it several times. I just think that compared to the $195 for AP ST, you get some nice graphical software, real time on some aspects and of course some base maps to play with. At this point the main focus is to see exactly what is going on with my car, datalog some, be able to adjust the current tune for a short ram intake (not on yet due to horror stories) and the TMIC I already have on there. Also, not sure about Open ECU, but with ST you can plug in a wideband for under $200 extra. It seems that could be of great help. I guess my first goal is diagnostics to find out what my car is really doing right now and why. I was also wondering if any of the local tuners (SS or TS) do ST tunes or if they only do pro? I would love to be able to get tuned by them, but in all honesty, I would like to get a bit more involved in the tuning and this seems a good way to start. In the future I hope to be able to tweak my Protune for new minor additions, outside crazy temps, etc. I know these guys got some tricks up their sleaves and I don't want to take away from their abilities, just learn a bit from them and be able to do some of the basics myself. Hell if I really need to, I have a buddy that has been tuning mustangs with various programs for years and years. I am sure he could figure it out if the big boys in the area are not interested in taking my money, lol.
Nope, you need the AP base code in your ECU for this to work. Otherwise it'd be an amazing bargain at $195. crashtke: If you're just curious about what your car is up to, you just need to download ecuExplorer which works fine with your AP cable. That'll allow you to do a ton of logging and figuring out what's going on. Wideband support is close but not completely there in the OpenECU tools. One guy is working on connecting the LC-1 and LM-1 to a logger, which shouldn't take long to be up and running. I believe the ecuEdit project DOES have wideband support, but it's not free software (I think around $120 or so) and I haven't used it myself. So right now the tally sits at: OpenECU: < $100 for cable. Free software. Limited/no wideband support at this point (but should be available real soon). No realtime tuning (also very close to completion). No official support; user forums are your only option. Cobb: $500-600 for AP, $195 for ST. Realtime tuning, Cobb support, wideband integration, well known and accepted by tuners.
Got this on the way. I am excited to see what the capabilities are. I am hoping that the wideband I got coming will also help find out what exactly is going on and aid in tuning.