Thumper...

Nice to see someone from good 'ol Central Florida. I left Orlando in 2001 and find I miss it quite often. I especially miss the MX World track in Bithlo as well as Real Radio 104.1

Anyway, just wanted to say hey.

Laterz.

Bill

 

give it up for the central fl boys...lakeland here Woot Woot hahah

 

thanks bill , heres my e-mail. xibigwaltix@aol.com .also dont know if you will have a answer to this but you might . i hooked my programer up to my comp today did some data streaming went to put it back in my truck after i got the right gear ratio and tire size, and i could not access the custom mode. said i had a error ..? weird huh .... i think ill be calling jay on monday to figure this out if it doesnt fix it self right now. i have it hooked up again ... thanks again

walt

 

ASE - no worries... I did say in a previous post I stood corrected on the datalogging issue. There is no attempt at 'knife-fighting' here

My questions remain however, concerning what does one do with the info that was datalogged? How would you apply it to an existing tune to modify it? And more importantly, the A/F ratios cannot be properly or accurately captured without an external wideband recorder ( like an LM1), and NO tune modifications can be considered complete or safe without factoring in those parameters. Does the Edge product offer some way of limiting what the end-user can change & by how much, so they don't inadvertently risk damage?

Thanks for your post, it was informative. Are you on the Edge design team?

Cheers
Grog

 

Walt,
Still didn't recieve a phone call from you. Someone told me that you posted up a problem, so I had to come check it out. You are experiencing something that we have already created a fix for. What the Evolution does when you first connect it to the truck is read the truck's HEX file name (the name of the calibrations file your PCM is programmed with). If you enter into the menus before it's done reading, then it wont be able to change certain Custom Option parameters. What you will need to do is turn your ignition key on (without starting your truck), unplug the Evolution for a couple seconds, plug the unit back in, and wait 10 seconds while the Evolution is in the PID display (with the four parameters, which is passed the EVOLUTION graphics and the disclaimer). After your 10 second wait (which will NOT be the case with the fix) then you should be able to go into Custom Options and custom tune your truck.
FYI - as soon as we update our firmware file on our website, I'll let you know and you can update your unit at home. Then you will never run into this again. Hope you are still loving your unit.

- Jay Wilhite

 

When can the rest of us get on this bandwagon?

 

Sorry, but all of our Beta testing spots have been filled. We only had so many PCB boards to ship out. The next time I even get to touch a new Evolution is our prodution run, which will be the 21st of this month. We did post on our website for a long time that we were looking for Beta testers. I was under the impression that you couldn't post anything on this forum about Beta testing, so I didn't use this avenue to spread the word. I'm sorry.
- Jay Wilhite

 

So how far behind are you guys going to be once shipments start? I have a feeling there's a bunch of us who would like to place an order. Me included.
Keep us up to date with how this thing is doing and if you see fit to figure out a group discount for F-150 onliners, let us know!

Thanks
DE '04

 

I am not sure why you are apologizing, but by "bandwagon", I meant when can we purchase retail. Thanks for your time... I look forward to the release date.

 

We plan on shipping on the 21st. As for pricing, that's all up to our sales department. I just design the thing. I have helped with the 'bling-bling' part of the product. The calibrations are done by a well-known engineer in the calibrations market (mainly for Ford diesel trucks, I believe). This guy just blows me away with his knoweldge and creativity. Just today he added a lot more horsepower to his tuning. Every single one of my Beta testers right now loves his tuning and definately notices throttle response and shifting improvements (of course I'm going to say that, but just ask any of them!). They will now even be more impressed. You guys have been recently talking with him.
- Jay Wilhite

 

Well, good job on the 'bling'...it sells. I can't wait for the release!

 

No problem, Grog. I wasn't trying to cut you short or anything. I just didn't know if you were aware of all the functionality built into the unit. And I'll make sure to keep the knives in the drawer. (Hee hee hee)

Now, to address your questions and comments, as well as provide a little background...

I have been doing electronic performance tuning almost completely on Ford vehicles for almost 9 years now. I have done some GM stuff, but Fords are by far the easiest to tune. Besides, they are the best looking trucks on the street. I was also an ASE Certified master Mechanic for over 10 years with many years spent building high performance engines. I developed most of the original gas calibrations for Superchips including the first Lightning chips. Also, most of the PSD calibrations on the market today are based on my calibrations. So, I would not say I am the best guy out there, but I feel I do know my stuff and most people who know me will agree. So don't hesitate to ask questions, because I don't hesitate to give straight answers.

Now, I agree with you 100% that without proper equipment like a wideband AFR, tuning for fuel would generally be a pointless exercise which could end up causing severe engine damage. However, since the Mass Air Meter is controlling AFR in all situations except WOT, there really isn’t any need to pursue any fueling changes except at WOT (which is when it goes open-loop). This is precisely what we allow the user to change. Since we only allow modifications to make the vehicle richer, there really isn’t concern for engine damage. Plus, this allows for fuel enrichment in situations such as exhaust modifications where running a bit lean could be an issue. We also allow for some slight timing modifications based on current fuel quality. This can help pick up some badly needed fuel economy or allow to run a slightly lower fuel quality without risk of detonation.

As for the rest, it’s all basically shifting modifications and we don’t really need a wideband or a dyno to change shifting. The dragstrip is more appropriate for those types of changes. Of course there are reasonable limits on all the parameters and many users probably won’t even use most, if any, of the custom options, but they are there if they want to.

In regards to the base tuning, we have spent literally hundreds of hours on the dyno tuning and tweaking and we feel like we have a really solid, really safe calibration set. For a stock or slightly modified (i.e. AFE, Cat-Back exhaust, etc.) the tuning should work very well. I think most of our Beta testers would agree as well. Now would I put a unit on a heavily modified or supercharged truck? No. But then again, that’s not what we designed the unit for. And as someone who has spent years doing custom tuning, I know there is a place for it. However, in most situations, a “canned” calibration can fit most people’s needs. If you don’t believe me, check the dyno plot in my gallery.

I admit that it is extremely difficult to strike that balance of being able to give the end users some flexibility and NOT giving them enough to hang themselves. That has been the biggest obstacle with custom tuning software. It usually comes down to either being able to inform the user well enough that he or she can make intelligent choices when making calibration modifications or stripping away the usability to where it is pointless to pursue. I think we have a pretty good balance of features with reasonable limits. The important thing is to provide a solid tuning foundation to work with.

Anyway, I hope this answers your questions. I know it’s a bit long but I have never been known for short posts! Hey, you have to have SOMETHING to read while sitting on the john....

Oh, and if you haven’t figured it out, I am the calibration engineer at Edge… but I am sure you guessed that.

Take care (and stay warm).

Bill

 

Forgive me, but I really can't make sense of the dyno chart in your gallery. Can you just throw some numbers out there on what kind of gains we should expect on each program? Thanks.

 

Thumper,

I'll be back on the Dyno in the morning to test a couple other trucks to verify the gains. Once I have confimrmed the accuracy and consistency I'll post the final numbers.

I did test each program twice (hence the two runs for each level) by testing stock, testing level 3, testing stock again, then testing level 3 again... just to make sure it wasn't a dyno fluke or something. The lines are fairly consistent and, so far, at 5000 RPM we saw around 60 HP at the wheels, with an average gain of 25 across the RPM range. Again, these are not confirmed numbers so don't go gettin' all excited until I can do some more testing.

Oh... and that back surgery photo makes me cringe! How did you manage that, anyway???

Catch ya later.
Bill

 

My 4.6 dyno'd higher than that stock