The Prom Tuning Guide Book and FAQ: Common Questions and Answers - DIY PROM - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

3.8TransAM · 04-03-2005, 03:29 PM

This is currently under construction and will help to organize and sort the stickies out and to minimize clutter due to growing information and topics.

As you may have noticed the stickies have been getting dropped. The Chapters that are linked will also be replaced and be non hyper texted due to the stickies not being updated and are lacking all the latest links that the actual "Guide" has. Thanks for sending/recommending posts and links. Where appropriate they have been included.

later and thanks

The mod squad :-)

CHAPTER 1: WHERE DO I BEGIN? HOW TO PROGRAM PROMS.

CHAPTER 2: SOFTWARE: WHAT YOU NEED TO MODIFY YOUR BIN, DEFINITION FILES AND SOURCE CODE

CHAPTER 3: HARDWARE: ADAPTERS, TEST BENCH, DRIVER BOARDS, EMULATORS

CHAPTER 4: MAF vs. MAP: CONVERSIONS AND DEBATE

CHAPTER 5: TUNING ARTICLES BROKEN DOWN BY ECM

730:

165:

749 ($58):

749/730 ($60)

Betas Wanted for $60 Work (Betas Wanted for 60 work)

8063/7747/8746 ($??/$42/$61):

CCC(Computer Controlled Carb)

3.8TransAM · 04-03-2005, 03:29 PM

CHAPTER 6: SOURCE CODE: MODIFYING, PATCHING AND TESTING

CHAPTER 8: GRUMPY'S FINAL ANSWERS AND IMPORTANT TOPICS

CHAPTER 9: LAPTOP TO ECM COMMUNICATION AND OPTIONS

For this, let's not take into account what hardware you specifically may already have, but what hardware is available for the different configurations. This allows us to be more general, which is useful for the masses.

Note: This pertains to being able to emulate and datalog at the same time. The outline below is not necessary if you only wish to emulate or datalog independently. This assumes real-time emulation is what is desired.

Note 2: This reply does not take into account all emulation/ALDL hardware. Use the info that is here and the info you have for the hardware of your choice to determine port and configuration compatibility.

The following suggestions should work well with most ALDL and Tuning software, namely:

Tuning:
-----------
TunerCat
TunerPro

Datalogging:
------------------
Datamaster
TunerPro
WinALDL
EASE
FreeScan
etc

-----------------------------------

PC Configuration 1: 1 Serial port, at least 1 PCMCIA slot, no USB ports (this is probably the most common)

One of the better routes to go would be to go with a PCMCIA USB hub. I believe Craig sells one for $20 (the guy sells everything, doesn't he?).

With this, you have a couple of hardware options:

Tuning Hardware Option 1) (Recommended for compatibility simplicity)

- Serial ALDL cable
- PCMCIA USB hub/interface (Moates sells one for $20 - of course - he sells everything, right?)
- Ostrich (USB emulator)

With this setup, you can get up and running with minimal effort.

Tuning Hardware Option 2) (Still recommended, but a little harder to configure)

- Serial ALDL cable
- PCMCIA USB Hub/interface
- Serial to USB converter
- Romulator

This setup is a little harder to configure and may not work in all situations (because of the involvement of a serial to USB converter), but will probably work in 9 out of 10 PC configurations. The idea is to use the serial to USB converter with the Romulator, since it uses a very standard 115kbaud communication baud, which is compatible with all converters. Doing it this way is recommended over using the USB converter for the ALDL cable since 8192 baud is not universally supported by USB converters.

-------------------------------------------
PC Configuration 2: 1 Serial Port, 1 or more USB ports

Tuning Hardware Option 1) (Recommended for compatibility simplicity)

- Serial ALDL cable
- Ostrich (USB emulator)

With this setup, you can get up and running with minimal effort.

Tuning Hardware Option 2) (Still recommended, but a little harder to configure)

- Serial ALDL cable
- Serial to USB converter
- Romulator

Again, a little harder to configure because of the use of the serial to USB converter, but it should work great under most circumstances and with most software.

--------------------------------------
PC Configuration 3: 1 USB port, 1 or more PCMCIA slots, no serial port

Tuning Hardware Option 1) (Recommended for compatibility simplicity)

- USB ALDL Cable (from Moates)
- PCMCIA USB Hub/interface
- Ostrich (USB emulator)

With this setup, you can get up and running with minimal effort.

Tuning Hardware Option 2) (Still recommended, but a little harder to configure)

- USB ALDL Cable
- PCMCIA USB Hub/interface
- Serial to USB converter
- Romulator

Again, a little harder to configure because of the use of the serial to USB converter, but it should work great under most circumstances and with most software.

--------------------------------------
PC Configuration 4: 2 USB ports no serial port

Tuning Hardware Option 1) (Recommended for compatibility simplicity)

- USB ALDL Cables (from Moates)
- Ostrich (USB emulator)

By far the simplest setup

Tuning Hardware Option 2) (Still recommended, but a little harder to configure)

- USB ALDL Cable
- Serial to USB converter
- Romulator

Again, a little harder to configure because of the use of the serial to USB converter, but it should work great under most circumstances and with most software.

(Courtesy of Mangus, author of TunerPro)

3.8TransAM · 04-20-2005, 01:35 AM

CHAPTER 10: PROM ID FOR APPLICATIONS(YRS AND MODELS)

CHAPTER 11: MISC. ISSUES

CHAPTER 12: KNOWN ECM HACs

This is a collaborative effort of Bob, Glenn and Jeremy. The basis for this guide came from Tim's original sticky collection (posts and links collected from this board) and has been modified in format and text and updated where appropriate. So much new material has come forth and new topics written that we would again reclutter the board with a mass of stickies. This project has been undertaken to hopefully map out the "prom tuning bible" if you will and organize the information here at thirdgen.org to the best of our abilities.