OK, I got some stuff to start burning my own chips. I decided to install WinBin and play with it a little bit to learn it. Where do I begin? The numbers. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1A,1B,1C...what the hell kind of counting is that? How do I go about defining these varibles and actually knowing what I'm programming with that kind of numerical system? Should I find out how many munbers there are and take it from there?

Also, where will I get more info on the specifics of the definitions it uses? Things like VE lower table and extended spark advance? Things I don't hear of often. Sorry I sound like I'm whining but I'm kinda dissapointed I know this involves alot of time but didn't think actually defining specifics in the program itself would be hard and boy I hope this doesn't get locked. I already read Traxion's article. Somebody please help...thanks!

 

That is hex. Winbin converts the Hex to display readable numbers.

http://www.jaworski.com/htmlbook/dec-hex.htm

You don't have to. When looking at the tables, click on "show in calculated values".

Go back to the Trax's intro doc and look for links to Bruce's Tuning Tips and Programming 101. These answer your other questions.

 

This is hex, the language in which the prom is written in. If you have a hac and a hex calculator, you could do anything you want without an editor like winbin but it would take a long time. If you want it to make more sense buy Tunercat or GMEPro.

It's simple, set everything to calculated values, which will give you a number that actually makes sense as in 20 in a timing map means 20 degrees. The hex equivalent may be 10 (or any other number, it depends on the constant) but that wouldn't mean anything to you but it means everything to the ECM.

Those tables mean exactly what they say. I'm sorry to tell you that but if you don't understand it you really need to do some homework.

Well I have been studying this for about six months and I have yet to burn my first prom. How long have you been at it? I want to be prepared for the day I do so I can advance through my tuning as quickly as possible. If you read the intro article than you also read in there where it said that you NEED to have an understanding of the internal combustion engine and if you didn't have a grasp on prom tuning to do A LOT of reading. You need to spend more time reading and let some of this stuff sink in. It didn't make sense to anyone the first time around so read it again. No one here is going to hold your hand. No one here is going to give you a hand out. Anyone who can will give you a hand.

 

Not one person here has been pissy to me for asking stupid questions because everyone has had to start where we are. I have gotten nothing but helpful people. hectorsn
even helped me out a few times already.

 

Learning internal combustion engines is easy since I pretty much know all about that and related topics. It's just the program, but I guess having to convert to numbers which actually make sense does just that, makes sense. I'll go ahead and look into it more, apparently there's more to it than meets the eye. I don't want anyone holding my hand, but that question seemed rational to me at the time. Just bear with me.

I'll go ahead and try to understand the program alittle more. Just looks intimidating I guess. Don't wanna **** something up in the program and mess up my new engine. I figure I should be good to use my factory 350 '89 chip for the time being, even though it'll run alittle rich, just to break the engine in. Shouldn't take much, it's a roller motor. We'll see what happens.

 

At first it does seem intimidating but it gets easier as you get familiar with it. You just have to keep at it. One thing you didn't mention is what ecm/mask you are running. That will be very helpful whenever you ask a question so people don't have to ask. While all the ecm's here are GM, as you can see, the are very different.

 

It will be easier for getting accurate answers if you a little bit more spedific in what you ask. With all the swaps, and cross overs some answers will vary.

There are several lower VE tables, and they
vary.
Some mean throttle closed.
Or for greater resolution at lower rpm, like 200 rpm intervals, whereas higher VE tables use 400 rpm spreads.
Or just the way GM wanted to split up table size.

On extended spark it's similiar to the fuel, in so far as how a particular ecm handles figuring things.

Generally, "we" try to keep the locking and deleting to a min.. If you asking questions about Prom Burning and not to far off subject it ain't a problem.

radio shack used to have a neat little calculator that was handier then using acessories calculator for doing hex conversions.