RomRaider

Hi everyone I'm Ian, I'm new to the ecu mapping world but I do have a little experience tuning my old mx5 race car, not with "normal" methods as we're not allowed to remap the ecu but we are allowed to change the ignition timing by moving the cam/crank sensor. And we can also adjust maf sensor to alter fueling.
I have a 1999 impreza 2000 (uk model). I was hoping I could use that learn and practice some "proper" mapping. But after searching on here it seems the my99 model has a ecu that can't be reflashed easily?
If anyone could confirm this I would appreciate it.
Is there a different year ecu that can be used instead ?

Thanks

eculabs is a great solution on that ecu type, or projectLambda also good too but doesn't have the same feature set. For other ecus you'd be looking at standalones or if you wanted to use a subaru ECU you could reloom the engine and run newage sensors if you really really wanted too but ECUlabs would be much cheaper than that.

FastECU is able to read, write and unbrick those ECUs with Tactrix OP2 (and few other J2534) cable. Altought the definitions and features of stock ECU are quite limited, but as a starting point, why not

https://github.com/miikasyvanen/FastECU

ooOOOooo i didnt realise it could unbrick them, is the a post about that you can link I'll definitely give it a go!

There's also separate software to unbrick with some instructions, but I have not build release version for that and it works only with general FTDI / CH340 / other OBD-adapter (must show as usb serial adapter to use in windows). I copied the code to FastECU but that is yet untested.

And there's that VPP pin. It should also found from ECU connector as when writing, it's pulled to 12v to allow writing but I have not yet tested that also if I remember correctly.

i have spare ECU's if there's anything you need testing on it.

Cheers guys ill have a look at the fastecu software. I'm gonna ask a really dumb question now so I'm sorry in advance but what are the ecu definitions?

ok so there's basically 3 parts to your tuning process:
#1 - reading and writing the ECU, how do you get a file off or back on to the ecu. That's what ecuflash or fastEcu can take care of for you.

#2 - editing the file once you have it off the ecu. an ecu tune file is just a bunch of hex program and you then have to work out what bunch of hex is say fuel table or timing table or boost control tables etc. the definition files help your rom editor to know what table is where and how to display it to you for editing. Ecuflash or romraider definitions would mostly be discussed here for that purpose.

#3 - logging your changes, once you've successfully read the tune off the ecu, edited it, and flashed it back to the ecu - then you have to find out if these changes have made any improvements. So you need to make a datalog that you can look at, romraider logger is what would mostly be discussed here for making the logs then there are various tools that can look over a CSV log file (like megalogviewer, excel, ecuedit etc.) and present the data to you in various ways.

Then once you have those 3 things covered its up to you as the tuner to change the correct values and tables in order to make the ECU do what you want it to do

Got it, thanks very much. So am I right in thinking that you would need just one definition file for a given ecu? Or would you need multiple? And how do you know which definition file you need?
Sorry to ask what must be very basic questions to you.

yeah normally the defs are created by a base definition and then a per ECU definition. So main base defs here are 32bitbase, 16bitbase and carberrybase. For your 99 car that doesn't fall into these categories you'll have to build a definition from scratch so probably no point building a base file until you have 5 or 6 different software versions to look at (like AE801/AE802/AE800 etc. might have small variations between them but generally mostly along the same lines).

how do you know which you need, is after you pull the file off the ECU - your editor of choice will normally identify the rom that your opening and then select the right definition based off that ID. but if there are no defs then it doesn't matter as you'll have to build them from scratch anyway.

Thanks again, I won't lie I'm even more confused now! Haha.
I think I need to do alot more reading and see how I get on. There's alot to learn when your a complete beginner.
Thanks for your help though, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it and learning along the way.

if you find it easier to chat you can grab me on facebook messenger: https://facebook.com/bludgod