Thanks to this very informative forum, the folks that suffered from the school of hard knocks, and the excellent work of Alain Fontaine, I was able to successfully update the tune on my '06 classic on the very first try!! Thanks for writing this software. Everybody who procrastinated on buying TuneBoy was rewarded with this free alternative.
Bought my cable from easy-motorcycle on June 25 and it arrived today. Used the latest version (1.6.6) of Tune ECU. Here's what I did, in case it helps others.
I'm running Tune ECU on Vista from a MacBook Pro (OS X 10.6.4) by using Parallels Desktop. So in case anybody was wondering, this setup will work.
First, I plugged in the cable to the laptop without even hooking to the ECU yet. When Parallels prompted me, I selected to always use the virtual machine (Vista). When Vista tried to install the drivers, I cancelled. Then, from device manager, choose to update drivers, point to the directory that contains the unzipped FTD drivers (link available in the sticky). Drivers installed fine. Two devices actually get installed - - first the USB to serial converter and then the actual COM serial port. You need to wait about 5 minutes after the USB-serial converter installs and then Vista will setup the COM port. Don't hook to the ECU until this is done.
Next, pull the 20 amp headlamp fuse. Hookup a battery tender/charger to the battery. This is important because the smart charger displayed a constant draw of 1.5 amps with just the marker lights and ECU powered up. A weak battery may not have enough juice to flash the ECU unless the voltage is maintained above 12.8 V during download.
Then hook the cable to the laptop and ECU. Use the same USB port that you plugged into the first time. This will prevent any hardware setup fubars in the registry. Startup TuneECU, and then power up the ignition. TuneECU should automatically connect, provided you have the hex key file contained in the same directory as TuneECU.exe.
My bike has the stock pipes and cat box. When I read the tune that was in my bike, I was surprised to discover that 20220 was in the ECU. This is the tune for the Classic with stock pipes and NO cat box. I saved it, but decided to start from 20222 (OEM tune for standard rocket with stock pipes and cat box).
Before I downloaded anything I did a compare on my factory tune (20220) and 20222. Thank goodness for the compare function. Aside from learning the F tables are fatter above 4000 RPM and 40% TP, I also discovered some type of corruption in the idle speed table. This is the table that sets the idle speed based on water temp. In the middle of the table it called for 11970 RPM at 38C !!!. That would not have been good at all. I re-downloaded the 20222 tune from the web site and all was well.
WORD TO THE WISE: ALWAYS USE THE COMPARE FUNCTION BETWEEN THE TUNE CURRENTLY IN THE ECU AND THE ONE YOU INTEND TO DOWNLOAD. CHECK EVERY TABLE AND MAKE SURE THERE AREN'T ANY ODDBALL SETTINGS.
It was surprising that the no cat box tunes (20215 and 20220) were leaner in the upper RPMs than the ones with cat box. This seems counterintuitive as the empty cat box should make less restriction, breath better, requiring more fuel.
Next, I decided to smooth out the secondary throttle position action on gears 1 thru 3. For example, tune 20220 has too abrupt a change: 58% to 100% between 4000 and 4500 in 1st gear. Starting at 3500 rpm, I smoothed out the curve for gears 1 and 2 and repeated for gear 3 starting at 3000 rpm.
Saved the tune, and then downloaded. Then reset TPS.
Disconnect from ECU using the ECU\Disconnect menu function, and power down the bike. Leave the cable connected to the laptop and ECU.
Restart the bike and let it go through the full 12 minute tune once the fan kicks in. I reconnected TuneECU to the bike during this process and watched the throttle position change as it warmed up, fan kicked on, etc.
Next, disconnect from ECU in TuneECU, power down the bike and disconnect the cable. Remember to safely eject the device from Windows before pulling it from the USB port.
Last - - Test Ride and enjoy! First thing I noticed was a smoother power delivery in first and second gear as the RPMs came up under full acceleration. The old map had a noticeable kick at 4000 RPM and I think this was due to the rapid opening of the secondary throttle plates. The intake growl happens much sooner as well.
Roll-ons in 4th and 5th gear no longer have the flat spot at 4500 RPM!!
Enough tweaking for now. Time to ride.
Hope this little write-up helps others with similar setups.
Bought my cable from easy-motorcycle on June 25 and it arrived today. Used the latest version (1.6.6) of Tune ECU. Here's what I did, in case it helps others.
I'm running Tune ECU on Vista from a MacBook Pro (OS X 10.6.4) by using Parallels Desktop. So in case anybody was wondering, this setup will work.
First, I plugged in the cable to the laptop without even hooking to the ECU yet. When Parallels prompted me, I selected to always use the virtual machine (Vista). When Vista tried to install the drivers, I cancelled. Then, from device manager, choose to update drivers, point to the directory that contains the unzipped FTD drivers (link available in the sticky). Drivers installed fine. Two devices actually get installed - - first the USB to serial converter and then the actual COM serial port. You need to wait about 5 minutes after the USB-serial converter installs and then Vista will setup the COM port. Don't hook to the ECU until this is done.
Next, pull the 20 amp headlamp fuse. Hookup a battery tender/charger to the battery. This is important because the smart charger displayed a constant draw of 1.5 amps with just the marker lights and ECU powered up. A weak battery may not have enough juice to flash the ECU unless the voltage is maintained above 12.8 V during download.
Then hook the cable to the laptop and ECU. Use the same USB port that you plugged into the first time. This will prevent any hardware setup fubars in the registry. Startup TuneECU, and then power up the ignition. TuneECU should automatically connect, provided you have the hex key file contained in the same directory as TuneECU.exe.
My bike has the stock pipes and cat box. When I read the tune that was in my bike, I was surprised to discover that 20220 was in the ECU. This is the tune for the Classic with stock pipes and NO cat box. I saved it, but decided to start from 20222 (OEM tune for standard rocket with stock pipes and cat box).
Before I downloaded anything I did a compare on my factory tune (20220) and 20222. Thank goodness for the compare function. Aside from learning the F tables are fatter above 4000 RPM and 40% TP, I also discovered some type of corruption in the idle speed table. This is the table that sets the idle speed based on water temp. In the middle of the table it called for 11970 RPM at 38C !!!. That would not have been good at all. I re-downloaded the 20222 tune from the web site and all was well.
WORD TO THE WISE: ALWAYS USE THE COMPARE FUNCTION BETWEEN THE TUNE CURRENTLY IN THE ECU AND THE ONE YOU INTEND TO DOWNLOAD. CHECK EVERY TABLE AND MAKE SURE THERE AREN'T ANY ODDBALL SETTINGS.
It was surprising that the no cat box tunes (20215 and 20220) were leaner in the upper RPMs than the ones with cat box. This seems counterintuitive as the empty cat box should make less restriction, breath better, requiring more fuel.
Next, I decided to smooth out the secondary throttle position action on gears 1 thru 3. For example, tune 20220 has too abrupt a change: 58% to 100% between 4000 and 4500 in 1st gear. Starting at 3500 rpm, I smoothed out the curve for gears 1 and 2 and repeated for gear 3 starting at 3000 rpm.
Saved the tune, and then downloaded. Then reset TPS.
Disconnect from ECU using the ECU\Disconnect menu function, and power down the bike. Leave the cable connected to the laptop and ECU.
Restart the bike and let it go through the full 12 minute tune once the fan kicks in. I reconnected TuneECU to the bike during this process and watched the throttle position change as it warmed up, fan kicked on, etc.
Next, disconnect from ECU in TuneECU, power down the bike and disconnect the cable. Remember to safely eject the device from Windows before pulling it from the USB port.
Last - - Test Ride and enjoy! First thing I noticed was a smoother power delivery in first and second gear as the RPMs came up under full acceleration. The old map had a noticeable kick at 4000 RPM and I think this was due to the rapid opening of the secondary throttle plates. The intake growl happens much sooner as well.
Roll-ons in 4th and 5th gear no longer have the flat spot at 4500 RPM!!
Enough tweaking for now. Time to ride.
Hope this little write-up helps others with similar setups.
