This is an old post from about 2007. Enginuity as been renamed to RomRaider, and the instructions provided below are for the Tactrix V1.3 cable. I have no experience or knowledge on the V2.0 cable, or of SD card datalogging with that cable. I have been given back the ownership of this post very recently since it was originally copied over from ASC by a former mod, and the formatting was a mess, and the information a few years old. I will try my best to update this with more current links and procedures as time permits.
July 1 - OK, tried correcting the formatting at least. There seems to be a bug with the modify tab that makes it impossible for me to highlight any text without the screen autoscrolling up and causing me to highlight a huge section of text that I did not intend on selecting. I may have to cut/paste and edit this in word then cut/paste back.
I decided that I needed to make this thread because I am always suggesting that people pull some logs for their cars, without giving them any tools to do so. I don't think it is right of me to tell people that they need to do something, then leave them without any real knowledge of how to pursue my stated course of action. The end result is that people either don't bother to datalog, or Airboy gets a deluge of PM's.
Like my Subaru importation thread, I will use a FAQ format.
Why do I want to log?The biggest reason for datalogging is that you want to make sure that the tune you are running is not knocking. For 07 STi owners, there have been a lot of posts about the stock tune having a very long OL/CL delay, and risks knocking during the transition into full boost. This will help you decide if this is happening for your car. If you have recently had a dyno based pro-tune, then datalogs will confirm that your tune is performing on the street as it does under the conditions of the stationary dyno.
Another reason may be to confirm that your car is achieving it's boost targets, if you are using a Cobb OTS map. Most Stage 2 OTS maps for the WRX and STI have normal, LWG, and HWG maps, in addition to the ACN version. The logs will help you determine if you should run one or the other of these. For example, if you fail to achieve the boost targets given by the map notes, then you would try the HWG map. If you are overboosting, then you would switch to the LWG map. Your AP live data, and boost gauge (if you have one) can be inaccurate, or slow to update, so you may not be able to see the true boost values the car is really seeing. I like to know if my car is overboosting, and I want to make sure that the tune made for my car at 15 degrees is going to work when it is 20 below, or 30 above.
Otherwise, I tend to pull some logs when the weather changes, which around winter also means the arrival of winter gas, which tends to have less knock resistance. The change in temperatures can also change your total timing since colder air usually means that your engine load is higher for a given atmospheric pressure, changing the timing called for by your map for a given rpm.
Pulling datalogs will give you an idea of what is actually happening with the ECU. Eventually, you can quickly scan over a log and see that everything is either working as intended, or that the values are "off", and then analyze why that may be the case.
What do I need to datalog?1. A Tactrix cable, which you can order online from
www.tactrix.com2. A laptop running Windows 2000 or XP. I'm sure it will work with Vista, but I can't verify this.
3. Enginuity logger - you can download this from
www.enginuity.org. The latest logger definitions are found here:
http://www.enginuity.org/viewtopic.php?t=16424. A Subaru with an OBD2 port - the port is found on the undersurface of your steering column. Anyone who has used an AP will know what this is. If people don't know where to find this, I will take a pic and update this with the labelled pic later.
5. A safe stretch of closed road where you can wind up your Subaru from about 2000 rpm to just before redline (in WRX's in 3rd gear, in STi's in 4th gear). There are ways of getting your AP V1 and V2 cables to log using ECUexplorer, but I don't want to get into it at this time. I am only going to give instructions for using a Tactrix cable with the Enginuity logger for now.
OK, so I have all of the above. I'm ready to go, how do I do it?1. Plug the Tactrix cable into the OBD2 port of your car, and the USB port on the laptop. Turn the key to the "ON" position.
2. Launch Enginuity and select "Launch ECU Logger" from the logger toolbar. You will be greeted by a bunch of parameters on the left hand side. Just use the xml file included in the zip file to set up the parameters useful to log. These assume 3rd gear (WRX) or 4th gear (STi) pulls. Unzip that file somewhere you will remember, then in the Enginuity logger, go to --> File --> Load Profile --> point it to the xray_profile.xml included in the zip file. It will fill in the main window with a bunch of parameters. It should also include the Feedback Knock Correction* (degrees) and Fine Learning Knock Correction* (degrees) parameters, since these are crucial to detecting knock activity. I think these are only selectable if the Tactrix cable is plugged into the OBD2 port, so I can't check this now.
-engine speed (rpm)
-throttle position (%) - this is important if you want to use Airboy's Excel macro.
-Ignition timing
-Knock Correction
-Primary Wastegate duty cycle
-Manifold pressure (corrected) - this parameter will overcome the stock ECU 18.4 psi limit on its manifold relative pressure. This will be important to those seeing more boost. You can log Manifold relative pressure if your boost doesn't exceed 18.4 psi.
-engine load (g/rev) calculated
-Mass Air flow (g/sec)
-Mass Air flow voltage
-Feedback knock correction
-Fine learning knock correction
The parameters in red are useful if you are logging to determine if the car is seeing knock, especially the 2 at the bottom.
3. Set up a folder that you want the log files to be saved to. Go to --> Settings --> Log File Output Location. then find and select the folder you just made.4. In the logger go to --> Settings --> Control File Logging with Defogger Switch needs to be ON, so you can start and stop logging with the rear defrost button.
5. Start up the car - some of the parameters will start filling in its current and min/max values. Kind of neat, but don't look at the parameters while you are driving, since I know of one case where a guy totalled his STI because he was looking at his laptop when he should have been watching the curves in the road ahead. You can always look at all the values after they have been saved to a log file, in the relative safety of your own home.
6. Activate the IAM parameter (Ignition Advance Multiplier) to confirm that it is 1.0 (for the 32 bit ECU, ie. any 2.5 L Subaru - someone fill me in if there are 2.0L Subarus with the 32 bit ECU). If you just reset your ECU, it will be at 0.5. If it isn't 1.0 and you didn't recently reset the ECU,
ABORT! The ECU is unhappy and is seeing knock, and a lot of it. Stay out of boost, and get better fuel, then check the IAM again.
7. On your closed road, when you are ready to start saving a log file, activate the rear defrost. This will start saving all of the parameters you selected into a .csv file that you can look at later with excel. Turning off the rear defrost will signal the end of the log file. Bring the accelerator immediately to the floor and keep it planted. I usually start my pulls around 2000 rpm, and bring it above 6000 rpm. Do this a few times so you can get several log files to look through.
