NISTUNE FAQ ( frequently asked questions )

1. What are these NIStune RealTime Boards?

NIStune RealTime boards provide a way to make your factory Engine Control Unit (ECU) fully reprogramable similar to aftermarket Engine Control units for a fraction of the price. They use the latest technologies available on the market today to keep the size of the board small and cost lower.

Having your factory ECU reprogrammable means that either yourself or a knowledgeable tuner can quickly and easily retune your factory ECU with minimal installation and setup. They are tuned using the NIStune software. NIStune RealTime boards are details on the Equipment page

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2. How do NIStune boards work?

Unlike any other type of daughterboards available for Nissan vehicles on the market, NIStune boards are the only real-time tuning solution available on a single small standalone board.

Once initially programmed, the NIStune board is permanently installed in the owners ECU (engine control unit). The ECU can then be tuned on a dyno via either the USB connector for Type 1 boards or Consult port for Type 2-4 boards.

Combined with the powerful user friendly NIStune software, real-time monitoring, map tracing and tuning is quick and simple

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3. How much time will I save using these boards?

Once the board is installed, there is never the need to touch the ECU again. This means no need whilst in the shop, to erase and burn EPROMs after each tune . During a typical scenario, you just plug in the consult plug, start NIStune, load the address file, download the ECU ROM maps and then start tuning. When you are finished, click the burn button and you are done.

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4. Individual License and Tuners License Differences

We have been working with and received quite a number of queries and requests from workshops with what NIStune will cost for the workshop. NIStune has now been split into two users licenses.

(a) Individual users license
- Intended for those who wish to purchase one or few boards, only needing address files for those boards for personal interest
- Limited to three address files, and five differerent ECU IDs that can be tuned in real-time

(b) Tuners license
- Intended for those in the business of tuning. ie primarily workshops. Those who wish to either run NIStune with emluators and daughterboards, or wish to tune using our RealTime boards
- Provided with complete set of Nissan address files with maptracing information
- Unlimited emulator and boards supported
- Discount prices on boards, and further discount on quantity boards ordered.

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6. What Wideband support is there?

Currently NIStune supports the following Wide Band units:

TechEdge 1.5 and 2.0

http://www.techedge.com.au

Innovate LM1 and LC1

http://www.innovatemotorsports.com

AEM UEGO

http://www.aempower.com

Zeitronix

http://www.zeitronix.com

PLX Devices (R Series)

http://www.plxdevices.com

MOTEC PLM

http://www.motec.com.au/plm/plmoverview

Just Another Wideband

http://www.14point7.com

VEMS Wideband

http://www.vems.co.uk

DLP Design A/D Converter

http://www.dlpdesign.com/usb/io8.shtml

These units connect to your laptop via the serial port (or USB port when using serial-USB adaptor). These units output data to allow NIStune to monitor your Air Fuel Ratios from their sensor, and some produce auxillary inputs for connecting other sensors which can display and log inside NIStune.

NIStune provides several internal utilities to make the most of your Wide Band
- Dyno Mode AFR graphing against RPM
- Real time AFR and auxillary map display (minimum AFR, maximum AFR and current AFR against the fuel map)
- Logging and playback of AFR

We can add other units in the future, if they have a protocol specification available for us to code and emulate to

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6. What else do I need to buy?

If you are using a Type 2,3 or 4 board or are using an emulator with ECUs compatible with these boards, you will require a consult connector. These are available in serial and USB versions from PLMS Developments

http://www.plmsdevelopments.com

You can order our boards through them also! Just let them know the ordering information

You also may wish to purchase a wideband unit. These are listed in the Wideband section of this FAQ

We are not recommending any particular unit, and recommend you research each one based on their own uses and features. Prices vary between the models, and some have additional upgrades for more sensors.

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7. Are there any auxiliary inputs or outputs to NIStune?

NIStune provides upto six auxiliary inputs which are read into the PC from your wideband unit. The data from these inputs can be displayed on the Wide Band screen, recorded to the log file with the consult data and played back at a later time.

NIStune does not provide any onboard inputs or outputs at this stage of the project. We may feed inputs using spare ECU connections in the future as an additional enhancement.

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8. Do you stock anything for R33 or R34 Skyline

You have the following options:

ECR33 Skyline (R33 GTS)

Use an HCR32 Skyline ECU or Z32 300ZX ECU:
- R32 ECU will not support VCT but requires a TPS idle switch which the RB25 doesnt have (only variable voltage TPS indication)
- Z32 300ZX ECU can be remapped to run R33 RB25 engines with some minor wiring modifications

ER34 Skyline (R34 GT-T) / Series 2 Stagea

These have the RB25DET NEO6 engine. Both use the Type 4 board

BNCR33 Skyline

Use a BNR32 Skyline ECU with Type 2 board. Using this ECU will also require thetitania O2 sensors from the BNR32 Skyline which are compatible with this type of ECU. The factory zirconia O2 sensors in BNCR33 are reported not to cycle properly causing cruise mixture issues, so we recommend changing them.

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9. How do you perform Injector and MAF swapovers?

In the NIStune software you enter the old and new injector CC sizes and this adjusts the main injection multiplier (K Constant) for the new injectors. You also have the options of rescaling your load (TP) scales for fuel, timing and volumetric efficiency maps as well as pulse width safety cut limits increased.

For MAF swapovers, NIStune will detect your current MAF and you then select from a drop box your new MAF from a list of configurations we have collected from vairous engine control units.

This function will replace for you the calibration curve and injection multiplier. Some ECUs may some calibration of the injection multiplier using a wideband. Older ECUs such as Z31,R31, S12 and Y31 ECUs may require the AFM voltage to be dropped from 2 – 7 volts by making an internal modification to the ECU.

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10. What are the limits of factory ECU tuning

A single Z32 MAFs can hit a limit of 500-550 rwhp and injectors up to about 800CC can be supported by the factory engine control unit. Keep in mind that for any control unit, that higher flowing items will have less control resolution. To get around the MAF limits, people are now doing the following:

(a) using the MAF in a larger tube and recalibrating to suit
(b) using MAFs from Toyotas and Fords with the Nissan ECU or
(c) using two MAFs with an Apexi SAFC to combine the signals

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