The Newb Friendly Tuning Guide
 

Hey all, I'm back again for another mt.net exclusive tuning video series. I did a few more videos in the same vein as my previous megasquirt build guide. I wanted to to put out some good info that can help people get into Tuner Studio and Megasquirt tuning for the first time with a decent foundation.

First part is an intro that covers some Tuner Studio basics, screens, etc and set the stage for Idle Tuning.


Next is a review of all the screens used for start up and closed loop idle control.


Then we go through how to set up custom tuning dashboards in Tuner Studio which puts everything you need to tune your idle in real time right at your fingertips.


We now get out to the car and go over my basic approach to tuning in real time with tips.


Now we get serious: Intro to PID tuning. These three little numbers are often considered black magic. Here's how they work and why PID is the most commonly used feedback control method out there.


Ok so maybe you just installed a turbo or supercharger or you just bought a car that has one plus a Megasquirt. This will get you started in understanding how to SAFELY tune above 100 kPa in BOOST!
(This is part 1, the TunerStudio end of things. Part 2 will get into street tuning with VE Analyze Live aka AutoTune.


Now we head to the streets. Put your TunerStudio knowledge to work in a quick and easy method for getting the boost area of the fuel map tuned in no time. Don't grind it out making pass after pass, get some data and then use the magic of interpolation to fix the rest. You can literally get a decent tune in about 5 passes.


So now you've got your fueling in boost figured out but you're either still on wastegate pressure or maybe using a manual boost controller. So let's up our game and set up a cheap but reliable Electronic Boost Controller using the popular MAC Valves solenoid. Part 1 will show you how it works and how to plumb and wire it. And we can even use TunerStudio to test it and find our min/max duty cycles without even starting the engine.


Following on the previous video, now we're going to get our Boost Control Duty table set up. First, go over how it works, then show how to set up a quick tuning screen to help read your logs and tweak tables on the fly, and then how to work out your boost controller duty cycle curves. This will help you reach target quickly without spiking, and stay there as long as you need it, without sag. This will help to also avoid spool problems.

Electronic Boost Control Pt 2 - Street Tuning

Back again with a special one for all those children of the corn out there -- that's right, E85. There is a lot of confusion and outright myths out there regarding conversion to ethanol (flex fuel) and I wanted to do one that put it all together so people can understand what makes e85 so useful in performance applications. This first video will talk about the basics of E85 and how it's different from gasoline, what mods you need installed first, and what are all the options and screens in TunerStudio to convert to e85, or better yet, run dual fuels just like the OEMs.

this is awesome! I'll definitely review as soon as I have a chance, maybe I can help/contribute

Ahh, perhaps that Custom Tuning why and how and what for I asked about earlier.

Looking forward to going through this!

Any chance you'll go through and do anything with engine states?

The problem with engine states is not setting them/tuning them.
It's how inconsistently they work at times. So if you're looking for a magic setting it doesn't exist, nor is it even close to similar on different cars.

IMO

Awesome! I was going to post a thread asking for something like this (been reading the MS guides on diyautotune and various threads i've found), but this is insanely helpful for a n00b like me.

Replying for the sub.
really wish this wouldve existed when I first started lol

Sub'd, interested to view this and keep up to date with.

Awesome, thanks guys. I'm not a pro tuner (or even close) but hopefully it hits the basics to an extent to get people working so they're not chasing their tail with changing setting after setting in a loop. Let me know if there are any glaring mistakes, I appreciate any feedback. I hope to continue the series with additional stuff.

For now I'm just on 1.4 firmware so I have zero experience with engine states. However I mean to try it -- I tend to research the crap out of things so hopefully I can distill what learn and bring it back in video form.

Also this car is not boosted however the boost is coming and when I do tuning for all that, I'll be putting out new episodes. The turbo and manifold is sitting on my desk right now. :)

nice work

Watched the first 2 so far. Nice simple explanations for things. Nice work. My car is running pretty good at the moment but I'll be going through everything again just to validate I am understanding things. I see a few things I can improve upon already.

Thanks for these videos!

Have a cat. You've more than earned it. :bowdown:

My new to me MS3 Basic is coming in tomorrow so this is perfect timing.
Thanks for taking the time to do this! :party:

I can't say I learned anything I didn't already know, but I spent a few hundred hours researching the < 100 hours of work I've actually done.

If you had made this a year ago it likely would have saved me some hair on my temples. :likecat:

Thank you so much for these, absolutely what I need as a beginner

Hey all, thanks for the feedback. New Part 5 is up at the end of Post 1. This is the intro to PID (proportional integral derivative) tuning, how it works in general (any control system), how you can tune it, and some specifics for how TunerStudio uses it. I see a lot of questions out there about this process and people are looking for the magic numbers to make their car perfect. Sort of "this worked for me" type of stuff. So I did this intro so people know where to start and how to adjust the numbers to get what they want and to remove what they don't want from the loop behavior. That way you can get your own perfect numbers as applies to your car.

Hey, just watched the whole series. There's lots of useful consolidation of info here that I feel like I had to cobble together in bits and pieces on my own so thank you for putting these together. A couple questions I have after watching part 5 on PID:

1. are you recommending using EGO to correct AFR at idle? How does that mess with closed loop idle? I've read Brain and and other Miata gurus highly recommend closed loop idle, and I feel like I've also seen somewhere that folks tend to leave EGO disabled in the idle RPM range. It seems like EGO PID and closed loop idle PID might fight each other, or at least interfere with each other's operations since they're both feedback mechanisms feeding into two different control equations.
2. do you have any suggestions for Intake Air Temperature (IAT) heatsoak? If I sit in my car with it idling for 60 min and mess with my idle settings trying to improve them, my IAT reading slowly creeps up and I believe there's some black magic going on in MS to try to compensate for hotter (read: thinner) air by pulling fuel, thus leaning out my readings until I move around again. This messes with any idle setting changes I make because it becomes difficult to replicate conditions. Maybe, hopefully, this is where EGO could kick in to compensate for false lean readings and closed loop idle could work to manage RPMs based on engine load?

I've spent so many hours messing with MS and trying to improve my idle, it's seriously frustrating to feel like I've got it right after tweaking it for an hour, only to have it idle like shit the next day when I pull up to a redlight. I suspect it's an IAT heatsoak issue, because that's the only thing I can tell is changing over the course of an hour of idling vs driving around with fresh air cooling off the sensor. I'm desperate for a fix, other than setting my idle RPM to 1000, which so far has been the only consistent solution.

It is possible for ego and closed loop idle PID to fight each other or for one to mask problems with the other, but really they should compliment each other because they handle two different things. The idle PID closed loop is for reaching target rpm quickly with no occilation. Ego is for reaching target afr quickly with no occilation. Idle closed loop has a couple of tools to get to the rpm, iac and timing control (if enabled). Both can hide a problem with fuel because fuel and air and timing are linked.

So sometimes it can be good to tackle one at a time. Leave ego off until your fuel table and idle settings are good. Then enabling and tuning EGO with PID will allow the car to deal with external factors like temp or loads. Keeping the afr in the right range that the engine likes at idle then improves the idle rpm control keeping it stable and making it easy to maintain the afr. It's a beautiful thing.

Fun fact, when closed loop is on, it's always using PID control. The "basic" mode is PID but with the p and I locked to a default value.

For the iat, the above can help a lot. However good placement and shielding is also very helpful. I have mine placed inside a heat shield and also on the opposite side of the intake tubing from the exhaust. For turbo the best place is tapped into the cold side pipe or end tank itself of the intercooler, in front of the radiator. Very little heat soak there.

I'm attempting to create the custom dashboard.
I have the same Tuner Studio version (3.0.28) and my MS3 basic has firmware version (1.4.1) is the same as yours BUT i am unable to obtain Idle VE table or the Closed Loop Idle initial values.

Why is this?

Currently I am simply sticking with the Fuel VE table, making it much larger and so the bottom left corner is very "visible".

Would like to flag this series of videos too.
Uses MLVHD to tune and show tricks and tips it is immensely informative.
Hand tuning fuelling is wonderfully clear but it feels too clear. He explains it and you just get it which makes you suspicious that there is something he is missing out due to being so experienced.

Tha is for this lots of information and trying to get my car running on MS :)

Massive thanks for all the work that went into these videos. Huge help for my NA 1.8L swap project. Now to chase down my own pesky exhaust leak ...

New video for the series is up finally -- this is the newb friendly intro to tuning for boost. Covers the main protection methods and provides an approach for handling the tuning safely without a dyno using AutoTune.

Ok so maybe you just installed a turbo or supercharger or you just bought a car that has one plus a Megasquirt. This will get you started in understanding how to SAFELY tune above 100 kPa in BOOST!
(This is part 1, the TunerStudio end of things. Part 2 will get into street tuning with VE Analyze Live aka AutoTune.

Part 2 of the Boost tuning sub-series is up. This is how to handle getting your over 100 kpa rows tuned safely and quickly. We'll do a pull or two in AutoTune to get some starting data and then interpolate using the TunerStudio features. After 4 -5 passes you should be semi close to tuned without having make a 100 pulls and running super rich and fouling your plugs.

New video is up! This first part is sort of an install video which is different than my normal tuning content. However I thought it would be a good idea to cover Electronic Boost Control from A-Z starting with

• Why EBC can be awesome vs MBC (though MBC works great for specific needs)
• How the most popular 3 port solenoids work (like from Mac Valves)
• How to test your specific valve to be sure you're plumbing it up correctly (needs to fail "open")
• How to wire it up for Miata's 1990 - 2005

For the tuning aspect in this one, I get into how to use the TunerStudio Test Modes option to validate the valve and to get your min/max duty cycles before even starting the engine.

The second part of the EBC video set will be the on-street tuning so you can get your boost curves right, maximize spool, and prevent over-boost.

Following on the previous video, now we're going to get our Boost Control Duty table set up. First, go over how it works, then show how to set up a quick tuning screen to help read your logs and tweak tables on the fly, and then how to work out your boost controller duty cycle curves. This will help you reach target quickly without spiking, and stay there as long as you need it, without sag. This will help to also avoid spool problems.

Back again with a special one for all those children of the corn out there -- that's right, E85. There is a lot of confusion and outright myths out there regarding conversion to ethanol (flex fuel) and I wanted to do one that put it all together so people can understand what makes e85 so useful in performance applications. This first video will talk about the basics of E85 and how it's different from gasoline, what mods you need installed first, and what are all the options and screens in TunerStudio to convert to e85, or better yet, run dual fuels just like the OEMs.

Would these same settings apply to the flow force Megasquirt setup?

The settings needed for MS are on FlowForce’s website

Never mind, I figured it out.

Anxiously awaiting the CLBC series.
Any ETA?

The one thing thats always been difficult for me has been accel enrichments, will there be a video on that?

Watch this vid, lots of good info on tuning ae:

Great videos here. One thing that has always gotten me is the order of operations on tuning. Say I've got idle acceptable, my VE amd spark maps dialed in, and AE working pretty well.. and then what? I know I need to enable EGO again, but should I tune IAT corrections first? Or leave those default and enable EGO? My tune ends up being dialed and then gets way off, and I know it's some combination of these corrections - or I'm enabling them in the wrong order or missing something altogether. Can you address this?

Tuning becomes an obsession that lasts a long time, maybe as long as one owns the vehicle. The AFR and timing maps are paramount and often never perfected. Turn on EGO and set the parameters. Then I would develop the functionality of the dashboard which IMO is underrated. Learn tuner studio. So many newb's don't no how to do simple things like change the axis values to match their application. Maybe later on build a second tune for the track that has less timing and richer AFR's in the upper boost regions. It is really never ending.