I like this idea a lot. Let me give you a couple of thoughts; whether or not they are productive is another thing but hey, they are free.
1) You will have to provide a very good manual with the software to tell people what a particular change to the maps will do. This is, in my opinion, the number One difficulty here. Or you will want to join forces with someone with in-depth understanding of these to help write instructions.
2) You will have a market. With a Smarty, inability to save the existing program does deter people, I personally know some that would not buy it saying, well my truck runs allright now, what if I don't like the Smarty? I can never get my stock programs back. Your ability to back up the ECM maps and restore them if the user screws up is extremely important to some part of the market.
3) You will need probably two levels of the program, one with sliders and GUI to allow dummies like myself to tweak the parameters ("slide to the left to increase Tq, but not into the red zone if you plan to tow" kind of deal); the more advanced one for people who will go into their maps with a clear idea on what they want and just need a tool to get there. Which one should cost more? This is something to think about.
4) Once it is out and you and others experiment with it, you can set up a site to exchange maps, with users sharing what the particular one does. This will help build a library of setups for different purposes - daily driving, pulling, towing, stacking with chips etc. Kind of like Quad's "tunes" but open source, aka with lots more input. There are other geeks out there with Ram CTDs, they will chime in.
As far as whether or not it will sell - it will. Anything will sell for starters if not prohibitively expensive, and if it proves good it will sell well. The beauty of software is, it sells over and over again with a minimum cost to make more copies. It is the customer support that will require time and effort.

 

Still waiting impaitently, bump!!!!

 

PaulDaisy has some good points. You WILL have a captive audience if this is user friendly enough. A simple and advanced GUI should be included. Should be able to work on Vista and XP with a USB to DTC reader cable. Your own website with a MAP forum would help, too. Having the ability to check these things live would help all of us immensely (and I'm assuming that since they are ECM inputs we would be able to monitor them):

Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor (APPS) Volts
APPS Idle Validation Switches #1 and #2
Battery voltage
Camshaft Position Sensor (CMP)
CCD bus (+) circuits
CCD bus (-) circuits
Crankshaft Position Sensor (CKP)
Data link connection for DRB scan tool
(FPCM) Fuel Injection Pump Control Module
Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor
Ground circuits
Intake manifold Air Temperature (IAT) sensor
Manifold Air Pressure Sensor (Boost Pressure
Sensor)
Oil pressure sensor
PCM
Power Take Off (PTO)
Power ground
Sensor return
Signal ground
Water-In-Fuel (WIF) sensor

What other live parameters could be accessed?
You gotta have a snappy name for it, too.... Like "CheckThisOut,Bitches" or something else that's PC.....

 

Things are moving forward, but I don't expect to have any real news until next month, once the little ones are back in school.

Right now, everything works. But it is not an easy process. Taking a truck from stock to modified ECM programming requires these steps:

1. Obtain proper stock ECM file (download from techauthority)
2. Run the stock ECM file through the conversion program
3. Edit the maps using RomRaider
4. Use the update utility to create a modified flash file
5. Transfer the flash file to the truck using the SCI/USB cable

The conversion program and the update utility need to be combined into the SCI/USB program. This is not rocket science and won't take too long.

I'm debating the current situation with editing the maps. Right now, all editing functions are done with RomRaider. This works good for now because you have access to cut and paste, undo and redo, and you can highlight sections (or the entire map) and adjust the values with the up/down arrows. But for someone that's never seen a spreadsheet before, it may be a bit intimidating.

In case you're wondering what I'm referring to, take a look at http://www.romraider.com and there you can see some screen shots of the program. RomRaider is an open-source (free) ECU editor originally intended for Subarus. Currently, I have nothing to do with the program or it's development, other than developing the xml definition files for the Cummins.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions!

 

You're right, this totally is NOT rocket science-- it seems much worse.

I actually understand a little rocket science, but this is so far over my head I can't even see it.

jh

 

What exactly is so bad? The process explained above is not what the end-user would have to do - there are too many steps involved. Those steps represent the current state of development.

No matter how 'user-friendly' somebody attempts to make an ECU map editor, it is going to be more difficult than 'select a timing level 1 - 5'. There are already tons of products available that fulfill that need.

 

im willing to learn.looks like a winner to me.

 

I think its like learning to swim by jumping in the depend, at first your overwehlmed then it starts to come easier.
Where do you purchase the cable between truck and PC?
What do you have that reads ECM, and converts it?
And whats a update utility flash file thingy?
Remember to go slow we turn wrenches better than hard drives.

Thanks Jed

 

I don't think RomRaider will be a tool for the casual user. If you are programming an xml definition for it for the Cummins ECM and RomRaider can take it and mod the maps, then there might be an easy way to create an online tool that you could sell membership for, where people would log in and tweak their maps, then save the file and upload it to their ECMs. Although that borders on writing a dedicated GUI, it deals more efficiently with updates for existing users, since once you fix a bug online, everyone gets it immediately as opposed to everyone sending you a message with a "hey this does not work".

 

I'd personally like to see a software interface more akin to that used by F.A.S.T. to edit tune their XFI ECMs. Simply 16x16 grids with user-definable points and definable interpolation.

Download the XFI user's guide that walks you through how to tune an XFI system and you'll see what I consider to be a good user interface.

Site is www.fuelsairspark.com

jmo

 

I'd like to see something like http://dsmlink.com/downloads.html

Had that in my Talon and it was BETTER than sliced bread!

 

Bump......

 

I am interested in testing your ideas out. I live in stephenville, texas not sure how far that is from you but would drive to you. Would this work with my comp or would I have to unplug it. I could give you some feed back on how user friendly it is seeing as I don't know much about the computer side of these upgrades and if could figure it out anyone could. I could also compare your trucks power to mine to see how big of a difference you are really making in terms of throw you back into the seat power.

 

The only thing it won't work with is another programmer (smarty, superchips, hypertech) since you can only have one program loaded into the ECM at a time. It would work fine with the comp so long as the timing maps are left stock.

 

I would love to adjust my idle lower and kill torque management fo sho.