Dodge Programming Fantasy, or Eventual Reality?… :thatfunny
No doubt, most of the money invested in the current range of handheld programmers/ scanners is the hardware itself. Hmm… $400.00 to $850.00 is a hell of a lot of money to pay for (what in many cases) provides 2 or 3 pre-programmed performance settings and ability to alter tire height settings, rev limiter, speed limiter, etc. Also note that most of the current offerings ‘do not’ allow you to upgrade the programmers features. Heh... You can now purchase an entire laptop for that price
The .NET approach could really unleash an endless supply of possibilities here and likely as close to ‘open source’ as we’ll ever get. I haven’t played around with the .NET developer yet –I’m more of a Unix guy. In any event, a nice LapTop interface could provide an ulimited number of current/ future possibilities.
The REAL possibilities?
How about this… A scaled down/ user friendly .NET programming interface emerges. In other words… Those of us comfortable with/ daring enough to get our hands dirty with “actual programming” can begin experimenting and sharing our engine tweaks.
Those tweaks could be uploaded/ zipped up and placed in a forum category called “Dodge Ram Hacks.”
Examples:
Bahbahbooey’s-performance-shift-points.zip
This hack is For…
-> 96 to 98 Dodge Rams
-> 46RE transmissions
-> 5.9 L engines
Description: This hack provides tighter shifts from your 46RE, plus solves the problem of premature engaging of the lockup torque converter when going up hills under 40 MPH.
Instructions…
Download this file and place it in C:\Program Files\Dodge-Tuneup. This hack backs up your current PCM configuration. If it fails, you can simply restore your current settings.
Warnings: DO NOT install this hack on 4WD trucks, or transmissions other than the 46RE!
Immediate benefits:
Wow…. Hundreds of pages full of Dodge Ram downloadable hacks.
Obvious problems…
-> Emission compliance would likely go out the window
-> Risk of damage to your drive train
-> Risk of personal injury in worst cases scenario’s
Possible solutions:
-> The (developer interface) would need to run ‘actual’ simulations of your hack. In other words, the effects of your mods would be ran on a 'simulated' PCM.
-> The (developer interface) would deny ability to save/ write a program where proposed hacks/ mods could seriously damage drive train components, (i.e., setting the rev limiter to 9000 RPM), or something insane like that.
-> The (developer) interface would deny ability to save/ write a program where hacks/ mods clearly violate emissions standards.
Is this actually possible? I dunna know… The hardest part would be developing a Dodge programming interface, which would maintain a
strong fail-safe policy. BUT if that ever ‘Did” happened…. We’d see mod options go from a mere 3 or 4, to 300 to 600 possible tweaks!!! Indeed, there are a few issues to consider, but if made possible could be a lot of fun. Ramble, ramble, ramble….
NOTE… I’m REALLY NEW to automotive programming, so it’s very possible everything I’ve mentioned above is impossible, or totally unviable. Oh well… It’s fun to dream
D.