Gunny Highway

iTrader: (1)

Just wondering what some of you guys use and why? There are few products out there, and some are better than others.

I've been looking at PROMinator (standard version), so I'm just curious. . .

wade84

I have had the Prominator in my car for a year and 16,000 miles with no trouble. 7747 ecu.

Adjusting the Bin file is too easy sometimes but thats what makes it great. Downloading an adjusted bin only takes seconds.

BMmonteSS

Pocket programer and moates 24 to 28 pin adapter with 27sf512 chips. It's slow, it's bulky and most importantly it does any type of chip reliably. I bet I could have zeroed in on my tune twice as fast with the autoprom. Only problem is the price. I only have 200 bucks in all my TBI hardware, ohh and it wasn't out yet when I got started.

squirrel

Close to BMonteSS, Burn 1 from Moates, adapter, 29?256, A or C can't remember. Any other ways available at the time, 3-4 yrs ago, was not affordable. Maybe later, but I like the process. Gas at @2.20 gal. makes it a little harder on this "Hobby". Way I see it, our Brothers and Sisters died to free from Saddam, let em pay with OIL now.

Chuck!

Im more hardcore, Im still using the 2732's.

BMmonteSS

I've actually got about 50 of em. I got a killer deal on three tubes of them on ebay for like 15 bucks. I still use them to burn the last bin on for friends and for my car when I'm done tuning on it for a while, which rarely happens. You just have to except the fact that 2732's may last 1 burn or last for over 100 burns, but they will eventually die, and if your ecm is laying out from under the dash make sure you put a piece of tape on the window. I had one erase as I was driving down the road.

Chuck!

Oh yea, they're definitely not the best way. I should get the adaptor... the prominator would be really nice, but like you said, I already sunk $200 in my stuff.

Gunny Highway

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I'm still leaning towards the PROMinator myself. Hopefully for a computer-idiot such as myself, it should be friendly enough.

buzz12586

I am really looking into the PROMinator as well because I don't feel like burning chips all the time. I want to get it so I can practice on my L03 before I put my 350 in so maybe I will have a clue as to what I am doing. I am not sure what ECU I have though, its an 88 TBI 305. Is that a 747 or something?? I am lost when it comes to these #'s

GOY

What exactly is the prominator? Is it a RAM type chip, that you can reset on the flash without having to use a UV light or sunlight to erase?

Buzz - you don't have the 7747, which is the truck/astro ecu
I believe the cars were the 8746 ECM

BronYrAur

iTrader: (1)

Being an '88 yours would be the '8063.

I run the PROMinator and have for a while now with success. It's a good tool, makes things easier. No real parts ever, just plug in the cable to it and the laptop and load .bins, it's easy. I would suggest though, that if you get it have them install it! I installed mine and it's just been a PITA. Loose connectoin somewhere on one of my solders but can't find it for the life of me, so it will cut out occasionally and go into limp mode. I seem to have fixed it though by wedging a thin piece of wood in the case over the Prominator, haha talk about a band-aid fix.

buzz12586

So I just send them my ECU and the put it on there for me? How much does that cost?

Also, when ordering one the bin size would be 4k correct??

Token

Gunny Highway

iTrader: (1)

Hell yeah it is.

. . .now if I could just upload the image of a grenade?

SchwarzCamaroRS

lol, im going to invest in a prominator as well.. tonyc has one and seems to like it... it will help out with not having to burn chips all the time... my only problem now is i need a laptop...

Dewey316

I'm holding out for the speedreader. Until that comes out, its still the chips.

(although I have a moates adaptor, so its EEPROMs for me. )

Low C1500

I use PPII and 2732 chips, not the best but it works. With that said, it doesn't really matter what you use for programing the ecm. What really effects tuning is the slow baud rate that we scan the ecm with.

The speedreader would make our old ecms unbeatable, but its been a over a year since the prototype was unvailed, and still no speedreader. I have to say I think its dead in the water.

JPrevost

Hmm, where to start. Should I start with what I own or what I've had the pleasure of using?
What I own;
a few 8746's, a few 7747's, a romless 8746 and romless 7747 3 with zif sockets, Romulator, Pocket Programmer I, Moate's old 8 in 1 switch flash prom adaptor (not avail anymore), a few G1 adaptors for my future, a 95 pcm, all sorts of chips, winaldl cables, AKM homebuilt cable, test bench, lockers, variety of versions of the DIY wideband controllers, one off EGT thermocouple amplifiers for daq, Diacom, Datamaster, Winaldl, IBM 75mhz 16mb win95 laptop, Compaq 3456us behemoth laptop, a Radio Shack USB-serial adaptor.
What I use on my car;
8746 or romless 7747 running RBob's ultimate TBI code. The 8746 is usually running off of a romulator or the 8 in 1 flash adaptor and the romless is a AT29C256. Both are modified for lockers and I even installed a fan in one of the cases because they get hot.
What I would advise to somebody just getting into the hobby;
Cheapest no hassle is a Burn1, G2 adaptor, and AT29C256 or 27SF512's.
Best if focusing just on your vehicle would be a Prominator. Only trouble with the Prominator is that it stays with the ecm, it isn't a burner so more than 1 is needed for multiple running ecm's.
Use TunerPro, I'm finalizing the xdf file and it'll be uploaded soon enough.
I can also recommend the Autoprom because I just got the chance to use it last week on a buddies vehicle and it's rather complete. Expensive but complete and the USB version is awesome because no power cables. Just plug it in and it's your emulator, burner, and a cable comes with it for datalogging, couldn't ask for more.

Gunny Highway

iTrader: (1)

So what you're saying is, the PROMinator is the way to go if you're only tuning one vehicle. . . . the Autoprom is the way to go if you're tuning multiple cars. . . and the basic stuff is the way to go if one is low on money??

The 2 expensive ones being more user friendly?

JPrevost

Yup. The Autoprom is great for somebody like me but it came out after I had all my equipment so all it does now is cut down on the number of wires I have to run.
The Prominator is the coolest thing EVER, especially the Pro version but TunerPro RT doesn't yet support byte updates which makes the real time emulation take longer since it has to upload a whole new bin ever time... this is going to be corrected soon though so don't let that scare you away if you want emulation.
The autoprom is the only unit that has the built in "akm" style cable which is like $30-70 extra for those looking to datalog the faster ecm/pcm's. But winaldl cables are like $20 from me or various other websites and like $10 if you make it yourself with RadioShack parts.

heavychevy454ss

How about the Ostrich? Anybody using it yet?

ben73

Yeah, i have had both a prominator and an ostrich.
Both are very good, and it depends on your needs which one is better, Prominator is good for having 8 bins stored at once, selectable via rotary switch. The ostrich is FAST due to being usb. This was important in my case as i use 64k .bin files, but won't matter to most tbi guys with 4k files. If you want to tune more than one car or ecm type, the ostrich has an advantage too.

heavychevy454ss

Thanks Ben.
I've been leaning towards the Ostrich but I may go all the way with an AutoProm. Gotta get a laptop first. Had to return the one I had on an extended borrow program.

Ann.racer92

anybody have some screenpics of what you would see on your laptop as you were doing some tuning with an autoprom?
so if i understand you all correctly, the autoprom would be piggybacked onto the ecm tucked up under the dash, you would have a usb cable to attach to your laptop and then the software on the computer to understand it all.
what im missing here is what im going to be able to do with this software once im hooked up. will i be looking at 3-d tables like ive seen before? or would i be looking at 2-d graphs and a bunch of computer code? i want to do this but im not a computer adjusted person so i dont want ot blow the cash on a tool thats beyond me.