Wow, really great progress. Too bad you can't make icons, like exhaust to where it's just a drop down selection. That has built in parameters

 

I can do drop-down menus. I'm not sure what you mean about the icons (or exhaust), though. What parameters should be built in? Please elaborate.

 

I think he means something like

muffler-stock or aftermarket
downpipe-stock, aftermarket catted, aftermarket catless

With built in parameters for each one but it wouldn't work on a boosted engine as far as having a built in parameter for downpipes because each engine will react a little differently. It might as well be a canned tune at that point.

 

Oooh, okay. Well, a car's profile, as it were, comes from a proper scan log. The exhaust would fall under air-flow. As an engine is basically a giant air-pump, increasing the efficiency of the flow contributes to gains. If I had all the parts and dyno charts for all the combinations, I could apply a curve similar to the power factor (adjustments are based on a sine wave with a period and phase determined by the power factor) curve to the results. The problem with this is that boost and hp/tq does not have a 1:1 correlation, especially if spark/cam timing is not good. That is why someone bragging about lots of boost is meaningless without a timeslip. I think that if the same results from the app as is are applied to cars with different exhausts, the results will vary only in magnitude since you need to tune the fuel trims to your car's parts before anything else. Perhaps I can make user configurable profiles based on the MAF/timing/KR tables/logs rather than canned presets. This could feed a function to suggest timing/MAF changes based on logs after a part is added. I would weight it by the hit count on each cell to minimize transient spikes skewing the results. Haven't gotten to the MAF and timing stuff yet, though.

 

Last night I loaded up the stock MALT and DAL to the program. I loaded my WGDCC settings since I like to take it easy on my WG solenoid. It calculated to something like 12psi peak. I left the WGDCC table locked at 100% to keep my settings for that. Basically, I left everything as the default. (Torque 100%, Boost 20psi under auto-tune) I also left the power factor the same. I clicked 'Automatic tune' and waited. (Using a net-book) I have the program set so it has a set amount of times to meet the criteria before it is done. This keeps the user wait time to a minimum and prevents the program from locking up if adjustments are large. It didn't quite make it to 20psi so I clicked again. It will back off if it overshoots. I ended up with a peak of 19.5psi and almost 100% on the MALT by 5000rpm. I clicked on the show Dbase. Then I copied the MALT and DAL tables to my de-nannied tune in the editor and saved it as a new tune. The WGDCC table did not change as I used my current one. I looked over the tune in the editor where I could see the graphs. It wasn't quite what I expected but I didn't see anything terribly wonky. So, this morning, I played mad scientist and loaded the tune to my car. (Do I need to name my car Mr. Hyde?) I started it and let it warm up. I drove it easy while logging and all seemed well. Boost seemed to come in slightly too early but low/midrange punch was pretty good. Then I got on the freeway ramp and gave it a bit more pedal. I got 15psi, no weird KR or trims. I'm thinking, crap, this is all I'm gonna get; maybe I'm wasting my time trying to make a program. So I lean on it hard and I'll be d@mnned if it didn't perk right up to 20psi. I was so surprised, I lifted my foot thinking it was some sort of weird spike. After I got merged onto the highway, I tried again in 'D' and also in 'I'. 20psi, with 'I' pulling impressively hard. It seems like, while not intended for 'hand holding' this application might give someone a pretty good start. The next step would be to pick a different power factor that peaks at the low end and sculpt that area with the modify section. I'll try to make the power factor graph available today. That will make it much easier to explain.

 

Added power factor plot to a message box that pops up after the power factor number is selected. This histo shows the percent of your requested change that is being applied at any given cell. This gives visual confirmation of the shape of the non-linear adjustment being performed by the application.

 

Added the mouseover help for each item. I hope everything is properly explained. I like this approach better than help files. It makes it so much easier to have an intuitive interface when you get instant feedback from every item touched.

 

That's great, pop up help rules. Can't tell you how much that has saved my but when doing NURBs in CAD. I would have pulled my hair out with a help section.

 

All the 'popups' happen in the same place. The way I normally do it is to have a designated help section that contains help tips and context sensitive help. In this case, it just pops over the upper left of the console text area. I hope this is unobtrusive enough since it won't be covering any of the data when the mouse cursor is not over any of the controls.

I started playing with the timing tables on a spreadsheet to see if there was any good programmatical way to get good adjustment results. What I did was paste the KR max table and the hit count for same into the spreadsheet. It has one separate designated cell for each adjustment limit and adjustment range. It has a hit count cell that designates what should be a signifigant amount of hits on a cell. (so exclusion by hit count need not be done on the scanner) I set it to 400. It has a max KR for advance cell that I set to 0. It has a minimum KR threshhold for retard cell that I set to 5. It has an advance value cell that I set to 1 and a retard value cell that I set to -1. For a third, calculated table of adjustments, the formula in each cell checks whether the hit count is above the number in the hit count cell. If it is, it will place a value equal to the advance value cell in that cell if KR is equal to or below the max KR for advance cell. It will place a value equal to the retard value cell if the KR is equal to or above the KR min for retard cell. I'd like to weight the results based on hit count but the sheet seems to work well enough. I'm running the result in my car. (after smoothing it) The problem I encountered is that the exported histo for the KR table is not a text file. I'm not sure if I want to make it a paste in deal for the application. (open Excel database and paste to designated area) Perhaps I can just write this spreadsheet into the program along with the MAF adjustment one and have it generate them for use on demand.

 

Finally got around to some more updates:

• Added the functionality to the Commit Changes button. It will now write directly back to the files so they can be imported directly back into HPT Editor.
  
• Figured out an issue with the file dialog not opening in Windows 7. The code that accomplishes the file dialog in Windows XP was removed from Windows 7. Windows 7 users would need to place the files at C:\HPC\ and accept the default until I can figure out how to code it correctly in Windows 7. Thanks a lot, Microsoft. XP users, rock on with your old components.
  
• Disabled the action buttons (Recalc, Commit..., etc) until data is loaded.
  
• Clarified in help for Auto-tune that it takes a little while to finish.
  
• Include version # in window title.

I played with a 'loading/working' dialog/graphic, but it didn't work (oh, the irony) right so I abandoned it for now.

Still to do:

• Calculate the max values for the upper right data display pane.
  
• Rework the file dialog for Windows 7.
  
• Add helper components for MAF and timing tuning. (Doesn't matter how much air you blow if you can't run good timing up top)
  
• Maybe set the default power-factor to 7 to give closer to 100% of requested changes up top.

You can right-click and put a link on your desktop for this program. Just point it here:
http://www.robsdomain.net/HPC.hta
It will load directly from my server and run on your computer using the latest version. If you think you are getting the old version (new is 1.0.0 displayed in the window title as of this post) right-click on the left side anywhere but on a button and select 'Refresh'.