You obviously don't have any experience or have any idea of the capability of Motec. There's nothing wrong with that except when you're trying to relate something to it. Motec should not be compared to any of these systems, as there just is no comparison in this situation.

ProjectBB6, Brad at RLZ does the cylinder head on my car. He is the best in the business. That's the extent of anyone's hand being in my car though and has absolutely nothing to do with Howard using Crome on his customer's cars. lol Howard runs S300 on his race car, so that's gotta count for something, right?

 

Howard also offers NepTune now, but he'll never stop offering Crome. For basic tuning, he has enough experience to get it to work well for most customers.

 

Who mentioned capability again? And please don't tell me what I understand or have experience with.

My comparison was that both higher-end (priced) tuning systems and ectune have a limited amount of bugs and usability problems. I know you sell and like Motec a lot and are good at tuning it. That doesn't mean that from an end users perspective the software that runs it has no relation at all to other computer software on the market. If I wanted to make some asinine claim that ectune can do what standalone EMS's can do I would have said that and probably not randomly quoted a post about program bugs.

 

I can't say much about ECtune as I have never used it, but I have had much experience with crome and neptune and hands down neptune is a much better and developed software. Sure I had plenty of cars run great on crome, but I was constantly dancing around bugs to do so. It just wasted a bunch of my time. Sure its good for the price, but on a Honda there are better options out there that don't cost much more. Plus I was one of the first people to discover ignition timing issues with crome. I was constantly wondering why no matter how much timing I pulled some cars would knock and not lose power as more and more timing was pulled.

 

Sorry, didn't realize the relation to Motec and AEM was about the software not being buggy, though if that was the case I would probably not relate it to AEM. I guess at this point the AEM software is not too buggy, but over the years it's come a long way to get to where it is now.

 

weird thing ive used crome aem ems and hondata s300 on my car and it just made the same power.

the capability of the ems to make power is on just how the user can manipulate the software and interpret the values accurately.

if you dont have money. go with crome .thats it. you pretty dont have any choice.

s300 is my prefered because of its easy to tune and accessability and hardly crashes/hangs.

aem is pretty difficult to tune finely like on how a stock car behaves. so thats out of the picture. and price is really high though it is reasonable for the tons of features (working!) that it offers..

 

Crome sucks, I've had it on several cars and crome honestly made me hate driving them. I always felt like an idiot trying to take them to meets more than a 1/2 hr away and when you finally got there the last thing you wanted to do was enjoy the car and have fun, you wanted out of that unstable piece of **** and I'd spend the rest of the time dreading the drive back wanting to leave early so I'd have more of a shot getting help when it started acting up.

Crome is unsupported abandoned junk that has left me stranded, period.

If your boosting a honda and using crome, wake up and explore your options.

Hondata is over priced and its software really doesn't impress me. It seems solid however.

Neptune is solid, but what takes me 2.5hr in neptune takes me 45min in ectune. I never got around its navigation or hot start lean conditions. Sometimes it would also cut out and hesitate between shifts every now and then, I need to spend more time with it and I think that would help a little on the time it takes me and could iron out the issues I had with it. It has great customer support bar none and works. I ran one of our cars dd for over 6 months never touching the tune then switched ems's not because of any problems just to try something else.

Ectune has more options than any oem ecu based ems out there. It also has the best GUI and is constantly updated.

I went with ectune because I wanted whats best for my customers and I wanted to get the job done in a timely manner.

I have all these ems's, aem, neptune, ectune, crome, hondata excluding a motec and emanage. I prefer haltech however over aem hands down. AEM's customer support sucks, post a question on their site about a tuning issue and you will see what I am talking about.

For oem ecu based ems's I always recommend Ectune and Neptune. Hondata is fine if thats what you have already. For 99% of the boosted honda's I deal with these options are excellent choices. Every now and then a big power COP setup comes though that would actually benefit from a true stand alone.

 

Sounds like user error to me. I've NEVER had issues with driveability of a car with crome. I've done cross country trips. If you couldn't get it to work, then that's your problem, but it doesn't mean it's shitty software.

Crome is great for what it is(cheap, hardly supported and not designed by "professionals"). To expect anything more of it is dumb.

eCtune is great though.

 

I'll admit I hate crome because it's practically abandoned. I'm still waiting for my replacement backup reg key - its been 1 whole year now. However, the only time Crome stranded me was user error - I had pulled the chip as a security measure and ended up zapping it w/ESD. Luckly I had my laptop+burner with me...

The problem with cheaper EMS's is they are harder to setup initially. However if you really want a challenge, try setting up a full standalone you're not used to. I just got my friend's turbo 3.4L Fiero going with an ancient Haltech system. The maps are 2-D, as in you have to change pages for every 500 rpm - in a slow DOS-based environment.

 

^^^^ You must be talking about the E6K lol..

 

Ya, that software is so outdated. If you take a look at their new stuff it's very nice and easy to work with.

 

a tuner who blames the software is a stupid tuner.

if i were to use motec for the first time i'd probably have a hard time wiring it up and firing it up initially.


dont blame the software whatever it is. people have used that time and again. and made wonderful results.
if ectune worked great for u, well and good. if crome, thats good too.

 

What? you don't like bar graphs?

 

The bar graphs in Haltech would make sense if they represented RPM across the screen, but having to toggle the maps to see the fuel curve vs. rpm is retarded. lol

 

Truth be spoken

 

I'd love to take a crack at Ectune, I've had a few friends use it with excellent results. It's just bullshit that you have to buy an ostrich/demon and use it only with that. I don't like spending extra cash and would gladly buy the software if I was able to burn chips for myself only.

 

You should give it a try, its worth it in the end. If you going to tune any oem based ems you need a way to real time tune it and an ostrich/demon is just part of it. Burning a chip, making a pull, making changes reburning a chip and so forth is a horrible way to get started lol.

You can buy the software to burn chips but it comes at a cost and a per car license fee. If someone could burn as many ectune chips as possible for a flat rate it would wind up like crome's 'single car' license that everyone has used on multiple cars. It should be called a single software license.

I really do wish ectunes single car licensing was easy like neptune. Add a number hear, bam, works all the time.

We have two pro bundles at our shop that once they got setup and paired we never had any more issues.

In time ectune will work out all its complicated licensing, expiring software and update issues people are having. I understand Calvin has to ensure no one can pirate his ems but I do believe some things need revised.

I originally wanted to become a neptune tuner but a group of my customers all came together with $200 each to cover my ectune tuner license so they could have all the features they had been hearing about and seeing work with our shop cars.

 

Wow, good group of determined customers if they were willing to help you out like that.

 

Folks, it's not the software, it's the tuner.

The only difference between Crome , Ectune, and Neptune dealer software is marketing and nothing else. You can reach the same results, the same 3step, the same nitrous control, the same boost by gear, the same etc... etc... with any of them. If you've had a bad experience with either and the mechanical aspect of the car is flawless, then the problem is the tune. Simple as that.

 

I've used eCtune and Crome for the budget conscious customers with good success!

Crome does have it's bugs and does not have any support or a working help file for that matter. It is what it is! It's works well for customers with mild all motor and turbo setups. It has many programmable features like 2step, vtec engagement, rev limit, iac control (doesn't work well) and has pre-defined drivers and settings settings for a lot of the non-honda map sensors and injectors, which helps. I can list a lot of things that need improvement, but I can do that with AEM, AEM FIC, Emanage, eCtune and Hondata.

Over the past 4 months, I started switching customers over to eCtune and it has gone very well. Some good common useful things that I have noticed and like about eCtune:

-Better idle control (IAC and other sensors pertaining to idle are customizable unlike Crome)
-Anti-lag works (Crome doesn't have it)
-Boost control and boost by gear is excellent (similar to Hondata)
-VTEC crossover is a lot easier to control and is smoother. You can smooth out the crossover point on a lumpy cam, which makes the afr a lot smoother at that point, which you can see a smoother power curve on the dyno.
-No Ostrich and Hulog connection issues.
-Datalog playback is excellent (as good as Hondata)

eCtune, Crome and Hondata interfaces are similar and very user friendly. Hondata is more pricey, but it basically has a datalogger and emulator integrated into it and you don't need the ecu rig, which constitutes the price. eCtune and Hondata capabilities are pretty much equal. If the end user is not going to be making changes to their own maps and changes on the fly at the track, I usually recommend eCtune. Hondata is more for the end user that will be getting tuned and will be making changes on their own, based on weather and track conditions. You can use a demon with eCtune, which makes it similar to Hondata in price ( you need the demon and single tuner license). Crome is limited.

AEM EMS is a little more dificult to navigate through if you are coming from eCtune or Crome, because the tables are in reverse. You can customize the view to make it more like Hondata, but I usually leave it and use the 3d maps.

On a side note the Motec is not buggy at all. Like Tony1 said! No bugs, freezes, com issues or shutdowns at all. The installation takes about 20 seconds to install and is about 1.5 mb, so it uses pretty much uses no resources on your PC. Because, it's DOS based and it's 2 colors with no graphs or colors at all!! I have the M4 and it uses software from the 1990s.. Not the easiest to use! The more expensive Motec models have windows based software now, which is levels above eCtune, Hondata and even AEM EMS. The i2 datalogging for the Motec is the absolute best I have ever used. Very easy to log, playback and make adjustments in the pits.

 

It really amuses me how i'll informed some people are and attempt to rate or give feedback on a product. If you are not a Crome authorized tuning shop then quit misrepresenting Crome products.

Crome Pro is what's generally available to the public and it's for a single user license. Unfortunately, people take advantage of this and tune other peoples car with it, essentially robbing the developers. For the record, Crome Pro doesn't support the same 3 step available in Crome Gold or Ectune or Neptune dealer software. If you didn't know, it's no big deal. But don't flat out say that it doesn't support 2step (actually a 3 step since there is a TPS % threshold adjustment in addition to fuel and ignition) since Crome Gold (dealer version) does support this function.

Crome Gold is for dealers. The 3 step is the same exact 3 step supported by Ectune, Neptune and Hondata. Boost control by gear is the same. No ostrich or hulog connection issues. The IAC duty cycle is adjustable, even with Crome Pro. Smooth vtec engagement. The demon is fully suported by Crome as well. Do I really need to go on?

My last 2 most recent Crome Gold dyno sessions:

This setup belongs to Tony who brought his car over from Charlotte for some upgrades and a Crome Gold tune. This was using 3rd gear and revving to 7k rpms.

D16Z6
Stock Cam
Eagle Rods
Suzuki Vitara Pistons
8.5:1 static compression ratio
Ebay t3/t4 57trim .60 a/r (23-24psi) (manual boost controller has a little fluctuation) (retune on turbonects t3t/t4 coming next week)
Ram horn Manifold
Y8 intake manifold
1000cc Precision injectors
Walbro 255
93 octane





stock B20b
arp head studs
cosmetic headgasket
eBay turbo kit
12-13 psi (manual boost controller has a little fluctuation)




Please stop misrepresenting Crome products. I'll say it one last time, at the end, the functions supported and the end results are the same no matter if you're using, Neptune, Crome, or Ectune dealer software. The only difference is marketing.

 

Spent, Are you only saying that because you do not have Neptune or eCtune listed in your signature?

Sure sounds like you are marketing Crome to me. When valid programmers speak of the known issues with Crome, I'll gladly take their knowledge over your opinion.

 

We invested to become a Crome authorized tuning shop so this is what we support. Take it however you'de like to take it. I was clear that my intent is to remove any misrepresentation of Crome. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Neptune or Ectune. Both are great programs as well. If they were being misrepresented, I would of gladly corrected the misinformation.

 

Good stuff.

 

its funny how you guys in the us dont like to install standalones (haltech and motec). probably because of the all idea of making a new engine harness.
here in israel most of the cars runs with aem's motec m4's haltech e6k/x

anyway.
iv tuned nearly 30 honda's with crome, only one of them broke a rod (owners fault (refueling lower octan)). some of them are allready driving for years.
and i did this with the crome free

on my own car i run ectune, iv had issues with fuel cut before, but it seems to be fixed. (i dont drive the car that much)