to answer your post:

you could use your desktop, but it would get very old fast making changes, and logs would be next to impossible. so laptop is needed. it doesn't need to be anything special at all though. so for any em your best bet is to have a laptop.

the free stuff is in djerickd's post. everything you need to know about it is in there too.

i've used maps from other cars on the utec. so yes you can use it on other cars.we had the exact same parts exactly everything the same, and it wasn't perfect. i changed it a week later.


now to the way i feel:

nothing against the utec, it worked for me for awhile. i wouldn't go back to it.it was choppy and even tuned didn't feel comfortable. if you want it for tuning yourself then it was good back in the day. the new free software has taken its' place. the only thing it has that might be useful is speed density tuning. other than that ....

the accessport and streettuner software are alot better than the utec in regards of smoothness of the tune. resolution is the word that comes to mind. but you have a lot more cost for the pieces needed. then you still need a laptop.

the new free software does alot, and with the smoothness of the stock ecu. it is however free, so there may be some issues. i haven't seen any yet, and i'm sure quite a few here haven't either. it offers alot more for resolution in the tuning of maps, and doesn't have a large cost(). plus it was designed to be easy to use.

the last time scott was here he showed me how the ecutek was able to tune so many different areas of a tune(larger resolution). you could pick a specific area of a tune and adjust it. now if you had something like a utec (smaller resolution) the most you could do is smooth it out in 10 columns. which isn't much and it makes a difference. this was my main reason for ditching the utec.

edit: these are my views on these things.

 

Thanks for the info on that. Thats why I'm asking now, because I don't want to invest the time and money and learn the hard way.

I checked out the Openecu.org website and I like the idea of using free maps etc. However there isn't much in regards to how to actually use it or up load a map.
So I'll keep working on that for a while. Any help or hints to use these would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for all the advise!

 

i just caught the pro and con post by djerickd. which sums it up nicely.

for the how to you can find alot of the info on the forums for each tool. and nasioc has alot for it also. it is going to be a little rough at first but the first time you do it it will be alot easier for which ever route you choose.

 

ive got a UTEC for sale for $550 if you're interested. Brand new in the box. a lot of DIY tuners use it and ive never heard anything bad about it. lmk if you are interested. the free stuff these guys mentioned is also pretty good from what i hear, up to you though

 

This is the first I've heard of the free stuff. The link posted above is displaying an access violation. Will have to try it again later. My next EMS solution will be the hydra. Can't wait.

 

Main Page - OpenECU thats where all the free stuff comes from. EcuFlash, EcuEdit, Enginuity, EcuExplorer, etc etc etc

 

I'll be damned...very interesting. The stock ECU won't be enough for my future upgrades, but wish this had been around when I was getting Ecuteked 2 years ago!