Chrome V2 Tech Manual

[Greg E]

It's finally here! Nearly every dark secrete locked away in that metal box behind your radio now exposed! This is the next best thing to stand alone engine management. Only this is the code the team of engineers designed for this car. In this thread I'm going to go over the details about what each table in the ROM does.

Warning! Improper use of the modifications in this ROM can and will damage your engine. It is up to YOU the user to read & understand how the features work!


Disclaimer

While I've provided a dis-assembly for you to flash tune your ECU with, I can not accept responsibility for any damage caused to your motor or ECU from improper use. It is up to YOU the user to spend the time reading and researching how to handle this software.

If this all seems a bit much to take in, I'm offering my flash tuning services. I can tune your car via email or I can come to your door. Just PM me to setup a date & time. Most of my past customers have just made the trek out here but I'm more than willing to fly to you if you can put me up for the night and pay for my travel costs.

I also offer base tunes where you just mail me your ECU, tell me your mods and what features you'd like to run, I flash and return the ECU to you. To save time/money I can also send the base tune to your clone ECU builder and have them flash it before they mail out your ECU.


Tuning

I've created a separate thread which goes over all the details for initial setting up and tuning your of ROM.

http://www.3sgto.org/tuning-engine-e...flash-ecu.html



Background

This ROM is a patched version of the last known VR4 ROM released from Mitsu. It's been tested to work on ALL 98 & 99 Mitsubishi ECUs. You WILL NEED a VR4 or Cloned ECU to utilize all the features of my patched ROM. If you're using another ECU other than the VR4 ECU (Montero, Diamonte, SL, Base...) some features will not be available. Fortunately there are guys who have been working on Cloning the VR4 ECU!

More info here!

www.clonedecu.com

www.chromedecu.org



Prerequisite

You need the following:

Laptop running windows w/ at least 1 USB port.
Tactrix 2.0 Cable - DO NOT BUY THE 1.3 CABLE!! We need the power booster from the 2.0 cable for flashing.
ECUFlash
EVOScan V2.9 (It's $25, don't be cheap! ) - After you purchase, download and install EVOScan, you'll need to add my custom 3000GT log file. NO other logging program available will support my patched ROM.
98/99 VR4 ECU w/ OBD2 connector and flash port (Don't believe boomslang includes this with their adapters)


Getting started

Unlike V1, I won't be releasing different patches for different setups. There is 1 universal ROM now which can be tailored to your needs.

Go to www.clonedecu.com or www.chromedecu.org and download the RAR file.



Inside is a folder with 3 files inside. One is the Chromed ROM (.bin file), one is the definition file for the ROM (.xml file) and the other is the definition file for EVOScan. All 3 are tied together and are meant to be used in conjunction with each other. You'll find many of the features in these definition files won't work with a stock ROM or previous versions of Chrome.

Extract the 23862006.XML fileto:
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenECU\EcuFlash\rommetadata\mitsubishi

The 23862006.bin is the ROM itself. This is the file you modify & flash to your ECU. Extract this anywhere you'd like. It doesn't matter where you put it, what you name it or how many copies you make of it.

Finally, the Mitsubishi MUTIII 3000GT.xml file is the definition file to convert EVOScan to work with our cars. Extract this file into:
C:\Users\USER\Documents\EvoScan v2.9\DataSettings



Note: Sometimes there's an issue with installing ECUFlash/EvoScan. Windows 7 and Vista have a feature called UAC. It makes a duplicate copy of your program files. This means when you try to install the EvoScan and EcuFlash .xmls, the changes won’t take effect, instead the duplicate .xml will be used

Try this! Uninstall EVOScan and ECUFlash and don’t reinstall them in C:\Program Files. Instead install to another directory created by you. For example C:\ECUPrograms\

After EVOScan is installed, you'll need to install the 2.0 cable drivers. There are instructions on the EVOScan website for this.


Now open up ECUFlash and open the 23862006.bin. This file is a stock tune. If you've flash tuned your car before, you'll need to copy your tables to the new "Chromed" ROM. Sorry. I can assist with this if needed. It's a good idea to save this file under a different name. It'll still be linked to the correct definition file no matter what you name it or however many copies you make of it.

People need to be aware of the risks when flashing as bricked ECUs from low battery voltage is starting to become a common enough of an issue where the importance needs to be stressed. Guys should turn their stereos, headlights and AC OFF when flashing to ensure as little draw on the battery as possible. It's best when flashing your ECU for the first time to have a battery tender hooked up to ensure there's no voltage drop during flashing!

This cannot be stressed enough! I used to work at a General Motors support group, and the only function of my group was to support vehicle reprogramming and the related tools. There were pages and pages of dealer bulletins related to voltage while programming. They even started requiring the dealers to buy a special $300 battery tester/charger/maintainer for use while programming.

They had to buy this tool not because the technology sucked, but because the damned techs wouldn't follow the rules while programming. Then, rather than call us to see if the module could be recovered, they'd just warranty it and sometimes make the customer wait for a new part.

Doesn't matter if it's a GM, Mitsubishi or BMW. If you follow the rules, it will work every single time.

After the first V2 flash there are fewer changes for ECUFlash to make as you tune, thus less time is spent doing the actual flash. Less time flashing is less draw on the battery which is safer. So far nearly every bricked ECU we have encountered comes from LONG flashes with a tired battery.

I've already spoken to the Clone ECU manufacturers and ALL clones will be coming with V2 pre-flashed to ensure less time needed to flash as you tune.


Follow up

I've decided to make Chrome DONATION-ware meaning if you use this on your car, shoot me a little something that you feel it's worth. There have been countless sleepless nights put into this project obsessing over all the little details.

Tuners: If you use my for tuning customer cars, I'm going to ask for $100. There's nothing I can do to enforce this so I'm just going to trust you guys to be honest with me on this.

paypal - nonstopmix@gmail.com

Also, the MAN behind the curtain deserves a little something for all this too. This guy is my fishing instructor. He's taught me everything about the H8/500 programing language and has played a MAJOR role in the development of this disassembly. The man is Jeff aka Gatecrasher. Please send him a little something too for dealing with my endless newb questions.

paypal - jeffv@xtreme3s.net

There's a few other very key people who deserve credit for their contributions to this project:

Marc Mayer for all the assistance in getting the flash ECU compliant with all the OBD1 emissions equipment and the BCS testing!

Aaron Hall and Nick Zenz for being my guinea pigs for all these months testing new code and helping diagnose/fix bugs!

Matt Jannusch for the OBD baud testing and great advice!

David Hinde aka "Merlin" for filling in a lot of the blanks in my disassembly!

Adam Pape's wife for letting Adam work many MANY late nights with me on the Chrome Mod beta testing and dealing with my random phone calls/texts to Adam all hours of the day/night.

and finally...

Adam Pape for being my right hand man with the MUT diagnostics, chrome mod beta testing and all the tedious testing that came with uncovering each area of the code.