Oy, this was no plug and play task. The OBDI Nissan consult port is entirely different from the interface I had to fabricate, which was a 14 pin connector on one end that connects to the laptop via USB on the other. The Nissan consult plug wiring colors also don't stay consistent from the ECU to the original Nissan consult, so I had to figure out on the ECU end what wires were sending data for CLK, (Tx)Transmit, (Rx) Receive. It was painful. The wires coming off the ecu is a plate of spaghetti that doesn't go down easy! The closest thing to this really is a $2199 piggyback unit AEM makes. I had a daughterboard fitted to my ECU by NIStune that allows for on the fly programming and can be loaded with maps at will, as opposed to ECU's found by the likes of JWT that are programmed once and you're stuck with the configuration you buy.

Had to make a little celebration video for it -- it's ALIVE!

Click --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD9NRQR88-0

 

I like the Disney D you used for the VE30DE part at the end of the video

 

Cool, something I've been thinking about doing too, glad to know its possible. I have a embedded computer (Via Artigo System Builder Kit) installed in my Maxima, with a xenarc x-7000 in-dash headunit, which I think would be just great to have for in-car tuning, and for all the extra guages like air flow etc.

What all did you need to do to get this to work with your Maxima?

Chalzor

 

This is truly neat. Too bad alot of the older members from back in the day aren't around much anymore to see this

How much did it cost you to have NIStune fit the daughter board?

Also what are your plans? Are you going boost or just wanted a programmable ECU?

 

Looking forward to this.... I really am

 

Heh, you have good eye for fonts.

A spare ECU, shipping to and from Australia for fitment of daughterboard, fabrication of 14 pin consult by me, years weeks months figuring out what function every wire coming off the ECU performs (exaggeration on the years part), getting software to recognize my consult, and further down the road... learning the principles of ECU tuning and of the software itself.

Agreed. I've been on the org a long time, and would love for the OG members to see the baby steps I've taken along the way and to get input, but there are lots of very helpful and knowledgeable Maxima enthusiasts still on board. Some of whom went out of their way to answer questions and help me out (Aaron, 'bitter' Danny, Matt Blehm, Michael awsm66).

No boost mang. I think the VG is best left for turboing. And as for spraying, I dunno, I just figure spraying is the easy way out. Something that can be done on any car. And I mean no offense to my friends who spray, but it's just not my bag - for the time being anyway. The kid in me will likely want to try it sometime down the road though.
As for cost, I don't mean to withhold info, but I think the cost of the project for me will differ to what it will cost others, because this was the first VE30DE that NIStune/PLMS has worked on, so we worked together on this. There were a good couple hundred emails between us during the process.
That said, I don't think what I paid will be hugely lower than what others that follow might pay. Eventually, I'll direct the NIStune founder to this board/thread and let him put a price on it and answer questions.

Thanks Chris. Hey did you get the 4DSC decals yet? I sent another batch to you, albeit a little slowly on my part. Let me know if/when they arrive(d).

... I'll try and post more images/video as I uncover the software more thoroughly, create maps, etc.
I still have yet to install the wideband o2 sensor, Aaron's NWP phenolic intake spacers, and an electric exhaust cutout. Then there's actually testing it at the track, possibly dyno as well, which should provide real answers as to how effective this all is - if at all ha!

Cheers - thanks for your support.

 

My Maxima has a vg30e, would installation be any different than on the ve30de? I notice on the Nistune site that their type 1 board supports the "J30 Maxima (VG30E)", does this mean that installation will be easier than the process you had to go through?

Chalzor

 

The daughterboard installation to the VG ECU wouldn't be the problem, it's determining if you have the black (12 pin) Nissan consult in your car, or grey (14 pin) consult.
If you have the grey your a step closer. However, then it has to be determined if the grey (female) stock consult in the car speaks the same language as the (male) USB interface.
In other words, does the data the stock consult plug send correspond to the correct pins on the serial USB interface?
If it's been tested on a North American VG with a grey consult, then it could end up being plug & play.

 

that would be f'ing great cuz i have the grey connectors!

 

uh... so black 12-pin = SOL?

 

No black 12 pin only = SOL if you aren't prepared to cry and curse like I did lol, but it's doable. Actually... now that the groundwork is laid you wouldn't have nearly the same headaches I did with it. You'd just have to be prepared to do a little surgery on your car.

 

surgery? like replacing the whole of the electrical system with a 14-pin harness structure and ECU?

 

No, by chopping a 14 pin consult plug from a junked Maxima that has one, and tapping 'directly' in to specified wires on the ECU.
I was celebrating having finally found the wires in the harness that are required to make a new consult, and in doing so, you wouldn't have to deal with tracing the functions of the wires on the ECU harness - it's been done.

 

Good work on getting it running!!!!



so ummm, lemme take a stab at it from glancing over the FSM for a few minutes.... these 3 pins it?

I'll take a wild guess and say 21 and 22 are Tx, Rx and 31 is CLK. if those are the right 3 pins, it would be easy to figure out from there.. one will be a constant pulse- should show up on a frequency counter, and the other two are a trial and error with a serial connector. can probably wire straight into pin 2 of a DB-9 connector and plug into your serial port and watch gibberish stream out of it....

22- P
21- OR
31- LG


Tell me if I'm even in the ballpark..........

 

Nope, you can't. The consult port uses an inverted 12v logic. The consult boards use a couple of transistor and a max232 for an rs232 buffer.

I built one for myself a couple years ago and ended up buying another one from a hybridka forum member so I could have a "cleaner" unit.

 

Just got Nistune about month ago. Have 91 VG30E total for me was just under 500 to ship out and have Nistune install it all. Took about 2 weeks there and back. Im using mine to to tune for the 370cc injectors and 15psi which will be fun upgrade from the apexi unit. Um I have had mine to connect once but since been having problems what plug is this you are talking about?

 

... but you did get the wire colors right Matt (ya freakin' noob!).
What held the process up for me and caused much frustration were little things like discovering I had the right lines all along, but learned the data lines in particular couldn't be 'tapped' with connectors. It was apparently compromising the data steam and the consult wasn't reading the flow. So I was going back over the wiring diagrams thinking I had the wrong lines and was banging my head on the wall... until I got brave and just cut the little buggers and made a direct link.
Power and ground couldn't be cut, as they serve other functions, but the data lines could.

One of my diagrams shows the 'franken consult'

 

I had the wire colors right... Hell, I even had the functions correct and that was my first guess at it just by looking!! +12V ign and ground are easy enough to find. I didn't bother with them. find just about any black wire on the ECU.... ground. ign power comes in through the SMJ and was on a 4x pin number, IIRC. I just didn't post it.

lanedrifter, thanks for the clarification on the RS232 port. I'm quite familiar with the MAX232 drivers- we use them all the time at work in our instrumentation. rather finicky little buggars, especially if you're using a cable with high inductance over more than 50 ft or so. not an issue in the Maxima, but it is with our stuff. we usually wind up converting to RS422.... but that's off the subject.

I hadn't seen anyone actually use the inverted 12V crapola. It doesn't surprise me given the car's abundance of 12V 'logic' and equipment, and I figure they also did it to keep Joe-the-Grease-Monkey-turned-Tuner from fabbing up his own programs for cheaper than the $$$$$ CONSULT unit.

Either way, even with the inverted 12V, you should still see gibberish on the screen with a terminal program hooked to the Tx wire and GND . whether it's inverted or not doesn't mean anything- it's still switching back and forth and would be considered 'data' and would show up with some wingdings font or somecraplikethat.

 

Yeah, but you're Blehmco. And you eat Maximas for a late night snack. You're like the kid they wanted to throw out of little league because he was too good. Now run along, you scoundrel you...

wait a second... are you calling me joe-tuner-grease-monkey??

 

Oh yeah, forgot that consult require a request from our end before any data is streamed.

Anyways, glad to see people are starting to tune the 3rd gen more.

 

HA! I'm just another guy that screws around with my car when I'm bored.. Since nobody made what I want, I made it myself. just like you did. nothing really that special about welding up some metal braces or slapping bigger brakes onto the car. And yes, yes I am calling you a grease monkey. Get over it. We all are. :P



Lanedrifters... so send it an active high pulse or an active low pulse and see what happens...
All else fails, hook a serial splitter up to it and watch the data stream in/out of it when you hook up a consult tool...


Either way, it's figured out now. that's the important thing.

 

So hadman, what kind of changes can be made, I saw a bunch of options in the video. Obviously fuel, timing, K, VE, and VTC rpm right?


Nistune and PLMS had to dissasemble the VE bin to get that stuff, are they planning on releasing any further tuning parameters later that you know of?

 

ok sooo...here's my problem...
i have a JWT ECU reflashed to the 370cc program with the nitrous daughter board.
for me to run nistune what more do i have to do? the program from JWT is less than stellar so i rather just mess with it myself.

someone give me the n00b's perspective...because when it comes to the ECU i'm clueless.
grazzy azz.

oh and yes i have that goofy black plug.

 

I believe that you would just send them an ecu and they will install and program their board for you. They add the consult routines to the older non-consult ecus so you can datalog with it. Resizing for 370cc injectors is easy, they will probably send you a bin for that if you ask , but I dont think they have outputs for nitrous control built into their boards.

 

ok sounds simple enough...so i get the ECU back to me and plug it in the car. how do i go about making adjustments?
what's the job of a emulator/romulator?

 

just send off a factory ecu and plug it in. Bought that simple you just load up your VG30 fuel map and tune it from there.

 

that doesn't answer my questions.

 

You can go to nistune.com and read the user manual how to do it all. Basically once you get your fuel map up open up the multiplier and add decrease fuel where needed. The ign maps and all that are pretty simillar take timing or add when needed. Just make sure monitor the knock.

 

Haha! Matt and those pesky 40mph fastballs

 

ok question 2..
what's the job of a emulator/romulator?

 

that's surprising to see that at mid-throttle around 2400-2800ish rpms it goes into 15.0 AFR...

 

the emulator/romulator is a real time tuning and does live adjustments by itself. Where it says around 15.0 AFR it might and might not read off of that cell. It has map tracing it highlights the cell in blue on where it is reading along with current afr

 

so instead of having an eprom you would plug in a emulator/romulator and you can make on the fly adjustments from your laptop?

does the laptop needs to be connected 24/7 for the car to run or can you flash the ECU with your laptop and leave it alone?

 

No it's not a 24/7 connection. Just make your adjustments and unplug.

 

Beautiful....Bringing 3rd gens into the golden age! Now if we can just get that little magic pill that makes our trannys bullet proof! Great Work!

 

Hadman Im a little confused by this whole thread. I thought that "Type 1 boards" were outfitting with a USB connector by nistune, or rewired so you could use the consult port? Did you have nistune install the board or did you elect to install it yourself? Based on the website, I got the impression that when they returned your ECU, it was ready to start tuning with no other modifications needed.

 

Nice work man, did your interface come with a diagram noting the wire functions? How did you go about tracking down the wires at the port to the ECU? From your "spaghetti" reference, it sounds like you did it manually with a multimeter or continuity tester. The OBD port routing has got to be shown somewhere in the FSM, probably in the foldout.. Luckily there's only a few wires you had to deal with. Probably smooth sailing once you identified them.

Solid video production

 

awesome work, keep us updated on progress

 

After either NIStune installs the daughterboard in your ECU, or if you elect to install the board yourself, yes, it is ideally ready at that point to be tuned via the USB consult connector...

if... and only if... your vehicle has a grey 14 pin OBDI consult port.q

I, and many others will find by looking at their consult port, that they do not in fact have the grey 14 pin consult. Instead, they have a funky 12 pin black consult.

For those of us with this type of consult, the only way around it is to fabricate a new consult that is compatible. That is what I was forced to do.

Hectic: the interface didn't come with a diagram, because it is supposed to be a plug and play thing. NIStune had never seen the black 12 pin consult before, but they worked with me to identify the the pin functions of their interface so I could properly align my fabricated consult to theirs. And yes, I used a standard multimeter on the ecu to confirm I had the correct lines. There were a few problems I faced relying on the foldout. For one, it doesn't specify data in/out. And if you trace the lines from the ecu to the consult, the wire colors don't remain consistent by the time you get to the consult.

 

Hey guys - Matt here from Nistune

J30 VG30E has the black diagnostic plug (not consult)
- Type 1 board is used with this an a USB socket is installed in the ECU so you can plug your laptop directly into the ECU. Total cost $400AUD for board and software.

J30 VE30DE has the grey consult plug
- Type 3 board and consult cable is used with this one. Normally just plugs directly into consult port once board is installed in ECU. Total cost $510AUD for board, software and cable

Postage $15AUD regular airmail. Installation extra. Current about $0.81AUD=$1USD at the moment

Since Hadleys car was a transplant with the VE30DE the consult wires from the transplant loom were going to an unknown location and causing ECU not to respond to consult initializations commands. Cutting the wires directly from the ECU (after wiring in consult plug) seemed to get it working.

I'm working on A32 VQ30DE at the moment, but the OBD-II models have double the memory that our Type 4 boards are capable of so means a bit of extra work

Send me an email via the nistune.com site if you have any direct questions as I'm not on these forums much

cheers
Matt