"Making it fit" doesn't sound too appealing to me - care to elaborate?

Also, this Cipher product allows monitoring of all of the Nissan factory sensors, allows checking Nissan-specific CEL codes, and may allow ECU reflashes in the future. It does not have a knock sensor *yet* but otherwise seems to be a more cost-effective alternative for the "tuner pro".

 

LOL! It's all in the marketing.

 

Is this Cipher product the only non-generic OBD-2 solution out there for communicating with the Nissan-specific on-board hardware (ABS / VDC / etc) and datalogging various sensor data?

 

The Mounting brackets have not been released yet so we fabricate brackets to fit. The UTEC Dashboard feature allows you to monitor factory sensors also such as Intake temp,coolant temp,timing, injector pulse width,ect...

 

It was my understanding that the Cipher product was indeed the only product that had decrypted the protocol used by Nissan over the CAN bus. It is essentially equivalent to the Nissan Consult diagnostic tool. You didn't mention anything about OBD or diagnostic codes.

Does UTEC read data coming over the CAN bus? If so, then it makes the Cipher product superfluous. I thought they might be complementary. Is there any tech doc on the UTEC that specifies exactly what factory sensors can be read (i.e. does UTEC provide access to the generic OBDII data only over the slow OBDII interface or *all* sensor access over the [faster] CAN bus?)?

Any links to technical data would be appreciated because I'm confused what functionality I can expect with the UTEC - it appears to be an all-in-one diagnostics and tuning package (minus the wideband A/F and knock sensor)???

THanks

 

You got it, I was asking specifically about the Nissan / Infiniti protocol tools. I would have thought that after 3 years there would be some other options including reflashing / map tuning tools!

 

rcdash, looking at UTEC manual it seams that only generic OBDII data is exposed. You might also like to check this thread on my350z

 

Allow me to clarify, the UTEC is in no means a "diagnostic" tool, it is simply a form of engine management that can datalog some basic parameters to assist you in tuning the vehicle. The UTEC will allow you to monitor basic things such as:
Timing
Intake Air temp
Water Temp
Injector duty cycle
Injector Pulse Width
Knock incedents
MAF voltage
Ect...
Just the basics..For diagnostics we utilize the Snap On "Modius".The UTEC is not a do all device, meaning that if your throwing a code, it wont tell you the code or diagnose any problems..I was looking at the software you linked, which would be useful but we already have the Modius..For basic tuning and dataloging you will need no more than the UTEC assuming your O2 is being monitored on the Dyno...The Addition of the Tuner Pro will only supply you with a more sensitive Knock sensor, a wideband O2 sensor and a headphone jack to listen to your engines behaviors as you tune..

 

*disclaimer* I don't have access to a UTEC so this is all speculation. Talk to TurboXS to verify any technical details.

I'm the lead programmer for the Cipher product. Let me see if I can answer a few questions...

Engine management devices like the UTEC that work in parallel to the stock ECU have traditionally worked by modifying and/or replacing the sensor signals sent to the ECU in order to get it to change the output. For example: If you read the crank position sensor and play back the signal to the ECU with a slight delay the ECU will change timing/injector pulses because it thinks the crank is in a different place than it really is. Injector opening time can be modified by changing the Mass Air flow signal or the coolant temp. signal.

Now the UTEC is a fairly advanced piggyback device. I BELIEVE (I'm not 100% positive) that it has the ability to dynamically take over the ignition so that it doesn't have to change the crank sensor signal to get timing changes.
I suspect that they do this in combination with the sensor modification technique in order to get the desired results.

What this means is that when you read diagnostics information from the ECU (via an OBD-II reader, Consult, or Cipher) you are going to see values that the ECU sees. If you have an aftermarket engine management system that modifies the inputs then you will see the MODIFIED values and not the REAL values. We don't know which sensors the UTEC modifies (if any) so we can't say if the values read by Cipher will be 100% accurate.

 

oman, thank you for this post. I hope at least AFR should be correct?

 

The UTEC has it's own Ignition Drivers and Injector Drivers. The UTEC is always in control of the vehicle at all times. Especially when you enter OPEN LOOP FUELING. Some portions of the map where you can specify ECU control, the UTEC will fire the coil or injector as the ECU would.

The UTEC datalogger contains the data relevant to the drive cycle of the vehicle, which would make this rather redundant purchase for those items. But, having a scan tool should always be part anyones tool box. I have not used this item but I am interested in some of it's functions.

Thanks,

Jermaine@turboxs.com

 

rcdash, looking at UTEC manual, it doesn’t seam that additional knock sensor is needed.

If ECU see and is passing real voltages from both (before and after cats) AF sensors to the Cipher then some of us will have no need for TunerPro.

 

We do not alter the factory o2 sensors readings.

Thanks,

Jermaine

 

Thanks for chiming in! Do you think that you will ever unlock the ability to download / reflash the ECU program through the diagnostic interface with CIPHER?

 

disclaimer: this is only what i remember reading on the forums don't hold it as concrete... MRC and TXS, please correct me if i'm wrong

not exactly... if you drive an 03-04 car the factory o2 sensors are narrowband... in which case a good wideband sensor (like the TunerPro) would still be needed to properly tune the car. the narrowbands are only used when the car is running in open loop mode... once you go WOT and enter closed loop mode, the ECU stops listening to feedback from the o2's and runs whatever map it uses for WOT.

i believe on the 2005's they switched the stock sensors to widebands.