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370 Posts
Hi guys,
So awoke this morning to find an email from Ben from GTC saying that ALPHA firmware for the Cobb AP is now available, with such firmware allowing for LC1 - LC3 cars to upgrade to settings known as LC4 - those found in the 2012 (USDM) GTR. So being a Saturday I thought alright lets do this and see. Here is my feedback.
Firstly you'll need to copy an alternative support address int he options field in AP Manager in order to allow the AP Manager Firmware updater to look at a different URL to find the new firmware. Did this and connected AP. Did the update, about 23MB's or so and loaded the AP. It gets interesting here as nothing visibly appears in the AP, nor AP Manager, The next task is to do a full uninstall and then reinstall of the AP in the car.
I did the full uninstall (this takes quite some time and it runs the TCM first then ECU) then started the reinstall. It loads the ECU map firstly. I did select to save the factory settings, even though I had done this before I thought it best to do it again to be safe. Be careful - I did get a low battery warning during all of this as the entire process does take some time. Having loaded the ECU I then came to the TCM selections. Interesting. You may now select to load anything of Launch Control 1 through 4. I didn't see here if the previous Cobb canned Stock, Stage 1 or 2 maps were present, although from loose memory I don't remember seeing them. I selected LC4 and it then asked to confirm the code for the car TCM (this was 'KBxxx' for USDM 2009). After this confirmation it then gave me the option to select the map. Interestingly here it only highlighted and made available the choice of Stock Style....
So after doing this load (nervously as I had the battery warning light at this stage) it was already and loaded.
Immediately given the car was cold I drove around my area in Auto, 3 switches at normal settings. The shifting seems better, smooth and refined, when you stab the gas a little it only drops one gear now, not the 2 that used to occur. However this is only loose, as the temps were low I didn't hit WOT to fully check if it drops the 2 gears as before. I have noticed now that the creep with 0% brake is back, this was at +2 Odd and Even CC's, 0 Odd and Even TP's. Once I got to Engine Oil above 80 and trans above 75 I stop and switched to manual. The shifting seemed the same to me in manual. I waited until trans temps reached +80 (all temps in celsius btw) and attempted first launch. Settings were R-R-R. Launch was pretty disappointing. Rev's initially failed to reach 2k rpms, try a double pump and I got it to 2.5k. Launched. First impressions were no wheel-spin, but the car definitely did not bolt out the gate so to speak. Second launch, same settings. The car rose to 2.2k, launched, and this was even less impressive than the first launch.
After these two launches I drove for a little bit more and let the temps get back to the low 90's. I then attempted a launch with VDC off. This time the rev's did rise straight to 2.5k and with a double pump I got to 3k. However the launch still wasn't that great. It was definitely better than the launch with VDC to R, and there was no noticeable wheel-spin either. My next launch was again hampered but the car failing to reach anything substantial in the rev range, 2k, 2.2k and 2.6 or so. After these I got the clutch temp warnings in the display so cooled it down for the next 10 minutes with low speed, 6th gear cruising.
For reference I'm coming from running the Cobb canned Stage 1 TCM map, which launched quite well, but with the typical wheel-spin in VDC Off. Whilst I do not launch the car often - today was absolutely the most amount of times in one drive I have ever launched, I am undecided as whether the new shifting quality is a better trade off than having the better launch (even though rarely used, its good knowing its there). I certainly do not consider my testing exhaustive, nor final - I will test again next weekend to see if it was the day and conditions before ruling it out. However thought it would be good to start a thread on this and get others to start adding their feedback in due course.
Good luck to those who will be doing the update soon, and well done to Cobb for progressing the AP development to this stage.
DD.
So awoke this morning to find an email from Ben from GTC saying that ALPHA firmware for the Cobb AP is now available, with such firmware allowing for LC1 - LC3 cars to upgrade to settings known as LC4 - those found in the 2012 (USDM) GTR. So being a Saturday I thought alright lets do this and see. Here is my feedback.
Firstly you'll need to copy an alternative support address int he options field in AP Manager in order to allow the AP Manager Firmware updater to look at a different URL to find the new firmware. Did this and connected AP. Did the update, about 23MB's or so and loaded the AP. It gets interesting here as nothing visibly appears in the AP, nor AP Manager, The next task is to do a full uninstall and then reinstall of the AP in the car.
I did the full uninstall (this takes quite some time and it runs the TCM first then ECU) then started the reinstall. It loads the ECU map firstly. I did select to save the factory settings, even though I had done this before I thought it best to do it again to be safe. Be careful - I did get a low battery warning during all of this as the entire process does take some time. Having loaded the ECU I then came to the TCM selections. Interesting. You may now select to load anything of Launch Control 1 through 4. I didn't see here if the previous Cobb canned Stock, Stage 1 or 2 maps were present, although from loose memory I don't remember seeing them. I selected LC4 and it then asked to confirm the code for the car TCM (this was 'KBxxx' for USDM 2009). After this confirmation it then gave me the option to select the map. Interestingly here it only highlighted and made available the choice of Stock Style....
So after doing this load (nervously as I had the battery warning light at this stage) it was already and loaded.
Immediately given the car was cold I drove around my area in Auto, 3 switches at normal settings. The shifting seems better, smooth and refined, when you stab the gas a little it only drops one gear now, not the 2 that used to occur. However this is only loose, as the temps were low I didn't hit WOT to fully check if it drops the 2 gears as before. I have noticed now that the creep with 0% brake is back, this was at +2 Odd and Even CC's, 0 Odd and Even TP's. Once I got to Engine Oil above 80 and trans above 75 I stop and switched to manual. The shifting seemed the same to me in manual. I waited until trans temps reached +80 (all temps in celsius btw) and attempted first launch. Settings were R-R-R. Launch was pretty disappointing. Rev's initially failed to reach 2k rpms, try a double pump and I got it to 2.5k. Launched. First impressions were no wheel-spin, but the car definitely did not bolt out the gate so to speak. Second launch, same settings. The car rose to 2.2k, launched, and this was even less impressive than the first launch.
After these two launches I drove for a little bit more and let the temps get back to the low 90's. I then attempted a launch with VDC off. This time the rev's did rise straight to 2.5k and with a double pump I got to 3k. However the launch still wasn't that great. It was definitely better than the launch with VDC to R, and there was no noticeable wheel-spin either. My next launch was again hampered but the car failing to reach anything substantial in the rev range, 2k, 2.2k and 2.6 or so. After these I got the clutch temp warnings in the display so cooled it down for the next 10 minutes with low speed, 6th gear cruising.
For reference I'm coming from running the Cobb canned Stage 1 TCM map, which launched quite well, but with the typical wheel-spin in VDC Off. Whilst I do not launch the car often - today was absolutely the most amount of times in one drive I have ever launched, I am undecided as whether the new shifting quality is a better trade off than having the better launch (even though rarely used, its good knowing its there). I certainly do not consider my testing exhaustive, nor final - I will test again next weekend to see if it was the day and conditions before ruling it out. However thought it would be good to start a thread on this and get others to start adding their feedback in due course.
Good luck to those who will be doing the update soon, and well done to Cobb for progressing the AP development to this stage.
DD.
