Powerchip - before and after

[danny_p]

don't think so,

not much has actualy happend yet,   is any one feeling keen on decideing what teh chips are going to be scored on ?

[DOA]

Depends on how deep you want to get into it really and how scientific. My own suggestions are:

Ease of starting, cold and hot.
Idle quality and stability, cold and hot.
Throttle response at cruise and full throttle. (could add in at different revs)
Fuel economy.
Drivability.
Torque and power curves.
Peak torque and power figures.
A/F ratios.

Enough to get started on anyway. The only thing with all of this is that you have to be sort of scientific about it to get really clear results, especially if your going to all of the trouble of writing and posting out maybe 40 chips so I think you need to consider what the rules are yourself  . Im not suggesting any obligations but there do have to be some basic ground rules  .

I dont mind doing a form for any scoring if needed, Ive got several made up from uni work that would be easy to modify to suit.

[danny_p]

i don't want to make the rules, i'll do the chips because i can and it won't exactly cost me much.

and the test is more for the benifit of ppl on the fourum i thought some of them might be up for doing that bit of the experiment.

[topher]

Rolling road facilities available in the midlands when you're all ready

and if you bring the map files (including a stock one) on a usb stick or such, we can overlay them for you and show you exactly what and where the differences are.

[Gloves88]

Depends on how deep you want to get into it really and how scientific. My own suggestions are:

Ease of starting, cold and hot.
Idle quality and stability, cold and hot.
Throttle response at cruise and full throttle. (could add in at different revs)
Fuel economy.
Drivability.
Torque and power curves.
Peak torque and power figures.
A/F ratios.

Enough to get started on anyway. The only thing with all of this is that you have to be sort of scientific about it to get really clear results, especially if your going to all of the trouble of writing and posting out maybe 40 chips so I think you need to consider what the rules are yourself  . Im not suggesting any obligations but there do have to be some basic ground rules  .

I dont mind doing a form for any scoring if needed, Ive got several made up from uni work that would be easy to modify to suit.

I think this is a pretty good idea...

A  form on which each chip can be scored would be best as that way we can make clearer comparisons between different peoples results

As all our cars will be running slightly different all chips will be rated against our own standard, setting up a scale would allow each of us to rate the chip so much better or worse for each section. If we have a section for what "standard" is in each of our cases it might give a clearer picture as well....

Should prob also finish it off with a small description of what we thought of each chip just to clarify some more.....

[Gloves88]

Rolling road facilities available in the midlands when you're all ready

and if you bring the map files (including a stock one) on a usb stick or such, we can overlay them for you and show you exactly what and where the differences are.

This sounds like rather a nice opportunity...I'm pretty far away but if this were to happened I'd try make it down for it 

[RTechUK]

Rolling road facilities available in the midlands when you're all ready

and if you bring the map files (including a stock one) on a usb stick or such, we can overlay them for you and show you exactly what and where the differences are.

And could be tweaked if needed....

I am sure I could contribute to this and make you all happy.

Nick

[danny_p]

As all our cars will be running slightly different all chips will be rated against our own standard, setting up a scale would allow each of us to rate the chip so much better or worse for each section. If we have a section for what "standard" is in each of our cases it might give a clearer picture as well....

that is sort of the reason why 1 of the performance chips was going to be a copy of a standard chip    i was thinking just number the chips  that get sent out, eg  1,2,3,4   it would be very intresting to see how people rate the standard one in there as well and it will show up any placebo effect.  the reason i like the idea of scoring on a scale out of 11,   the std chip should score 6 on everything.  i like the sugested form idea tho

when the next chip lands i'll open that up in win OLS and compare it to the others marked for the trial allready. of all the various aftermarket chips i've looked at all have been the same  except 1.   whitch is the digifast chip as raved about by the yanks.  the code i diffrent on that one and it's soposed to make the digi II box do more stuff. as rolling road seems to be

[Gloves88]

that is sort of the reason why 1 of the performance chips was going to be a copy of a standard chip    i was thinking just number the chips  that get sent out, eg  1,2,3,4   it would be very intresting to see how people rate the standard one in there as well and it will show up any placebo effect.  the reason i like the idea of scoring on a scale out of 11,   the std chip should score 6 on everything.  i like the sugested form idea tho

Yeah like that idea, so only you would know what each chip was and which was standard, could be interesting lol

DOA - did you say you had a uni form you could modify? If you were able to do a first revision of it based on the categories you suggested that would get the ball rolling....

These would need a RR to test them so dont need to be on the form (or maybe have a different section for them on it)

Torque and power curves
Peak torque and power figures
A/F ratios

So main list would go something like:

Definition of 'standard' (i.e what mods are fitted etc)

Chip 1
Ease of Starting
   Cold
   Hot
Space for Notes

Idle Quality + Stability
   Cold
   Hot
Space for Notes

Fuel Economy
MPG value

Throttle Response (pick up)
   Cruise
   Full throttle
Space for Notes

Drivability
   More power - low revs     
   More power - high revs
   Acceleration (smoothness)
Space for Notes

General
   Feel faster
   Driving Experience
Chip 2.....

Setting a scale of 1-11:  6 being just like normal/standard, 1 being Much Worse, 11 Much Better   <--- more specific than that?

Ideally each chip should be run for a couple of days to get a feel for it. I often travel the same routes so I will try and base my comparisons when driving these routes - we should try minimise the number of variables during each test, i.e only the chip changes not our driving style etc.

Ratings should be made based on a collaboration of country driving, duelcarrageway/motorway driving and town driving.

Once each chip has been tested we can graph the results (i dont mind doing this) then compare this to some rolling road tests to see if there are actually gains etc.

If anyone has any other ideas/recommendations fire away

[DOA]

Ive done a simple excel workbook on the assumption most peeps dont mind using excel for the scoring based on the following factors so far:

Ease of starting from cold
Ease of starting from hot
Idle quality from cold
Idle quality when up to temperature
Idle stability coming off throttle cold
Idle stability comming off throttle when up to temperature
Throttle response on light throttle
Throttle response on full throttle
Drivability from cold
Drivability when up to temperature
Fuel economy
Peak torque figure
Peak power figure
Rev limit
Torque curve

I think the final four factors should be scored by Danny_P or maybe RTechUK if we get any of these figures together as Danny is impartial and RtechUK will have a better idea of what most customers actually want but that we should all set the weighting for these factors as well as the rest of the elements (sort of like Gloves88 mentioned).

The scoring is seperated for each chip onto seperate sheets (makes making notes tidier) with one global results page which should make compiling any further sadness data analysis easier. Ive also got the basis of a results compilation workbook that should make the overall analysis easier. Ive also popped the main scoring page into word in a printable size if that works better for peeps (not a lot of space for notes but hey....).

If anyone wants a look, PM me your email address or tell me how to post the form up here and Ill fire it thru/post it here for your comments. Any alterations or additions to the scoring elements that anyone wants, just let me know.