Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

For discussion of Phil Tobin's Tuner Studio software (Only about the tuning software itself, not about how to tune or firmware features)

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BlackBird_SR71
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Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

Post by BlackBird_SR71 »

Suggestion for an improvement. Instead of having the controller save the Tune as " Current Tune " only on the ECU side , can the coding not be altered so that a User chosen name is saved to the Controller when Tuner Studio is closed.

I do a fair amount of Remote Tuning, and I find that new users often get confused on which " Current Tune " they are using. You could load a Tune from 6 months ago, and upon connecting to the ECU it would now be identified as " Current Tune ".

Restore points can get confusing as well, as there tends to be a lot of them and they all just have Time/Date stamps. It can get confusing really fast when Auto Tuning. You can often have 10 or more Restore points for the same Project in one day. The Time/Date format doesn't offer much help to which was the " Good Tune "

A Format such as: L28 Turbo 550cc 91 Octane Mod #1.msq or L28 Turbo 93 Octane Mod #3 actually means something to the end user, and to someone Remote Tuning.

Yes, you can save the Tunes using the " Save As " file feature to your Laptop. And I do that all the time. Problem is, if you are making slight changes to a Tune, that file can become outdated and not have the latest Update. Particularly if you forget to update the File. If the controller was able to save the Tune file with a Unique user name instead of juts " Current Tune ". it would make things a lot less confusing. Especially for new users.

Pretty much any other Tuning program saves the controller Tune with a user inputted name. This is an area that could use improving, IMHO. Thankyou.
BlackBird_SR71
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Re: Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

Post by BlackBird_SR71 »

Or to put it in a simpler way. When I save a create a " New Text Document " on my Laptop. I have the Option to let it automatically save as " New Text Document " .... or input a Title that makes more sense to me.
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Re: Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

Post by BigBlockMopar »

A nice improvement for this could be to default incorporate the project's name the filename; <Projectname>+"Tune".

As for the Restore Points I think maybe some kind of Change Log/report could be 'build' and incorporated which simply lists altered items per session/save.
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BlackBird_SR71
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Re: Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

Post by BlackBird_SR71 »

BigBlockMopar wrote:A nice improvement for this could be to default incorporate the project's name the filename; <Projectname>+"Tune".

As for the Restore Points I think maybe some kind of Change Log/report could be 'build' and incorporated which simply lists altered items per session/save.
I like the idea of a change log. Kind of like what Microsoft does with System Restore in Windows.
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Re: Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

Post by LT401Vette »

If the data doesn't match your CurrentTune, you get a Difference report.

Are you using the same project across multiple cars?

If you include the project name in the current tune file name, it will still always be the same, but now would not work it you change the project name..

I think we may have a usage pattern thing here..
The CurrentTune was originally created so that TS would always know the last settings it saw in the controller. This way you can tune offline, then when you connect get a difference report. It also helps interrogation to go much quicker as it doesn't need to read all the controller settings, if check the CRC 1st and if all matches, then it know it already has the data and can skip reading. So TS needs a consistent named file that it can find each time the project is opened and it needs to know this is the file that it saved to last time it burned a page or closed the project.

However, it has become common for it to just be used as tune files copied around as the tune because it is convenient and there.

So I would say we don'e want to mess with TS's file. However, maybe we need some other user autosave where you can specify the name and conditions it saves?
It does start to sound similar to restore points..

The trouble may go back to an issue I noticed a while back in 3.0.28 Restore points... They are saving pretty much every time you close the project, even if nothing has changed. This is a problem and might the the root problem here? It is fixed in the beta.
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BlackBird_SR71
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Re: Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

Post by BlackBird_SR71 »

Thanks Phil.

Yes it's more of a new User problem. I remote Tune, and every time I get a new Customer they seem to be getting themselves confused on which " Current Tune " they are using.

I always use " Save As " and a Unique name for each Tune. And I use notes of course. But I have to train each and every Customer to Use the Save As feature. It's a bit of a hassle. From a noobies perspective, they get themselves lost with " Current Tune pretty easily, so a descriptive Default save would be nice.

After I whip them into shape about proper " Save As " procedures and file naming they understand how things work a lot better. But not everyone is Computer savvy.
BlackBird_SR71
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Re: Replace " Current Tune " default Tune name

Post by BlackBird_SR71 »

So I would say we don'e want to mess with TS's file. However, maybe we need some other user autosave where you can specify the name and conditions it saves?
It does start to sound similar to restore points..
Yes, that would help a lot. The new users just need a nudge to remind them to Save the tune as something other than the Default of " Current Tune".

case in point. I had a Customer send me a Datalog of his " Current Tune' he had been Auto-Tuning. He didn't know if this Tune was " Before " or After the " Auto Tune" and he had done several sessions. It really is a user Interface learning problem, but if there was some way to allow a Manual entry or even a reminder " Pop-Up " to use the " Save As " feature under the File Menu, that would help immensely.

Come to think of it. The " Pop Up " message might be the easiest way. You could have a message that says.

[quote Do you want to Save this Tune as a default " Current Tune " or do you want to save it with a User Described Name ?" [/quote]

Then you could have a radio button that send them to the " Save As " selection if they chose User Name?
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