Remote tuning
How a DigiTune remote tune works
Every tune we build starts with data logged on your own car, on your own roads. How that data gets to us is your choice: let DigiTune Connect do the work for you, or do it yourself with MEITE.
With DigiTune Connect
A free Windows app that talks to your ECU directly. It sets the car up, records the drives and sends everything back on its own — no basemap to find, no files to dig out, no form to fill in.
By hand, with MEITE
The original process. You load the basemap, work through the pre-tune checklist yourself, make the logs in MEITE and send them over with the tune information form.
Before you start
What your car needs
This part is the same whichever route you take. If anything here is missing or you are not sure, talk to us first — it is much cheaper to sort out before the tuning starts than during it.
- A Motorsport Electronics ME221, ME360 or ME442 ECU. These are the only ECUs we tune remotely.
- A wideband AFR gauge, or an ECU with wideband built in. Everything we do with the fuelling is measured against it.
- A knock sensor. Essential on anything forced induction and strongly recommended on everything else. Every MX-5 from 1999 on has a suitable sensor from the factory; for the rest there is a knock sensor kit.
- A boost solenoid, if the car is turbocharged and you want more than wastegate pressure. Not needed for a basic tune. We sell an MX-5 boost solenoid kit.
- Working coolant and intake air temperature sensors, and no known mechanical or electrical faults. A car that will not run properly cannot be tuned; tell us about anything you already know is wrong.
- A Windows laptop and a USB cable to the ECU, with enough battery to cover a warm-up and a drive — half an hour is the minimum, and more is better.
- Fuel in the tank of the type you intend to run, and no obvious leaks — oil, water, air, exhaust or fuel.
Some cars will need a timing light
Base timing has to be right before anything else on the car is measured, so it is checked at the start of every tune, with a timing light pointed at the crank pulley.
On the manual process you always do this yourself — it is on the pre-tune checklist below.
With DigiTune Connect, the app decides whether you need to. It reads your ECU’s trigger setup before it asks you for anything: an MX-5 on the standard crank trigger, or on a 36-2 wheel, whose trigger offset is already where it should be is told the check is optional and can skip it. Any other setup — a wire-in ECU, a non-standard trigger, or an offset outside the usual range — and Connect will ask you to mark TDC on the pulley and set the base timing with a timing light before it goes on.
If you are not sure which of those is your car, assume you will need one.
Recommended
The process with DigiTune Connect
DigiTune Connect is free. What you buy is the tune, and this is how it reaches your car. The app asks you the questions we used to ask on a form, sets the car up against your own ECU, records the drives and sends the lot back in one go.
- Buy a tune. A licence key is emailed to you along with a download link. Full Remote Tune for a car tuned start to finish; Basic Remote Tune if you only need it running well enough to get to a rolling road. If you need something else — adjustments to an existing tune, for instance — get in touch first.
- Install DigiTune Connect and enter your key. The app itself is free and you can install it before you buy. This is the one step that needs an internet connection.
- Plug the ECU into the laptop. The light at the foot of the sidebar turns green and the home page names your car. You do not need MEITE installed, and you do not need to load a basemap — Connect builds your starting tune itself.
- Run Tune Initialisation. It asks about your car, builds a starting tune and writes it to the ECU, then works through the checks with you: base timing, the temperature sensors, the throttle, the wideband and the boost solenoid on turbo cars. Your old tune is backed up first. It then asks for a warm-up and a short drive, which it records for you.
- Add any notes and press Submit to tuner. Your answers, your recordings and the tune itself go back to us in one file. If you are out of signal it waits and sends itself the next time the laptop sees Wi-Fi.
What you no longer have to do
- Find and load a basemap that half matches your car
- Work through the pre-tune checklist on your own
- Record logs in MEITE and go looking for the files afterwards
- Save the calibration off the ECU and attach it to something
- Fill in the tune information form
Connect runs on 64-bit Windows 10 or later and connects to the ME221, ME360 and ME442 over the USB cable. An Android version is on the way.
What happens next
A tune is not one file — it is a series of adjustments, each one built on how the car drove with the last.
- We review what came back and check for anything that needs correcting before the tuning can begin.
- We aim to have your first adjustment ready within 48 hours of receiving a complete submission. It appears on the Connect home page by itself — there is nothing to download, unzip or load by hand.
- Connect walks you through it and asks for another drive. The more driving you do in each one, the more we can refine the map.
- Each version should be better than the last. We keep iterating until the car drives as well as it can with your individual engine and setup.
Still supported
Prefer to do it by hand?
The original process still works and we still support it in full — the tuning you get at the end is exactly the same. Use it if you would rather not install another application, or if Connect will not run on the laptop you have.
You will need MEITE installed, and you will be doing the setup yourself: loading a basemap, working through the pre-tune checklist, checking base timing with a timing light, recording the logs and sending them over with the tune information form.
Pre-Tune Tasks
1. Check that your car meets the requirements
- Motorsport Electronics ME221, ME360 or ME442 ECU
- Wideband AFR gauge or ECU built in wideband
- Windows laptop with MEITE software installed and at least 30 minutes of battery life
- Boost solenoid fitted for turbocharged cars wanting more than wastegate boost pressure
- A knock sensor is essential for forced induction and highly recommended for all cars. (All MX5s from 1999 onward have a suitable knock sensor installed from the factory.)
- A cable to connect the laptop to the ECU
2. Load a basemap
Please skip this step if the car already starts and runs well (eg has been tuned elsewhere)
- Basemaps can be loaded from within MEITE (see screenshot below)
- Often, the exact combination of car, year, engine size, injectors, turbo etc will not be available.
- Firmware version must be correct
- ECU model must be correct
- Injectors should be correct if possible
- If a correct injector basemap does not exist, choose the most similar one and correct both size and dead times.
- Turbo and supercharged maps are interchangeable
- Engine size can be corrected in the engine driver
Note: the car may not run well on a basemap but it should start and continue to run. Some throttle input may be required to keep the car running in some cases. In nearly all cases when the car will not start on a basemap, it is due to a mechanical or electrical fault. In this case, please ensure you have thoroughly read the ECU installation manual.
3. Review the pre-tune checklist
- Car starts and runs with no known mechanical/electrical issues (please discuss with us if the car does not run or you are aware of any issues)
- Wideband gauge matches between MEITE and ECU (ignore this step if using built in wideband)
- Temperature sensors (coolant and intake air temperature) reading correctly
- Boost solenoid fitted, wired correctly and tested with manual duty (turbo cars only and not required for a basic tune)
- ST SIGN fuse removed (MX5 Mk1 1.6 89-95 only)
- The tank contains the fuel you intend to run
- No obvious leaks (oil, water, air, exhaust or fuel)
- Base timing checked and confirmed at 10 degrees using a timing light (this is best done with the engine running)
4. Make a log
See here for how to make a log.
- Start logging before starting the car
- Log the start and idle up to temperature
- If the car is drivable, please also log a short drive
- Please do not use full throttle or high RPM at this stage unless the car is already known to run well
- The more driving data we receive, the more we will be able to achieve in the first update
- If you notice any dangerous conditions eg excessively rich at low load or excessively lean at high load, do not drive the car for longer than necessary
- By default, the logs save to desktop/MELogs. The log filename will be the ECU model, date and time eg ME442-V2B-PNP_2024_05_25_10_22_58.csv. Logginginfo.xml is not required.
5. Save the calibration file from the ECU
Please follow this link for instructions on how to save the calibration file from the ECU
6. Purchase a remote tune
Please purchase the Full Remote Tune or Basic Remote Tune from our website.
If you have specific needs eg modification to an existing tune, please contact us to discuss.
7. Fill in the tune information form
Please ensure that you have performed all of the above steps before filling in the tune information form!
We aim to provide the first updated calibration file within 48hrs of receiving a completed tune information form. We will contact you by email when the first adjusted calibration file is ready for you to load onto your ECU.
Tuning process
- We will review the form and files that you have uploaded and check for any issues that need correcting before the tuning can begin.
- We aim to send each updated calibration file within 48hrs from receiving log data and this will be shared through Google Drive.
- After each updated calibration file, we will require you to make a new log. The more driving you can do in each log, the more we can refine the map.
- Each time you drive the car with a new calibration file, you should notice an improvement. We will continue to iterate until the car drives as well as possible with your individual engine and setup.