Sonofswin
September 18th, 2013, 06:49 AM
This is going to be a multi-part How-To for using the Autotune for your Power Commander V (PCV) that is adapted from an old post on the Yamaha Road Star Raider Motorcycle Forum by Capt_Zoom.
One thing I want to clear up before I begin is the idea that the Autotune will change your bike's performance on the fly. I've read this here and there on the Web, and the Dynojet site even seems to suggest it to be so, but this is just not the case. What the Autotune does is sample your exhaust gases and record recommended changes in the Air-Fuel Ratio to achieve the desired ratio as set in the Target AFR Table. The bike is running off the base map you have set and until you accept the changes recommended by the Autotune, there will be no change in how your bike runs.
From Capt_Zoom:
Currently how the Autotune works is that when you go for a ride it samples your exhaust. Now you could update your map right then but your sample would be small and poor. Dynojet told me to ride for a week or say 300 miles to get a very good trim table built. Then accept the trims thus changing your base map (whatever that base map was). You can improve this more by adjusting the trim table slightly (manually) smoothing out values and tossing out values that are attempting a change of over 10% since they are likely due to air reversion (I think I tossed something like 5 cells). Substitute the average of the adjacent cells for that throttle position to smooth this out. To go even further you can reduce popping at the 0 throttle position by adding 3-4% to the current AFR. Once your manual changes are done you'll have a map that is smoothed out (you could see this if we plotted all the AFR's for each throttle position. We wouldn't have a lot of erratic jumping from say -9 to +9.
In this How-To I'm assuming that you've installed the PCV and Autotune correctly and are using the wide band o2 sensor which is required for the Autotune to work. For instructions see the Power Commander site (linked in next section) but take it with a grain of salt as I have never found their instructions to be that accurate. I have posted a DIY in the WIKI for installing the PCV on the 250R.
Important links:
Power Commander (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/default.aspx)
Downloads (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/Downloads/Default.aspx)
Power Commander Kawasaki EX250 page (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/powercommanders.aspx?mk=27&mdl=264&yr=2011&pc=17-035&mk-n=Kawasaki&mdl-n=EX250%20%28Europe%20Only%29&pc-ver=PCV&add-mdlyrid=17-035&add-mdlyrid2=17-035&fullstr=17-035&prod-type=Powercommander%20V%20%28Fuel%20and%20Ignition%29) and the Kawasaki EX300 page (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/powercommanders.aspx?mk=27&mdl=445&yr=2013&pc=17-046&mk-n=Kawasaki&mdl-n=EX300&pc-ver=PCV&add-mdlyrid=17-046&add-mdlyrid2=17-046&fullstr=17-046&prod-type=Powercommander%20V%20%28Fuel%20and%20Ignition%29)
Some really important tips and notes to consider while reading this tutorial:
a. Whenever possible, ride for a sufficient time to get a good map. This means ideally changes of less than 5% in your trim table. If you have more than a couple of cells that aren't less then 5% then it's possible you either have more riding to do or your base map was quite different from your actual system. Capt_Zoom claimed to have had 5 cells total that were over 5% and 3 of those were due to air reversion. He totaled 300 miles before trimming. I am not usually able to map for such distances or get better results the longer I ride, so I only map under controlled circumstances. (Since I have a switch on my Autotune, I turn it off before I begin to decelerate. I also don't usually map in normal traffic, only when I know I will be running at a given throttle position and RPM.)
b. During your initial rides, before accepting trims, try to prevent air reversion (that weird sucking and popping sound from the pipes on decel.) by not using the motor/gearing for braking. The original version of this How-to recommended simply pulling your clutch and using the brakes, stating that while this is a bit counter intuitive for riding, it will result in a better first trim. Put easily – Don't decelerate while mapping!!
c. Make sure you don't trim your maps too often. It causes undesirable effects, particularly really rich cells where air reversion commonly occur. What I usually do is put all my maps into a spreadsheet – including the first base map. Then I can copy and paste the recommended changes and compare the entire series of changes to be sure I'm not getting any extremely rich or lean cells. (You can copy and paste the cells directly from the Power Commander software into a spreadsheet and visa-verse.)
d. Don't willy-nilly accept trim changes. Examine each cell to see what's occurring. Anything above a recommended 5% change is likely not complete and anything over say a 12% change is likely due to air reversion. If you repeatedly accept trim changes without examining them you'll end up with very rich AFR tables...not good.
e. Manually adjust your cells if needed (as explained above and below).
f. Air reversion refers to air coming up the exhaust pipe and screwing up the reading of the wide band o2 sensor. Air reversion can also cause popping and backfiring and occurs with greater frequency in shorter exhaust pipes.
One thing I want to clear up before I begin is the idea that the Autotune will change your bike's performance on the fly. I've read this here and there on the Web, and the Dynojet site even seems to suggest it to be so, but this is just not the case. What the Autotune does is sample your exhaust gases and record recommended changes in the Air-Fuel Ratio to achieve the desired ratio as set in the Target AFR Table. The bike is running off the base map you have set and until you accept the changes recommended by the Autotune, there will be no change in how your bike runs.
From Capt_Zoom:
Currently how the Autotune works is that when you go for a ride it samples your exhaust. Now you could update your map right then but your sample would be small and poor. Dynojet told me to ride for a week or say 300 miles to get a very good trim table built. Then accept the trims thus changing your base map (whatever that base map was). You can improve this more by adjusting the trim table slightly (manually) smoothing out values and tossing out values that are attempting a change of over 10% since they are likely due to air reversion (I think I tossed something like 5 cells). Substitute the average of the adjacent cells for that throttle position to smooth this out. To go even further you can reduce popping at the 0 throttle position by adding 3-4% to the current AFR. Once your manual changes are done you'll have a map that is smoothed out (you could see this if we plotted all the AFR's for each throttle position. We wouldn't have a lot of erratic jumping from say -9 to +9.
In this How-To I'm assuming that you've installed the PCV and Autotune correctly and are using the wide band o2 sensor which is required for the Autotune to work. For instructions see the Power Commander site (linked in next section) but take it with a grain of salt as I have never found their instructions to be that accurate. I have posted a DIY in the WIKI for installing the PCV on the 250R.
Important links:
Power Commander (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/default.aspx)
Downloads (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/Downloads/Default.aspx)
Power Commander Kawasaki EX250 page (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/powercommanders.aspx?mk=27&mdl=264&yr=2011&pc=17-035&mk-n=Kawasaki&mdl-n=EX250%20%28Europe%20Only%29&pc-ver=PCV&add-mdlyrid=17-035&add-mdlyrid2=17-035&fullstr=17-035&prod-type=Powercommander%20V%20%28Fuel%20and%20Ignition%29) and the Kawasaki EX300 page (http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander/powercommanders.aspx?mk=27&mdl=445&yr=2013&pc=17-046&mk-n=Kawasaki&mdl-n=EX300&pc-ver=PCV&add-mdlyrid=17-046&add-mdlyrid2=17-046&fullstr=17-046&prod-type=Powercommander%20V%20%28Fuel%20and%20Ignition%29)
Some really important tips and notes to consider while reading this tutorial:
a. Whenever possible, ride for a sufficient time to get a good map. This means ideally changes of less than 5% in your trim table. If you have more than a couple of cells that aren't less then 5% then it's possible you either have more riding to do or your base map was quite different from your actual system. Capt_Zoom claimed to have had 5 cells total that were over 5% and 3 of those were due to air reversion. He totaled 300 miles before trimming. I am not usually able to map for such distances or get better results the longer I ride, so I only map under controlled circumstances. (Since I have a switch on my Autotune, I turn it off before I begin to decelerate. I also don't usually map in normal traffic, only when I know I will be running at a given throttle position and RPM.)
b. During your initial rides, before accepting trims, try to prevent air reversion (that weird sucking and popping sound from the pipes on decel.) by not using the motor/gearing for braking. The original version of this How-to recommended simply pulling your clutch and using the brakes, stating that while this is a bit counter intuitive for riding, it will result in a better first trim. Put easily – Don't decelerate while mapping!!
c. Make sure you don't trim your maps too often. It causes undesirable effects, particularly really rich cells where air reversion commonly occur. What I usually do is put all my maps into a spreadsheet – including the first base map. Then I can copy and paste the recommended changes and compare the entire series of changes to be sure I'm not getting any extremely rich or lean cells. (You can copy and paste the cells directly from the Power Commander software into a spreadsheet and visa-verse.)
d. Don't willy-nilly accept trim changes. Examine each cell to see what's occurring. Anything above a recommended 5% change is likely not complete and anything over say a 12% change is likely due to air reversion. If you repeatedly accept trim changes without examining them you'll end up with very rich AFR tables...not good.
e. Manually adjust your cells if needed (as explained above and below).
f. Air reversion refers to air coming up the exhaust pipe and screwing up the reading of the wide band o2 sensor. Air reversion can also cause popping and backfiring and occurs with greater frequency in shorter exhaust pipes.