OpenFlash for the 1290

[vernonbc]

Is there any info to update this thread? I am considering one of these but would like to know what else it is capable of on our 1290's.

[jmann]

Is there any info to update this thread? I am considering one of these but would like to know what else it is capable of on our 1290's.

Comrade: Let me guess... Somebody was blowing smoke. Happy to be proven wrong however.

[Colonel_Klinck]

Someone has one here in the UK now. His tuner is working with it. Apparently you have incredible access to ECU. Fuel tables per cylinder, ignition tables, sensors such as SAS, lambda, error codes ect to turn on or off or clear. Not sure yet if TC ect can be adjusted on older bikes. The problem seems to be the developer Shiv seems to be a bit paranoid and flaky. You have to send files read off the ECU back to him and then he sends you tuning software. With the time difference that can mean lots of waiting while he is still in bed. It appears to have huge potential but we will have to wait and see.

You can follow Lee's progress or lack of it as the case might be on Superduke Carnage page on FB.

[abc]

It sure would be nice if we could also adjust the throttle ramp angles - any word of this?

[Colonel_Klinck]

Join the Superduke Carnage FB page and ask Shiv Pathak. He is the guy behind Openflash and can answer your questions far better than I can.

[vernonbc]

I was going to start a new thread but this thread seems to be more appropriate.

My little review on the OpenFlash Tablet (OFT)

As good as the PCV and Autotune is, I have never been a fan of piggyback devices on my bike.
For the longest time I had been considering the Rexxer tablet but for some strange reason never
got around to purchasing it and that may have been because I had to make the purchase out of europe,
so support would most likely have been an issue.

Then the OpenFlash Tablet (OFT) was mentioned a few times on a couple of KTM forums, so I decided to look into that.
Long story short, I decided to purchase the tablet. For us Canadians it is pricey when you factor in the
exchange rate and any other rediculous fees our government chooses to take. In the end it was worth it.

After receiving the OFT, I connected it to the bike so that it could download the stock tune from my ECU. I then emailed the tune, along with the config of my bike to Shiv at OpenFlash so that he could come up with a tune for me. I was rather surprised to see a tune in my inbox the next day. I loaded the tune onto my OFT and flashed the tune to the bike thinking that there is no wasy this could be a good tune, having been made up that quickly.
With tune loaded I started up the bike, let it warm up a bit and went for a ride. First thing I noticed was the dreaded hanging idle, which all but disapeared
after riding for about 30 minutes. Hanging idle seems to be a symptom of flashing the ecu as I had it when the akra map was loaded. It also went away after a lengthy ride. Maybe that is why adaptive parameters have to be reset.

The first ride with this tune just blew me away. It was just as good if not better than my Autotuned PCV tune. The other thing that I noticed was that the bike was smoother at the cruising rpm. I continued to ride with the tune and make a mental note of anything that did not feel right. So far I have found nothing wrong with the tune.
Condidering OpenFlash is 1300 miles away from me, Shiv did an amazing job with this tune. Now I am starting to wonder what the tune would be like if my bike was tuned on a dyno by Shiv. If I lived in california I would have let Shiv have his way with my bike.

I sent an email off to OpenFlash to see if he can adjust the throttle ratio......good news. YES HE CAN. Shive tweaked the tune to make the throttle a bit more aggressive.
I loaded the tune and noticed a difference but it still was not enough for me. The next tune he sent was nearly a 1:1 ratio. I loaded the tune, went for a ride and giggled the entire time. What a blast BUT, nearly 1:1 is not a safe ratio in 1st and 2nd gear. Throttle is very twitchy, difficult to smooth shift into 2nd and you better be 101 percent aware while you ride in 1st or 2nd gear or you will loose the bike. I am now waiting for a tune where the throttle is about 1/3 more aggressive fromt the first tune he sent me. I can hardly wait and will most likely leave it at what he sends me. I can always load the nearly 1:1 tune if I want some real dangerous fun.

So far the only other things you can do with the OFT is clear codes, reset the "neutral" indicator and some very basic diagnostics. Shiv says that within the next few weeks there will be a firmware update which will bring in "data logging" (I think) and other functions. I am hoping for adaptive parameter reset.

For those of you in the know, you can download TunerPro and load a special file that you need to get from Shiv so that you can do your own tuning. I have looked at the software with my map loaded and chose not to play with anything as I do not understand the info in the cells and what they all mean or represent.

Those of you that have been on the fence with this tablet can finally get off the fence. If I had to do it all over again, I would have gone straight to the OFT. Go for it, you will not regret it and you will get top notch customer service at the same time.

I hope to see other 1290 owners go the OFT route and I'm pretty sure that OpenFlash would like to see the same. In the end I believe we will all benefit.

[mrossk]

thanks for the review- have been considering this (lots of action on the AF1 website for Tuono's), or a RapidBike. Hope to see other reviews!

[abc]

vernonbc - its always good to hear peoples reports and thanks for taking the time to write something of your experience with the OFT and their backup support.
Also very good to hear that finally we can make adjustments to the throttle ramp angles - I believe this is going to finally make the 1290 into a "bit of a beast".
Please keep us posted
thanks.

[vernonbc]

vernonbc - its always good to hear peoples reports and thanks for taking the time to write something of your experience with the OFT and their backup support.
Also very good to hear that finally we can make adjustments to the throttle ramp angles - I believe this is going to finally make the 1290 into a "bit of a beast".
Please keep us posted
thanks.

"Bit of a beast"?.....are you kidding When Shiv set me up for almost 1:1 the bike was scary to ride in 1st and 2nd gear never mind having to learn how to shift from 1st to 2nd all over again.
For me it was not a matter of IF I was going to lose the bike but WHEN. It sure was a blast to ride it like that though but not practical by any means. I still have the map on my tablet and will keep it just in case I want a riding day of giggles.
I noticed that OpenFlash is now working on a tablet for the Aprilia. Hmmm, maybe a 3rd bike?

[michaeln]

I ordered an OFT for my 2016 SDR 1290 this morning. I don't like piggyback devices much either, if it can be done with an ECU flash that is my strong preference.

[Colonel_Klinck]

I won't go near it while the bike is under warranty. KTM are looking for any reason not to honour warranty claims. I'm not convinced they wouldn't be able to detect this flash. If they can see how long you take to warm the bike up before you ride, how high you rev'ing it, where you ride it, motorway/city/open roads ect I'm not sure they couldn't see this. I was speaking to a dealer I know today and he said everything is stored in the ECU and if I bought my bike in he could tell me exactly how I've been riding it since new. Everytime I've bounced the limiter, if I've got near the limiter on downshifts, top speeds. You name it it's been logged.

[Scotty]

Hmmm, I wonder how long it will be before this in-built datalogging can be sized by the police and used in court?

[Colonel_Klinck]

Hmmm, I wonder how long it will be before this in-built datalogging can be sized by the police and used in court?

I believe after chatting to someone it works in a way that assigns letters to categories. So on say how quickly you ride the bike when after starting from cold a: bike fully warmed up to 80c. b: bike 60c warmed up: c: bike 40c warmed up. d: bike 30c warmed up. e: bike ridden from cold. Then there could be a category for external temp at the time of starting. For something like over rev on down shift. a: bike over rev by 50rpm for 10 revolutions. right down to say f: bike over rev by 500rpm for 400 revolutions, which could be catastrophic. Obviously if it is being stored like this even 1gb of flash memory could store an almost endless amount of data. This would be no use to police unless it is date and time stamped and they are trying to get a speed at say time of an accident, so could look at last entries and then only if speed is at a point that the ECU is instructed to store.

[michaeln]

I cancelled my order for the OFT and will be going another direction.

[Colonel_Klinck]

I want Woolich or Flash Tune ECU to start supporting KTM ECUs. Both huge experience in ECU flashing software and the backup of proper company. You aren't reliant on some guy in his home several time zones away. Also WAY too expensive. Woolich is £250 for .bin file to allow your tuner to use it or £325 for everything so you can do it yourself. OpenFlash is £650 and my tuner said no way is he trying to tune a bike on a small tablet.

[OzBeast]

I think you'll find Openflash is a proper company in a proper premises and they do a lot of tuning, it's not a bloke in his home. He even has a 14-16 1290 of his own to develop on the dyno. I'd like you to show me another tuner who has gone to that extreme of buying a development bike.

I get emails back from Shiv within 12 hours, always answered and always happy to help. He's making me a custom map for my setup and our fuels here as we speak. I just sent him my dyno graphs with AFRs and torque and horsepower. His initial map he sent me for open airbox and open exhaust has a cleaner and straighter AFR than the Akro map.

You don't tune on the tablet. You load maps and do diagnostics and datalog on the tablet.

You tune on a PC with TunerPro or TunerPro RT.

You're tripping if you think KTM log every bit of data. Imagine how long it would take to get full logs off your bike with the CANBUS serial data rate at 500kb/s, then sent to KTM over the net. Not happening.

[Colonel_Klinck]

I think you'll find Openflash is a proper company in a proper premises and they do a lot of tuning, it's not a bloke in his home. He even has a 14-16 1290 of his own to develop on the dyno. I'd like you to show me another tuner who has gone to that extreme of buying a development bike.

I get emails back from Shiv within 12 hours, always answered and always happy to help. He's making me a custom map for my setup and our fuels here as we speak. I just sent him my dyno graphs with AFRs and torque and horsepower. His initial map he sent me for open airbox and open exhaust has a cleaner and straighter AFR than the Akro map.

You don't tune on the tablet. You load maps and do diagnostics and datalog on the tablet.

You tune on a PC with TunerPro or TunerPro RT.

You're tripping if you think KTM log every bit of data. Imagine how long it would take to get full logs off your bike with the CANBUS serial data rate at 500kb/s, then sent to KTM over the net. Not happening.

Well I know 2 people who have had nothing but hassle. Not answering emails or phone due to timezone difference and time wasted at a booked dyno. Glad you haven't but that put me right off.

edit:
As for a "proper company" it is just one guy. It isn't a company with staff to deal with communication with customers who, lets face it, have paid over 100% more for a product than other ECU flashing companies charge. I'm not sure he bought a 1290 to develop on it. He bought a 1290 because he likes that kind of bike and car and then got it to work on the 1290. The product was originally developed for cars not bikes. Google Shiv Pathak and Open Flash and look through some of the car forums. There are threads on its development and how he was asking for help with the coding, the premise being it was "open" as in open source. People did help thinking it would be great, next thing it is anything but "open", they were not happy. I'm not knocking anyone for looking to make money from their passion. For me it is WAY over priced and for that kind of money I'd be expecting top top customer support. I exchanged several emails with him when I first bought my 1290 and he was vague on giving any details. I've emailed Woolich several times and they couldn't be further away timezone wise being in Australia and I always have a reply within 24 hours. There is UK phone number as well if I need to speak to them. They also have a forum where customers can discuss any issues. Dyno time isn't cheap and if I'd booked a dyno for a day and then came accross a problem and couldn't get hold of the company and wasted all that time and money I'd be fooking screwing!!

[michaeln]

I too had problems with communication with them. Called, no answer, went to voicemail, but voicemail box is full... several times in a week. The recording tells you to email for faster service, but I had multiple emails go unanswered.

For a business model that involves them generating maps and emailing them back and forth, I felt their poor communications did not bode well for usage of their product. Further, most dyno guys will be familiar with Dynojet software, and will not likely want to have to learn the OF software.

[Markey]

Can i just add a positive for Shiv and OFT please guys

Picked one up for MY17 Tuono Factory and the difference was unbelievable - Running Full Akra System and aprilia race mapping from new the bike was ok but then i added this flash and the difference was amazing

His communication via email was right on the money with hardly any delay considering he's half way around the globe

Now i have a 1290GT on order for some trips abroad next year and he's currently working on a flash for that for me


Not nice reading some of these comments when the guy clearly knows what he's doing but hey! Each to there own and speak as you find

[Colonel_Klinck]

Can i just add a positive for Shiv and OFT please guys

Picked one up for MY17 Tuono Factory and the difference was unbelievable - Running Full Akra System and aprilia race mapping from new the bike was ok but then i added this flash and the difference was amazing

His communication via email was right on the money with hardly any delay considering he's half way around the globe

Now i have a 1290GT on order for some trips abroad next year and he's currently working on a flash for that for me


Not nice reading some of these comments when the guy clearly knows what he's doing but hey! Each to there own and speak as you find

Yeah but you won't be able to use the same tablet for both bikes unless he has changed his policy. One tablet per bike is required. Look as I said above I'm not knocking anyone who makes products for our bikes. He has done it in such a way as to maximise profits. Having to buy the hardware for every bike is madness. He could have figured out a way to charge for the bin file and then you only need to purchase the tablet once. You could then use it for any bike you purchase that Open Flash supports.

[jmann]

Comrades: I agree that anyone should be able to gain a modest income as a result of their efforts. I'm also of the firm view that challenging the capability of software systems is not necessarily bagging the supplier it is merely called evidence-based investment. In this particular case I'd be very interested to hear from anyone that has actually used this system on a 1290 or a GT. Also, rather than suggesting that there were great improvements I'd like to see the evidence such as a before/after dyno runs and also some graphics illustrating the maps before and after. To date, I haven't seen any of this except for cars and claims about Tuono's Etc. A Tuono is not a KTM Superduke. Further, there are many systems to trick the ECU, such as PC5's Etc, but that is not the same as being able to modify the maps directly. I've not seen any evidence that OpenFlash is actually able to do this. In fact, when I look at things such as the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujGnr4e48Cg

I see software that is merely reading the canbus data (anyone can do that) and apparently either modifying the injector open times (+-). If i'm correct then all this software is capable of doing on a 1290 is making it either richer or leaner across the whole rev range

Perhaps somebody can prove me wrong and if so I'd be happy to admit my mistake. In fact, anybody that is really able to do this is, I believe, is on a promise of a date with kevxtx's sister

As an aside I'd like to acknowledge the work of one of our other contributors (Seattle Dan) who published on this forum (for free) a great deal of information about reading RPM's and other engine parameters from the canbus.

In the meantime this little old retiree fills in some of his spare time banging his head against the wall trying to work out ways of decrypting the actual maps files. KTM should be happy it's been some years now.

[DaveNZ]

Can i just add a positive for Shiv and OFT please guys

Picked one up for MY17 Tuono Factory and the difference was unbelievable - Running Full Akra System and aprilia race mapping from new the bike was ok but then i added this flash and the difference was amazing

His communication via email was right on the money with hardly any delay considering he's half way around the globe

Now i have a 1290GT on order for some trips abroad next year and he's currently working on a flash for that for me


Not nice reading some of these comments when the guy clearly knows what he's doing but hey! Each to there own and speak as you find

Hello there Markey, and just thought id say giday, the GT is a very good bike, but it does have its sporting limits in its suspension, but the bike is still bloody deceptively fast, i ride with Tuono V4 Factory' 1100s, and Panigale 1299Ss, and I'm never far from the pace, and often out front setting a pace. There seems to be limited options for the GT, in the way of KTM supplied mapping for open pipes, in comparison to the 1290R, but I've neve felt the bike was lacking power. Hey have you got your Touno Factory for sale, i always thought yours was one of the better looking ones.

[abc]

Well i have to say that I am still very interested to see what happens with this tuning option. Time to sit back and be patient me thinks.
I can tell you from my many years of designing and building stuff for cars/bikes and industry that it is almost impossible to keep everybody happy! I know when working as an individual and not part of a company or business it is nearly impossible to answer all enquiries and return every message, all whilst trying to develop a product and streamline manufacture and keep orders under control.
It can be very hectic and at times I have been run off my feet for months on end, all whilst trying to keep everyone happy - it can be a tough ask with customers demanding service and all in quick time - all of the above are just some of the reasons I stopped developing products for individual sale.
I have no idea if this tablet is a good thing or not, and I hope he is trying to do his best. I bet he is running around madly trying to develop the product and fill orders over multiple platforms. Fun it is not.
For me, I am prepared to keep an open mind as to the effectiveness of the OFT and just wait for info to trickle down. The remotely developed maps based on mods is a concern to me as the dyno remains an important individual tuning need. Hopefully in the end the device will prove effective so we can all make these bikes go harder. In my view the locked up ecu is the biggest let down on these bikes.