[Nezil]

I mentioned in my post about my experience with BM3 Stage 1 91 AKI OTS tune, that I would make another post about how the BM3 ecosystem works, because this wasn't clear to me before I bought my license, and I thought it might help others who are 'on the fence'.

I believe MHD may have a similar system, but can't comment with any first hand information.

OK, so with that said, there are three major parts to the system:

• Web Based Client UI
• OBD Agent
• Cloud Service

Web Based Client UI

This is the main user interface that you use to interact with the system. Even if you have the Android / iOS app, it's basically just a web-page that makes use of some less well known features of web-pages to look for the OBD Agent over the local network.

The app based versions of the client UI do have the ability to allow you to connect without being online, and they do this presumably with a cached set of pages that provide a subset of the full online set of functions.

OBD Agent

This is a separate piece of software that handles the communications between the Web Based Client UI, the various vehicle ECUs using an E-Net cable, in much the same way that E-Sys does, and the Cloud Service.

The OBD Agent software can run on the same laptop that you're using to run the Web Based Client UI, or a different laptop on the same network, or any compute device that is able to communicate with the vehicle over E-Net, the Cloud service over the internet, and the Web Based Client UI over the local network.

The most common implementation is the OBD Agent Hardware Device, which is sold by ProTuningFreaks. This device is actually a Raspberry Pi 3B in a nice case, loaded with their software, which itself is a typical Raspberry Pi Linux build, pre-configured to auto start their OBD Agent software.

The OBD Agent has the ability to cache tunes that you've purchased or had created for you by a custom tuner. It also has the ability to flash back to stock and lock the DME, and to backup a flash that you might already have. I believe you could, for example, backup a VF Hex tune, then play with a BM3 tune, then flash back to VF Hex again all in the BM3 ecosystem.

The best thing about the OBD Agent Hardware Device (I built my own from a Raspberry Pi 3B, saving a lot of money), is that you can leave it in your vehicle permanently potentially even permanently connected to the OBD port. If you do this, you'll always have the ability to change tuning maps, using your phone as the Web Based Client UI and a WiFi hotspot. You'll also have the ability to create datalogs whenever you want. For these reasons, I'm planning to hide my Raspberry Pi somewhere in the dash and leave it plugged in permanently.

Cloud Service

The cloud services handles licensing (activating your vehicle in the ecosystem), authentication (when you log into the Web Based Client UI), and perhaps most importantly, manages the tuning ecosystem.

OTS maps are available for download from the cloud service, and will be downloaded to the OBD Agent device before they're flashed. Custom maps get sent from your tuner to the cloud service, and you submit messages, requests etc. through the cloud service as well.

The cloud service also hosts the datalogs, assuming you are doing an online log, which can then be viewed by anyone you give the link to.

I'm sure I've missed a lot of things, glossed over others, and got some things wrong, but this would have been helpful to me a few days / weeks ago when I was choosing a tune, so hopefully this will be useful to others.

[CantComplain]

thanks for this post, and for referring me over here from the burble post. Definitely helpful. I have an older Raspberry Pi and an enet cable lying around and may want to give that a rip as well.

Can you answer the question about removing the cold start? Basically, if I use an OTS stage 2 tune, can I independently remove the ridiculously loud first 30 seconds? That's almost worth the price of admission for me, but the added HP (via boost?) is super tempting as well. Ultimately I'd love to have something that I can revert to that just works, but it would be fun to dink around and see what playing with the different variables can do.

Where are you in the bay area? I'm in San Rafael.

[horsepower_and_hounds]

Neil,
I have logged offline and when I returned home they were on the cloud. Not sure how or when they uploaded

[Nezil]

Originally Posted by m2ruder

Neil,
I have logged offline and when I returned home they were on the cloud. Not sure how or when they uploaded

Magic?

I was trying to think about this myself. As I understand it the obd agent, whether on the Raspberry Pi or a laptop, has the ability to log offline to its own storage, but it will always try and upload as soon as it gets an internet connection.

I can't see a use case for the OBD Agent Device, because the only way you'd connect to it is over WiFi, and there is almost no use case (that I can think of) where the WiFi you used to connect to it didn't also have internet connectivity. If you connect at home, it will use your home internet, if you connect with your phone as a WiFi hotspot, you'll use your phone's internet.

With a laptop, things are different because the web browser can communicate with the OBD Agent because they're both on the laptop, even if the laptop has no WiFi internet connection.

I guess you did the latter approach, and as soon as you got home and checked online, the OBD Agent also checked online and uploaded the files.

[Nezil]

Originally Posted by CantComplain

thanks for this post, and for referring me over here from the burble post. Definitely helpful. I have an older Raspberry Pi and an enet cable lying around and may want to give that a rip as well.

The OBD Agent Device that PTF sells is based on a Raspberry Pi 3B, which isn't the latest version (that's the 3B+), but it also isn't that old. I don't think the Pi 2 had built in WiFi, which of course is essential for the use case.

Can you answer the question about removing the cold start? Basically, if I use an OTS stage 2 tune, can I independently remove the ridiculously loud first 30 seconds? That's almost worth the price of admission for me, but the added HP (via boost?) is super tempting as well. Ultimately I'd love to have something that I can revert to that just works, but it would be fun to dink around and see what playing with the different variables can do.

Yes, cold start is tunable with all the OTS tunes. You can choose from OEM (Which means there is a cold start) or OFF. You also get the chance to change the revs at which the cold start routine runs, so you might choose to compromise and keep the cold start, but keep the revs down.

Where are you in the bay area? I'm in San Rafael.

Sunnyvale; bottom of the peninsula.

[boostm3]

Nice explanation of the architecture Nezil.. Thanks!!

[horsepower_and_hounds]

Originally Posted by Nezil

The OBD Agent Device that PTF sells is based on a Raspberry Pi 3B, which isn't the latest version (that's the 3B+), but it also isn't that old. I don't think the Pi 2 had built in WiFi, which of course is essential for the use case.

Yes, cold start is tunable with all the OTS tunes. You can choose from OEM (Which means there is a cold start) or OFF. You also get the chance to change the revs at which the cold start routine runs, so you might choose to compromise and keep the cold start, but keep the revs down.

Sunnyvale; bottom of the peninsula.

I ordered a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Motherboard V1.2 off amazon and built mine. Think it is like a 2015 design. I am sure the B+ would work but the B was like 35 bucks

I just flashed the latest V5.3 map and I think the start up and burble intensity is good to go for me as is. The V5-5.2 was crazy war zone.......

[Nezil]

Originally Posted by m2ruder

I ordered a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Motherboard V1.2 off amazon and built mine. Think it is like a 2015 design. I am sure the B+ would work but the B was like 35 bucks

I just flashed the latest V5.3 map and I think the start up and burble intensity is good to go for me as is. The V5-5.2 was crazy war zone.......

There is a thread in one of the F80/F82 sub-forums about how the B+ doesn't work. Technically it would, but the image from PTF doesn't load because the base Linux is too old apparently.

Totally agree with you about the burbles. I like them as is now. I'm still struggling with timing pull though - see my other threads for details about that!

[mike@x-ph.com]

Thank you for the post