• Sign Up! To view all forums and unlock additional cool features

    Welcome to the #1 Fiesta ST Forum and Fiesta ST community dedicated to Fiesta ST owners and enthusiasts. Register for an account, it's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the Fiesta ST Forum today!


Multiple ECU Maps

Taz

Member
Messages
196
Likes
103
Location
England, UK
#1
Is it possible to have multiple ECU maps installed for different driving conditions and easy to switch between when you're driving, like when you come off a motorway/freeway and enter a built-up area or visa-versa? I ask because it would be quite handy to have the factory map for town driving, but have newer performance maps for "spirited driving" whilst out on the open road, and all at a touch of a button. I seem to remember that there's handsets you can buy, similar to smart phones, that can carry multiple maps and allow you to easily switch between them?
 


FiestaSTdude

1000 Post Club
Premium Account
Messages
1,414
Likes
1,702
Location
Cary, NC
#3
Is it possible to have multiple ECU maps installed for different driving conditions and easy to switch between when you're driving, like when you come off a motorway/freeway and enter a built-up area or visa-versa? I ask because it would be quite handy to have the factory map for town driving, but have newer performance maps for "spirited driving" whilst out on the open road, and all at a touch of a button. I seem to remember that there's handsets you can buy, similar to smart phones, that can carry multiple maps and allow you to easily switch between them?
I believe the handset you’re referring to is the accessport. I don’t know if Cobb makes accessports for european fiestas though.
I know some tuners will give you more than one tune that can be set from the cruise control.
In order to do that, I believe you need an accessport to load the tunes.
@Taz you should figure out if you can get an accessport that will work with your car.
 


OP
Taz

Taz

Member
Messages
196
Likes
103
Location
England, UK
Thread Starter #4
I believe the handset you’re referring to is the accessport. I don’t know if Cobb makes accessports for european fiestas though.

In order to do that, I believe you need an accessport to load the tunes.
@Taz you should figure out if you can get an accessport that will work with your car.
Ah, that's the one! Can it be customised to use any make of tunes, or are you stuck with Cobb tunes? Once I get round to having my Revo Stage 4 done I'd really like something like that so I can switch back to factory mode when I'm driving in towns.
 


FiestaSTdude

1000 Post Club
Premium Account
Messages
1,414
Likes
1,702
Location
Cary, NC
#6
Ah, that's the one! Can it be customised to use any make of tunes, or are you stuck with Cobb tunes? Once I get round to having my Revo Stage 4 done I'd really like something like that so I can switch back to factory mode when I'm driving in towns.
Once you have an accessport you can purchase a custom tune and flash it to your ecu. I don’t think you can switch back to a factory tune while driving but I know some tunes allow you to switch to a economy tune on the fly.
 


OP
Taz

Taz

Member
Messages
196
Likes
103
Location
England, UK
Thread Starter #8
Since the OP is in the U.K, an Accessport won't work for him.

https://www.fiestastforum.com/threads/maf-versus-map.14805/
If so that would be very unfortunate. I'll just have to ask the Revo guys about alternatives when the time comes. I've seen someone here changing from one map to another, but he used a clunky great laptop that he keeps in the car. If I'm going to do such a thing then it would have to be a lot more quick and user friendly, something small like the Accessport that I can just stick to the dash and operate at will.
 


Dialcaliper

Active member
Messages
716
Likes
1,184
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
#10
I think it’s not so much that the Accessport is “incompatible”, but that COBB just haven’t made MAF compatible files, nor have any of the US tuners who use the COBB system and Accesstuner as their baseline.

Mountune still uses a rebadged Accessport as the delivery device for their UK tunes. Mountune has clearly taken it and done their own software thing to get it to work for UK cars, and isn’t using COBB’s as a baseline

The map switching functionality we have is part of the base software written by COBB into Fiesta ST functionality, and made available to all the US tuners that use Accesstuner, not something each tuner came up with individually. The programming for it only been done once (by COBB’s team).

COBB is in an intermediate place the ECU tuning world in that regard, having made an whole tuning ecosystem available to third parties that’s halfway between factory style “ecu-reflash” and “standalone” ECU capability while retaining the factory ECU, instead of simple reflashes or full replacements. A few other companies have done similar things, but it’s not the “traditional” approach to ECU tuning that came out of the 90’s and 00’s. Specifically having made a system with “lockable” (to both pro-tuner and locked-to-vehicle) tune files to enable third party professional tuners to build a business around it. Most other companies that have gone with a similar approach have gone either with proprietary flashes, or “open” user-tunable flash files

The question is whether it’s actually worth it trying to compete with the established UK outfits like Pumaspeed/Mountune/MaxD that have been around a lot a whole lot longer supporting UK market “fast Fords” and have built up good reputations, and the whole issue of overseas support.
 


Last edited:
OP
Taz

Taz

Member
Messages
196
Likes
103
Location
England, UK
Thread Starter #11
I think it’s not so much that the Accessport is “incompatible”, but that COBB just haven’t made MAF compatible files, nor have any of the US tuners who use the COBB system and Accesstuner as their baseline.

Mountune still uses a rebadged Accessport as the delivery device for their UK tunes. Mountune has clearly taken it and done their own software thing to get it to work for UK cars, and isn’t using COBB’s as a baseline

The map switching functionality we have is part of the base software written by COBB into Fiesta ST functionality, and made available to all the US tuners that use Accesstuner, not something each tuner came up with individually. The programming for it only been done once (by COBB’s team).

COBB is in an intermediate place the ECU tuning world in that regard, having made an whole tuning ecosystem available to third parties that’s halfway between factory style “ecu-reflash” and “standalone” ECU capability while retaining the factory ECU, instead of simple reflashes or full replacements. A few other companies have done similar things, but it’s not the “traditional” approach to ECU tuning that came out of the 90’s and 00’s. Specifically having made a system with “lockable” (to both pro-tuner and locked-to-vehicle) tune files to enable third party professional tuners to build a business around it. Most other companies that have gone with a similar approach have gone either with proprietary flashes, or “open” user-tunable flash files

The question is whether it’s actually worth it trying to compete with the established UK outfits like Pumaspeed/Mountune/MaxD that have been around a lot a whole lot longer supporting UK market “fast Fords” and have built up good reputations, and the whole issue of overseas support.
I got one of those Mountune handsets when I had my Focus ST tuned. From what I can remember I was told that Mountune had "locked it" (?) so it couldn't be used for any other function other than to download their software. I'll have to try and find it and take it to Revo when the time comes, and see if they can reset it to work like a regular Accessport.
 




Top