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Hack Your Ride
LukePieStalker writes "Monday's Boston Globe has a story on the global market for car chippers. The article describes a global subculture of "drivers who reprogram their vehicles and the companies that keep them supplied with high-performance software and silicon chips".
One nice hack: a car chipped-up for the race track can be set back to factory specs for the street simply by pushing the cruise control button."
And the coming of warmer weather is bringing in a new wave of customers to KTR, which was originally owned by Boston rocker J. Geils.
For some reason, I find that incredibly cool.
Maybe the whole purpose of these new mod chips is so drivers can make back-up copies of their cars in case they crash.
Sorry, I'll leave now.
He took a duck to the face at 250 knots.
And what do you do when you want "normal" cruise control?
... doesn't use chips you insensitive clod! (actually, it can run without any fuses installed as well...)
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
They aren't really chips anymore. The "firmware" can be revised but this is getting more and more complex. Short of reverse engineering the electrical system and creating a replacement ECU, it may not be possible to do this in the near future.
There's actually a large market for programmable PnP ECUs out there.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
We've been doing this for years. What's so special about custom chips? They've existed since cars come with electronic engine control systems.
Having owned a car with this capability in the past, I can provide some insight. The chip supplier installs 2 or more "programs" that you can switch between (stock, chipped, valet, and race gas are some of the more common programs). To switch between programs you hold down your cruise control and after a few second a light will flash on your dash X number of times letting you know which program you're switching to.
In short, your cruise control works just fine with the switchable programs.
If the RIAA gets its way, it may actually become necessary to get your car mod chipped to play bootleg CDs :D
That "nice hack" is more than just a cute little feature, it is required to pass your emissions inspection if you happen to live in places like the NE and the west coast. This is not to be confused with the saftey inspection that most states do, wlthough the emissions inspection almost always occurs at the same time.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
How long before we can wi-fi-cluster cars, and let the network arrange speed and routing through congested urban areas?
I want the future now!
Han: That chip goes there and that chip goes there!
Chewie: *Bwaaaaarrraaugh* (translation: Stuff it, honky.)
I also reply below your current threshold.
According to the article, mod chip have two categories:
:) demand 91 octane anyway, but that's due to engine compression issues. You don't need a chip to take advantage of premium fuel, just a good OEM computer.
Normally aspirated: Add a small bit of horsepower (normally less than you can feel in a double blind test) and lose significant mielage.
Turbocharged: turn up the boost, wear out the engine in a hurry.
What the article doesn't point out is that over-boosting your engine will cause it to wear out in a hurry. The engines in today's cars are built to handle a specific amount of power, and when the power is increased the wear on components is exponentially increased.
For those curious, our head engineer tells me that there is a cubic relation between engine RPM's and stress. Stress causes wear, and that's not a linear only relationship either.
When stress exceeds a certain value, BANG + expensive crunching noises happen.
----
Back in the good old days, re-chipping your ride could actually help (though not always). However, as the engineers learned more and more, the cars got better and better. Also bear in mind, performance is very important nowadays. The factory is getting all the performance it can out of tuning cars, while keeping mielage and wear in check. Also remember that these engines were designed for performance from word one.
The only reason to start reprogramming the engine controls is when significant hardware changes have been made.
As to the "Premium Fuel" thing, I'm doubtful, since all engines i've ever worked with use knock sensors, and are always running at the ragged edge of detonation anyway. There's quite a bit more involved than just fuel octane. Different formulations of fuel from different gas companies burn differently (gas is actually about ~40 or so chemicals in a cocktail). Altitude, engine temperature, air temperature, humidity, air filter cleanliness, RPM, engine load, and spark plugs all play important roles in detonation.
Consequently, the chips are continually adjusting for all that. Supposed octane levels are just one more factor. Granted, some cars, like the Acrua NSX
Like our head engineers always says: It takes a lot of work to outsmart factory engineers. And several million dollars.
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
I'm waiting for one that puts a usb port on it so I can connect the laptop and make alterations on the fly. How about having a bunch of different settings saved so that I can switch between them easily?
;-)
If you're a hardcore racer, you could have optimised settings for different humidity/temperature conditions, switchable at the touch of a key. Maybe save a set of baseline settings for each race locale and modify for the conditions on race day.
We could be about to regain the tuning freedom that went away when cars switched from carburetors to fuel injection. Everyone can benefit from this, even if you don't race. Most cars today are comprimised for green emissions, even if you live somewhere without smog tests. With a little retuning, you can have more power AND better fuel economy. (Ohh, look out for flames from the green set
Seriously. It's flashing "Overspeed warning off" at me. But some days it says "Warning engine overheating" just as the car starts on a cold day. Or, "Immobilizer!!" when I try to start it. Then it occasionally acts normal, but switches the display from km/l to km-left-to-pump to average driving speed, randomly.
Perhaps it's because it's a French car and takes itself too seriously.
Anyhow, I'm now going to look for someone who can rechip it and give it a new personality, something a little less brie and baguette, more Yvette Lopez, "where d'ya wanna go today?"
Ceci n'est pas une signature
... so, it's not long before I have a taxi cab that turns into a giant robot with the voice of Casey Kasem at the touch of a button? I have been waiting for this day for so long.
*AppleTRON*
I'll hack something right up until the point where my personal body is in jeopardy.
Medical instruments? Factory spec is good enough for me. Microwave? I like to keep the RADs down. Cars? I like arriving in one piece.
I can understand this as a hobby, but why mod your day-to-day car so heavily? You probably break several laws in doing so, you definitely invalidate your car lease or warranty, and you probably invalidate your insurance as well. Besides, how confident are you that you'd never screw up?
I'll take the bus thank you.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
I thought a 'car chipper' would be something like a wood chipper, only *much* more ferocious.
Ah well.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
My mechanic hacked my car so the left blinker blinks faster than the right. He also put in that hanging wire below the dashboard hack.
Take Andy Robinson's doorslammer Stude for example.
___FutureShoks___
Marketing, false claims, hype...
Some cars react very well to them. Many cars don't.
And if you get the wrong programming, you can ruin your car.
When they claim 50hp you might only get 15. YMMV. Literally.
I'm currently involved in writing assembly for my car's ECU. It's a 92 DSM Turbo AWD. The difficult thing is it's a proprietary OEM variant of a Motorola HC11, with lots of unknown opcodes, but there's a good movement to try and figure them all out. Right now, I've written a stutterbox, and other people have figured out where all of the timing, and fuel maps are, and where the variables for injector sizes are. It's pretty great. Writing assembly is fun, and ha>0ring my car is even more fun :)
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Gee, I wonder why Michigan doesn't have inspections =]
www.obd-2.com
The best 120$ I ever spent.
I can now see everything happening in my car in real time, and if I get the right program and know what the hell I'm doing, I can reprogram it aswell.
/syle
Don't those Japanese letter stickers work better and cost much less? Then there is always the 5 cent 'resistor mod' that everyone and their brother sells on eBay for 20 bucks......
Repant. Thy end is sheer.
Windows Mobile has detected unidentified hardware, and is unable to find a driver for it.
Restarting...
Then there's the warranty issue. Reprogramming a car doesn't void the warranty -- unless it can be shown that a later breakdown was caused by the new software. Ford Motor Co. spokesman Glenn Ray says one buyer of a new 2003 Ford Cobra learned this the hard way. The Cobra is about as powerful a car as Ford makes, but not powerful enough for this customer. "He put a chip in it," said Ray, "and blew up the motor." The owner had over-revved the engine--something the original software would have prevented.
Somewhere right now, a Slashdot reader is saying to himself "What a dumbass."
And somewhere a Cobra owner is reading about an overclocker who cooked his Athlon and is saying to himself "What a dumbass."
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
So how many chicks would a wood chipper chip if a wood chipper could chip chicks?
www.6502asm.com - Code 6502 assembly or.. DIE!!
Very cool i bought a device from cobbtuning that gave me a an additional 30+ HP and gobs more torque. Best $555 i think that can be spent on a vehicle. It can also ge selected to even have ecomny for those long trips i think it's jsut a great idea!
Link to the ddevice http://cobbtuning.com/wrx/accessport.html
Not necessarily. I am posting as AC b/c I used all my mods pts trying to dispell some really bad myhs that are being posted to this thread.
I have an 2001 Audi A4 1.8T with a GIAC ECU chip. The car passes emissions just fine, even with an aftermarket cat-back exhaust on it. The dealership just did warranty work on my car and replaced my camshaft tension adjuster. I have *NEVER* removed the chip from my car. The dealership has mentioned that they noticed it was in there and never gave me any problems (I have taken it to 2 different dealerships w/o issue).
They have to prove that the damage is done directly from your modification, as the Magnuson-Moss Act states.
To the tune of "Centerfold"
The seals won't hold,
My oil gauge is stuck on cold,
This chip has cracked my manifold,
This chip has cracked my manifold...
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
Is it possible to retune for maximum durability? I could give a shit how fast my car can go, but I really want it to last to 200,000 miles with minimal problems.
It's a Honda Accord V6, so I'm guessing it already is tuned that way, and that manufacturers probably favor durability over high performance anyway.
that was a crap article that was poorly researched. the pros use ls1edit and efilive for tuning corvettes. hptuners just came out with similar products too. and if you are building a high HP race corvette, you piggyback the whole system with a FAST or DFI system for engine management.
t p://www.kcpimp.com/gallery/c5c om/gallery/dyno
i'm using ls1edit and efilive to tune my 580 HP blown c5 corvette.
http://www.kcpimp.com/cars/c5.html
ht
http://www.kcpimp.
links:
ls1edit: http://www.carputing.com/
EFILive: http://www.efilive.com/
FAST: http://www.fuelairspark.com/
DFI: http://go.mrgasket.com/
hptuners: www.hptuners.com
Regards,
kw
p.s. and only an idiot would pay $17k to replace a blown 03 cobra motor. you can get short blocks all day for well under $5k.
-- ken williams
chipping a car is really not that crazy or extreme. Most cars come from the factory with "stupid-proof" setups, i.e., they run very very rich so you can't induce detonation and blow your engine easily, and they engineer in lots of understeer for safety reasons since 90% of the people on the road aren't what you'd exactly call performance oriented drivers.
chipping a car mostly involves re-doing the fuel injector maps and spark timing control for certain rpm ranges to increase torque and horsepower. This has the added benefit of also increasing fuel mileage in many cases, since it's set to be very rich from the factory. When you lean it out a little, you use less fuel, get more power, and have fun in the process.
Most factory turbo cars that I know of don't really use electronic boost control mechanisms, they actually use wastegates and compressor bypass valves to maintain boost in a mechanical/pneumatic fashion. Electronic boost controllers are pretty expensive, anyway.
but just reprogramming the existing chip in a car is nowhere near as good as installing a complete standalone Engine Management System. With an EMS like a Haltech (produced in AU, btw), for example, you can actually adjust fuel, timing, boost, etc literally on the fly, unlike a reprogrammed ODBII type computer found in most cars. This allows you to fine-tune your car for maximum efficiency or power, or whatever you're looking for. (power, of course, duh!)
You'd be really suprised how over-engineered a lot of cars are, and what they can take. Hmm.. sorta like overclocking a processor, really. If you take the proper precautions with each (better cooling, faster ram, good power supply, for the computer, or higher-octane fuel, good lubricants, and regular maintenance for the car)
So before we get our panties in a bundle and start completely ranting on the car tuner demographic (but it wouldn't really be slashdot without it) just keep in mind that it's the same sort of compulsion for car tuners as it is for overclockers, or mod-chippers, or kernel-hackers...
If you can read this, you are most likely close enough.
It's increasing complex business - I know someone that works in it - simply "rechipping" doesn't work in modern and complex engines.
...) on the principle that the makers of these devices don't want people to buy the device then try to home tune it and blow their engine up. The tuning is done inside a workshop with appropriate monitoring tools (e.g. analysers), so they can trim the tables in the software, and observe the outputs on the tools to ensure that the best results are obtained without going too far as to break the engine. Naturally, there are some people who do have their own tools and workshops and are competent do this themselves, but a lot of these modders don't.
The new devices effectively clamp around your Engine Control Unit (ECU) by intercepting it's inputs and outputs: the box modulates the signals coming to and from the real ECU: for example, the ECU will usually consider it an engine fault if (say) emission is too high, so the purpose of the device is to (a) alter the fuel mix ratio output on the one hand, but (b) fool the input back into the ECU that the emissions aren't as high as they really are. There are many variables, the ones I've seen take up to (say) 16 different variables that can be manipulated.
I'm told that the devices need to be tuned for the specific model of car, and preferably, the specific car itself: as individual cars each have different variances and tolerances within the scope of the model itself; and the tuning software isn't released to the public (even though it may escape
This definitely voids your warranty, not to mention probably breaking environmental and other regulations, if you do it to street machines. That doesn't stop some people though. (there's a good analogy here to the issue over releasing drivers for 802.11g chips: because the software in the driver is part of the overall FCC emissions approval, so altering the software potentially voids the approval of the device -- similar concept here in that manipulating your ECU voids the grounds upon which various approvals were made)
However, it also has more legitimate applicability to track machines (based on stock cars) where it's not an infringement of the regulations because these are on private raceways and with specific exclusions and so on (and, these cars are usually modded beyond the limits of the warranty in the first place).
The manufacturers are getting wiser and building in measures to defeat the devices, but it seems to make these guys money, and in the same way that you can often safely overclock your CPU, you can often do it to your engine: just need to be aware that (a) it depends on the specific car itself, (b) it doesn't always work, (c) when you do it, you're taking a lot of risk as by definition you may be working outside of the engineering tolerances/limits of the engine [unless the engineering is there, but commerical and marketing considerations limited its scope].
I am a current owner of this "switchable" software and can verify that the cruise control works just fine with it. As for the horsepower gains, with a turbocharged car it is very significant. I go from 12psi to 20psi of boost when I switch from stock mode to the 93 octane mode. To comment on the engine wear babble, there are plenty of cars with my motor, running with my exact software that are lasting longer than their stock counterparts. It all depends on how well the motor is built to begin with.
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I'm lucky enough to drive a BMW M3. My local dealership is also the only regional Dinan (aftermarket mods) authorized dealer/installer.
I've had them add some choice goodies, with no effect on my warranty. Dinan also warrantees their mods specifically. No problems yet. The "Ludicrous Speed" button is my favorite. For some reason, my wife still calls it the "accelerator".
I've "hacked" my 2004 Prius so to speak to include the EV Button which comes stock on the Japaneese and some European versions of the car. The American version not only doesn't have the button, but doesn't even have the wiring harness present to do this. Someone was able to figure out which pin on the engine computer triggers this function, and we took it from there. While some of us used the factory button imported from Japan, others have wired it using Radio Shack parts, or into the headlight flasher or the cruise control button as well for a more stealthy appearance.
This purpose of this buttion button is to allow the driver to force the car into electric-only mode for short distances at speeds under 55km/hr (34mph). This is great for sneaking home at night in close quarters, saving gas till you back out of the driveway, or for sneaking up on the old ladies in mall parking lots before laying on the horn.
If you could plug the car in, you'd even have a short range EV car. Now if only they had a button to improve gas mileage while making it do 0-60 in 4 seconds.
$ man woman *
-bash:
I tinker with my car all the time. Back when I had an ECU I even understood (had the firmware source, complete with symbols and comments, don't ask how...), I actually tinkered quite a bit more. Blow up the motor? Oops. Not like I haven't done that before, and there goes a Saturday down the drain changing it out. I usually have a spare engine or two sitting around, or if not I know where the junk yards are or I know how to rebuild or repair them (if possible, depends on the failure mode).
Car Lease? Warranty? What are these? I buy cars for cash (usually used, or occasionally built from 2-3 salvages) and drive the suckers into the ground, then repeat. My Blazer died at 190,000 miles (original engine, third tranny), my del Sol is still good at 160k and should live to well over 200k, and my Yukon is at 110k and is only three years old (only vehicle I've ever bought new). Yes, I drive a lot. Greatest feeling in the world to me - open road, open windows (or open top), radio cranked up, going places just to see what's over the next hill.
Also, how exactly do I invalidate my insurance? I don't carry coverage for repair on any of these, except the Yukon, and that's only because it's new enough to be worth fixing. The rest, after any wreck my insurance would have to pay to fix, I'd either cut up for scrap or fix them myself anyway. If it's the other guy's insurance, obviously I'm going to make them fix it (or just take the money and scrap the car). It's not like I'm stupid enough to ask the insurance people to fix something mechanically that's my fault through stupidity.
Chips are just a new piece of everything that's been done for years - overboring cylinders, performance cams, high flow exhausts, aftermarket blowers, etc. That said, though, chips on normally aspirated cars are usually a waste of time these days. Don't bother - work on the other upgrades instead.
Guess it all comes down to if you know what the hell you're doing, go for it. If you don't, don't be a wannabe wanker that complains when it doesn't go right.
I'm a MINI Dealer, and chipping a MINI will lift the little 1.6 litre petrol engine from 90Bhp to 130Bhp for about 500. We honour the warranty for it. It's quite safe indeed, and it's only downgraded at the factory so they can sell the more expensive model/meet emissions laws.
Owen.
Quite simply, a while back I had an older car. It developed an electrical problem, and when I went in to get it fixed, they told me they'd have to start working through the whole electrical harness to find it. In the end, I decided to live with the problem.
Now, these guys weren't great, I'm sure, but there is something fundamentally flawed with the current system of electrical harness. Ideally, the harness should be easy to maintain, not requiring you to rip out molding everywhere.
So let's try some standards: First, let's have color coded wires. We need black for ground, pink for 5 V, red for 12 V, and Orange for anything higher. Negative voltages have a single black stripe along them. Positive are unstriped.
Periodically, on the insulation wires, are resistor type markings that name the voltage.
So that handles all the power. Next, there's data. Data doesn't travel in wires per se, so much as in shielded ribbon cable.
Now, there's the switching. Get a simple chip like the 8051XA, program it to handle simple switching, pop on some Power Mosfets, and remanufacture the whole thing into a single thin, strong, electrically shielded box with a number of jacks for power and data. At about $20 per box, you could have 20 of them in and around the car.
Now, data and power can route from any of them to any other, along the existing lines. Want to buy more? Fine. Hook it up to a few others, program your onboard computer to tell the others to recognize it, and you're in.
Make it all easily user-programmable. You want to tie in some mega speakers into the back of your car? Fine. Hook them into the nearest switchbox, inform your car that they're there, and instantly you have Dolby BLAST(TM) Surround Sound. Or whatever.
Suppose two wires short out? The nearest boxes figure it out, isolate the short, and inform you of the short, the location, and what needs to be replaced. You can then go in and fix it yourself, replacing either the wires, or the box.
Anyhow, that's my basic idea.
There'd be a wonderful market for these things as aftermarket items, too. If your current electrical system goes bad, it might be cheaper just to replace the whole harness, replace your radio with a onboard computer, insert a CD to program it to your used car, and go digital.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I thought all you had to do, was put one of those idiotic HUGE spoilers, a bunch of stickers, and one of those stupid coffee can mufflers on your car to make it go fast? LOL, some of the cars I see around here sound like a motorcycle under water. Kids today....they don't have a clue what a GOOD motor sounds like........Heck, my stock mustang can out run them. Here's what I do.....I get to a stop light when one of those rice-a-roni cars pulls up next to me...he guns his engine, I gun and brake torque my engine.....Light turns green, he floors it, I quietly make a right turn....lol....Like I'm going to race down a BUSY street anyway.....
You can get an add on kit for a truck that connects up to the sensor inputs to the engine and has a console in the car. It allows you to adjust settings on the fly but telling the sensors certain things.
Sorry, but no "button on the dashboard" is going to give you the sensitivity and responsiveness of an engine management computer which is adjusting boost, fuel, and spark timing on an indivudual, every time the engine fires, time frame.
There is a device you can by for any modern car that connects up to the adapter onder the drivers side.
Any time absolutes like "every" are tossed around, that's a clear sign that the issue is being oversimplified. Likewise, the adapter on my car is on the _passenger_ side, and it's probably using a different connector, data format, and programming language as compared to your car. There is no quick fix on this; the carmakers don't cripple their product by making it less powerful than it can reliably be. If they could get more power from a given engine so easily, they'd be doing it, to use smaller engines, to reduce weight. They're not, because there's not the ability to get "double the torque with a push of a button".
A high-end car mechanic with a right-sized client list and his own garage can make a great living.... $100k is achievable, more in areas where the service is more in demand. (California, warm weather states, etc...) People that buy these cars will pay a premium to have an expert who knows the car inside and out work on it. For them, it is a no-brainer--make a large cash investment last longer by maintaining it with an expert--Well worth the money when needed. I mean, what, are you going to take your Testarossa to Pep Boys? Those little pimple-pusses would probably crack it up trying to take off in 1st gear...
Who did what now?
Chipping a turbo car (most of the time) involves re-timing when the wastegate kicks in. A turbo will produce boost just about forever (so long as you can spin the blades faster and faster), so at some point, you dump so much pressure in the cylinder that you start to blow head gaskets and all sorts of other nasty stuff like that. The wastegate kicks in at some point, dumping off the extra pressure at a preset psi. By modding the gate's setpoint, you make more pressure, and therefore more power.
True, some engines can take the extra boost just fine (cast iron blocks are very good for abuse. Aluminum....eeeh), some will blow sky-high the first time you try it. It's a calculated risk, just like OC'ing your processor. It IS harder on your engine, no doubt. So while it make take it, the damn thing might go 20 or 30k miles before it should have otherwise. Of course, if you are doing mods like this, you likely don't care about the 20 or 30k. As for naturally aspirated engines, you don't have wastegates to play with. Sure, you can fuck with throttle response curves and the like, but it's not nearly as effective.
You want real power? Go get a bike. Figure this:
An Aprilia Mille weighs about 400 pounds. Puts out 140 horses. That gives me a hp/weight ratio of about 2.8. Cost: about 18 grand.
A Pontiac Vibe weights about 2800 pounds. Puts out 127 horses. That gives me a hp/weight ratio of about 22. Cost: about 18 grand.
A Dodge Viper weights about 3400 pounds. Puts out 500 horses. That gives me a hp/weight ratio of about 6.8. Cost: about 80 grand.
And you get more chicks with the bike, too.
Chris Knight is my hero.
Here's a few urls for those interested (this is slashdot so I'll probably be flamed for being on topic):
http://www.apten-us.com/ - Ford performance chips
http://www.hypertech-inc.com/ - Dodge, Ford, GMC performance chips
http://www.jetchip.com/ - Domestic and Import performance chips
http://www.diablosport.com/main.php - Dodge, Ford, GMC performance chips
I've heard that the Apten chips are really good and they're custom programmed for the the stuff that you have already done to your vehicle (Intake, heads, headers, exhaust, etc). I've heard that the Jet chips suck. Hypertech is a well known brand though.
Is anyone else waiting for the first Car Virus? "I didn't think I was driving 95 miles/hr, my digital readout said I was doing 55!" or worse,
NEWS FLASH:
The HondaVirus/B will be striking at Midnight, June 4th, causing infected brake systems to lock up (or fail).
How about when they start adding WiFi systems in the car systems? Then you drive-by-infect.
Ok fine, I'm a few years early, but does anyone **really** trust car company software any more than Windows?
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
Change the fan turn on temperatures for a 160 thermostat
Program the transmission to perform similar to a shift kit (1994 and newer)
Power program the car for use with premium octane gasoline
Remove the top speed limiter
Correct the speedometer and transmission for gear and tire changes
Correct for the use of a larger throttle body.
Change idle settings and restore drivability with cam installs
Correct for larger injectors
Correct for larger displacement (383, 396, etc....).
:)
Unfortunately, he only does GM cars and I own a Ford. Oh well... If you do own a GM car, check out his site... He may be able to help you and and you may be able to help him pay for college!
My 1986 Saab turbo has a 'tweaked' boost controller in it to alter the boost profile. You simply twist a couple of pots in the APC (Automatic Pressure Control) computer to adjust base boost, peak allowed boost, and knock sensitivity (the APC system listens for knock, and retards boost in small increments until the knocking subsides), and presto! 20+ extra HP. My '92 Saab 9000 turbo has an actual digital computer in place of the old APC system, and I have chips in that one too. Now here's the real deal : I'm currently in the R&D phase of installing a P-III 1GHz EBX format all-in-one motherboard in the car's dash, complete with 7" touch screen lcd. Not only will it play DVDs, MP3s, have GPS with moving map and wifi, but using the board's PC/104 connector and a digital IO board, I plan on integrating it into the car's electronic controls. This particular car is at the right age where all of the components are digital, but they are not so tightly integrated (later Saabs use an actual proprietary data bus for the different embedded controllers to communicate), so this should be fairly successful.
Need a simple, easy to use data tier generator? http://www.gryphinsoftware.com/
The wastegate is not the same thing as a diverter/blowoff.. both exist at the same time.
The wastegate serves to limit the boost pressure.. if pressure rises too high the wastegate vents excess pressure to atmosphere. By raising the release pressure on the wastegate, you allow the turbo to generate more boost. On some vehicles, this is electronically controllable, so in theory (and practice) the ECU can adjust the boost on the fly.
A blowoff or diverter, serve to let air flow cleanly when the throttle is closed, so as not to create backpressure on the turbo... different thing entirely.