Auto trans- giving up on the Alpina flash

[1and1]

That's it, I'm done- giving up on this whole Alpina Flash business for now simply due to performance in D mode. I guess it's time for me to own this whole getting old thing... Not only did I sell my hyper aggressive manual trans toy, but I'm even willing to consider drive mode as important or more important than Sport/Manual mode in the auto trans 135 which replaced the toy. (back & hip issues, can't do clutch anymore... sigh...)

She's a daily driver, pretty much drive to work and home every day, about 15 miles each way, along with occasional errands. I typically drive pretty darn aggressively, but I'm just as often simply cruising in Drive mode where I still expect it to, at the very least, be conscious and awake. Add to this that The Wife drives the 135 occasionally, always in D mode, and when she asks "What's wrong with the trans, what did you change now?? It's dead unless I floor it!" then you know the D mode logic sucks horribly.

So, these are the different flashes we can use with our 6 speed steptronic, at least the ones I'm aware of:

7601492 (Stock Flash)
7603527 (BMW 2011 Flash) **My original stock version**
7615835 ("Original" Alpina B3 Flash)
7603537 ("New" Alpina B3 Flash)
7603541 (Euro Sport Flash)
7601494 (US Sport Flash)


Others have said it before, and I totally agree, if we could keep the D mode logic from 3527 and the rev matching & S/M mode logic from 5835 I'd be on it in a flash (so to speak... tee-hee). And yes I've seen the description of the "new" alpina version, 3537 which describes higher shift points in D mode. Yeah, no. Frankly, at least how The Wife & I drive, neither alpina flash versions have acceptable D mode logic. Hell, neither are even remotely close to 3527 D mode behavior.

Oh, and how funny is it that a 760 series flash is called "new" compared to a 761 series when they're named, er...., numbered(?) in the order of release? Sure, I get the "new" because it was found later, but, c'mon, really?

Anyway, I've used all the above but the 1492. Used em repeatedly. Used em in quick change back to back comparison mode and for days at a time trying to learn to live with em, to figure out their patterns, where their sweet spots are.

In short, I found the following:
3527: Great D mode, adequate S/M and has rev match
5835 & 3537: D mode sucks, S/M is outstanding and has rev match
3541 & 1494: D is fine, S/M is adequate, no rev match

So, for me, I've decided that 3527's D mode is enough to outshine the S/M of the Alpina flashes.

I'd love to learn about a flash not listed above, or a different way to consider the Alpina flavors. Is it that more horsepower needs the shift logic? Clue me in- right now I don't see the value

[1and1]

Wa-hoooo

Back on the Alpina flash, but now with stock D mode blended in- best of both worlds. I'm totally a happy camper.

xHP is a very cool tool to have in the tuning arsenal. I was able to grab the bins of both the stock and alpina and use TunerPro to review and edit the bins, then flash my home rolled custom bin file for just the cost of the general flash license.

[xQx]

Originally Posted by 1and1

Wa-hoooo

Back on the Alpina flash, but now with stock D mode blended in- best of both worlds. I'm totally a happy camper.

xHP is a very cool tool to have in the tuning arsenal. I was able to grab the bins of both the stock and alpina and use TunerPro to review and edit the bins, then flash my home rolled custom bin file for just the cost of the general flash license.

Well done! Best of both worlds.

PM Sent

[1and1]

Done & done!

[Matticus91]

Missed your first post here, glad you got it sorted man. I totally get the mental swap but I'm too young and dumb to listen to that part of my brain just yet

[1and1]

lolz- yeah, getting old kinda sucks but it was fun getting here I just hate hurting all the time, back, hips, shoulders..... ((sigh)) Think I'm gonna go take some advil.

Still drive like a fool tho


No, not "tool", I said fool...
Well, if you would have held you line it wouldn't have been a problem damnit!

[iminhell1]

I'm the polar opposite.
I need to adjust for dig racing and HPDE. These are things no flash shines at and will take me time. And I really don't know where to start adjusting ... though I'd like to adjust the stall or slip from a dead stop in 2nd gear; I do 2nd gear launches.

[1and1]

Start with what do you want to change? You can't define success until you have a target to shoot for

[1and1]

Things are better & better

I started blending the stock and Alpina bins by just copying over the XE shift maps as a test for effect. The XE tables are the basic D mode tables, described as "XE for Extreme Economy. This is the normal map used in D mode. Depending on your vehicle XE 1 or XE 2 is used." So, just basic driving around, and it was g o o o o d. Way muchly better. Still, as you might expect other things needed attention- cold start was still the crappy straight to the highest gear it can reach behavior that Alpina flash is so well known for, as were uphill behavior where it wouldn't want to downshift, and still a total lack of quick transitions under heavy braking and quick throttle changes.

Now, of course this is all for D mode- I'm not messing with S or M as both manage to not annoy me currently, so all my tinkering is only for basic Drive.

Last night I updated several other tables in the Shiftmaps category so the list has grown a bit now from just the XE tables. The full list includes-
Uphill A1 - A5 (five tables)
Shiftmap E
Shiftmap Heating Mode 0 - 3 (four tables)
Shiftmap XE 1 & 2 (two tables)


Over the weekend I'll probably compare the tables in TQ Management D Mode Upshift category. After that will be the Shift Pressure Upshift D Mode Ongoing Clutch category.

I'm still very pleased with how it's behaving- Just the XE tables were an improvement, now with the others added it's even better. I'm not sure what to expect with the next two categories so have some searching & reading to do first...

Fun times...

[drrico85]

Would you be able to do this remotely?

[1and1]

Doesn't really need to be a remote thing. You'll need to own the flashing license for xHP flash tool ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...lashtool&hl=en ) and have the custom bin saved on your android device. I've already posted this exact bin elsewhere and am happy to share it. I don't thing I can attach the file here, but shoot me a PM and I'm happy to be sure you can get a copy of the bin.

Note that with xHP flash tool you don't need to purchase one of their OTS bins, you can flash a custom bin with just the basic flashing license.

Also note, as I've stated above earlier in this thread, my goals are very modest, and you may find that this bin isn't sufficient for your needs, or even fully formed. Consider comparing against one of the xHP OTS maps or even having a full blown custom bin that is matched specifically to your desires custom rolled for you.

[drubular]

Any updates on how your blended TCU flash is working, any issues? Also does D mode show which gear is active like the Alpina flashes?

[1and1]

Works great. It does show the gear when in D mode (D1, D2 etc). Remember the custom map was built on the Alpina map and just copied over some of the D shift tables from the stock trans map, so all core behavior is same as Alpina but d shifts like stock instead.

I'm currently running on the xHP Stage 2 OTS trans flash. It's basically the same as my custom but with slightly faster, firmer shifts in all three modes. I'm sure there are more changes regarding high rpm shift points and such, but apparently I'm old & slow so I haven't explored those outer limits yet...