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      07-07-2023, 04:37 AM   #1
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Bootmod3 - a BMW ECU flash tuning platform in depth review


Credit: Protuning Freaks/Bootmod3 https://www.protuningfreaks.com/coll...5i-x3-x4-x5-m2



Introduction:

In this product review I will be taking an indepth look at the Bootmod3 BMW ECU flash tuning platform, and why I believe this tuning platform will become the best BMW flashing tool in the very near future.

I would also like to mention that I am a former F series N55 MHD user, and have experienced ECUTEK and their fantastic race rom features on other platforms in the past, so you may hear me bring these 2 other options up frequently during my review. However, there is a reason why out of all 3 platforms I chose Bootmod3 (I will interchangeably refer to it as BM3 for the duration of the review), and it is because of the massive progress BM3 has been making and potential I see in this platform - and I will elaborate on this later on in the review. Another thing to note is that if you hear me talk about protuning freaks in this review, know that they are actually the company that makes BM3 - but I (and many others) often refer to BM3 as both the product and the company even though that is incorrect.

Now onwards with the in depth review!



Disclaimer:

Damage/Injury Disclaimer: Any information, guidance, technical advice, coding advice, tuning advice, datalogging advice, installation instruction, or product installation demonstrated in my reviews is to be done at your own risk. I will not be responsible for personal injuries, injuries to others or any living being, or any damage to your car, or any property damage.

Monetary disclaimer: I do not make commission, or profits or any kind of monetary gain from the sale of the Bootmod3 tuning software.

Sponsorship disclaimer: The way my reviews work is that I determine what product that I want to buy and actually use on my own car, and during this process the product that I end up choosing is what I believe is the best option on the market. I then reach out to the company offering the product and ask them if they would be willing to sponsor me in a review, if the answer is yes then I write a review, if the answer is no I would end up buying the product (sometimes at a later date) but I would not make a large review about it. But the critical thing is that I reach out for a sponsorship and not the other way around, this means that the products I am reviewing are actually things I believe in and would use on my own car. This also means that I am not being paid to review something I do not care about. Would I do a review if a sponsor reached out to me? The answer would depend on if I believed in the product, and I would make it clear in my review if this were the case. But at the time of writing this review, such an interaction has not occurred yet.


Time of writing disclaimer: everything I am writing about in this review is described at the time of writing and may not be updated in the future. This means when I am comparing between different tuning platforms and I mention something doesn't have this feature - it did not have this feature at the time of writing (unless I was mistaken) and this could have changed since I wrote the review. I generally will only update info about BM3 and not the other tuning platforms simply because I don’t have the time to follow every tuning platform.


Bias and comparison disclaimer: Throughout this review I will attempt to be as unbiased as possible while drawing comparisons to other tuning platforms that I have experience with like MHD and ECUTEK. You may hear me point out that BM3 is better than some of these platforms because of reason “X”, “Y”, or “Z”, or because of reasons “A”, “B”, and “C” I don’t like this other platform at all- and I am not trying to degrade these other platforms in anyway, I am just giving you my opinion on why I think BM3 is better or thing about another platform that I don’t like and why I wouldn’t buy it. However, these are just my personal opinions and there is always a chance I could be mistaken and incorrect. At the end of the day all these tuning platforms are on the market for a reason - because they appeal to someone out there, but it is human nature to have a preference and in this review I will be highlighting my preference in a manner that is as unbiased and as accurate as possible.


Image Credits:

Images and videos used in this review are all property of their rightful owners as credited below each image, I am just using them for the purpose of this review but if you (the owner of the image) would like them removed please let me know via pm. Otherwise thanks to the respective image owners (I made sure to credit your online name and link where I found the photo) of the photos, without you this review would be so much more bland.



Review Disclaimer:

First and foremost I would like to thank the Bootmod3/Protuning freaks team proTUNING Freaks for agreeing to sponsor me for this review. Despite this I will remain as unbiased as possible during the review. Please note, the dynamics of this relationship was that I reached out for a sponsorship review and not the other way around, this should demonstrate how I truly feel about the Bootmod3 software - in the sense that I truly believe it is the best option out there and I would absolutely use it on my own car.


I would also like to say thank you specifically to Dzenan (the owner of BM3) for taking the time out of his day (he literally spoke with me on Google Meets for two and a half hours) to answer all of my questions about BM3. He has also answered countless emails all with massive amounts of questions, so I know that was a major challenge as well. I know he is an extremely busy individual, so I really appreciate this. I also find it extremely impressive that Dzenan cares enough about his product that he is willing to answer all of my questions personally and even consider some of my suggestion on how to improve BM3 - not many CEO’s or company owners would enough care to take the time out of their day to talk to some random guy on the internet and would delegate this task to a different employee. So the fact that Dzenan cares this much, shows that he is willing to do whatever it takes to make BM3 the best that it can be, so massive props to him and the BM3 team!



What is an DME?:


Credit: LA Global parts https://www.laglobalparts.com/Tools/...1d58a6b04d.JPG



Before I can begin talking about the intricacies of the BM3 software, I would first like to briefly discuss the car’s DME and explain to you how it works. This will give you (the reader) some knowledge on the DME which will be invaluable when we discuss tuning, because if you know how a DME functions you will know how tuning works. This will also allow me to debunk a lot of the uninformed misconceptions around BMW tuning (in particular about BM3) that I see all the time, and are just plain wrong. I will also be going over the DME at a very high level so we don’t spend too much time on the technical aspects, but we learn just enough to be able to understand tuning. Now let's get started!



First off let's begin with what does the term “DME” stand for? Well DME stands for Digital Motor Electronics and this is the computer (as shown in the picture above of the BOSCH MEVD172G DME in the N55 Bmw m2) that connects to all of the sensors and actuators on the engine and controls all of the car’s engine functions (from the injectors and ignition coils to the watergate and so on so forth). So essentially the DME has all of these sensors plugged in for inputs, it sees the values that these sensors measure (Boost and AFR for instance) and then based on these parameters it makes a decision and then tells devices that it is connected to, to do something (spray more fuel, close the wastegate a bit more to generate more boost etc).

But the important part is how does the DME make these decisions? Well that is determined by the logic code that BMW programmed into the DME, in conjunction with tables of preprogrammed data that the DME can reference to make a decision. So essentially the logic is how the DME “thinks” and the tables is the knowledge the DME can reference upon to make the right decision.

Let's have a quick example, how does the car target coolant temperatures based on ambient temperatures?


This table is from BM3’s map editor, and shows the coolant temperature targets vs. ambient temperature in sports mode. The temperatures are all in celsius.
Credit: F87Source



In the above image we see a 2D table (2D because we have an X axis (first row) and values corresponding to each value in the X axis, 1D tables contain just 1 value with no axis, and 3D tables contain an X (first row) and Y (first column) axes - and values within corresponding to an X and Y value, so pretty much like a chess grid), with the X axis corresponding to ambient temperature and the values in the table corresponding to the coolant temperature target. So, continuing on with our example - let's say the ambient temperature sensor measures an ambient temperature of 6 C, it will report this value to the DME. The DME’s logic will take this value and reference it to the table above, and the result it finds is that when the ambient temperature is 6C it should target 95C coolant temperatures. The DME will then look at its coolant temperatures from the coolant temperature sensor and if the coolant temperature is below 95C it will send a signal to the thermostat to close. If the coolant temperature is above 95C it will send a signal to the thermostat to open and cool down the coolant. Of course this process could be reversed where the DME looks at the coolant temperature and then checks the ambient temperature before cross referencing it to the table to determine if the thermostat needs to be opened or not but I am unsure exactly what the order of this process is. But it is these reference tables that a tuner will adjust and alter to change the performance of the car, the BMW logic code stays the exact same until custom rom features (flex fuel, map switching, anti-lag, etc) come into play. Note what I just said here, because it is important later on.



What is a BIN?


Credit: https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos Free Stock photos by Vecteezy
https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/45250...e-data-concept



So, we have now established that the DME contains logic code and reference tables programmed by BMW (this is extremely simplified of course, there are also communication protocols, encryption, etc etc etc), how is all of this stored in the DME?

Well like all computers, information is stored as bits which can be a 1 or a 0, collectively these 1’s and 0’s are known as binary data. So all of the DME’s logic and reference tables are stored as binary data, and the data will also be stored at specific memory addresses on the DME (this is a complex topic so let's leave it at that).

You can also extract the binary data from the DME as a .bin file - this is pretty much a copy of all the data on the DME and will be needed for tuning. To extract the bin from the DME we generally use BM3, MHD, and ECUTEK.



What is a DAMOS/A2L file?


Credit: AUTODTC.net https://autodtc.net/ecu-item/damos-a...os-for-winols/

Now that we have learned about .bin files the important question of: “how does the tuner know where the tables are in all of these 1’s and 0’s, and how do they know what tables do what?”. Well this is an extremely important question, because if tuners couldn’t figure these things out - then tuning wouldn’t exist.

So naturally BMW doesn’t want anyone outside of Munich to figure out how the DME operates, because this limits the amount of tuning that can be done to their cars and thus lowers the risk of damage being done under warranty - which they would have to repair (i.e. they’re trying to lower their warranty costs). This means BMW will do their best to keep the information of the .bin file as confidential as possible. However, the good thing for tuners and the aftermarket community is that the DAMOS of the DME are often leaked into the public and this allows tuning to be a possibility.

So what is a DAMOS? Well a DAMOS is essentially a file that can map out every single memory location in the DME and it also has information for what each part of the DME does (example, it will allow the tables to be mapped out and defines what each axis on the table corresponds to). So essentially, it allows tuners to redefine the tables that already existed in the DME’s binary and it also explains what each table does (i.e. is this table for iat’s, boost, timing etc). Another important thing to note is that each software version of the DME may be a bit different than others (BMW may have put things in different memory locations or rewrote some logic or tables), meaning a different DAMOS is required for different DME software versions.

But a DAMOS is what every tuner will use to “decrypt” the DME’s bin file and alter the tables for tuning.



What is a MAP?


Credit: F87source - BM3 Map editor

So after the bin file is “decrypted” with the DAMOS and the tuner has figured out where all the tables are and what is required for tuning, changes to key tables can be made.

These tables in the DME are commonly referred to as MAPS, that is why you commonly hear of tuning being referred to as remapping the DME. To make these changes to the maps or tables in the DME a table editor or map editor is used, common examples of these are tuner pro, winols, BM3’s new map editor, and ECUTEK’s map editor.



How do we get the modified BIN onto the DME?

After changes are made to the tables/maps in the bin file, how do we get this newly modified bin file back onto the DME? Once again we will use BM3, MHD, or ECUTEK to load (or “flash”) the bin to the DME. At this point our tuning process is done!



BM3 misconceptions:

So if you just read these few sections starting from “What is a DME” to “How do we get the modified BIN onto the DME”, you will realize that the absolute core function (again not including custom rom/race roms and built in table editors) of these tuning platforms like BM3, MHD, and ECUTEK are all exactly the same. This is because with basic tuning where no custom ROMs features are flashed, these tuning platforms will only be able to modify the exact same tables in the DME and utilize the same DME logic as defined by the DAMOS. There is absolutely nothing else on the DME that is different between these different tuning platforms - given that no custom rom features have been flashed and the software version is the same between these DME’s. So at the simplest level (again ignoring the custom rom, data logging, and all the other little app features) these flashing tuning platforms are all exactly the same, they are basically a means to extract a bin and flash a bin and nothing more. This means these tuning platforms at the simplest level are all equal when it comes to tuning, because they are only able to do what the DAMOS gives them access to. So, for a tuning platform to be better than the other, it really is a battle of the minute details - where every aspect counts (the app interface/user experience, custom rom, data logging, table editors etc) and I will discuss this in the sections to come, but before that I would like to address some of the common misconceptions about BM3.


Misconception 1: “Bootmod3 is boost-based and MHD is load based, therefore MHD is better because load based tuning is better”.

This likely is biggest most out of control misconception I have ever read about bootmod3 and I have no idea where this notion or idea even propagated from and how it lasted this long. First off the stock BMW DME logic is programmed to be load based, almost every tuning table in the DME is related to load targets that the car sees - so it is absolutely impossible to tune the BMW DME logic in a boost based manner. This also means that it is [B]absolutely impossible[/B to have BM3 be boost based, because in its basic tuning form (no custom rom features) the only tables BM3 has access to is the one the DAMOS defines and that means BM3 is still using BMW’s load based DME logic and load based tables. To make the DME boost based, you would have to essentially rewrite the entire DME logic and all of the tables because like I said before, essentially every table in the DME has some sort of reference or connection to engine load. Even on BM3’s custom rom they don’t rewrite the entire DME’s logic to make it boost based, that would be so much work and effort, and nearly impossible to do so while replicating the stock BMW functionality that it would not be feasible. Rather BM3’s custom rom features just extend upon the factory BMW DME logic and tables, so again even with the custom rom features BM3 is still load based. In fact I talked to Dzenan (owner of BM3) about this very topic and he confirmed that BM3 is not in any way shape or form boost based, it is load based tuning.

So if anyone tells you that BM3 is boosted based, they are absolutely misinformed and 100% incorrect.


Misconception 2: “BM3’s OTS maps are boost based while MHD’s OTS maps are load based, so MHD is better”. Again for the same reasons above this is not true. It is impossible to make BM3 boost based, the DME simply will not allow it.


Misconception 3: “BM3 is issue prone and flashing fails frequently and will “brick” your car”. Again I am not sure where this one came from, but there are flashing fails with any tuning platform - I have heard of it happening with MHD, BM3, and ECUTEK. But usually with any flashing platform when flashing fails you would just turn off the ignition, turn it back on and flash again and that will fix the issue - your car won’t be “bricked”. Just ensure that when you flash you have a battery charger to ensure the voltage doesn’t drop, and keep the driver side seat belt plugged in so the car doesn’t go to sleep.



What are custom ROMS or RaceROM’s?


Credit: Protuning Freaks/Bootmod3
https://www.protuningfreaks.com/blog...i-enhancements

Before I start the review on BM3 I have one more topic to discuss, and that is custom ROMS or “Race ROMS”. What a custom ROM is, is custom DME logic made by different tuning companies and reference tables being added in conjunction to the stock DME logic and tables. This new logic and tables allows the cars to do many new things that it would not be able to do from the factory, such as: flex fuel, map switching, anti-lag, launch control, canbus I/O expansion, etc. Custom ROMS is what is the main differentiator between different tuning platforms, as it shows what the tuning platform is capable of.

Since custom ROMS will continually grow and progress as tuning matures on a platform and new ideas are introduced, it is hard to say what company will be the best at all times. So I tend to lean towards the company that shows the greatest vested interest in constantly improving and constantly growing and wanting to be the best, I also want that company to be committed to BMW and not have their hands full elsewhere (essentially COBB who came with a massive reputation, and then just left the BMW community as imo a failed tuning platform). This is why I chose BM3 over the competition - because they are constantly trying to be better and I will go over this in more detail later on in this review.



Bootmod3:

Now lets begin the review of Bootmod3, in the subsequent sections to follow I will discuss the main features of BM3 and how it stacks up against the competition - this will in effect give a summarizing picture of BM3 and why I think it is the best BMW tuning platform. Because remember, tuning platforms these days offer features that are extremely similar to one another in terms of features and this can make it hard to decide which platform to purchase. So in my opinion every single aspect of a tuning platform must be analyzed and compared in order to find the best one.

If you want to purchase BM3 here is the link to the protuning freaks store: https://www.protuningfreaks.com/coll.../bootmod3-menu



Money back guarantee and License Transfer:

Let's begin by talking about the purchasing experience of BM3. When you purchase BM3 you are given a 30 day no hassle, no questions asked, money back guarantee . This means you can buy BM3, try it on your car for free for 30 days and if for whatever reason you don’t like it, you can get your money back from BM3 no questions asked (but you first must uninstall it from you car and revert the car back to stock tuning wise, and then transfer the license back to BM3 before BM3 refunds you). This is an absolute game changing decision by the BM3 team, where they are so confident that you will like BM3 they put their money where their mouth is and let you try their software risk free. No other tuning platform does this or offers anything remotely close to this, so IMO you shouldn’t even consider any other tuning platform without trying BM3 first. Anyone that is looking for a tuning platform should try BM3 first, and only if they don’t like it consider an alternative option - and as I will discuss later the chances that you don’t like BM3 are going to be slim.



Credit: F87source

BM3 also offers the ability for a single resale, this means the original owner of the software can sell it once. Again this is an absolutely game changing decision by the BM3 team that no other tuning platform (to my knowledge) offers any form of resale. Some competitors like ECUTEK(iirc) is only vin locked, this means you cannot sell the tune to anyone else and are effectively stuck even if you have buyers remorse and want to switch to a different platform, but at least if you sell the car the new owner is able to keep the ECUTEK. MHD on the other hand has imo the worst and most ridiculous restrictions on resale that I have ever seen, where not only is the software vin locked and thus tied to a specific car, but it is tied to a specific email address as well. This means if you sell your car you have to also transfer your email address to the new owner as well, and if you don’t then the new owner is left without functional tuning software and you are left with useless tuning software that can’t work on any other vehicle. This imo is the worst policy that I have ever seen and it absolutely punishes the buyer in every regard, especially if you have buyers remorse later on down the line and want to switch to a different tuning platform - because you will be stuck with the cost of whatever MHD licenses and maps you had (I understand this very well, because that is my exact situation when I switched to BM3). I have begged MHD in the past to reconsider their resale policy, but they refused. Another thing to add to the pain is that MHD recently introduced the notion of a “super license” where all of the OTS maps would be included, and this super license package was significantly cheaper than the traditional method of purchasing their flasher license + logging license + individual maps. When I and many others inquired if we could upgrade to the super license at the delta cost (cost of all the super license minus the cost of all the licenses and maps that we had), MHD declined and said we had to buy the super license separately or buy all the maps alone. So in my eyes it feels like BM3 cares more about their second hand customers than MHD cares about their existing customers. So, this is another compelling reason to buy BM3, because even after the 30 day trial period is over, you still have the opportunity to resell your license if you choose to move onto a different platform or if you sell your car (you can also transfer the license to the new owner without having to give up your email account).



Customer Service

Now onto customer service. BM3 in my opinion has absolutely excellent customer service, and this was demonstrated to me in 2 aspects of the company:

The first aspect was the technical support side where Dzenan was willing to answer literally hundreds of my questions via email (there were literally maybe 50+ emails exchanged back and forth and each of them were pages long) without complaint or delegating it to a different staff member in the company. Dzenan was even willing to answer my questions via a Google Meet call, where we chatted for over 2 hours straight.This level of customer service is absolutely unreal because when are you ever able to chat directly with the company’s owner for more than ¼ of their day? And I am not the only one that has ever spoken directly with Dzenan about BM3, there have been plenty of other people on bimmerpost that said he has helped them directly - so this isn’t a one time scenario due to me writing this review.


The second aspect that really impressed me about BM3’s customer service was with their purchase support side when I bought the BM3 wifi adapter from them, here is an excerpt from that review discussing my customer service experience with them:

Quote:
Originally Posted by F87source Bootmod3 wifi adapter review
Next let's talk about my shipping experience, I live in an area with quite a few “Porch Pirates” (package thieves) so I requested that my BM3 wifi adapter be shipped to my PO Box via Canada post standard shipping - which should take approximately 8-9 days to be shipped from BM3 HQ to me (FYI both BM3 and myself are located in Canada). I placed my order on Wednesday April 19th at 4:12 AM, and approximately 4 minutes later I realized I entered my shipping address incorrectly. So I sent an Email to the BM3 support team with “URGENT” in the message hoping the customer support team (props to Serge and Dzenan you gentlemen are absolute legends) would get the message in time and correct my shipping address before the shipping team mailed out the order. To my surprise at 8:55 AM I received another email from the BM3 team that my order had been processed and the shipping address was correctly changed. So in ~4 hours from me placing my order, the adapter was packaged, my address was corrected, a shipping label was created, and the order was ready for pickup by Canada post. This is absolutely an incredible level of responsiveness from the customer service team and incredibly fast shipping speed from the shipping team. The only company that comes remotely close in regards to shipping speed (and is a close second compared to the BM3 team) is VTT.

I credit this incredible response rate from the customer service team and the incredible shipping speed from the shipping team, to BM3’s relentless dedication to improving and getting better. This has led BM3 to use cutting edge software in order to optimize their work flow and ensure communication is never lost and the right person always sees it ASAP. For instance, instead of just using standard emailing and then forwarding emails around to the correct people. The BM3 team utilizes Atlassian’s JIRA software in order to facilitate their development work and customer service - and this is the same software giant billion dollar companies (Twitter, Lyft, Reddit, and Pinterest) use for their own work flow.



Credit: Atlassian https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira



Now what is so good about Jira? Jira allows customers to create tickets for help, and these tickets can be seen by anyone on the support team from the general tech support, all the way to the big boss Dzenan himself. So the correct people will always be able to access your query for help - without the requirement for the message to be forwarded around (unlike an email). The tickets are also kept open until the problem is marked resolved, so you will NEVER (or at the very least it will be very unlikely), run into a situation where the support team “misses” your message. This architecture also allows for handling of large amounts of requests even easier than other traditional methods, so future expansion of the team will be easier and answers to questions will be sent back faster. But that isn’t all, Jira also can also enable inter team cooperation, and this allows the development team to plan new features, create work plans, and collaborate with each other or with other teams in the company in order to develop new features. This allows for a strong amount of collaboration and teamwork leading to a better written code and resulting in a better and faster developed final product.

Like I said before, there is a reason why large billion dollar companies don’t just use plain email services (one email account, or just emailing with multiple accounts alone - large companies always use something on top of the email infrastructure) for customer support and internal collaboration; and the fact that BM3 is willing to go this extra mile to improve their internal infrastructure and use the best of the best tools (despite these tools being expensive) shows how serious they are when it comes to striving to be the best. I will discuss these details further in my main BM3 review, but I really can’t stop ranting and raving about how impressive BM3 is behind the scenes and how these are the things that will make BM3 the best platform for BMW tuning in the very near future (proof of this is the fact BM3 has launched the GEN 2 B58 race rom features before MHD and even ECUTEK - which currently at the time of writing this cannot even tune 2020 build date ecu cars).


Continuing back to my shipping experience, after my mistakes were corrected the package arrived to my PO Box on April 25 at 1:22 PM which is 6 days (including 2 days for the weekend). So shipping speeds even with the cheapest shipping option selected was still quite fast. The overall packaging was OK, the OBD2 adapter came in a small cardboard box and filled with some packing peanuts and the adapter was wrapped in some bubble wrap. My one complaint would be that the adapter did move around inside of the box a bit too much for my liking, I would have liked for the box to either be smaller, or to be completely stuffed full with paper or packing peanuts so there is no movement at all. Otherwise the packaging was good, and everything arrived in flawless condition.


Now this was my experience with their excellent customer service, to limit any bias that may have come from preferential treatment towards me (since I was doing this review) let's discuss what BM3 would normally do for any other customers. Dzenan has told me that the standard protocol for customer service is via email, anyone who needs help can email them. If their issue isn’t solved within a few emails or their question is extremely complex, BM3 can offer remote support where they use ConnectWise’s ScreenConnect cloud software to create a remote screen sharing session that a customer can join via clicking a link. This connection will also allow the BM3 support team to take control of the user’s computer so the BM3 team can show them around or help them diagnose and solve any issue that they potentially will face - this again is another example of BM3 investing in software to push them further ahead of the competition. I have never seen customer service this good for a tuning platform period. Ecutek was quite good at answering questions for me in the past and never just gave up on helping me despite a lot of questions. MHD was mediocre imo, because when I asked a bit too many questions they would just tell me to read the manual - despite the manual being the point of confusion for me. So in my opinion BM3 has unparalleled customer service, and there are not many companies better than BM3.



Dedication to growth
The last topic I would like to discuss before we go into the software itself is BM3’s dedication to growth. BM3 has seriously impressed me with how far they are willing to go to be the best, from: their willingness to spend money on software to improve their customer service and software development progress with Atlassian Jira (this software is used by multiple billion dollar companies around the world and allows customer service to be held in such a manner that everyone can see the message and chime in - as discussed previously, and allows the development team to coordinate their tasks and report bugs to be fixed all in a centralized work *******, to utilizing shopify to make their shopping and payment system seamless, to spending tons of money on their cloud interface to ensure that their app stays cutting edge with cloud sync technology so you never had to email logs to yourself or a tuner, to making massive hires so they have the talent to always be looking towards to future. For example, BM3 recently hired GUI designers to remake their app, and it shows - BM3 is so incredibly modern and clean that it is hard to describe how attractive this app is - it is easily the best looking tuning app on the market without a doubt, there is no competition at all. It is said that designing the logic of an app is easy compared to making the GUI, because it is hard to predict how a human will interact with the app and how to make a design that pleases them - so BM3 nailing the design of the new app shows that they are serious even on the GUI side of things. BM3 didn’t stop there either, they have hired more software developers that are competent with how DME logic works, and that has allowed to create their custom rom features and release it on new platforms faster than their competitors (at the time of writing this review BM3 is the only platform offering custom rom features for the Gen 2 B58 powered cars, and they have been the sole platform capable of this for well over a month now with MHD and Ecutek not having any support as of yet) and this is a testament to how efficient and capable BM3’s team is. But that doesn’t end with software alone, BM3 has also hired engineers capable of electronics design, this is demonstrated through the fact that their OBD2 wifi adapter and flex fuel canbus interface was designed IN HOUSE, whereas other companies like ECUTEK and MHD are not capable of doing the same and rely on other companies to design products for them.This is a huge advantage for BM3 because inhouse designs always allows for faster development and better integration with their software. Because collaboration between the software developers and hardware engineers are more close knit allowing for easier communication of desired functionality, this leads to better integration because every aspect of hardware can be designed to match every aspect of the software and vice versa - no miscommunications, no unnecessary bloatware to make the hardware and software compatible etc. Also the inhouse software developers can also make the software for any hardware devices so compatibility will be perfect from the get go allowing more time to be spent on new projects rather than debugging problems. The BM3 team has also made massive hirings to improve customer service which is why their customer service is at the level previously described.


BM3 has also released a good video talking about all the hires they recently made so if you want to check it out here it is:





GUI:

View post on imgur.com

Credit: F87source


The first thing I would like to go over about the BM3 software is the GUI - otherwise known as graphical user interface.

The first time I opened this app all I could say was “wow”, because I had never seen a tuning app this attractive in my entire life - and that is coming from a guy who has seen and been around: MHD (the original and updated versions), ECUTEK, Cobb accessport (v2 and v3), and Openflash tuners. The Bootmod3 team has really done an absolutely incredible job designing this app because not only is it attractive, but it is smooth, responsive, and intuitive to use - and this is a massive achievement because any software developer will tell you making a nice GUI that satisfies all these conditions is extremely hard.


All I can say is, anyone who is looking for a tuning platform needs to download BM3 first and navigate around the menus first before they make a choice on what tuning platform to get (yes it is true without a license you won’t be able to access every feature of BM3, but you will still get a good feel of the app). Because I can tell you right now, imo after you play around with the BM3 app you will not be able to go to any other app because they will all feel old, crude and archaic compared to the new BM3. This is exactly how I felt after navigating the BM3 app for a few minutes, because it literally doesn’t feel like a tuning app, it feels like an app made by a major company whose purpose is for daily user interaction - like youtube or instagram, and not an app made to tune a car and have user interaction be a secondary priority. I cannot stop raving about how good this app looks and feels. So, I asked BM3 if they could make a demo mode so users who don’t have a license yet can navigate the entirety of the app and demo the gauges as well - and the BM3 team said they would consider doing it.


BM3 is also available on all major platforms - it is available on android, ios, and any computer capable of accessing a browser (BM3’s web version). This is extremely useful because it allows the user massive amounts of flexibility in how they use BM3, maybe in their car they have a tablet for gauges but would prefer to use a laptop to adjust map configurations, flash maps, and review data logs (because this is all easier to do with a mouse and keyboard) - well with BM3 it is a possibility. This is another big advantage with BM3 that most competitors do not have, so you’re locked to mobile devices only.



Dashboard (gauges) and Datalogging:

The next part of BM3 to go over is the dashboard (gauges) and the data logging capabilities - I will discuss them together because they are so closely interconnected. Let’s start off with the dashboard (gauges).


Credit: F87Source



Credit: F87Source


So the BM3 dashboard consists of pages with RPM (engine speed) always at the top of each page, and each page can have up to 8 gauges (if you choose the small gauge size). Gauges also come in 2 sizes large or small and you are free to mix and match as you please, and you can have a total of 70 gauges displayed on all of your pages - 36 from the default channel list + other channel list, and the remaining gauges are from the Advanced (RAM) channel list. You can also choose list gauges instead of dial gauges, but personally I find list gauges less intuitive to quickly look at so I prefer the dial gauges.




Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


Next each gauge can be independently configured, you can configure: the level of precision (number of decimal places such as 12 vs 12.0) of each gauge, the refresh rate, the units to override the defaults that you may have set in the GUI (this is really helpful if you’re Canadian where you like temp in celsius, but you also like pressure in PSI, and distance/speed in KM/KPH). You can also add alarms to the gauge to trigger alerts if the gauge goes past a certain value (so for coolant if it goes past 117C trigger an alert - because this is limp mode temps for coolant, or you can set alerts for rpm to create a shift alert) this will allow you to respond to certain conditions during your cars running. One more cool thing to note is that BM3 has an alerts tab where you can view all previous alerts that have been triggered by your gauges - so you can always keep track of what happened when. You can even configure little things like if the gauge has a needle, what color the needle is, what the background sweep color is when the needle goes by, etc. This is an absolutely asinine level of customization that no other tuning platform gives except for BM3. BM3 has also told me that you can have every gauge (up to the max limit of 70 (36 from the default + other channel list and the remaining from the advanced (RAM) channel list) displaying data in real time without delay thanks to BM3’s ability to utilize BMW’s flex ray system (given you’re using their wifi adapter or a high quality ENET cable of course).


If you look at these dashboard features and compare them to the competitors, BM3 absolutely blows them all away. First you are able to have multiple pages of gauges instead of just being locked in with 1. This is useful for situations when you cannot fit all the gauges you’d like to see on a single page, for instance if I had a flex fuel system I would like to have an ethanol content gauge as well and if I was stuck with 1 page like I would be on MHD at the time of this review (and this was what frustrated me with MHD because I wanted more gauges and when I asked MHD if they could add more gauges they just told me “ there is no point because no one can read all of them while driving” which imo is not the point of having many gauges), then I wouldn’t be able to easily see ethanol content without switching out a gauge. I also like to have multiple gauges in case I want to monitor things like outside temperature, timing, knock counters, water pump duty cycle (to ensure the pump is working), fan speed, etc - and then I can swipe pages over during a traffic light to check on these things. I also think the level of customization that BM3 allows with the gauges is so incredibly useful and more people should care about them. So for instance data refresh rate, let's say you have a gauge that is jumping around too fast because the sensor is too sensitive (say something not critical for instance battery voltage jumping from 13.9 B to 14.2 V or something like this) and you can’t read the numbers because it's changing too fast. Well you can decrease the data refresh rate so that it slows down the gauge so you can read it then you notice it is hopping between 13 and 14 V - this is super handy and something no other tuning platform lets you do (at the time of this review that is). It is also extremely nice to be able to configure colors the way you want it as well - especially if you have trouble seeing certain colors. And finally with BM3 you can configure your dashboard and your data logging settings all without having to be connected to the car - this is a massive plus for me because with MHD I had to be connected to my car with the ignition in accessory mode in order for me to configure these parameters. This not only forced me to be inside the car to do this, but it also drained the battery quite a bit as it took me quite awhile to configure the gauges and alerts exactly the way I like them.

So overall in regards to the dashboard BM3 imo absolutely obliterates the competition and there is no comparison.



Next let's talk about data logging (there are ALOT of pictures so I grouped them all into one album).


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Credit: F87source


With BM3 data logging you have 2 storage locations for your logs, the first place data logs are stored is locally on your device. The second place your logs are stored is the BM3 cloud network - and all local logs are automatically uploaded to the cloud when BM3 is connected to the internet. Once you get onto the cloud you can access your logs using BM3’s data log viewer - which is a nice but typical data log viewer. This is actually quite a nice and convenient means to store data logs because the end user doesn’t have to manually upload logs to a cloud service like data zap, and it is a set and forget means of logging. I can’t tell you how many times I went out logging with MHD and forgot to upload the logs, then when I got home I would have to go back down to the garage and take my tablet out of the car and then upload the logs before I could check them. This was such a major inconvenience that made logging an annoyance to do, that I am extremely glad BM3 has solved for me. This may not seem like a big deal to many, but once you start logging a lot you will see how much time this saves, and like all little features they all have a large cumulative effect and make a major impact on how one perceives a tuning platform as a whole. But if you want you can still transfer the CSV file from your device to any other log viewing platform that you want, you’re not restricted to using BM3’s cloud service.



Next I want to discuss data logging channels, with BM3 you have the ability to log 70 channels simultaneously at 20 - 22 HZ per channel (maxing out the gateway link on the F series N55. And this is according to my communications with Dzenan at bootmod3, and this is what he told me about the datalogging sampling rate) - this is significantly more than what some competitiors allows you to log, which is incredible if you want to see alot of data and don’t want to log multiple different times in order to see different channels. Now the benefits of BM3 logging vs. the competitors (MHD and ECUTEK) is that BM3 allows vastly more data logging channels than the competition (coming from MHD it is absolutely ridiculous how many more channels BM3 lets you log, and a majority of them aren’t available on MHD). If you scroll through my albums I have screen shotted all the channels BM3 lets you log and it is in the hundreds, whereas the competition is well below the 100 channel. Dzenan has even told me they would expand upon this if they ever find more RAM values corresponding to channels of interest when I asked about adding GHAS (differential) temperature logging and gauge support (which is great for track guys).

Now you may be asking why is having so many data logging channels even important? The answer to that question is that you never know when you may require them. For example you might want to create a specific tune that alters the water pump speed for different conditions on track instead of just maxing it out all the time - well with BM3 you can log water pump speed and create a tune based on the data you see. Or maybe you’re building an engine and you need to recalibrate some knock sensors due to the engine material being different and causing the factory knock sensor calibration to be thrown off, BM3 can help log ignition timing, super knock, misfires, reference knock control level for each cylinder. The possibilities are endless for why you may want to log specific things on the car, but having the channels available and not needing them is always preferred over wanting the channel and not having them.



Finally I would like to go over the data log settings (what we can do to configure the logs). Within datalog settings you are able to set the default values for all of your data logs and dashboard gauges (of course each gauge can be individually reconfigured if you would like) and these are the first options you have in the menu. The next option you have is to setup up how far you have to press the gas pedal before auto logging starts (otherwise you would just double tap anywhere on the dashboard to start logging and double tap to stop logging), and how long you have to be off the pedal to stop the log (this is an extremely nice feature that competitors don’t have - especially for manual transmission owners who may shift a bit slowly). The last few options are to configure what RPM the shift indicator comes on at - in each individual gear. Again this is such a nice little touch from BM3 that again no other competitors have, and is really nice because it lets you configure what RPM you want to shift at for each specific gear. Let's say you want to short shift 1st and 2nd gear because you don’t have any traction, you can configure the shift indicator to go off when you are at the most optimal portion of the power band so you maximize the power band going into the next gear.



So that summarizes up the dashboard and data logging capabilities of BM3 - essentially it has significantly more customizable gauges, more gauges, significantly more data channels available for gauges and logging, automatic cloud storage and upload, and more data logging configurability compared to the competition.



MAPS:


Credit: F87Source
The next category of this review involves MAPS (or tunes), the BM3 Map category is broken down into 2 sections:

1) The first section is My MAPS, and this is for your stock tune and any custom tunes you may have obtained from professional tuners.




Credit F87Source




Credit: F87Source


2) The second section is called OTS MAPS which stands for “off the shelf” MAPS, and is for OTS MAPS you may have obtained from BM3.

When you purchase BM3 you will obtain 1 map credit that you can use to get a free OTS MAP of your choice (if you have an m2 you should avoid stage 1, because it has been dynoed producing less power than the m2 stock). If you wish to get additional OTS MAPS from BM3 it will cost $50 USD per map credit, and you can get these map credits from: https://www.protuningfreaks.com/coll...nt=33040978051
Each OTS MAP that you purchase will come with all the common fuel octanes (91 octane, 91 octane ACN - for Arizona, California, and Nevada, 93 octane, and MultiMap - which is BM3 custom rom related and allows you to have multiple different maps loaded and switch between them along with flex fuel capabilities).


Another thing to note is that when you purchase an OTS MAP from BM3 you will get unlimited MAP updates as they are released, this means when BM3 adds new features like shift bog fix (this is the lag that you will notice when you shift gears in a manual transmission car, and all BM3 OTS maps have a fix implemented to stop this lag - and this is another super nice feature that BM3 has had on their OTS maps for quite some time now that other tuning platforms do not currently have) for the 6mt you will get it for free.

*Note 1*: on some engine variants like the S55 and N55 (excluding the m2), BM3 will offer free OTS MAPS that are actually the higher powered OEM variants from these engines. So for example the S55 may get the M2CS, M3/M4 CS and even the M4 GTS OEM mappings for free as OTS MAPS. While the N55’s may get the m2 OTS MAP for free.


*Note 2*: BM3 OTS maps undergo constant refinement and development based on user feedback so the maps improve based on what the general population of BM3 users want. So if you purchase BM3 and use their OTS maps, you can rest assured that over time your tune will only get better. BM3 also takes significant amounts of feedback from users like ZM2 who heavily track their vehicles and refines the tune based on the results of these massively punishing track sessions (I have seen Halim make multiple updates to the BM3 stage 2+ OTS map over a short period of time to make sure the cars can perform on track without issues). Out of my nearly 1 decade experience with the F series n55 platform (starting in 2014 with the m235i) I have never seen OTS maps updated this frequently and especially in regards to usage on the race track. I don’t think any other tuning platforms come close in regards to OTS map revisions compared to BM3, and this makes BM3 one of the best tuning platforms out there when it comes to their OTS maps. I keep hearing that MHD has better OTS maps than BM3 because users say it is “smoother”, but I highly doubt that this is the case, because I personally have never seen MHD update their OTS maps and refine them (especially when it comes to track use) to the same extent that BM3 does.

So in summary when it comes to OTS maps, I believe they are a huge advantage for a tuning platform to have. Because not only does it allow you to have OTS maps to use to test new parts with instead of waiting for a tuner to send you a base map and then do a custom tune before getting to try out your new parts. But after spending quite a bit of money on the tuning software itself, the last thing you probably want to do is spend another $500+ for a custom tune, so this is pretty big advantage BM3 has over ECUTEK - which doesn’t offer any OTS maps.




The last thing I would like to talk about in this section is MAP configuration.


Credit: F87Source



Credit: F87Source



Credit: F87Source



Credit: F87Source


So what is a MAP configuration? MAP configurations are customizations (essentially it applies some preset changes to the DME bin file that allows a certain feature to be added to the tune, the difference between this and custom tuning is that these configurations don’t change features that would necessitate data logging to ensure that the car is running properly as these configurations generally are changing minor things or rescaling tables or turning features on or off) that you can make on top of the base tune that a MAP provides and they work for both OTS maps and custom tunes and even the stock tune. Map configurations are in my opinion the most useful things when it comes to the flashing capabilities of a tuning software and imo the main weakness when it comes to ECUTEK.



Credit: F87Source



Credit: F87Source



Credit: F87Source


So some examples of map configurations that BM3 offers is choosing the exhaust burbles type where you can choose OEM, GTS, Original, OFF, or Custom - which is the most popular mode and where you can configure how aggressive your pops and bangs are, how long they last, how aggressive they are, the speed range you must be in for them to be active activate, and the rpm range you must be in for the burbles to be active. And like the usual trend with BM3 the level of customizability here in the burbles is greater than what the competitors like MHD allows you to do (again at least from what I can tell during the time of writing this review), so if you really like burbles and want to dial it in exactly the way you like it - again BM3 offers much more fine tuning options.


BM3 will also allow you to disable the loud cold starts, select the engine RPM for the cold starts, update the ignition dwell settings for upgraded coils, disable the EWG (for external wastegate configurations), rescale the MAP settings for larger TMAP sensors, remove top speed limiters, rescale HPFP tables for upgrade HPFP’s, rescale injector tables for higher flowing injectors, configure throttle response for each drive mode independently and so much more.

Now what’s the big deal about all these map configurations? Well on a tuning platform like ECUTEK you can’t do any of these map configurations by yourself, any single change that you may desire you must have a tuner do it for you and depending on what tuner you have that may come as an additional cost (especially if you’re like me and like to change parts all the time and thus have different permutations of parts on your car at a given time, and that means your tuner has to make as many permutations of tunes for you and this likely won’t be free). Also, let's say you just got done installing some new fuel injectors, or HPFP, or TMAP sensor, or higher reading TMAP sensor late one evening and now you want to test drive your car. With BM3 you can configure these changes in the map configurations tab and flash your tune and go out for a drive to test your new mods out. With ECUTEK you have to send a request to your tuner to have these changes implemented, and that may take until the next day - if your tuner isn’t busy, or if you’re doing this during the weekends, holidays, or your tuner is on vacation it could take a long time before you’re even able to start your car again. So this is why I didn’t even consider ECUTEK as a tuning platform, because it is way too tuner reliant and puts you at the mercy of your tuner for every single little change. It is also why I chose BM3, because it offers so much more finer level control compared to the competition.



Map Editor:

Now onto the MAP editor or what some refer to as the table editor. BM3 has created a bespoke table editor for their tuning suite, that predefines thousands of tables for the various supported engine types. For example, my M2 has 5174 tables predefined ready to use by any tuner without having to manually dig through the DAMOS and define tables themselves - this saves massive amounts of time for tuners, especially if they have to tune multiple different platforms with multiple DME ROMs. BM3 will also define more tables as time goes by so it will be a forever growing and updating platform, for instance on May 9th 2023 my m2 had 5158 tables defined by BM3, it now has 5174 tables defined as of July 2nd 2023. So having a predefined MAP editor imo is extremely useful, because you don’t have to do it and you can just focus on tuning rather than discovering tables, and BM3 has made sure they defined all the primary tables that are used for tuning while excluding the tables mainly used for sensor calibration which isn’t needed for tuning. (Note: generally when tuning you only modify a couple of hundreds of tables, so having 5100+ tables at your disposal is technically overkill, and for comparison the MHD public XDF iirc has a table count in the ~3000’s).



Credit: F87Source


When I first saw the BM3 table editor I could not believe how advanced this piece of software is compared to the traditional table editors that MHD has to use like tuner pro and win ols. For instance the BM3 table editor has a version history (similar to GIT for those who code) built into it so it takes “backups” of your bin as you edit it. This means while tuning if you’re multiple revisions deep and find out a previous revision offered better performance in some areas (say the timing targets were more optimal) then instead of scrambling through multiple bin files looking for the correct one (if you even remembered to save multiple bins) and then having to copy and paste entire tables - you can just revert certain tables back to a past version. This is such a massive advancement and a major life improving feature for tuners that NO other map/table editor has (at least during the time of writing this), and is another major benefit of using BM3 over any other tuning platform.




Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source

But that is not all, since the BM3 map editor was built specifically for BMW DME’s (and not like tuner pro and winols which is a universal table editor) it has the BMW specific DME logic in mind. This means that BM3 was able to introduce “relationships” to the MAP editor - what this effectively means is that when you are editing a specific table, you are able to see all the other tables that are functionally related to this particular table. For example, like I hinted before, the BMW DME logic is heavily dependent on load targets, so if you alter a particular table and the desired effects aren’t occurring - there is a chance that a specific load table is preventing the change from taking place as the change would cause the load targets to exceed preset limiters. With related tables you will easily be able to scroll through all the related tables to determine which ones could be causing the issue and make the change. Or if you’re already extremely familiar with the DME’s logic you can use the related tables as a shortcut to get to the table you need - thereby reducing the amount of clicks and scrolling through the table lists to get to the table you want. BM3 also has a search bar built in so you can search for a specific table that you may need, say “coolant temperature” targets, and this again makes looking for tables so much easier. So overall the BM3 related table function is extremely useful for tuners to save on their work load and reduce the amount of time they may have to spend searching the tables list for a particular one they want - and this again makes BM3 so much more advanced than the competition - which do not possess such a feature (again at the time of this review, and I don’t believe ECUTEK has this feature either but I could be wrong - I also can’t verify it myself since I don’t own ECUTEK and even if I did ECUTEK doesn’t allow their end users access to their MAP editor - which is another con for ECUTEK imo, because again this makes the end user so reliant on a tuner).



Another feature the BM3 MAP editor possesses that the likes of tuner pro or winols doesn’t is the ability to compensate for different DME ROM versions. Now what does this mean? Like I discussed above in the “What is a Bin” section, each DME contains logic code and reference tables stored as a bin. But with each software version the reference tables and logic code can be stored in different positions (memory locations or addresses) in those 1’s and 0’s of the bin. This means with a traditional table editor you would have to create custom base maps (a map that a tuner would create containing their general tweaks for mods that they see alot, so turbo upgrades, downpipes etc) specifically for each DME ROM version. This places a massive amount of work on the tuner because if one specific DME contains 10 ROM versions, the tuner has to create 10 different base maps for those ROMs, and then multiply this by the number of base maps that a tuner may have for every specific mod set and multiply this by the number of DME’s that a tuner may support. In the process of duplicating these base maps the tuner would also have to ensure they copied and pasted the tables into the correct memory address for the new ROM which is always a hassle, and every time the base map is updated the tuner would have to update the base MAP for all of these ROM versions as well. Again this is alot of unnecessary work that a tuner has to do instead of spending time to tune for their customers.

With the BM3 MAP editor, these different DME ROM versions are accounted for you, all you have to do is import in a different ROM version and the BM3 table editor automatically copies your tables into the correct memory addresses without you having to touch a finger. This is a MASSIVE game changer for BM3 that makes it SO much better than the competition and takes alot of work load off of the tuner, and it also ensure that they never make a mistake while copying and pasting tables. So tuners no longer have to keep updating tables with every base map update, or make a base map for every ROM version.


The BM3 MAP editor also puts in a set of gauges (dashboard) to the right hand side of the MAP editor, so the tuner can data log the car while on the dyno and see in real time how the engine is performing without having to use a different device. Then based on this they can quickly make changes to the MAP. This is a huge benefit of using an integrated MAP editor like the BM3 map editor vs. a 3rd party application, because it is all in one spot - and this will be very handy if live tuning comes to the BMW custom roms (and those tuning platforms that don’t have an integrated MAP editor like the BM3 editor, won’t be able to make use of live tuning as efficiently and will be multiple steps behind BM3).


The BM3 MAP editor can also act as a communications hub between potential clients looking for a tune - if you set yourself up as a BM3 listed tuner. This means that clients can request a tune from you, from there you can get their bin file, details about their car, and create a MAP from them and send it to them all within the MAP editor. No more emailing files and having to scroll through an endless email chain trying to figure out what's what, or share dropbox links with multiple revisions and confusing labels. The customer also doesn’t have to download the bin file from a drop box or email and put it into the correct folder before flashing, it is all within the BM3 app for the customer and extremely easy to use. So with this integrated approach it is quick, painless, and seamless for both the customer and the tuner.



Finally, the last feature about the BM3 MAP editor is that you don’t have to use it. I know right? With all of these benefits why wouldn’t anyone want to use it? Well there are alot of tuners out there that for some reason are afraid of using BM3’s cloud interface saying that having their tunes online will make it vulnerable to BM3 stealing their tuning data. This claim in and of itself is an immensely far reaching imo, and has no valid backing whatsoever. What benefit does BM3 have to steal a custom tune? Most of the time custom tunes are there for extremely specific setups and dialed into a particular car and environment so they will not work well on other cars if “stolen” and made into an OTS map - remember OTS maps are made to be as one size fits all as possible so it can work on any car in any environment. Also adapting a custom tune into an OTS map would likely be extremely time consuming to change all the parameters in order to make it as universal as possible, so honestly I don’t think this would be worth the effort in doing vs. developing an OTS map from scratch. Next customers who buy custom tunes want a tailor made tune for their car, their fuel, their environment, their mods, and their driving style - they essentially don’t want an OTS map so for these customers having more OTS maps won’t change a thing and they will continue to get custom tunes. Finally, stealing intellectual property in the form of a tune is likely something that can result in legal issues and I doubt the BM3 team would want to risk any kind of trouble of this nature, and it makes no sense in having an in house tuner constantly refine OTS maps if you’re plan is to steal them anyways. One additional thing I would like to add is that there are other ways that a tune can be stolen regardless of encryption or not. The first is via data logging - with enough studying of data logs a general idea or trend can be formulated to determine what a tuner has done - especially since you can determine load targets, fuel pressure targets, afr targets, timing targets etc. Then you can also manipulate intake temperature sensors to see what else has been changed for ignition reduction as IAT’s increase etc. The other method could be brute forcing the encryption, or finding vulnerabilities in the encryption method. Nothing is completely flawless and there will likely always be a way to break an encryption given that enough time and effort is put in. So in my opinion I think it is kind of silly to think BM3 would be out there stealing your map data.

Other complaints that I hear is that the BM3 table editor is too “limited” as it won’t let you define more tables manually from the DAMOS (even though you never really use more than a few hundred tables for tuning and BM3 has pretty much all of those covered and then some, plus the fact that BM3 continually defines more tables over time). Of course there are some tuners who are too set in their developmental habits using traditional table editors that they don’t have the time or desire to learn something new - despite the massive advantages the BM3 MAP editor brings.

So the BM3 team has finally had enough of all of these complaints and concerns from tuners, so with the latest update to support the gen 2 B58 engines BM3 is now fully offline capable. This means you can use BM3 completely offline (after signing in of course) just like MHD and ECUTEK, and you would define your own tables from a DAMOS and create an xdf file to use with a traditional table editor like tuner pro or winols - exactly like tuning with MHD. Then you would encrypt your bin file into a .bm3 file and send that to a potential client for flashing, or flash it yourself. So this essentially eliminates the cloud side of BM3 and also any of the aforementioned concerns. This is also essentially how MHD tuning works, so now BM3 can do both, it can have the advanced cloud features or it can have offline features and tuners have the choice on what to pick - and again this makes BM3 the most flexible tuning platform out there.




Tuners:

The next section I would like to talk about in the BM3 app is the Tuner section.


Credit: F87Source


This section of the BM3 app allows you to find Tuners that are recognized by the BM3 team as experienced on the BM3 platform as well as the BMW platform, this section also has unverified tuners as well so be careful.

Now what is so good about this Tuners database? Well it allows some vetting of tuners by the BM3 team and this means you know this tuner has had their work reviewed and acknowledged to be competent enough to be certified. This means that in all likelihood this tuner can be trusted to get a tune from and your engine won’t be at risk. However, I do caution to still do some research on a tuner before picking them, because there can always be some bad ones with a good online reputation sneaking through the cracks - I have seen a few tuners that I personally wouldn’t trust listed on there. But nonetheless it is still a really effective filter in separating the good tuners from all the wannabe instagram and facebook “tuners” who literally learned how to tune extremely recently and have hype behind them online because their friends are constantly shouting them out. This is what I really disliked about MHD custom tuning, because there were so many tuners coming out of nowhere and the facebook groups would just be shouting out all of these unheard of tuners with massive fan bases touting their talents, and there was little to no vetting going on. Whereas with ECUTEK there was a master tuner list - where only these tuners were allowed to tune on ECUTEK, and this was a thing I really liked so when BM3 implemented something similar I was stoked!

So overall, I really like the idea of having a database where BM3 can certify tuners, and this really does help weed out most of the bad and unknown tuners out there - which makes it safer for BM3 users (especially the less experienced ones) as a whole.


Diagnostics:

The next part of BM3 to discuss is the diagnostics tab, this tab lets you scan your car for error codes, read what they say, and clear them. This tab also lets you clear any adaptations for your car allowing it to relearn your fuel octane, and mods once again. This can be really useful if your car is pulling timing on purpose because it is expecting poor quality gas, or if your mods are taking a bit long to adapt to.


Transmission:

The transmission tab is for N55 and S55 DCT and automatic transmission owners to remove torque limiters. I apologize that I cannot comment further on this since I have a manual transmission and none of this applies to me so I cannot test anything and I have a very limited knowledge on these transmission types.


Custom ROM:

The last thing I would like to briefly talk about in regards to BM3 is the custom ROM.


Credit: F87Source


Typically with custom ROM’s the features are quite similar across tuning platforms, you have your flex fuel, you have anti-lag, and you have map switching.

Flex fuel: This is an extremely useful feature for anyone who uses ethanol mixed fuels as it allows you to essentially fill and forget without having to worry about mixing specific concentrations of ethanol. This means all you have to do is fill your tank anywhere from E0 - E85 (technically you could go to E98 if you tuned for it - E100 technically isn’t a think because that is anhydrous ethanol or lab grade ethanol and would be extremely expensive to make and be taxed quite a bit because it is technically consumable or at least able to be made into drinking alcohol) and then the DME will automatically adjust the tune so that it will be able to perfectly operate with any concentration of ethanol you put into the car. So the driver no longer has to worry about messing up an ethanol mixture and risk engine damage due to knock from having an insufficient amount of ethanol mixed in. The driver no longer has to worry about flashing a new map to switch between pump gas and ethanol fuel, because the car will do it for you. Now this is a really convenient feature.


Note: To use flex fuel you will need to get a BM3 supported canbus integrated flex fuel analyzer and flex fuel sensor. I recommend the BM3 flex fuel kit: https://www.protuningfreaks.com/coll...00-plug-n-play

Because it really is the best option on the market right now due to it using a bespoke made and designed in house (again no other tuning company is currently capable of designing things like this in house) fittings that do not restrict fuel flow - something that I cannot say about other flex fuel kits on the market. This BM3 kit also uses a teflon based kink free braided AN fuel hose - which is SO much nicer than the solid plastic style fittings that MHD uses on their flex fuel kits (I do think they are making an lines now too but I am not sure) which limits flexibility and makes the canbus module placement so much harder. BM3 also designed the enclosure and circuit board of their canbus module in house, so it is fully weather proof and extremely small for even easier placement above the fuel hat. The BM3 kit also has 2 ⅛ npt ports for an LPFP sensor and whatever else you may want - which is extremely handy to monitor your low pressure fuel pump’s output pressure since the N55 platform doesn’t have a factory LPFP sensor. Finally, the best part of the BM3 kit is that it is fully pnp and doesn’t require any cutting or splicing of wires, it is installed above the stock fuel pump hat and plugs into the *EKP*. Well that used to be the case until recently BM3 updated all their F series kits to to only plug into the FEM (front electronic module) for the power, ground, and CANBUS high/low connections - just like it was being done on their F series B58 kits from the get go. Now why did they do this? Well you guys may have heard about the “weak” EKP issue on these F series cars where upgraded LPFP’s will pull more current than the EKP was designed to handle. This causes the EKP wiring to over heat (and potentially melt - have seen really bad wiring from this issue over the years) and also overheat the EKP - which will cause failures over time. So what we can see here is that the EKP and its wiring is quite close to the limit from the factory, so having a CANBUS module draw additional power from an already near the limit source isn’t a great idea. This is why BM3 addressed this issue by having all new CANBUS units plug into the FEM from now on, and again another reason why BM3 is better than most of the competition which still draw power from the EKP. This is also the benefit of designing everything in house, because if you see an issue you can manufacture a fix immediately, no need to contact a 3rd party supplier, determine how to create a new harness, determine if there will be any new software required and how to facilitate it, and potentially renegotiate production and engineering contracts etc.

Anti-lag: This is a really nice feature for roll racing, especially if you have large turbos that take time to spool. Because with anti-lag you can have the car build boost before you set off on your run, so when it is time to take off your car is already at peak boost eliminating turbo lag and allowing you to rocket away - and these are the types of factors that can help win you a roll race. So if you are serious into roll racing, having antilag is a huge benefit.

Map switching: this allows you to store up to 4 MAPS on the DME, and toggle between them with on steering wheel controls - no flashing is required! This is such a convenient feature if you would like to have multiple maps on board and toggle between them without having to reflash the car - one for methanol injection on, one for methanol injection off, one for race gas, one for valet mode etc.


Live adjust: with BM3’s custom ROM you also have live adjust, this allows you to do many things on the fly without having to reflash the car. The first thing you can do is reconfigure your burbles without having to flash the car again - super handy because you don’t have to turn off the car, set up a map configuration and then reflash the tune. You can also override your ethanol sensor incase it is dirty or damaged and therefore reading incorrectly. Lets say you’re about to race, and you open a brand new barrel of E85 from a trusted fuel company like VP race fuels. But after filling up your car your ethanol sensor says E0 - that obviously can’t be right. So instead of aborting your race day (because you likely don’t have a specific tune for exactly your ethanol content), you can override your ethanol sensor to E85, or maybe a bit more conservatively E75 or E50, and then flex fuel will do its magic and you’ll be able to race like nothing happened.


So these are all the benefits of BM3’s custom ROM!


Now I do want to address some more misconceptions that I keep hearing about BM3, and for some reason it keeps coming from tuners that seem to have a lack of understanding in regards to the BM3 custom ROM logic.

Misconception 1: “BM3’s custom rom logic is inferior to MHD and ECUTEK because its tuning control for flex fuel is crude at best”. I brought this topic up with Dzenan and talked to him about this directly, and Dzenan stated that this is completely untrue. The way BM3 handles flex fuel is different to the way other platforms may handle it - so if you are unfamiliar with BM3 and only know how to tune ECUTEK or MHD then of course you’d think this is the case. But briefly - since I am no tuner, all of the controls for flex fuel are part of the various tables BM3 has implemented and part of the stock DME logic like boost ceiling. You have to be able to utilize the stock DME logic and the BM3 custom rom logic in unison to get full control equal to that of any other tuning platform. So to say that BM3 has crude control implies that the tuner: doesn’t understand the BM3 logic or the stock DME logic or even worse both, has a bias towards the current tool they are using and are unwilling to learn a new platform so they instead try to sway customers to switch tuning solutions by saying BM3 is horrible (which again is untrue) all in efforts so they can continue and use what they are comfortable with.

I also must say that flex fuel isn’t a new concept, it is used on: many OEM’s (particularly american cars - even BMW has flex fuel capabilities with the 320i in Brazil), long standing tuning platforms like ECUTEK and Cobb, and even OE manufacturers like BOSCH have flex fuel programmes, and so on so forth. But the critical thing is that this logic has been out there for an extremely long time now, and it can be studied and analyzed by anyone. So to think that BM3 would be developing this technology from scratch without taking inspiration from the existing solutions - in particular those billion dollar OEM’s, and thus have a super crude flex fuel logic is absurd. Remember DAMOS files can be purchased and that means you can study how BMW did it on the 320i (so BMW DME logic) and employ these techniques on the BM3 custom ROM. You can even see how BOSCH did it and since BMW’s use BOSCH DME’s there will definitely be overlap that can be reused. So I absolutely think those tuners who say that BM3’s custom rom logic is crude - in particular the flex fuel logic, don’t know enough about both the stock DME logic and the BM3 logic to tune your car safely and effectively. So you should get a better tuner or a tuner with years of experience tuning with BM3.


Misconception 2: “BM3 is missing some custom rom stuff that another tuning platform has, so it will always be worse”. While BM3 might be missing some features now, you must remember custom rom’s are always in active development, so it is only a matter of time before BM3 brings these features over. It also doesn’t hurt to drop them a note about features that you may want, so they know what the community wants and what to develop. Also, don’t forget BM3 has a massive team behind them now - and I am willing to say this team will only continue to grow, and this means it is very likely that BM3 will start to pump out features in the very near future that the competition cannot keep up with. For instance look at the GUI, BM3 has had 2 GUI’s so far that were leaps and bounds better than the competition - especially this new one. BM3 also has an insanely good MAP editor that I suspect would take the competition years upon years to build, if they even have the manpower to dedicate to such an endeavor. BM3 also has in house engineering capabilities now that other tuning platforms do not, and iirc they are designing their wifi adapters (hardware + software + electronics) and flex fuel kits (again hardware + software + electronics) in house. So my opinion is don’t sleep on BM3, they have so much capabilities that it is only a matter of time before they do things others cannot.




Summary:

So in summary, I think BM3 is the best tuning platform for BMW’s (including the Toyota supra, because that pretty much is a BMW) for the following reasons:

1) Customer service: BM3 has an unbelievable level of customer service, they have made major hires to improve this capability so it isn’t just a single individual answering emails like at most companies - but it is actually a team of multiple people. BM3 also stepped this up even further by offering video call and remote access support to better help their customers - and I don’t think any other BMW specific tuning company does this.

2) Money back guarantee: you get 30 days to try out BM3 and if you don’t like it you get your money back no hassle no fuss. If that doesn’t scream confidence I don’t know what does. Meanwhile there are other tuning platforms that don’t even let you resell your tune let alone return it.

3) Resale: BM3 lets you resell your tuning license one time, this means if you sell your car you can either transfer the tuning license to the new owner or resell it and make some money back. This is a major advantage for BM3 especially when the competition either VIN locks the tuning license and essentially ties the tune with the car, or even worse VIN locks and email locks the tuning license, so you will have to give up your email address if you want to sell the tune (cough cough I am looking at you MHD, because I personally have a MHD license that I do not want and am now stuck with forever…..).

4) Development team: BM3 has constantly been hiring more and more people with incredible skills and talent to help develop BM3. They have GUI designers, they have software engineers, they have electronics engineers, they have mechanical engineers on hand. BM3 has also spent significant amounts of money on software to streamline their development process like atlassian Jira - which is used by multi billion dollar companies. The result is they have been able to put out incredible software: for example a state of the art extremely advanced MAP editor and software that looks so incredibly good it is unrivaled. It also means they are able to work incredibly quick and efficiently for example they pushed out BM3 custom rom to platforms like the B58 gen 2 before anyone else has done so. BM3 has also been able to develop everything in house - like their wifi adapter and flex fuel kit, something not many tuning platforms are able to do right now.

5) IMO they have the best features overall: they have the best GUI - and it isn’t even close, they have the most customizability from setting up the dashboard gauges to map customizations, they have significantly more comprehensive datalogging, they have incredible OTS maps that undergo constant development, they have an incredible cloud interface with an incredible bespoke map editor, they are capable of also tuning offline with traditional map editors, they have a tuner database to help weed out the incompetent tuners, and they have an excellent custom rom that is continually getting better.


So as you can see BM3 imo is the best BMW tuning platform because of a multitude of features across every single aspect of their platform.
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Last edited by F87source; 01-27-2024 at 04:38 PM..
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