Latest entry
Oct 1Radios on the bench
Retook the group and radio screens on build 158 with both radios up. 2.4 GHz updates every 1.4 s, the LoRa relay every 3.8 s.
HomeBuild log
Automotive tuning, embedded telemetry, and custom fabrication.
An Android app for back-road drives: offline maps, twisty routes, group tracking over radio or cell, and automatic GPX recording.
Latest entry
Oct 1Radios on the bench
Retook the group and radio screens on build 158 with both radios up. 2.4 GHz updates every 1.4 s, the LoRa relay every 3.8 s.
This post gets updated as the app does.
Electronics
The shift light needs exactly two wires off the car and nothing else. Finding them means reading the factory wiring diagrams, which label every wire with an abbreviation of its colour in German. Nine of them cover almost everything, and after that the diagrams read straight off.
Apps
Both boards now configure from an iPhone, with no App Store install. One free browser is required, and here is exactly why Safari is not it.
Electronics
The shift light grew a second job, then a third. One board now reads the ECU at 62500, watches the CAN bus, reads the chassis modules and runs the shift light — merging the lot into a single 8.5 Hz stream to the phone. Here is the whole thing: transceiver choice, OBD2 pin colours, the two parts that destroy something if you fit them backwards, every wire drawn in colour, and the PCB it all became.
Apps
A $150 Android phone that burns a live coaching overlay into track video, with sound, runs from my pocket over Telegram, calls brake points into my helmet by the circuit's own turn numbers, paints my best lap on the road like a racing game, and hands the session to an LLM that names the three things worth the most time. One post, the whole system, and now every card on the screen explained one at a time: what it tells me in plain English, then the maths underneath it.
Updated Sep 29
Apps
Log an R53, see where the tune misses on 3D and cell maps, and flash the fix from your phone. MINI's own JCW and GP1 calibrations are now the Stage 1 flash on early and late ECUs, and sign-up is open.
Apps
A no-ads Android client for the MaXpeedingRods MXR4000GT4 — live watts, fuel estimate, and remote START/ECO. Play Store release is on the someday list.
Apps
Reverse-engineering the Haltech Rebel LS Wi-Fi telemetry protocol and building an Android app that logs 1,000+ ECU channels for predictive engine health monitoring — live graphs, session playback, and what I've learned so far.
Updated Oct 5
Apps
NCS Expert, minus the laptop. Seven R53 modules coded from an Android phone, every setting in plain English, and a backup before anything changes. New: diagnostics for the body computer, power steering pump and tire pressure. Sign-up is open.
Car & track
Aluminum front hub air shields that replace the E82 factory dust shields — cut flat, bend yourself, CAD on Cults3D for $25
Apps
R53 Logger - Flasher on Play — live logging, 3D AFR tuning graph, wideband calibration and ECU flash. BETA. Facelift and pre-facelift-conversion ECUs supported for write. App unlock $25, flash $50, Stage 1 flash (OEM JCW / GP1) $50; prepared ECUs $275. Open sign-up.
Apps
Trackday Pyrometer Helper is on the Play Store — but the real story is the hardware. An open-source BLE pyrometer with printable STLs, a reverse-engineered Tesla TPMS 125 kHz wake coil, and a growing ecosystem of car-guy gadgets you can build yourself.
Printed parts
3D-printed front and rear brake cooling ducts for the E82 135i, plus aluminum deflectors and bumper overlays — design, install, results, and where to buy
Apps
The complete setup-and-use guide for my track-day app: Bluetooth, the PyroTC gun, TPMS colors, tire inventory, temp sessions, the background monitor, corner balance, and packing lists.
Apps
Thirty versions since the first post: tire inventory with heat cycles, mixed TPMS protocols, a background pressure monitor with real charts, and a paint-marker color system.
Printed parts
Printed R53 airbox and cold-air snorkel — priced by material from $140, intake kits 10% off
Apps
CAN bus RPM to an 8-LED WS2812B bar — a shift light for the price of a track-day lunch
Printed parts
Custom 3D-printed airbox and cold-air snorkel for R53 track Minis
Electronics
Capturing and replaying the 125 kHz LF wake telegram on PyroTC
Car & track
July 4th HOD at NCCAR — Gladiator X Comp HP vs worn NT01 in 105°F heat
Printed parts
Printable ECU cover for R53 Mini and R52 Cooper S
Printed parts
Two-piece AN-12 ORB funnel for the LS BTR valve cover
Apps
BLE TPMS monitor for cars, RVs, and trailers
Electronics
Pip-Boy display for Haltech CAN warnings
Apps
Track-day app with pyrometer, TPMS, and corner scales
Car & track
BMW prop shaft rear CV seal replacement
Car & track
E82 135i L92 track car build