Hi I have done as much research as I could find on tuning, but my knowledge is still very limited. I have a vsi 2532 pass thru device but after doing more research I'm not sure how helpful that is actually going to be. My main goal is to be able to open a business for tuning ecus but I understand, I need to take baby steps right now. I need to know if there is hardware out there I can connect to any car ecu, regardless of make or model and be able to pull the .bin file from the ecu. I need to know if all programs that are out there also need the .xdf file to read the bin and .adx file to read the real time data from the car. Right now I've been messing with tunerpro, and trying to find the definition files for certain vehicles can be a real pain. Basically I need as much help as you all can give me, I know it's an enormous undertaking, but as much information as possible will be greatly appreciated and will be used no matter how long it may take me to learn.

I also am going to be using a 2000 mustang 3.8 as my test car. It runs fine just one of my old beat around cars so if i mess it up while learning it's not that big of a deal for me, don't know if that information will help me at all on this forum but I figure any information I can give you all is good information.

Taking baby steps is what you need to remember. Honestly the slower you go, the more success you'll have. I'm from the UK so am not familiar with all of the makes and models available in the US, however I know a lot of euro cars are on sale there. If I were you, and you want to start writing your own files I would buy yourself a master tool, not a slave to another company. You'd only have to upgrade a slave anyway. Master tools allow uncoded .bin files to be written. Slave tools require the .bin to be encoded by the master before the tool will write them. Effectively stopping you writing your own files on a slave. They have to be encoded to the tool first.

CMD, Alientech Kess (OBD) and Ktag (for bench tuning), Magpro and FGTech are all tools that are readily available to buy online and will cover the vast majority of cars.

I have been going for 5 years, and I use Alientech Kess and Ktag on a daily basis and have only had one issue and that was on a very new tuning protocol and their tech support were straight onto it for me.

Your mileage may vary though depending on the tools coverage for the US market, they're generally more geared around the EU stuff. Buy what will suit what you want to tune but check out the coverage of each tool first. It'll be available on the manufacturers websites.

Once you have your tools and you can read and write to the ECU, you will need software to modify the files. Again I can only speak from an EU perspective but tools such as WinOLS, TunerPro, Swiftec and ECM Titanium are available all at a variety of price points. Some software helps you more than others at identifying maps, some like WinOLS you're on your own. Speak to local tuning firms around you and explain you're looking to start up writing your own files and do they offer any courses as an introduction to it. There's a few companies in the UK that do this. Don't be afraid of buying in files to begin with too. Have a search around for companies that will provide you with tunes for a cost. Because you'll have a master tool, you'll be able to compare between the stock and modified files to see the differences made. I've had a brand new 3000 mile old Audi S1 in this morning, this is not something I'd want to experiment on so I bought a file from a tuner in The Netherlands that I've used before because they've worked on them in the past with very good results.

Know your strengths and weaknesses, that is the key. Do not be afraid to say no. Better to say no to someone than have to pick up the pieces afterwards if you're doing something you're not sure on.

Thank you very much for the reply, I'm now looking into the Galletto, it seems to be more focused on euro cars like you were saying but still compatible with many American made cars. Right now I have tunerpro to help me with the actual programming, but if i use the Galletto/Tunerpro combination will I still need a .xdf file to read the .bin file I get from the Galletto?