Originally Posted by
wowzer
a .tpl file is a human readable (text) file that displays the table data. the .asm file is a human readable (text) file that contains the operating code. for the ecu to run it needs to have a machine readable file, i.e. the compiled binary (.bin) file that is created when you "compile" the tpl/asm. the .bin is what is downloaded to the ecu.
when you edit the .bin file you are directly modifying the bytes in the file. mptune uses the .mpt file to tell it where the table bytes are located (similar to the old dcal .tbl file). the downside to modifying the bin is if changes are made to the code (i.e. the asm file) for new features/etc. that is why editing the tpl file and recompiling is/was the best way. since rob L is no longer actively supporting the turbonator code it may not be quite as necessary to work with the tpl files. also, the turbonator cals used a common code base (asm) and different (tpl) files so users could easily start with a compatible system (e.g. manual vs auto, stage 1 vs stage 4).