BINs & XDFs

What is a BIN?

01010111 01100101 01101100 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00101110

Or, in a language you and I can understand, Welcome to the world of computers. A bin is a nickname for a binary file, this file contains all the information the PCM needs to figure out control parameters. It basically is the language you and I speak translated into a language that a computer can understand. In a BIN, you'll find basically everything about the powertrain and vehicle, as well as all the tables and variables that manipulate the way the PCM reads the sensors, and controls its outputs.

What is an XDF?

An XDF is a file that your tuning suite uses to figure out what in the bin file it needs to change. For example, at the top of the page, if I wanted to change the first letter in world from a W to a T, my XDF would tell me that the variable is in the so and so position, otherwise, I'd just be looking at a bunch of ones and zeroes with no clue what value I need to change.

So... How do I tune then?

To start, you'll first need to figure out what you're working with in terms of engine, vehicle, and PCM. The PCM is the easy part, you can find a bunch of information about the different PCMs in the PCM section of the Wiki, or online. The PCM has a sticker on the side of it that also has the hardware ID and service number, which can tell you even more if you're planning on using the engine in a swap. Once you have that information you can figure out what OS, or operating system your PCM is running. GM developed a few different OS's for the PCMs used in LS-based engine equipped vehicles, and each OS has its differences. If your OS is supported with an XDF then its as simple as opening TunerPro, loading you XDF and checksum plugin up, and then opening the bin you pulled off your PCM and now you can tune.

If your OS is not supported, things are a little bit more complicated, you'll have to convert your PCM to a different OS. This can be tricky, as GM produced many different vehicles that used the same PCMs, so you'll have to look for a bin with a similar vehicle configuration to yours that runs a different OS. Luckily, you have this repository of bins to look through! If you take a look at the moment, the bins have some very basic information on the vehicle configurations they came out of, you may flash a calibration and OS that doesn't quite match the configuration of your vehicle, but have no fear, this is reversible. This is why the more information you can provide if you upload your bin the easier it is for someone to pickup and start tuning.