Must have missed this post as I'm late replying...
If you don't do 4 & 5 you will have to use an emulator as you have to have one or the other. You could purchase just a pre-programmed chip I supposed and then you would not have to have your own chips and a burner.
#7: Yes, the XDF file is the same as an ADR but for Tunerpro.
#10: Emulator, if used, replaces the EPROM chip and can be tuned from the drivers seat with your laptop while the car is running (don't recommend altering while under a load).
"Socketed" just means you've removed the OEM EPROM and installed a socket to allow swapping of chips or an emulator. Chips are one way, and emulator is one way. To do two way like Nistune, you can run Tunerpro w/an emulator installed and a consult program like Nissan Data Scan or ECU Talk simultaneously. This will do essentially the same thing as Nistune although not quite as streamlined and much less expensive.
Hope this helps.
Shane
hannibal wrote:....#7. is this similar to the adr file mentioned earlier? Makes sense that any software you choose will need to know where certain data is written. I'm guessing the XDF file is just tunerpro's address file?
#10. if you dont wanna burn and replace EPROMs, replace #4 and 5 with an emulator.
More questions...
Is a socketed ECU a one way deal? You can write to the chip (or send data with an emulaor) but you cant read any data. To read data you need software (and cable) to read from the consult port. Now is there any software that can read from consult, edit bin files, and write to an ECU thru an emulator? I think this is what nistune does.