Configure with the Tuner

The Tuner is a single-page web app that talks to the dash over Web Serial. You move widgets, bind signals, pick an ECU profile — then click Burn and the dash reloads the new config in place. No re-flash, no reboot.

The Tuner is hosted on Vercel at canshift-tuner.vercel.app — open the URL, plug the dash in, you’re in.

Connecting

1. Plug the dash in over USB-C.
2. Open canshift-tuner.vercel.app in a Chromium-based browser.
3. Click Connect device in the top-right and pick the serial port.

The header switches from a red Disconnected dot to a green Connected one, with the device’s vendor:product next to it. The firmware version slot fills in once the handshake completes (~50 ms).

Simulation mode

No dash on hand? The Tuner runs in simulation when no device is connected — pages and widgets are interactive, the signal store fakes values. Useful for laying out a dashboard the night before fitting.

Edit the dashboard

The Dashboard route is the visual editor. Page thumbnails on the left (up to CONFIG_MAX_PAGES = 5), the canvas in the middle, the inspector on the right. Click a widget to bind it to a signal, drop a new widget from the palette to add it, drag to reorder.

Changes are local until you burn. The canvas previews exactly what the dash will render — same fonts, same tokens, same units.

Pick an ECU profile

Open the ECU route. CANShift ships presets for the common aftermarket and stock setups:

• Aftermarket: Haltech, Ecumaster EmuBlack, Adaptronic, AEM, Link, MaxxECU, MoTeC, Flagtronics.
• OEM-style: stock OBD-II PIDs (works with most road cars supporting the standard).

Pick a preset, preview the signals it would import, click Apply. The signal map writes to signals.json on the dash.

Custom map? Drop a CAN XML export onto the page. The parser lives in @tmbk/canshift-core/parseCanXml and validates against the same schema the firmware enforces at boot.

Style with themes

The Themes route swaps the dash’s colour palette — day vs night, accent colours, gauge backgrounds. The Tuner reads the active mode from the device on connect and exposes three actions: toggle, force Day, force Night. The commands hit the dash as CMD_TOGGLE_DAY_NIGHT / CMD_SET_DAY_NIGHT over USB.

Burn = write the config

Click Burn (top-right) and the Tuner ships the full JSON envelope to the dash. The dash:

1. Shows the “Saving config…” overlay.
2. Writes the new file to SPIFFS atomically (the previous one is renamed .bak).
3. Reloads the config in memory.
4. Rebuilds the pages on the next frame.

End-to-end takes ~150–250 ms. The overlay vanishes when the burn completes; the new layout appears on the next page swipe (or immediately if you’re on the page that changed).

If the overlay flips red, see Burn errors.

Don't burn during a CAN scan

The dash’s USB RX buffer doubles as the PUT_CONFIG receive buffer. A live CAN scan keeps that buffer busy, and a burn that lands in the middle of a scan can time out. Stop the scan in the CAN bus route first, then burn.

Schema vs firmware version

The firmware validates dashboard.json against the schema it was compiled with. If you re-flash a newer firmware but SPIFFS still holds an older config, the dash boots into the built-in default and the ErrorBar shows SCHEMA_MISMATCH.

The fix is always the same: re-burn from the Tuner. The Tuner always reads the current schema from canshift-core, so a fresh burn matches the running firmware by construction.

Next

• Burn errors — what each red overlay message means and how to recover.
• Navigating pages — gestures, default page, the 5-page cap.
• Cruise control — how the cruise page binds to your ECU’s cruise_setpoint.