Home/Solutions/Master vs slave tuner model
Master vs slave tuner model
Tuners use master and slave for two different things: how a tool is licensed, and how a file service works with its dealers. This page separates the two and shows where ECU Tuning Portal fits.
Ask two tuners what a slave is and you may get two answers. One talks about the tool on the bench. The other talks about the business: who writes the files and who sells them.
The two meanings often meet in one company, which is why they get mixed up. They are still separate decisions. The first is set by the tool maker’s licensing, the second by how you choose to run your service.
Tools such as KESS, K-TAG and Autotuner can be licensed as a master or as a slave. A master tool reads and writes files freely: its owner opens the read in their own tuning software, changes it and writes it back.
A slave tool is tied to one master. The files it reads are encoded, so only that master can decode and modify them, and the master encodes the modified file again before the slave can write it. The slave owner reads and writes the vehicle; the master does the tuning.
How a slave is linked, what it costs and which limits apply are set by each tool maker; check them with the maker or your distributor.
In the business sense, a master file service writes the files and a network of dealers or resellers sends work to it. A dealer may be a workshop with a slave tool or a reseller with customers of its own.
Each side needs different things. The master needs every request to arrive complete, prices and credit kept per dealer, and one place to see the queue. The dealer needs to upload quickly, see the status without calling and download the finished file.
ECU Tuning Portal is built for the business side. It runs on your domain under your brand, your team works from admin logins, and every dealer works in a customer account of its own.
If you write the files and your dealers hold slave tools, both meanings apply. The tools tie each dealer’s reads to you, and the portal carries those reads, the payments and the finished files between you.
If your dealers read with master tools of their own and still send you work, only the business meaning applies. The portal works the same way: each dealer has an account, a price group and a credit balance.
A single workshop without dealers needs neither model yet; dealers can be added later as customer accounts.
| Tool licence | Business model | |
|---|---|---|
| Master | A tool that reads and writes files freely | The file service that writes the files |
| Slave | A tool tied to one master; its reads are encoded for that master | A dealer or reseller that sends files to the master |
| Set by | The tool maker’s licensing | Your own arrangement with each dealer |
| Where the portal fits | It carries the file the tool produced; encoding stays in the tool software | Dealer accounts, price groups, credit wallets and one work queue |
No. A slave tool is a licence setting from the tool maker. A slave dealer is a business that sends files to a master file service. A slave dealer often works with a slave tool, but not always.
No. Encoding and decoding stay in the tool maker’s software. The portal carries the file, the vehicle details and the payment.
Yes. The seven-day trial opens the full portal without a payment card.
