truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

for some reason that link isnt going to a product

can I assume its the USBBDM NT ?

PeteS160

You are correct

PeteS160

I've sent copies of the write side of the app to every one that PM'd me and had the tools to repair a PCM if something goes wrong. This is now in their hands to test the app and see how stable it is and what issues they may run into.

I expect there will be at least 2 or 3 revisions tested before moving to a public release.

The version being tested is 100% functional for the P01 and the P59 and supports 2 of the 3 possible recovery modes.

Type of flash supported:
Calibration flash - what you would use while making changes to a pcm generally for tuning purposes.

Complete Operating system flash - This will allow you to flash your PCM to an OS that has XDF support in the event your OS isn't support yet. This could also be used if switching to a custom OS for flex fuel or boost support but currently XDF's that have these type of features are still in development.

PCM Cloning - This will take a pcm and flash the entire bin file to it including learned crank sensor values, vats data, vehicle ID code(BCC) , Vin number, Seed/Key, Serial number etc. Once the pcm is flashed it will be identical in every way possible to the pcm that the source file was read from.

Once this is released It would be STRONGLY advisable that you would clone what ever PCM you plan to work with and put your original pcm up some place safe. This was if at any point something does go wrong you can still put your original pcm back in with out disabling your vehicle. Lets face it your dealing with a free app on one of the most unreliable software platforms in the world(Android) using hardware that was never expected(or intended) to be used in this manner and be editing your bin file with Tuner Pro definitions that are user contributed and have had every value in the Xdf calculated by hand. This is going to be the equivalent of playing Russian roulette to start with. As many people can tell you, I will do every thing I can to help those that run into problems but there are bound to be some unlucky soles before the smoke clears so making sure you have your stock PCM to fall back on in case you end up being one of the unlucky users is still going to be your best bet.


If there is any one else that is capable of recovering a pcm and would like to test the pre-release version of this shoot me a PM and I'll get a copy out to you.

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

houston, we have liftoff!

bumpin_z

iTrader: (1)

PeteS160

Not much to report yet, have sent out about a dozen copies of the write side of the app. No one has come back screaming that anythings broken or blown up yet and about half of the people testing have given positive feedback but I get the impression that people are not using it all that much. So for now it's still just a waiting game while I sit here waiting to collect feedback.....good or bad.

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

again, my apologies pete. I've been overwhelmed selling my house. I will make time to do more testing this weekend

PeteS160

Made some improvements that optimized things a bit more and was able to speed things up a bit. Here's a calibration flash that's done in real time...as in this has not been speed up, its exactly how it was recorded from my phone.

ElQueFør

You guys are fightin' the good fight. Please keep on fightin'

TPIZ92

iTrader: (10)

I'll do some more testing this weekend. Hectic couple of weeks for me but so far so good.

PeteS160

Ok lets talk possible scenarios that could happen while flashing...I've racked my brain thinking of ways a flash could be botched and I'm out of ideas or things left to try.

1A)Turn the key off 10 seconds after starting a Clone, OS or Cal write
1B)Turn the key on and off repeatedly during a flash

2)App crashes while flashing

3)BT dongle gets knocked off the DLC while flashing

4) PCM looses ALL power 20 seconds into a flash

5) App crashes, BT dongle gets knocked off DLC and battery gets unhooked 5 mins in while cloning a P59 (Keep in mind these take about 20 mins to clone)

So what would be some other off the wall ways a flash could fail? I've tested every thing listed above multiple times and combined as many of them at a time as I could today and have yet to need to break out the BDM for recovery...I have been able to recover from all of these scenarios with out any interaction, just start the app and let it do it's thing. I have yet to find a way to screw things up so I'm looking for some more idea's.......

And yes, I am being 100% serious. I am looking for ways someone might be able to screw this up.

i420tom

iTrader: (11)

A few ideas.. . Battery dies on phone, incoming phone call, incoming video/Facebook call. Power saving settings turning on when phone battery reaches certain percentage remaining. Any other App that forces open over all other apps=like alarm clock apps.
How about attempting write while engine running? Remote start activated while flashing.
Car battery draining rapidly during flash like a bad battery with headlights on.

PeteS160

Easy.....turn the key off and let the flash finish
On my test bench with a BCM and Cluster connected to the PCM I can turn the switched 12V source off and the flash will complete just fine.
Worst case the battery on the car suddenly dies, as long as the app has written at least 8 blocks of data it doesn't matter. Once the battery is charged back up it'll flash just like a stock pcm.

Grab another phone, put your file to flash on the phone and start the app then connect to the BT device and flash like a stock pcm. The app will recognize the flash kernel is still running in the PCM, because your using a different device there is no way to know how what was being flashed or at what point the flash failed so it will write the OS + Cal data regardless of what type of flash you select. **Note if it failed and you were cloning a PCM and it died very early in the flash, the security block will be blank meaning you would need to perform the clone once the pcm has been recovered.

How about getting a Facebook call while listing to Pandora and watching Youtube with the app already in the background......Yes someone that has been testing did this while cloning a PCM for the first thing they tried with the app. I told them to try and break it and they didn't want to waste any time trying. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful and the app cloned the PCM with out an issue.

If power saver disables BT then see comment above about just picking up another phone to finish the flash with

If the engine is running the flash kernel will abort as soon as it loads the 1st part of it.

Remote start while the flash is running would result in a No Crank/No Start condition, if you've bypassed the PCM controlled crank relay then it would crank and not start.


Those were some good questions.....what else ya got

i420tom

iTrader: (11)

The only idea I've got left is something else attempts to communicate with the obd2 port during a flash, such as could been seen with a obd2 port splitter/passthru or another item spliced into the communication wire in the port.

bumpin_z

iTrader: (1)

What if there was a power sure? Perhaps a booster was connected to the vehicle and it was on a trickle charge and inadvertently kicked into booster mode?

PeteS160

When a question like this gets asked it makes me feel like I've covered every possible scenario that's well within reasonable expectations of what's possible

Commercial tools brick pcm's because of dead laptop batteries, low car battery voltage and careless use of the DLC cable. My app can stop a flash mid way, change device being used and then resume flashing at some point in the future.....I'd say this is going to be a game changer and hopefully raise the bar on what will be considered acceptable from any flash tool in the future.

It's also time for people to start rounding up every P01 or P59 pcm they've ever bricked......

For my grand finally I will show you how to repair a bricked pcm in under 60 seconds with nothing more then a torx bit and a paper clip.

I have had more then a dozen people verify my method works and they have brought back Pcm's that were bricked with Hp Tuners, Efi Live, Tuner Cats and Ls1Flash.

Maybe it's been flashed with a bad bin file - Easy fix
Maybe you flashed Cal data from the wrong OS on it - Piece of cake
Maybe you flashed a P01 with P59 data...or flashed a P59 with P01 data - Not an issue
Flash failed while writing the OS - Have yet to see one botched bad enough it couldn't be fixed

You do NOT need to use my app to do this either. I've been able recover unresponsive Pcm's with Hp Tuners, EFI Live and Tuner Cats even when the tool previously said it was unable to even find the pcm or talk to it. It will also NOT effect licensing, so if you bricked a PCM and "Lost" your license this will also preserve the data that was used to license it in the first place meaning you would not need to license the Pcm again.....it'll be exactly how it was prior to it bricking.

The word "Brick" is a term that's just become an easy cop out and means you need to spend more money

bumpin_z

iTrader: (1)

xEtherealx

I didn't see this question addressed in the first post but I'm curious...
This tool allows flashing the ECMs, but is there an analogous open source tool to modify the tunes/firmware? For instance, HPT supports segment swaps, modification of parameters etc. and it seems that that kind of functionality would be necessary in addition to this flash tool in order to be a complete ECM-hacking solution

PeteS160

Tuner Pro can do every thing you mention, the only limit to what it can do are limited by what the XDF is capable of. There are a couple of people that have been working on Xdf's for months and coverage for the 896/411 pcm's are looking pretty good at this point. The 1mb is in need of some Xdf love but there are a couple already made for the more common OS's.

We have Flex fuel capabilities working on both PCM's but are still working on 2/3 bar boost tables.

NSFW

Can Tuner Pro do segment swaps?

If not, I don't think it would be hard to make a segment-swapping utility. I'd do it myself if I wasn't already up to my eyeballs in other projects.