If you flashed the Pcm using the "Clone" option it writes the file to the pcm byte for byte. There is no part of the flash chip that is skipped or not written. When the flash is complete turn the Key switched 12 volt power to the pcm off for at least 15 seconds. The reason I say the key switched power is because in pretty much any case some has run into an issue it's the result of an improper bench harness that turns off the constant power to the pcm as well as the key'd power. In order for things to work correctly when the flash is done you have only placed the new data on the flash chip while the old data remains in the ram still. The key off cycle is imperative for the PCM to shut down where it takes the data from the flash chip and moved it into ram so it has the correct data ready to go the next time it's powered on.

The vin number is about the only thing in the PCM that's not a protected value. Gm created actually created a special set of command to allow changing the vin number very easily. You can change a vin number with a cheap old Elm327 and a plain old serial terminal with just 3 lines......it's that simple of a process. So if your vin didn't change than either the PCM isn't powering down correctly or the vin in the file your writing isn't what you think it is.

 

When your in the flash menu for any of the supported PCM's you have 3 flash types to choose from.

1)Calibration Data Only - This is the fastest flash but only "updates" parameters, it does not change anything in the boot sector or any of the operating system data.

2)OS+Cal - This will change the Operating system currently being used by the PCM and also flash the calibration data necessary for the vehicle to run/function correctly. If your doing more then tuning, segment swapping or adding additional OS features this is what you would use.

3)Full Flash(Clone) - This will create a 100% copy of the source file use and write the PCM byte for byte to match the file you select. When complete the only way the pcm will differ from the pcm the source file came from would be visually/externally. As far the the Pcm's internal programming goes it will be an exactly the same as the PCM the source file was read from.

Flashing option 1 or 2 will not alter any vehicle specific data. Flashing option 3 will copy EVERYTHING including the vin number, serial number, Bcc code, Seed/key(be careful of tuner locks here) as well as the vehicles stored anti theft data. An example using this option would be read a stock PCM,, unplug the original Pcm, plug in a replacement pcm and "Clone" it with the file from your original pcm and no theft relearn would be required.

The unfinished option in the app your referring to for Vin support has a stand alone app currently avaible that allows you to write JUST the vin number or JUST the serial number. It's useful when upgrading a 99/00 PCM to the 01/02 OS where the vin and serial number can be come corrupted making it impossible to "license" a PCM or to continue using a license you have already paid for prior to the OS upgrade. I'd have to look to be certain but I'm pretty sure the home screen in Ls Droid V0.2.0 has a download link for the stand alone version of the Vin/Serial app near the bottom of the page. Eventually I'll get around to merging this into the full Ls Droid app but it's a considerable amount of work to merge 2 apps into one with out breaking things in both apps so for now I've just left them as separate apps since technically a Full Flash will correct ALL the data that gets corrupted when upgrading OS's rather then just fixing the Vin and Serial.

 

And just in case any one is wondering why Os+Cal data is listed like that, it's because flashing JUST the OS data with out ANY calibration data is possible. It may sound odd but it's perfectly safe to do..... but has pretty much no real world use outside of creating a custom operating system where you don't have calibration data populated yet for any "new" or "extended" tables yet...... meaning you would only be flashing partial calibration data and that wouldn't be a good thing.

 

Bug report, Google Pixel 2 XL running Android 10, fails Android version check.

Samsung Note 9 works fine

 

I know why it fails with Android 10 and the issue has been resolved in V0.2.8 that's been in closed source testing for a while now. My closed source testing group is a fraction of the size it once was so testing this version has taken a lot....lot longer then I was expecting. There were some pretty significant changes made with the flash kernels that require a great deal of testing for possible variations or unforeseen bugs that may be present I was unable to find myself. In hind sight some of what was done(like the Android 10 patch) should have been broken up and done in a separate release from the kernel changes but most of the smaller changes actually came after the kernel updates were already in place.

 

Sweet! That's good to hear.

 

I viewed your 1320 interview. I have a Liberty dash swap in my 73 Scout II with a 5.3L LM7. Wondering what it would take to use the Liberty's guages. My current guages are intellitronix LEDs, but I have the OEM gauges I could use.

 

When I try and flash bin back to pcm, it goes through the process and say starting flash, but will never move past 0% I'm confused. Not sure why it won't go past that point and flash. I need help.

 

To be able to offer any kind of help I'd need a lot more information then just saying it's at 0%.

What type of vehicle, is this a swap, was it a stock application....was the pcm being flashed in the vehicle or on the bench?

What type of Pcm are you working with?

What type of Android device was being used and what version of Android is it running?

What version of LS Droid are you using?

What type of Obdlink device are you using?

What type of flash were you trying to do?

What file were you trying to flash? Where did you get the file? Has it been modified? If so, what program was used to alter the file?

Does the flash ever time out or give some kind of error that it was unable to start the flash....is the Phone/Tablet loosing communication with the Obdlink?

How many times have you tried this?

Did you read the FAQ on things you can try if you run into issues?



#3 can often times resolve a persons issues on the spot
#4 & #5 are both going to be VERY useful in trouble shooting whats going on....or has gone wrong.


Now......if I was going to go out on a limb here with the limited amount of information you have given me to work with I'd guess you were attempting to flash a P59 in a vehicle and there is a module on the data bus that did not go into flash mode when it was commanded to do so. It a happens a lot more often then you might think, commercial tools are not affected by this most of the time as they switch the PCM to 4X mode and very few module in a vehicle are capable of talking on the data bus in 4x so even if a module does not go to sleep it can't talk on the data bus once it's in 4x mode. The Obdlink is NOT a 4x device so when a module does not go to sleep when its command and keeps talking it will interrupt the flash.....and is the reason why flashing in ANY stock LS powered vehicle is not a good idea unless your 100% certain the data bus is in proper working order.

The same issue does happen on vehicles equipped with the P01 but it's no where near as common to see modules that don't go to sleep when commanded to do so. Perhaps because there are generally a lot less modules used on on vehicles that came with a P01.

No the real question is.....what type of flash were you performing when this happened and how did you handle the situation when the app just sat at 0%?

If you were only flashing the calibration then there isn't any thing serious to worry about no matter what you did. The vehicle probably won't start because the calibration data has been erased but the rest of the PCM's data will all still be interacted. This would be easy to identify, when you go to connect to the PCM with Ls Droid now you would get a message that LS Droid has detected the PCM is in recovery mode.

If you were flashing an OS or trying to Clone the PCM I have likely have some good new's.....but if it applies to you will depend on if you followed the instruction in the App. At 0% when doing an OS write or clone the entire contents of the PCM is erased and the ONLY thing that will keep the PCM from becoming a paper weight while the flash chip in the PCM is empty is the flash kernel running in the PCM. Now once the flash chip has been erased the flash kernel isn't going to give up control of the PCM unless it's commanded to exit the kernel or you remove battery power from the PCM. Removing battery power as in unhooking the battery or pulling the fuse for the constant 12 volt supply to the PCM. Turning the key off isn't enough to kill my flash kernels in a case where the flash chip is blank and isn't able to boot on it's own.

So as long as you have NOT unhooked the battery or pulled any of the fuses that supplied constant 12 volt power to the PCM your off to a good start. Do note....if your on a bench harness that your constant power and switched(key power) MUST be separate. You CAN NOT wire the switched 12 volt power to also turn off the constant 12 volt power and expect it to work correctly. You NEED to be able to switch the Key'd power On/Off seperatly from the constant power.

Now lets assume you have not unhooked the battery and the battery has not gone dead since you put it on a charge as the app instructed you to do in this situation. If you have not already tried unhooking the Obdlink from the DLC and plugging it back in then restarting LS Droid do so, one of two things will happen. Ls Droid will tell you it has detected a flash kernel running in the PCM and the PCM needs to be recovered.....that's a VERY good thing. This means you should now be able to continue with your flash with out any further issues.

If Ls Droid does NOT give you any type of pop up when you try to reconnect to the PCM.....and LS Droid is NOT able to talk to the PCM.....don't freak out JUST yet. Now assuming your PCM wiring is all correct and turning your Key'd/switched 12 volt power supply off will ONLY turn off the switched power to the PCM and NOT ALL power turn the key off for 15 seconds and then back on. While the Key is off unplug the OBDLink again, close Ls Droid and then reopen the app. Plug in the OBDLink. Turn the key on, wait 15 seconds. Now connect to the Obdlink with Ls Droid and see if your able to talk to the PCM yet. Again your looking for it picking up an existing flash in progress, a pcm recovery mode or a normal PCM ID. If you still get no reply from the PCM turn the Key off. Check the lights on the OBDLink and see if there is a RED,Green or Blue led that's blinking like crazy and looks like it's color is stronger then all the other LED's. If your getting any fast blinking LED with the KEY off report back what color LED it is. If the LED's look normal. Unplug the OBDLink one last time and close LS Droid...one last time. Plug the Obdlink back in and open LS Droid. Now Connect to the OBDLink with the key still turned OFF. Is there any issue connecting to the OBDLink? If it connects fine, attempt to ID the PCM with the KEY OFF. Yes that may sound stupid but at this point if the PCM's not respond with the KEY on the other modules on the data bus may be creating more chatter then the flash kernel is able to deal with and it knocks the VPW circuit in the PCM off line. The flash kernel is very much still running in the PCM but there are cases where the VPW transceiver in the PCM can get knocked offline from data collisions(2 modules trying to talk at the same time) and it can be very troublesome to get the VPW transceiver in the PCM to come back on line with out rebooting the PCM. Unfortunately that's not possible since the flash chip is blank and if the PCM was rebooted that would mean the flash kernel was cleared from the PCM's RAM.

If you get to this point and you still have not made any progress I do have 1 more thing that can be tried that's rather unorthodox.....and that's often where some of the best tricks come from but it would require knowing more about what this PCM is and how all of this is being done before I would go into any detail on that as it would truly be a last resort.

Now.....if you were doing an OS or Clone and you did unhook the battery.....or pulled a fuse for the constant 12 volt supply for the PCM then it's a boat anchor at this point. Removing power on an OS flash or clone with 0% written means there is no way to recover the PCM with out lifting the flash chip or installing a BDM onto the PCM and re-flashing the chip with an external source directly.

 

The first time I was working on a p59. It was a pcm I acquired. The second is a p01 that I know was a good com from my truck. I'm using a bench harness to do my read/flash. Basically I read both pcm' s saved the file. Edited them in tunerpro rt, saved the bin as, loaded back to my phone and opened ls droid. The bid link was already hooked up made sure the 12v switch was on and connected to Bluetooth. Tried to write OS and CAL it built the flash file. Typed the command, and hit I understand. It says starting flash, and the screen comes up with the 0-100% and will sit there. Does not start the flash. I never pulled power. I closed is droid and try again. It read the pcm if and kernel info like it's stil there. I cand read the pcm and it still has its data. I'm using obdlink lx. The power light is on with the blue Bluetooth light flashing until I connect. The obd light and host lights flash while it's reading the I'd info, and will start blinking when it starts to flash the file, then stops. No error messages. I'm using this to edit the bin file to remove VATS, rear o2's and trans functions I'm not using. Other than that stock tune. Hope this give some insite.

 

If your on a bench harness this sounds like the power supply for it isn't large enough, recently someone started selling cheap bench harness on Ebay that have an undersized power supply that have given more then a couple of people headaches. Does the bench harnesses power supply use a wall plug with a built in transformer on it? Do you know what the voltage rating and amp/mA rating is for the transformer? Or is this one that has the transformer on the power cord inline? Either way whats the rated voltage and amperage.....next if you have a volt meter see what it's actually putting out for voltage when your trying to interact with the PCM.

You didn't say what kind of Phone/Tablet your using or what version of Android your running on. That's going to be important to know. Some devices don't play nice......and older devices can be problematic. There is a reason I restricted any device that has a versions of Android older then 6.0, they are just a massive headache and the hardware was very hit or miss for some things. If your using a device that didn't comes with Android 6.0 but was upgraded to 6.0 that may be part of the issue here....but with out knowing what device you have I can't say.

A copy of the log file saved in the devices base storage folder will also be helpful. It will be saved in the same area the bin file would have been saved once you read the PCM originally.

It also doesn't sound like you needed to write the OS, sounds like you just need to rewrite the calibration data.....unless you were also changing the OS on the PCM for some reason.

 

I'm using a LG k20 phone with 8.1.0 OS. The bench harness I made from an old harness. Ive made sure all pin are in the correct place on the obd port as well as the blue 80 pin. the power supply is a 15 volt 400ma stepped down to 12-14 volt. Its basically a battery tender that I had. It's putting out 14.6 volts when checked with volt /ohm meter. I will find the log file and post it, or should I email it to the feedback@lsdroid.com? I do appreciate the help.

 

Here is the write log. I'm going to change the power supply and see if that takes care of it. What would you recommend for power?

 

So looking at the log and based on your remarks about your power supply this is kind of what I was suspecting. Bottom line, the power supply is not large enough and it's caused either the OBDLink or the Pcm to reset. When you look at the log, the last thing it shows is 1 large block of data with 2057 bytes being written to the PCM. That is the first block of the bin file, the flash kernel checks the first block to make sure it's got the correct type of data before it will erase anything. So if a command was sent to the PCM for a full erase it would not erase anything until it see's the first block of data, if the first block that was sent was in fact calibration data the flash kernel would reject both the block that was written and the erase command as a fail safe since we are deal with Bluetooth here and it's possible messages could get mixed up so this was added as a fail safe very early on. The reason I bring this up is that once the flash kernel gets the first block and verifies that is has the correct type of data for the erase type being requested THEN it will erase the flash chip while it's holding the first block of data to be written in the RAM. Once the erase is complete it writes the block to the flash chip and makes sure it completes before the PCM will send the acknowledgement message that the flash is under way and the progress indicator will then move to 2% in Ls Droid.

It took a number of people running into very odd issues before I was able to track down the exact behavior that would be exhibited by a power supply that was not large enough to power the PCM correctly. While it may seem like a power supply is large enough when the PCM attempts to erase the flash chip there will be a sudden spike in current consumption and if the power supply is not large enough pretty much everything on the bus goes haywire. The pcm freaks out internally and most of the time fails to erase any of the flash chip(pray that's the case here), the ODBLink BT connection gets interrupted just long enough that it causes the serial port in the device to stop responding but the BT connection is never actually lost or in some cases the reply message the PCM is sending back to the Obdlink gets corrupted by the low voltage. If the message does not conform to the J1850 VPW protocol the OBDLink will not return the message so even though the PCM may have replied with a message that was partially correct and then turned to gibberish the tool isn't able to pickup that message.

Bottom line.....your power supply is the issue. Trust me....your not the first person to run into this issue. I'll be perfectly honest, given that you were trying to flash the OS there is a very real chance the flash chips are now blank. But this is the type of thing that varies on a Pcm by Pcm basis. If Ls Droid is still able to communicate with the PCM and get an OS number or is able to read the PCM then there is a good chance you've gotten lucky.

 

And since I just went back and found the post above on Facebook.....you can imagine what that might have been like.....I am copy/pasting in a bunch of information I posted for people reading the post to try and cut down on some of the emails and PM's I get as they were getting a bit out of control recently.

Common issues I get emails about I can clear up and some ways to avoid running into issues.

Power Supply, it's not just the amp rating....the voltage rating also matters. Bad things that can happen when the amperage is too low or the voltage is too low.... or to high

1)If the PSU was already on the small side to start with; when the flash chip starts the erase process it's going to increase the current draw as it erases each segment and you may hit the min voltage threshold that the PCM resets.

2) The OBDLink is also likely to reset once it enters block mode if voltage is questionably low.....block mode is going to work the BT for everything it's got and it does increase the power draw a bit....as it writes each block it keeps getting warmer and will continue to increase it's current draw. The increase isn't significant but over the course of 10-15 mins it is measurable. THe power supply will also start fading and the voltage output may begin to drop if it's being stressed to start with so the added strain of the BT load increasing will make this worse.

If you want to make sure the bench harness has enough voltage wire a tail light/brake light bulb to your PSU and find the brighter of the 2 filaments. While you have the "brighter" side of the bulb powered on put a volt meter on your PSU and see what the voltage is. It should still be "about" 12 volts. The 1157 brake light filament draws something around 2 amps so you'll be testing well beyond what the PCM + OBDLink will be using....just keep that in mind before you test your PSU if it's not rated for at least 2 amps or you may see smoke.

My personal "GOTO" power supplies are from old(or new) HP printers. Most of them are rated at 3 amps and 12 volts. Under load they are slightly under 12 volts....11.9(ish) but I've never had an issue flashing anywhere in the mid to upper 11 volt range. It's the low 11 volt range where you start running into issue. At the same time anything over 15.5 volts can also be an issue while flashing......I've seen more issues at 15 volts then I have at 11.5 so this is one of those cases where slightly less is better then a little extra. Figure anything that's rated for 2+ amps should be a safe bet, if it's rated for 1-1.5 amps it's' going to be questionable IMO.

MANUAL HEX EDITING/SEGMENT SWAPPING
If you want to manually edit the hex in your bin file that's cool but people need to keep it to them selves at least until they know for a fact it works. A while back someone tried to manually convert an HPT COS into a bin file.I mean I'll give the guy props for trying... he did get the file size correct.... and the start/end of file correct but that was about it. Had the file not been shared it wouldn't have been a big issue....but multiple people tried using it. Not much can be done to save a PCM after flashing a file that's complete gibberish. Morel of the story...if your not using a PCM's original file make sure you know the file you plan on flashing is a good file.

Tuner Pro Related
1)The XDF number that's used MUST MATCH the OS Number. Sounds simple right? It's not....a lot of people just assume that can use any XDF on any OS thanks to a couple of Vblogers on Youtube that gave out bad info.

2)Checksum dll's. Don't forget about it. If you read the instructions that comes with pretty much any of the XDF's they will discuss the use of the checksum DLL. It's not optional.....you need to use it and it has to be installed/copied in to the tuner pro folder manually.

3) If an XDF has something marked as DO NO EDIT it's not joking. The author put that there as a warning so you do not touch the data as it will have a very negative affect. It is possible to alter parts of the bin that even EFI Live or HPT will not see as being an issue and allow you to flash a PCM with the file even though the file will 100% brick the PCM beyond any type of recovery over the data bus. I was just dealing with something like this a couple of weeks ago with someone. I tested the file they had against EFI Live AND Tuner Cats WinFlash and both flashed the bin file with out a single error and resulted in a fully bricked PCM. So....DO NOT EDIT....MEANS....DO...NOT...EDIT....PERIOD. Leave anything marked this way alone and forget you ever saw it.

 

I completely understand that. I realize I need a 12 volt power supply is there any certain type, amps, ECT? I am still capable of reading the OS so I'm being hopeful. I appreciate your help. I think what you have done with the app is great for all us gearheads. Thank you.

 

figure at MIN 1 amp@ 12 volts and I mean it needs to be able to HOLD 12 volts while putting out a constant 1 amp. So to be safe look for 2-3 amps @12-14 volts. I look for an old printer or laptop power cords. They should have no issue meeting the amperage so it will just be a matter of the voltage being correct. In my experience I've found cheap HP printers where the Ink cost more then the printer does used a 12 volt supply and would range from 2-3 amps depending on how old the printer was.

The adapters where the transformer in on the actual outlet very seldom are going to be large enough to be "Safe". You may find one that works but that style in general will but board line IMO. They may be rated for 1 amp but usually it's not able to sustain that kind of output or the amperage comes at the expense of sharp voltage drops when the load changes and the power supply takes a second to catch up or react to the change in load and readjust the voltage. This is where you really run into issues. It's that sudden drop off that causes the trouble.


And if your still able to read the PCM then they are likely still OK and the PCM reset before the flash chip erase was able to be started. In your case the power supply was small enough that you avoided partial damage.

 

Update. I changed the power supply. Didn't have a outlet style power supply but I had several accessories cigarette style. Hooked it up to my jump box, and it worked. You are the man. It flash without a hitch. I will be finding a good power supply and make a better version of my bench harness later, but it works. Read the file after and saved it. Pulled it into tuner pro and all is good. Thank you so much for the help. Keep up the good work you are doing with all this.

 

Glad to hear it worked out for you

Hopefully others reading this can avoid the same mistake.

I guess at some point I should see about adding details on how to properly build a bench harness and what the min power supply used should be somewhere in the app so people don't have to go searching for answer if they run into a similar issue.

Anyways it's always nice to see a positive outcome especially when it starts out looking like its not going to end well. Good luck with your tuning. And feel free to report back with your results after you get your engine running

 

I have my power supply set to 13.8v constant and let the current float up to 1.7 amps - looks like you're saying I should let it float to 3 amps?