I feel old now......you put the memcal in a burner to program it. Erasing chips could be a pitta since a lot of them had to be done with UV light sources.

 

if and when there is a breakthrough with this opensource flashing concept... what "tools" should i have ready on the bench? i would like it if someone could please steer me in the right direction with some good sources to read up on

 

play around with Tunerpro and order an allpro usb adapter. build yourself a bench harness and grab a couple pcm's from the junkyard.

 

Allpro USB is cheap and the best bang for your buck in terms of speed and cost.
http://www.obddiag.net/products.html

I'd suggest a junkyard PCM matching the one you plan to flash matching the Service number of the Pcm.

And build a bench harness.

Then start playing around with Tuner Pro figuring out what's where and getting an idea of how the program works.

 

thanks truckdoug! okay so i have a desktop computer thats getting pretty old it has like windows millenium if i remember correct and heres the kicker, internet in my part of the woods is the slower than dirt and not affordable, hence the reason i have an oldass cpu. all i have for online access is via my monthly data plan off of my phone. I'll take any suggestions on getting the tunerpro setup to work for me?? is there a way to download it with my phone and transfer it? i appreciate the help. i wish there was a fastforward solution to get me inside the mind of my pcm. sucks being borderline/ off the grid im always havin to reinvent the wheel just tryin to keep up with the times lol

 

I think you could maybe use your phone as a mobile hotspot wifi router and download it that way. It'd probably eat a **** ton of your data cap. But you'd need a way to connect your cpu to the phone's wifi and that alone might be a bigger hassle than coughing up $200 for newer, refurbished laptop (which is what i do for tuning computers as they get beat to ****)

 

Sure, go to the website and just download it to your phone. Then plug your computer into the phone and transfer the downloaded file onto the computer.

Will need to check with NSFW to see how far back the Pcm Hammer will support. I know it works back as far as Windows 7, but I have not tried to run it on anything older then that.

 

lol okay im with you so far, i think its time for me to update anyways. computer shopping it is... now keep this in mind, this will be like unicorn shopping for me. i really will not need the cpu for anything but tuning... so how much laptop can i buy for as little as possible, hmmm 🤔

 

So your saying theres a chance, i like it. Now i have to see if i have a adapter cord for that ancient piece of technology

 

Lol, just scored the cord i need from my phone charger. Hey my desktop is in cold storage in my ol camper in the backyard... should i let that thing thaw out before i boot it up??? its only 37 degrees outside. maybe ill take the case off a hit it with the hairdryer while i watch tv

 

alright i got my old desktop fired up after some head scratching. over the years i lost a power supply cord for it but i found a loaner from my tv, initial boot up it red lighted a memory read error. before i knew it im under the hood on my hp compaq instead the hood of my truck. after thorough blasting with 120 psi and unplugging my memory cards and replugging it fired right up. must have been a little stagnant connector corrosion. My OS is Windows Vista Buisness i guess. I read of a guy having problems with tunerpro on windows 8 and he had to dump it for windows7 to get it to run correctly. My plan here is im going to try downloading the free version of tunerpro onto my phone and transferring it to my windows vista and see what happens.

 

Good luck.
If your unable to get it working on your old PC getting a quality used computer isn't all that expensive anymore. I picked up a Dell Optiplex micro tower with 16 gigs of ram,3rd Gen i7 processor and Windows 7 Pro not too long ago for just over 100 bucks on eBay. They were business lease computers that had been turned in and were being sold wholesale due to the number of them avaible. You can find lease turn in's in large volume at excellent prices in November and again around April.

My last netbook was around $150 and runs on windows 10 and aside from a smaller screen it's more then capable of running all the current commercial tuning tools including the Pcm Hammer with out an issue. battery life is 12+ hours with the screen at 75% brightness, I love to freak people out when I start tuning a pcm and my batteries at 9%......most laptops are ready to go into power saving mode and shut down, I've still got 2-3 hours of use with the screen level turned down.

I needed a computer to run some Windows XP programs on and picked up a CF30 Panasonic Tough book with Windows 7(had to install Xp) but it had a new battery and was in excellent shape.....I paid less less then 100 bucks it.

Lots of options for inexpensive computers if your willing to buy something used or refurbished. Just look for any business class machine.

 

Good 2 Know if i want to detonate my old cpu with some tannerite here at least i can afford to find some decent computing power for a reasonable doller. i just ran the tunerpro setup here and it finally lets me open it however upon opening the program it alerts that the app fails to start because MSVCR100.dll was not found. in which i can x off the screen and than the tunerpro home window pops up and all looks well?. of course it says no bin selected and no xdf selected however i havent even begun to look for those files to import them yet. i have a p59 and my wire harness was ripped to shreds by the kid i bought my motor from so i am seriously thinking about making a bench harness out of it just to get the ball rolling here but i dont know if thats smart or not because im not sure what its going to cost me to source another one with all the correct connectors and fitment. i like to keep things as simple as possible and spare no wasted dollars because winter is knocking on the back door and i have to be tight in those regaards

 

that plug in is a windows 7 and newer item. the only way I know how to get it configured right is to uninstall tunerpro and then somehow connect your computer to the internet and redownload it. It'll do a compatibility search and find that plug in from microsoft.

I went through the same thing since I usually have internet turned off to my tuning computer.

 

lol so its not theasable for me to do that since i would have to throw my cpu in my backseat and drive 5 miles away everytime i needed to "use" the internet with that computer.
Heres what i think i should do is make a myself a shopping list to see what this really going to cost:
1.
2.
3.
etc.
factoring in that i only have mobile data for internet

 

Maybe get a laptop/netbook so you can take it someplace with internet to download and install programs with out having to lug a desktop around.

A laptop will be faster and have a large enough screen to work with(depending on age and what you pay) but won't have near the battery life of a tablet pc/net book. Most modern tablet pc's have mini HDMI so you could plug it into a TV for extended use since the screens are so small.

Either way I'd suggest something portable since you don't have net access at your house.

 

quick dumb question
why isnt there any literature for obd2 on tunerpro and moates sites?.

 

Such as what?

Tuner Pro isn't specific to one car manufacturer or even just OBD 2 it has been used on all sorts of stuff over the years.

Moates also isn't specific to one car line or protocol either.

The OBD 2 protocol is a pretty big subject that varies from one car to the next, the only thing set in stone are generic pids that they all must share and mid 2000's the J2434 standard was added but that was more in terms of the steps required to read and write a pcm from a tool stand point so that aftermarket shops could use one tool to work on all car makes with OEM software.

Anything specific to a certain type of PCM, engine or OEM data can only be acquired by reverse engineering and most of the people that have put in that kind of time aren't going to just hand it or or openly share it. The other option is paying massive sums of money to the OE for the information your looking for but there's an NDA that goes along with buying that info from the OE's so it's not something you could share.

 

thanks pete, you explain things well. i spend hours reading but having a simplified answer in laymans terms goes a long way for a guy like me. i take it that you have been either working or hobbying with this stuff for a long time now. i used to spend a lot of time and money playing with car audio stuff way back in the day and a lot of this stuff reminds me of those times. i changed oil and flipped tires at a shop for a while but rarely grabbed a scan tool to do anything more than passing jobs over to the more seasoned mechanics. i do concrete and roofing and everything inbetween, but theres something in my blood that keeps me playing with cars. i just feel way behind the times all the time.

 

I think that's the idea behind this project, to keep these tools in the hands of the regular joes.

Bad things happen when only the very rich have access to technology