My First attempts at reading my ECU and maybe.. Remapping it myself

This is something I really want to learn. Been reading various posts on the site posted above, and its been very interesting so far.

What's the best and most cost effective tool to use when mapping your own car ?

I've read that the KESSv2 remapping tool is probably the best out there, but at over 1000 its a little pricey.

Any other recommendations ?

Btw, I'm a total newbie to this, so I'm learning from the bottom upwards. But those who know me know I'm not one to give up, so like Slim, I'm willing to give this a go with a spare ECU and see what happens.

 

Good to see you're keen
I have been doing a lot of reading this last week and today have obtained a second ECU as a Dev unit
Its from a 2003 Skoda Octavia VRS and is a ME7.5 06A906032HN



And paid a measly 20 .. i nearly went back and bought all the ECU's they had in the yard!

I will plug it into my car on monday and read the flash, it will need immo off and i will attempt this with my bench flashing rig and Galletto lead/software
All my attempts and fails or successes wil be documented as i do them

I'm keen to start but have prior plans to go to wings and wheels tomorrow

I have confirmed that the original file read from the ARY ECU is fine so i could begin to play with it
But with the arrival of the new ECU i will leave the ARY alone and play with the new one

More info soon
Slim

 

Good on you for having a go. I went through all of this myself a few years back when looking into tdi tuning. It feels great when you fire up your car after that first retune yourself. Then you can never stop tinkering....

The spare ecu is the best thing you will ever do in terms of leaving the car drivable if you get something wrong.

There are some good guides to winols out there if you havent found I can point you in the direction of.

 

If you wish to buy an off the shelf tool then an mpps is a good option..

However slims method of using the nefmoto software is what I would go with if i were you...

Reading and writing the ecu is one of the smaller hurdles in tuning really...

 

Thanks any help would be great
I have watched a few Youtube videos and found out a lot about using the actual Winols program which makes understanding things easier

You are of course correct in saying that reading and writing the ECU is the easy bit, actually understanding the mapping process is what i need to learn
I'm getting there but have a lot to learn
Slim

 

Here are a few pics of the equipment I have used to read my ecu and attempt to get into boot mode
I will be building a new bench rig with ecu connectors taken from the VRS so keep any eye out for more pics over next few days

This is my current bench wiring , it's a mash up of R/C car servo leads and a bought female OBD boot mode cable that I got from alibaba in china
It was a waste of not a lot of money as I had to chop it up and re wire it to get it to even fit







This cable was used (unsuccessfully) to enter boot mode on my ECU and IMMO off until Toyotec did the job for me

I will be using these parts to construct a new cable









Please remember this cable will be built for attempting to get the ECU into BOOT mode
It's not used for reading the flash for mapping (although it could be)
If you have a diagnostic port on your 20v then you can use that with another lead like one of the ones that are shown below

These are the 3 leads I have been using



None of these are the original leads, they are all clone versions from eBay And cost peanuts

This one Is a Galletto 1260 cable it comes with the software on a small cd, it's crap software , bin it
And download the good version here http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=3088.0title=



This next lead is a cheap KKL lead I use only for VCDS it comes with drivers and a moody version of VAG COM that reported a virus so I never even opened that file , the drivers DO work fine though



Onto the last one
This is the lead I use for reading the flash via the OBD port in my mk2
It's an FTDI chip based lead and works well with the correct drivers I listed at the start of the posts, this cable works with Nefmoto software fine .
The eBay link to buy this is also in the first post



That's it for now
More pics and info as and when I get them
Slim

 

Thanks for that, I'll have a look up on the MPPS. The Netmoto software seems a good choice too.
I recently signed up to their website, and I'm already learning things I didn't know.

Sorry to hijack the thread Slim I'll be watching with interest.

 

I guess you may have already seen this but if you haven't it is a useful guide to get going with the basics.

https://sites.google.com/site/vagecumap/winols-guide

 

I have watched a few of his videos on YouTube he is pretty clear in explaining winols

 

After a great day out at wings and wheels I got home and was itching to make a start on things
I only had time to strip the ECU plugs and get ready to wire them onto then soon to be made bench rig

 

Hi again
I have done a bit more and made my bench flashing harness
This wiring was cut out



Big Plug looked like this





nearly there



then its finished



OBD plug was added but no photo of me doing this
After a few attempts at using it i realised i had maybe done something wrong as i could not get any lights on any of my cables.. odd
Turns out i had followed the colours of wires and not paid attention to polarity... so after stripping and rewiring properly i had it working and it looks like this now



There is an inline switch that the power is attached to to act as ignition

This is the Pinout i followed to wire it



There are a couple of theories regarding adding power to one of the connectors on the other multiplug to get into boot mode so i have the other connector just in case

 

Brave man if your gona remap it yaself. I personally would let a pro do it in case you feck it up ! at least you get warranty if a pro shop does it. There have been alot of do it yourselferz avin ago at remap with a bad outcome following.

 

Nah I want to learn the process of changing things and what happens
I now have a spare ECU so I can play and not worry about messing mine up

I'll be adding a bit more to this post soon as I have been a bit lax of late
But a mate gave me a gee up today so I'll be back on it [emoji106]

 

Spose theres that aspect for learning how .fair play goodluck

 

good work Slimwadey, I have an MPPS lead and have re-programmed a couple of M3.8s using maps from reliable sources

I know have an ECU that has been locked by jabba (K04 on AGU) that I want to play with

 

Some top reading here and I'm understanding it all but one thing I'm not 100% if my thinking is correct is that the vagcom plug aka odb plug has only 3 wires that are needed to use it and they are the K line to ecu and then live and earth ?

So if I'm right so far what gets me is how much data is sent down a single core wire n is it down via pulse or how?

Sure it's a simple one for many n all though not paramount to use of it I like to understand every aspect n it's bugging me lol

 

Good for you!

Here is a structured path for learning all about the ecu's;

First of all, the Audi guys have set up a nice little easy learning path for any noobs and this is where I would suggest starting if you have no knowledge, here;
http://s4wiki.com/wiki/Tuning

Doug wrote a nice pdf with a lot of translated bits of the function sheets, the sheets which cost a lot of money to us in the trade. You could upload his 1.8T file to the free winOLS and go through it. I would strongly suggest doing that and translating it from German to English as it is the quickest way to learn what is in the ecu's!
Depending on how you've done your file, you can attach windows via winOLS like this;


The files are here;
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=467.0

You've probably seen Doug's pdf all over the net but here it is again anyway, learn it;
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=1882.0title=

Although I am sure Bosch may have something to say (or maybe not as they are likely too busy modifying their systems to meet the new legislations), what really costs us in the trade are the Function Sheets. This tells you everything about your ecu's and here's a German one (you'll soon learn German engineering phrases!). here;
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=400.0title=

After that this is a good system strategy which gives you an overview of how it all works and tuning aspects, here;
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=3539.0title=

Now, as someone who has to pay for Function sheets and the like I am more than happy for people to learn the in's and out's of these systems which will inexorably take you years if you are willing. However, I will state that in the 4 years of talking with local "VAG mappers" (none on here) not ONE of them knew how the ecu's worked! It seems most just use their credits to purchase a map pack and upload!

A good map will have in-between 20 and 200 map/functions sorted and as per the S4 tuning wiki, if you sort the basics, this is usually good for most. As for the sheer depth of the ecu functions, I've just gone through 11,000+ on an FSI R32!

IMHO - The S4 wiki at the top covers the main parts is probably the best thing to study, after that, just be prepared to spend years learning all of the above!

 

Thanks
I have read the s4 wiki a few times
While it gives a reasonable path to what to do I have yet to fully understand it
For instance, it says, start with fuelling, then says if your car is only stage 1 or 2 leave it alone, then jumps to..
Now scale your MAF, with a description of what changes what
What I am trying to learn is what is actually scaling your MAF and why you need to
Two questions I have yet to find the answers for

My aim on this post is to learn a reasonable understanding of the process and apply that, as well as letting everyone know what I did to get there
Almost an idiots guide if you like

 

I think you're misunderstanding - in the link above you have the 1.8T functions sheet (in German), that is your entire ecu and explains how it works. If you translate it (2000 pages) then you will know exactly how it all works! There will be terms you are not aware of which you then Google and it usually comes up with patent info which explains how a certain aspect works in greater detail.

It doesn't get any easier than having the function sheet to hand!

This link IS your entire ecu functions, normally cost us credits but there are a few floating around the net it seems;
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=400.0title=

 

The FR can help you understand it. I've used it to find out bits and pieces. You need a good definition file to find the maps though.
I think tunerpro nicer to use though.