Tuning Newbie - Nvram/TP5 HELP Please

[D_gee]

Hey all, first of wana say thanks to everyone on this forum for making what ive learnt a hell of a lot easier and to get me started in the right direction but i have a long way to go. so cheers everyone.

Anyways a quick rundown, i own a VR Caprice 5.0ltr Auto and installed a 276 crane cam and needed a tune so instead of getting a mate from powerchip to flash my memcal i decided to give it a crack myself and ordered the Nvram board (Pre-installed $11.bin id say)/cable+plug from this forum.
I managed to finally (after a few attempts and a bit of reading on the net) get Live logging up on TP5 and have a couple of questions.
1. is it normal to get alot of errors in the bottom blue connection status bar
2. i dont think it has the correct live data but could be mistaken
3. i dont seem to be able to succesfully connect all the time

Also other problem (may be from my lack of experiance) is with finding the hardware, it says in the status bar "Hardware not found" & "Not ready" & hangs on "Connecting".
Ive downloaded and installed the OSE Plugin v1.47 in the preferences section and also added the plugin to the ADX definition files dependence. (Both with echo checked.)
Ive had it working the other night and uploaded a modified bin and clicked emulate. everything seemed to work fine but not to my liking, so did some more modifications to another bin and went to initialize hardware and havnt been able to connect since, even the logging side if i did get connected it came up as 0hz 0errors until today i seemed to connect fine to logging earlier but cant since then.

This is the bin i uploaded and emulated

VRV8AUTO.bin

Downloaded 276 Crane Cam bin from the net

(64 KiB) Downloaded 337 times

I cant remember the XDF or ADX file i used but may have been outdated not sure.

one more thing (i dont know if its an issue or not but seemed relevant to share) is when i loaded tp5 and connected the data cable it installed a PS/2 Mouse Driver wich doesnt seem to be correct as its not a mouse.
I tried changing COM+6 to COM+2 wich didnt change a thing, I uninstalled the PS/2 Mouse Driver but kept re installing after every system restart.

Ive been trying to figure where ive gone wrong for days but it finally got the better of me hence why im here, i hope ive given enough relevant information and any/all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Danny.

[Dylan]

When you want to emulate, the bin you have opened must be the same as whats in the NVRAM. Say you done some changes offline and saved them, re flash the modified bin to the ecu with the OSE Flash tool then reconnect and emulate away.

[D_gee]

Cheers, will keep that in mind for future reference but would that cause it to not find hardware?
as for the OSE flash tool it wont connect. i saved the log and ill upload it.

OSE Log.rtf

OSE Flashtool Log

(4.23 KiB) Downloaded 339 times

[VL400]

Ive had it working the other night and uploaded a modified bin and clicked emulate. everything seemed to work fine but not to my liking, so did some more modifications to another bin and went to initialize hardware and havnt been able to connect since, even the logging side if i did get connected it came up as 0hz 0errors until today i seemed to connect fine to logging earlier but cant since then.

Unfortunately you cannot just upload any old bin, the first bank will now be unusable due to a checksum error You must use the BMZC RT bin and copy changes over, or use a bin that matches (BMZC is type $11C, other $11C bins can be found in the memcal ID tool). To stop a checksum error the program ID must be set to AA instead of 11. The bin you posted looks like $11B. You can remove the bin_sw jumper on the NVRAM and will be able to connect again on the second bank.

The mouse issue is normally from the chatter on the bus, there will be a small burst at key on and it can load the wrong drivers (normally it only happens on VT and later vehicles though). Try plugging the interface in to the laptop before plugging in to the car and see if it makes a difference.

For the files to use..
XDF - http://pcmhacking.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=634
ADX - Use "VR_$11_v1.05-tp5.zip" from http://pcmhacking.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=29

[D_gee]

Cheers heaps mate, will suss it out shortly appreciate your time.
Just for my own sake... so i can use any $11c bin aslong as its RT? also how could u tell it was a $11b cuz i couldnt see that anywhere or you just know from experiance?
is it possible to change something to make it an $11c bin from an $11b or do i manually just copy the values over to my cars $$11c

where it says Program id $11=VR $aa = bypass checksum, what is the reason for not choosing vr? is it because of the whole realtime nvram board concept to get around something or you must choose bypass all the time even with the flash tool?

with my nvram board you say bank one isnt functional, can this be fixed at all or have i totally stuffed that bank?
as with the adx file i dont know why i chose $$11b thats my own blatant error in its self, i got a bit too happy and excited i think haha

once again thanks for your time, i did do a fair bit of research and studying before hand but obviously not enough. gota start somewhere n learn from mistakes, really appreciate it cheers bud.

[VL400]

By opening the bin in a hex editor can then do a compare and see what variant it is. 11B and 11C are very close to each other, and really an 11B cal can be used in an 11C bin - its an exception to the rule where 99% of the time you must use a cal that matches the bin. The $11B XDF is used to also edit $11C bins. Setting the ID to AA of the bin you posted does allow it to work. To see what has actually changed use the difference tool in TunerPro and compare against say a BLCC bin.

By making the program ID AA it tells the ECU to not bother checksumming the code, it is this way so any changes you make can be easily updated. You could update the checksum in TP and write the changes with program ID set to 11, but if you forget to set it back to AA and make a change to even a single bit at the next key on the PCM will go to limp mode and you normally wont be able to connect.

Bank 1 of the NVRAM can be easily fixed with a EPROM programmer. If you want it done just send it over

[D_gee]

so with the bin in the first post.. if i wanted that tune, id need to convert it from $11b to $11c? I had them loaded in the compare section and searched for differences. It is not as simple as selecting the differences i want to keep and copying them over to the stock tune is it? im assuming because the checksum wouldnt match or am i way off?

Also loaded them both in a hex editor and i did see some differences but from there im lost.

Ive loaded the stock tune back in but since ive iunstalled the cam i need to change them values but dunno wich one hence why i want the tune in the post above. but then i need to research about the stally.

Thanks.

[VL400]

You can write this bin if you want...

VRV8AUTO_AA.bin

(64 KiB) Downloaded 345 times

You dont need to convert it, its just got the program ID set to AA. Its an exception to the rule of the NVRAM bin having to match the cal your writing. In this case the bin is different (11C has a minor fix) but the cal section is the same between variants, so writing only the cal (flashtool write cal or TunerPro up arrow) does not cause issues. This is not normally the case so generally you only write cals of the same variant, which is why my first post didnt mention this. For instance writing an 11A cal to 11B or 11C will trash the bank.


If you want to convert a bin it is as simple as just copy/pasting the differences - double click the item in the diff tool to open the table and flick between the compare and main bin using the small scale icon. Can then confirm what has changed - looks like a few trans tables, and some small fuel and spark changes.

[D_gee]

I realised that my thankyou response never came through but thank you for your help. Ive managed to get it all running and started tuning but since then ive had to replace the auto sich is still in the shed. Appreciate what all you guys do here to help everyone out.