OSE FlashTool Failed to Write

[Mr Tippins]

Hi All,

I've jumped back into trying to tune my L67 Calais (T56 Swaped). It has always has a serious IAC tune issue causing a bad rev hang. After researching it a bunch I think I have found the solution and created a tune with the modifications.

I have attempted to connect to the NVRam chip I have in my car (it's been there for a few years now). I had it working reasonably well when I was first tuning the car.

I have re-setup everything on my laptop:
Correct drivers for ALDL COMs
ALDL Connector (From Pcm Hacking)
NVRam (From PCM Hacking)
OSE Plugin 1.80 and correct setup
OSE Flashtool v151
Tunerpro PT V5.X

I initially had issues with tunerpro, I could connect to the PCM and log data, but I had a consistent "Hardware not found" error everytime I launched tunerpro. No idea why, it just doesn't detect anything.

I thought I would try the Flashtool, this detected my PCM after a few attempts to connect and succesfully downloaded the current bin file that was stored on the PCM first try.

After this succes I thought it would be a good idea to write the cal file to my pcm (the bin file I had modified with tunerpro), I don't have to export a special .cal file or something to write a calibration instead of a whole bin do I?

Anyway, the write failed and the car is now throwing a check engine error and quickly pulsing my radiator fan and fuel pump relay whenever the ignition is turned on. I haven't tried to start it incase the corrupted file causes major damage.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to save this? I need the car to get to work.....

[Holden202T]

have you tried writing the current bin back in ?

[antus]

What model car? PCM nvram? How did you disable chatter back in the day? Were you unplugging BCM to do it in hardware and did you do that this time? It sounds like you may have uploaded the wrong thing or had problems uploading that have broken the contents of the nvram. It sounds like the PCM is not running at all and thus wont be communicating on ALDL. You will probably have to get a chip programmer (recommend TL866 type) and write a full bin back to the nvram chip outside of the car to recover it.

[Mr Tippins]

Hey again,

Thank you for the replies, I hit the "Phone a friend" button and got the base The1's Enhanced tune re-burnt. Couple that with some advice about how to calibrate tunerpro, I had only setup the acquisition side of the settings and I not touched the emulation side (big facepalm moment for me).

These two changes solved all my issues and the car is up and running again with the modifications I wanted to do.

Just to answer antus's questions for posterity,

- Car model is a VY Calais, L67 with a T56
- It's running the factory VY (Supercharged memcal not flash based) PCM with an NVRam chip
- In the past I used the OSE plugin within tunerpro which I think has a function to disable chatter??
- I have never unplugged the BCM

I believe I went wrong by not disabling the BCM properly and then attempting to use the flashtool to upload a whole calibration. As I found out this I think this method is prone to corruption due to the busy serial communication bus.

I'm unsure what the correct procedure is when using the flashtool, but using Tunerpro with the NVRam and updating the tables as you make changes is the safest way to modify the tune as far as I know.

Maybe antus can add to this?

Either way, thanks heaps for the support

[antus]

oseplugin struggles to operate with the chatter on the vehicle bus. It tires to silence it when you have the right vehicle selected but there is silence on the bus for long enough that modules often start talking again. There are enough problems I recommend most people unplug the BCM while tuneing. OSEFlashtool does a better job of it, but its doing just one process. In theory it should be possible to make it work more reliably with oseplugin, but Ive never had a late model car in my hands to do the work with, and these days I dont really want to re-visit the older software again. The hardware solution of unplug BCM or put a switch in the ALDL line from the BCM that you can reach under the dash and switch when tuning is the best advice I can give for reliability. If you do want to try it with software only I'd suggest set the car type correctly in the config and start logging as soon as you connect and leave it logging while working. The logging data should keep the bus silent. Once there is no traffic for a period chatter will resume. If any C++ gurus want to try and solve this let me know. It'd need a background thread to check the connection stats and fire off a 'tool present' type message every 2 seconds until disconnection. Background threads and IPC is not fun in C++, probably why no new apps use that language anymore...

[Mr Tippins]

It's funny you mention putting a switch inline on the ALDL serial connection between the BCM and the PCM.

I am planning to put a flash based PCM into another project I am working on. I don't want to run into this situation again and after doing a bit of research on the OSEflashtool, I am under the impression that using the "VY Flash PCM on Bench" setting is the safest way to make changes to a flash based PCM.

Is this assumption correct?
What are the differences between the "VY Flash PCM on Bench" and "VY Flash PCM in Car" settings?

Given my assumptions are correct, would putting a switch on the ALDL line allow me to use the bench setting when in the car and minimise any possible corruption issues?

Or is there more to it than just a busy serial connection?

[antus]

OSEFlashtool is better at dealing with chatter on the vehicle bus, it can flash in car. In the thread about the tool there is some general advice though. You need to make sure you let it "fix the checksum" at the end, which means it needs to go through the write process a second time as it gathers the needed data to do this on the first. You can tell it to automatically fix checksum in the options, best leave this on. Otherwise dont click through the messages after the first flash finishes without reading and thinking. You can do it in car. Occasionally the PCM may not reboot properly at the end. Its not too common, but has been reported. If this happens, you may need to power cycle the PCM. Best to still read the main thread.

[Mr Tippins]

Understood, I'll go and have a look through the OSEFlashtool thread again.

Thanks again for all the help