Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Tuning The Delco In Realtime
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Clifford3800
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Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2025 6:14 am
cars: VP ls1 sedan, VP v6 ute, 1965 2A landrover.

Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by Clifford3800 »

im in need of some help with the nvram & chip that is sold on here.

Last week i purchased a turbo v6 L27 (Vp V6) engine and it came with a stock ECU & both the NVRAM and USB comms board, i was supplied fitment instructions for the USB comms but not the NVRAM. Does anyone have a link or doc for the NVRAM install. (NVRAM was already installed in ecu but from what ive found on here it might not have the RW line or wire installed)

Only purchased a laptop this week so i can start playing around with this engine. Im a diesel mechanic by trade but my computer skills are pretty limited so bare with me.

Im also having trouble connecting to ECU via tuner pro

What ive done so far.

-Followed Instructions on FTDI to install driver for USBcomms.
-Verified the device appears on device manager.
-Downloaded tuner pro RT
-Followed instructions i found on here to download OSE plugin 180
-Ive Installed the USB comms into ECU.
-I Downloaded & extracted what i think is the correct XDF/ADX & BIN (OSE_12P V112).

But i still cant connect to ECU. Ive also tried adjusting setting on tuner pro preferences and ive tried with & without the cable echo.
Ive also tried Connecting with ECU removed from car & connected with IGN on.

any help will be muchly appreciated. :turbo:

EDIT*
engine is in ute & running but sounds like it has never been tuned.

attached photo of error pop up i get when trying to initializes emulation hardware & acquire data .
OSE issue.PNG
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I just want to be able to see what see changes have been done to the tune prior to me purchasing it. likely never been touched.

edit3*

attached photos of Comms, nvram & memcal

Ive had some success & managed to connect data logging, but the readings are not accurate and jump around. changed echo settings and readings are still not accurate.
still not able to view/connect to emulation hardware.

also, any links to delcohacking take me to bellet.net which does not seem right. there's a fair few links to delcohacking on the instructions im reading through.
Attachments
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j_ds_au
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by j_ds_au »

Hi Clifford,

If you suspect that the RW wire link is missing, check the underside of the '808 ECU. It should be quite evident.

If that's not the issue with the communications, bear in mind that this can only work if the 12P firmware has been preloaded into the NVRAM.

Joe.
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Clifford3800
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cars: VP ls1 sedan, VP v6 ute, 1965 2A landrover.

Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by Clifford3800 »

hey Joe.
there is no wire under the nvram or on the backside of ecu, only the RW jumper on the pins of the nvram.
Could this be my issue?
cheers.
Ric.
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Clifford3800
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by Clifford3800 »

Gareth gave the install instructions for the NVRAM today. I installed RW wire link on backside of ECU and still can't connect emulation,
Data reading is still not accurate and jump around.

Is there a way to check firmware that is on my NVRAM.
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antus
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by antus »

When the nvram is plugged in, in rw (read+write) mode and without the write wire on the pcm, it'll write junk always and corrupt the nvram. You need to install the wire on the ecm, obtain a chip programmer and program the stacked bin file from the 12p zip on to the nvram. The nvram will be blank or full of junk, if there was a tune on it its gone now so you'll need to tune from scratch. It sounds like the last owner didnt know what they were doing so start from scratch, check you have all the right hardware too - 2 bar MAP sensor, big enough injectors and sanity check the data logged and reference angle in diag mode and any DTCs when you get it going to make sure you have a properly working and capable EFI system on the car.

Having said all that if you take the jumper off RW to make it read only in hardware and swap the map_sw jumper to the other 2 pins you can key on as is and you might get a connection to the second copy of the tune in the nvram which might still be there. Its unlikely anyone would have put the tune for the car there but it might be enough to get you going after adding write wire and putting rw jumper back on. Its always a good idea to have a programmer though, and backup copy of your tune saved elsewhere for recovery.
Have you read the FAQ? For lots of information and links to significant threads see here: http://pcmhacking.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1396
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Clifford3800
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by Clifford3800 »

yeah okay ill try to access the 2nd tune and see how i go.

engine come with its own map sensor and its either a 2bar map or a ebay copy of an original, does not appear to have a part number on it.
is there a difference in ohms for a 1 bar & 2 bar sensor. so i can bench test it compared to an original
thanks again
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antus
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by antus »

There are a lot of bad clones on ebay. Best way to test it with the car on (but not engine started) and logging atmosphere is close to 100kpa. So load the 1 or 2 bar (or 3) petrol adx and log it and see which one reads close to 100kpa map. Then start by setting the map sensor switches for your sensor. If its 1 bar source a 2 bar so you can measure and tune boost.
Have you read the FAQ? For lots of information and links to significant threads see here: http://pcmhacking.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1396
heff0018
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by heff0018 »

antus wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2025 1:15 pm program the stacked bin file from the 12p zip on to the nvram.
Sorry to jump in but I wil be quick.
I installed a fresh BIN in my NVRAM using the flashtool and used the 32KB BIN.
Can you please confirm taht the NVRAM needs the 128KB bin and I should have used 'OSE $12P V112 APNX V6 __stacked.BIN'?
That will be another lesson learned. Thanks
Last edited by heff0018 on Wed Feb 05, 2025 5:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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antus
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by antus »

So... this is documented elsewhere but I am tired and it'll be quicker to summarise.

The stock VN/VP bin is 16K. OSE12P is 32K, a VR '424 computer is 64k. The NVRAM is 128K. The ecm is 64k and cant see the whole 128k nvram chip. MAP_SW controls the last address pin so the ecm can see the high or low bank (half) of the chip.
The location of the data needs to align with the top of the address space for the CPU.

So, for 12P, on the nvram at the hardware level, that means 32K of blank, 32K of 12P (Low Bank), 32K of blank, 32K of 12P (High Bank). Two 64k banks of data, with 12P in the top 32k. The MAP_SW jumper lets you switch between the top and the bottom half of the chip in hardware.
So the stacked bin, is for when you put the chip in the programmer, and it writes all of the padding, and both copies of the tune. A good starting point for a new or to reset a previously bricked nvram. Then if you have the jumper on the MAP_SW your computer runs off the low Bank, remove it you get the high bank. Thats why sometimes if you mess it up, you can remove the map_sw jumper and it might come back to life on the second copy.

When you do it with the flashtool, you are going through the ecm, so it can only see half the nvram. Further, the computer needs to be working - not bricked. So you probably cant do it through the ose flash tool if you are bricked now. If you can, then you should be able to connect with tunerpro and you should not have this problem in the first place. The flash tool and ose plugin know how the ecm handles memory addressing and it hides it from you. So you dont need to worry about or think about that you have a 32k file on disk, and internally the ecm is using 32-64k. That just happens like magic. You should upload a 32K bin.

Also noteworthy, oseplugin, by default, only transfers the calibraiton. You can go in to its options and uncheck "calibration area only" if you want it to transfer the whole bin including calibration and operating system.
This means that to:

Read a complete bin and write to a memcal with a 32k eprom or eeprom you would read a bin with oseflashtool to get the whole file. Alternatively you'd deselect "calibration area only" in oseplugin and hit the down arrow then save the bin.

To recover a bricked nvram you would remove the chip carefully from the nvram base, being especially careful not to bend the corner pins when you remove it as they bend easily as the most of the pins let go and the corner pin is not free of the socket. Select the Dallas DS1245Y (or DS1230Y or AB variants if you have those) in the chip programmer software. Put it in the chip programmer with the alignment the software is telling you - note which end has the white dot marking pin 1. Write a stacked bin from the original zip file. Put it in the nvram base board, put it in the ecm. connect with tunerpro and test connection. carefully put the RW jumper on. Test connection again. Exit tunerpro (if you tested with tunerpro) or any other software talking to it. Use oseflashtool to write the calibration you last saved with your tune. This will upload the calibration only and keep the operating system you replaced in the programmer. Its much easier than trying too cut and slice bin files on a PC to get them stacked properly, but it is still possible to go that way if you know what you are doing.
Have you read the FAQ? For lots of information and links to significant threads see here: http://pcmhacking.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1396
heff0018
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Re: Help needed with Comms board & nvram

Post by heff0018 »

Thanks for the expalnation Antus, much appreciated,
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