WinOLS Mastery: Map Identification & Editing: OBD2 Reading and Writing
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OBD2 Reading and Writing
06.03
| 00:00 | - In this module, we'll take a look at how we can use the bFlash hardware interface to read and write via the OBD2 port. |
| 00:07 | Specifically for this example we will be using our MK5 Volkswagen Golf. |
| 00:12 | And as we talked about in the body of the course but it is worth reiterating, while the OBD2 read and write is nice and convenient, particularly when you are getting started, we would always recommend that you start with a full bench read of the ECU before you actually read and write via OBD2 and the reason for this is of course because if you do happen to brick the ECU when you're reading or writing via OBD2, the bench read will give you a potential opportunity to restore and save that ECU. |
| 00:45 | Getting yourself out of what can become quite an expansive jam. |
| 00:49 | Even once you've done the bench read however though, it is always a lot more convenient to read and write via the OBD2 port so I know that this will be a technique that most people will be utilising. |
| 01:01 | We need to begin by getting our bFlash interface ready to interface or connect to the OBD2 port. |
| 01:07 | The actual bFlash unit has a variety of different adaptors depending on what we're actually trying to do and in this case we of course will be wanting to use the OBD2 interface and connect that to our bFlash unit. |
| 01:21 | At the same time we can also connect power to our bFlash unit and then connect that to our laptop. |
| 01:28 | It's then a simple process of connecting the OBD2 connector into the OBD2 port on our vehicle which is going to generally be somewhere on the driver's side of the vehicle underneath the dash. |
| 01:39 | From here we also need to power the vehicle up. |
| 01:42 | It is important when we are reading and writing via OBD2 to make sure that our laptop as well as our vehicle are in good condition battery wise. |
| 01:52 | With our laptop I'd always recommend making sure that you actually physically have it connected to mains power and this is going to prevent the chance that your laptop could go flat during the read or write process which would be one of the most common reasons for a bricked ECU. |
| 02:07 | Also we want to make sure that the battery in the vehicle is in good condition. |
| 02:12 | This can be a time consuming process depending on the vehicle that you're reading or writing from and this can end up, if your battery voltage is a little bit marginal, with the battery voltage falling far enough that it could actually again brick the ECU so those are our precautions here. |
| 02:29 | As far as the vehicle battery goes, if you're in any doubt, it's always a good idea to connect this to a battery charger during the process of reading and writing. |
| 02:37 | Now that we've got our bFlash software open, we want to start by clicking the vehicle selection button in the top left corner and this gives us a full list of all of the vehicles that the bFlash unit will support. |
| 02:50 | If we scroll all the way down to the bottom we can see Volkswagen there and we can click on the little icon or arrow in the bottom right hand corner. |
| 02:58 | Next we need to choose the type of controller fitted to the vehicle and as we can see if we scroll down there is a fairly extensive list here for both gasoline and diesel engines. |
| 03:09 | In our case the controller is a Bosch MED9.1 so we can click on that selection and again the little arrow in the bottom right hand corner. |
| 03:18 | Now we can choose our read or write method and of course OBD2 protocol is what we're going to be wanting to choose here, it's already pre selected so we can click the little confirm button in the bottom right hand corner. |
| 03:31 | Now to perform our read, what we want to do is select the little read icon in the top toolbar. |
| 03:38 | That will prompt us to enter a name for the file that we want to save and you can always come up with your own strategy here, I like to use the registration plate for the vehicle, then a little bit of information about the vehicle, in this case MK5 Golf and then I also want to add the identifier stock at the end of this just to give me an at a glimpse, an indication that this is in fact a stock file. |
| 04:06 | Next we can press save and the read process will complete. |
| 04:11 | Now in our case, with our MK5 Golf, this is a relatively quick read and this actually indicates that this is almost certainly going to be a virtual read. |
| 04:20 | Rather than reading the actual contents out of the ECU, the bFlash interface is simply retrieving information required to download a stock file from the server. |
| 04:30 | Now the problem with this is of course if the ECU has already been tuned, we are going to lose that tune information so it's just important to understand what we are getting with this virtual read. |
| 04:44 | On the other hand if we perform a bench read, which we'll look at in the next module, this will in fact read from the ECU, retaining of course the tune information if our vehicle has already been tuned. |
| 04:56 | Now once the read has been completed we can now look at the write process which is exactly what you'd expect here. |
| 05:04 | If we choose the write icon from our toolbox, we'll get an operation box that pops up asking us whether we want to write a file or whether we want to write an original file. |
| 05:16 | In this case we're going to click on the write file option which is highlighted by default and we can click the confirm icon in the bottom right hand corner. |
| 05:25 | Now we can simply choose the file that we want to write to the ECU and of course we're going to choose our same stock file. |
| 05:33 | When we click open, this will complete the write process which does take a little bit longer than our read. |
| 05:40 | This will write that file into the ECU and once that's completed, we should be good to go. |
| 05:46 | Again this process is great for quickly reading and writing from the ECU without the hassle factor involved with removing the ECU from the vehicle but of course it does come with the potential downsides which we've already covered off. |
