jakka351 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Is there any appetite out there for a ready-made windows 10 image for Tuning/Diagnostics? I am putting one together using mainly open source stuff trying to cover a large portion of vehicles. Currently has PCMTec, FORScan Beta, ELMConfig, FoCCCus, PCM Hammer, IPC Hammer, RomRaider, ECU-edit, ECU-Flash, + other OBD2/J2534 diagnostic software + FG Workshop Manuals + Circuit Diagrams, and Ford VCM2, Mongoose & Tactrix J2534 drivers. Will make it available online as a .iso file if anyone is interested? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjtrbo Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Never hurts to tool up. I'd be interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted February 23, 2022 Author Share Posted February 23, 2022 Will find somewhere to upload and post link, will be this weekend or next. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayJay Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 I'd love a copy too, especially for the VCM2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 The Ford VCMII VCI Software is available from ford and the manufacturer: Software for Ford VCM II | Latest Version IDS Download (dealerconnection.com) | Ford Dealership downloads Why the ford website has a version much much older than the manufacturer, I don't know. If you're not using IDS I would recommend the latest version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 My Goal with this was to have coverage for every major vehicle manufacturer without having to have any sort of license or subscription for the softwares. Easier said than done, as there are not many forscan type programs out there that are equal to or as better than the manufacturers diagnostic software. I have however stumbled upon a few gems, such as MMCCodingWriter for Mitsubishi and CaesarSuite for Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep vehicles, but I wouldn't consider them as nearly as safe to use as Forscan. I know there is WinALDL, and PCMHammer for GM/LS1 vehicles, does anyone know of any Forscan-like software for other manufacturers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland@pcmtec Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 17 hours ago, jakka351 said: I know there is WinALDL, and PCMHammer for GM/LS1 vehicles, does anyone know of any Forscan-like software for other manufacturers? Most of them are professional scan tool packages with 5 figure yearly subscription costs and come with physical hardware. I honestly don't know how the Forscan guys do it for the pittance they charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjtrbo Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 For GM you can get the Tech2Win emulator software and GDS2 that will work without a subscription. https://www.vxdiagshop.com/info/download/ hosts the install files. With a clone passthrough device (Chinese MDI2, VX Diag Nano etc) with the software mentioned you have full dealership diagnostic access to any GM vehicle (including Holden VF). But unfortunately if you want to do module firmware updates or program a new / replacement module you still need to pay the AC Delco subscription. It's not too bad though, $60 2 year access per VIN. I use the VX Diag Nano on my VF and have it found it excellent for the price. Can't go wrong. Bi-directional controls are awesome for testing! Also paid for the subscription to get the latest updates to all the vehicles modules and radio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 6 hours ago, Roland@pcmtec said: I honestly don't know how the Forscan guys do it for the pittance they charge. @Roland@pcmtecI agree totally. I purchased the lifelong licence when it was available....about $70 from memory. Still way too cheap & I would have paid a lot more for it. Here's why everyone should buy a licence if they're going to use it...... A Ford dealership refused to work on a 12 year old 2009 FG1 XR8, stating it was too old & they no longer supported it. It was randomly stopping & would restart but had been setting a P1260 code. At times the code would be set as being present & it would be immobilised, then other times it would just restart & show fault no longer present. My mate did some data logging using FORScan as well as various other checks & couldn't get any real reason for it happening. It had 2 keys stored so we tried doing a PATS module initialisation & PATS module initialisation failed, leaving the vehicle immobilised. An email off to FORScan support with the debug file & a few hours later, we had a test version to try. It still failed but a new error & different % progress. There were several emails back & forth with debug data & new test versions. I couldn't fault their response time frame nor their dedication to solving the problem. The FORScan Team found a bug where at the the dealership level, it's not possible to program FG1 PATS if the PCM is partially immobilised. I don't know how a PCM becomes partially immobilised or what they did but the next test version worked & the bug fix will be released in the next version. NOTE: FORScan are now only providing support to people with PAID licences. If I didn't have a paid licence, I may not have received any support at all & Ford had no interest in looking at the vehicle prior to anyone else having a look at it, hence why I was asked to help. There was an additional response between the 15th & 19th. The next test version was received a few hours later on the 15th & the delay of a few days was due to me not having access to the vehicle for programming. THANKS FORScan!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted February 28, 2022 Author Share Posted February 28, 2022 Where theres a Bill, theres a way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted February 28, 2022 Author Share Posted February 28, 2022 (edited) Image at the moment is 56 gig. So not practical to upload or download, looking into how to compress it. Edit: Or If you pay for shipping, send me a hard drive, I will clone it onto hard drive, ship it back. You can get get 1000gig SSD's for ~$200 these days. Edited February 28, 2022 by jakka351 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted February 28, 2022 Author Share Posted February 28, 2022 Also would recommend using a laptop that meets pcmtecs minimum spec requirement, however I have got a 64 bit image running quite well with 8 gigs of ram + SSD, and even a 32 bit image, with 4 gigs of ram + SSD + 1ghz processor running PCMtec, it is still quite functional, but encountered memory issues when trying to datalog. Oversizing the paging file and having an SSD not a HDD is the key here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland@pcmtec Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 17 hours ago, Bill said: @Roland@pcmtecI agree totally. I purchased the lifelong licence when it was available....about $70 from memory. Still way too cheap & I would have paid a lot more for it. Here's why everyone should buy a licence if they're going to use it...... I think even if they x10 their prices, people would happily pay for it. Imagine how much better it would be with that extra income as well, it would buy them extra devs/support people. Some people pay $10k for scan tools, so I think $70 for a life long license is seriously under valuing what they offer. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted March 4, 2022 Author Share Posted March 4, 2022 On 2/28/2022 at 2:56 PM, Roland@pcmtec said: people pay $10k for scan tools, so I think $70 for a life long license is seriously under valuing what they offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 53 minutes ago, Whiteford said: Did this result in the car actually being fixed? Or does it still randomly fault? I was coming back to do an update on this but you beat me to it. It was driving perfectly & after about a week it has started to display the same symptoms. Prior to that, it would randomly fault every day. Sometimes after being driven for 10-20 minutes & other times at first startup. It has a faulty pcm. Ive seen 3 FG's with similar problems, two ended up being a faulty PCM, both logged a P1260 code & the third a faulty IC. With the IC, no P1260 code was ever logged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted March 5, 2022 Author Share Posted March 5, 2022 (edited) VersaTuner is another tuning software for Mazdas, appears to have similar tier levels like PCMtec but looks more geared towards vehicle owners rather than tuna's. Going to trial it as have access to a mazda. Edit: It may also be heaps easier to just have a software repository rather than an image, then you can just pick and choose what you want. Edited March 5, 2022 by jakka351 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted March 26, 2022 Author Share Posted March 26, 2022 instead of messing about with images and uploading and downloading, creating a repo which will have links to software. probably be up and operational in a few weeks/months. jakka351/OpenJ2534: Open (and Closed) Source J2534 Resources for Automotive Diagnostics, Reprogramming & Tuning (github.com) 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjtrbo Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 I like where you are taking this. Thanks for your efforts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted March 27, 2022 Author Share Posted March 27, 2022 suggestions/criticism welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakka351 Posted March 27, 2022 Author Share Posted March 27, 2022 On 2/28/2022 at 11:34 AM, hjtrbo said: For GM you can get the Tech2Win emulator software and GDS2 that will work without a subscription. https://www.vxdiagshop.com/info/download/ hosts the install files. With a clone passthrough device (Chinese MDI2, VX Diag Nano etc) with the software mentioned you have full dealership diagnostic access to any GM vehicle (including Holden VF). But unfortunately if you want to do module firmware updates or program a new / replacement module you still need to pay the AC Delco subscription. It's not too bad though, $60 2 year access per VIN. I use the VX Diag Nano on my VF and have it found it excellent for the price. Can't go wrong. Bi-directional controls are awesome for testing! Also paid for the subscription to get the latest updates to all the vehicles modules and radio. Don't want to give any perceived validity or authority to these products, they are rip offs. Would you trust a chinese clone version of pcmtec? They are clearly not up to the task they are claiming to be able to do, which is why a lot of software does not support them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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