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GMPX
August 29th, 2010, 06:03 PM
EFILive is pleased to announce that this week we will be releasing a new public beta with some major software updates and industry firsts.

It sure has been a big couple of months for EFILive releases, first with the flawless release of 2007 - 2011 E37 ECM tuning back in June with many EFILive customers reporting fantastic gains tuning those vehicles. And then more recently in August we had the much anticipated public release of Autocal - things are really happening at a frantic pace.

This update marks the start of the transition away from our existing V7 PC software to our new V8 PC software. Included is the first stage of our new PC based V8 software becoming fully functional.

The V8 software is so much more efficient than V7 when dealing with CAN based controllers and we would encourage all users to experience these exciting changes by using V8 for reading and writing to all existing supported controllers.

Internal testing has shown massive speed gains in read times of the controllers using the new V8 PC based pass through software, below is a few examples:
All 2Mb ECM's (E37,E38 & E67) are at or just under the 2min read time, V7 is just on 4 minutes to read one of those ECM's, that's over 50% faster for V8.
Some other times are:
The E39 & E78 (3Mb) are around 2:20.
The E40 (1Mb) is around 50 seconds.
The T42 (1Mb) is around 35 seconds.
The T43 (2Mb) is around 1:40.

As well as average read times being 50% faster for CAN controllers, the V8 read front end also has automatic ECM/TCM type detection with the ability for the user to override the automatic selection should the auto detection fail for some reason. Just press the read button and the rest is automatic.

Part of this update also includes full programming and scanning support for at least two new GM ECM's (we would like to sneak in a 3rd - time permitting of course), these newly supported http://download.efilive.com/Staff/GMPX/ECM_Group_1024.jpg

The E39 is currently in use on the 2010+ LF1 (3.0L SIDI) & LAF (2.4L SIDI) engines and who knows, maybe the upcoming LF3 Twin Turbo V6. No doubt many more models will be added over the coming years as GM start to use SIDI technology on more engines (GenV V8, Buick Turbo 4?) and the shift away from the existing Bosch SIDI ECM's.

The E39 ECM can be found on the following 2010 & 2011 model vehicles with the engines mentioned above.
Buick LaCrosse
Buick Regal
Cadillac SRX
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Equinox
GMC Terrain
Holden Commodore

http://download.efilive.com/Staff/GMPX/E39_2011_CTS_B5101_1024.png

The second new ECM that this update will support is the all new 2011 E78 ECM. This ECM appears to be the replacement for the E38 & E67 ECM's that were released in 2006. Currently the E78 is available at dealerships in the 2011 Silverado/Sierra 2500 with the L96 (6.0L). However within weeks we are expecting it will also be released in the following 2011 vehicles as the new models roll out.
Chevrolet Cruze
Cadillac Escalade
Chevrolet Avalanche/Suburban/Tahoe
GMC Yukon/Denali

http://download.efilive.com/Staff/GMPX/E78_2011_Truck_B7934_1024.png

We can assure our customers that as these vehicles are released, software updates will be made quickly and efficiently to support these new vehicles as required. We can typically add new OS's to our software and dispatch the updates to every one of our customers within a 72 hr period, sometimes overnight! So don't be afraid to take bookings to tune these new models now! At the time of writing EFILive will be the first company on the market to provide it's customers E39 ECM tuning & E78 ECM tuning giving our customers the most comprehensive GM 2010/2011 model support on the market, now is your chance to capture a whole range of new customers to your workshop.

Internally the E39 and E78 ECM's are a major upgrade from GM's existing ECM's with a powerful 132MHz PowerPC CPU (MPC5566) and 3Mb of flash, they pack a real performance punch in the electronics department. You will find many of the tables quite similar to the E38 & E67 but there is of course many more functions built in to this new generation ECM's, we are still uncovering new tables every day.

The third new ECM we also plan to partially incorporate in to this release is the 2011 LML Duramax E86 ECM. This will be ECM read only, but it will allow us to build a nice library of different factory tunes for them. This ECM is a 100% new design from Bosch with very little in common with the outgoing LMM E35 ECM, so some long days are ahead for us!

Even though the new V8 software is coming along nicely we haven't forgotten about V7. EFILive has now incorporated a new safety feature for users programming E38 & E67 ECM's. It's well known in the tuning industry that GM have made some changes over the years (particularly 2009 & 2010 models) to the internal structure of these two ECM's making the various model year ECM OS's incompatible, even when using GM's SPS for programming.

If you happen to do a full OS flash between incompatible years using either EFILive or GM's SPS it will result in a corrupted (and accidentally locked) ECM which may not be recoverable.

EFILive V7 will now automatically warn you and restrict the flashing of incompatible ECM operating systems, you maybe be tempted to bypass this using GM's SPS but don't, if EFILive stops the full flash going ahead it's just saved you a bricked ECM. Refer to this (http://download.efilive.com/Documentation/OS%20Compatibility%20Guide.pdf) document for further details on the problem.

Please keep an eye out for this release in our Software Updates (http://forum.efilive.com/forumdisplay.php?71-Software-Updates-and-Installation-Help) section this week.

Cheers,
Ross

swingtan
August 29th, 2010, 07:56 PM
WOW! That's a massive step in the right direction! I'm very happy to see the E39 in there and while I'm not likely to make a lot of use of it, it's simply great to see support for the V6 ( thanks to the dumping of the Bosch controller). Great work guys!

Simonb.

gmh308
August 30th, 2010, 12:01 AM
Cool as! Midnight oil being burned to turn all this out! :) Faster reading very nice addition! Does this extend to faster flashing as well? :).

GMPX
August 30th, 2010, 12:18 AM
The flashing will be slightly faster, though not a 50% improvement like the read times. Thing is, it just takes 'x' time to erase flash memory and actually write to it, nothing can be done to speed that process up.
The licensing in V8 is also far, far simpler to do, you'll see.
We don't mention Midnight Oil since the insulation debacle :hihi:

GAMEOVER
August 30th, 2010, 02:30 AM
Can't wait till this comes out...:D

swingtan
August 30th, 2010, 08:15 AM
We don't mention Midnight Oil since the insulation debacle :hihi:

It brought a whole new meaning to "Beds Are Burning....", but I guess it's an Aussie in joke, ( and not the funny kind ).

joecar
August 30th, 2010, 08:38 AM
That was some debacle, and all in the name of being green.

joecar
August 30th, 2010, 08:39 AM
Good job on the EFILive update :cheers:

gmh308
August 30th, 2010, 10:23 AM
The flashing will be slightly faster, though not a 50% improvement like the read times. Thing is, it just takes 'x' time to erase flash memory and actually write to it, nothing can be done to speed that process up.
The licensing in V8 is also far, far simpler to do, you'll see.
We don't mention Midnight Oil since the insulation debacle :hihi:

OK thx. Is full V2 upgrade required to get the fast reading done as well as V8 on PC?

Poor old Pete. He got set up real bad. He means well, but then he met politics. Where bullshit talks, and reality walks.

What kind of government hands a home insulation project to the lead singer from a rock band. Doh!

GMPX
August 30th, 2010, 11:21 AM
V2 will just get a firmware update.
I have soft spot for Mr Garrett, I grew up in the 80's so the early (70's/80's) Midnight Oil stuff still holds a special place for me.

gmh308
August 30th, 2010, 11:27 AM
V2 will just get a firmware update.
I have soft spot for Mr Garrett, I grew up in the 80's so the early (70's/80's) Midnight Oil stuff still holds a special place for me.

Yeah he got shafted. He didnt deserve any of that. He is probably the only person in there in bollox land that does have the future of the planet as a #1 priority and understands why. The "Oils" are special alright! :) :)

joecar
August 30th, 2010, 12:09 PM
PG's intention was good, he consulted experts, guidelines were formulated, he did the right things, a noble effort to save the the country resources and the homeowners money... :)

but, every Tom/Dick/Harry/Dog now became a 'certified' installer (previously being totally inept) wanting a piece of the action/money... their bungling failure has been blamed on him (an opportunity jumped upon by the Opposition), politics doing what it has always done :bad:

Being green backfired severly, ouch... :doh2:...bad example to the rest of the world.

PG is probably the only politician with a true motive.
BTW: MO are not my #1 but they are high on my list :cheers:

GMPX
August 30th, 2010, 12:11 PM
And now, back to our regular schedule:sly:

joecar
August 30th, 2010, 12:15 PM
lol, someone started this... do you want me to delete all posts mentioning other than the topic...? :)

jstncse
August 30th, 2010, 01:49 PM
I am just subscribing, waiting for the update.

duramaximizer
August 30th, 2010, 02:13 PM
Subscribing. Thanks guys. I am waiting on the LML tuning arrival just wish I had an LML. :D

txchevy
August 30th, 2010, 02:26 PM
As Always,good stuff guys,keep up the great work!!!!:hihi:

Highlander
August 31st, 2010, 07:27 AM
This is really great... Thank you... and Thanks for adding additional tables needed for certain operations in such a quick matter.

Thanks Ross and Paul!!!!

Gregs
August 31st, 2010, 10:44 AM
oh boy i'm getting excited!! now i'll have to dedicate a tab on my browser to watching the downloads page:grin:

Chevy366
September 1st, 2010, 04:13 AM
Ah , new and improved , moving forward is always a good sign . :rockon:

GMPX
September 2nd, 2010, 01:53 PM
Folks, sorry to say we will have to delay this release until mid next week.
There's been no major drama's as such, we've spent a bit of time trying to get the new LML ECM to play nice (it isn't) and some issues with file permissions on XP machines that are still causing us some problems.
Rather than rush something out for tonight (it's Friday here) we've decided to delay a few more days to be able to go over everything again to make sure it's all ok.
In the meantime, I'll put some screen shots up of the read process at least.

The first screen shot below shows the progress on the read of a 2011 E78 ECM. Notice the Auto Detect button? When that is pressed EFILive will attempt to determine what type of ECM and TCM (if fitted) is in the vehicle.
As you can see there it found an E78 and a T43. If it can't figure it out then you can simply choose the ECM or TCM type from a drop down list, like V7 has now.
So once you are happy with the ECM or TCM type you just choose to read either the ECM or TCM (can't do both at once) and press the Read button.
We don't want to read both controllers at once because in some instances (eg, 6 speed Allison TCM) this would add a considerable amount of time to each read. In some cases you may not want to read the TCM.

http://download.efilive.com/Staff/GMPX/V8_E78_Read_Progress.png

Once the read is finalised you are presented with a summary screen showing various details about the ECM (or TCM) you just read. This same data can also be viewed when a .ctd file is loaded back from disk.
An E39 ECM is shown in the screen shot below.

http://download.efilive.com/Staff/GMPX/V8_E39_Controller_Info.png

Again, sorry about the delay, but these things happen.

You can download the full size screen shots of these pictures HERE (http://download.efilive.com/Staff/GMPX/V8_E78_Read_Progress.png) and HERE (http://download.efilive.com/Staff/GMPX/V8_E39_Controller_Info.png).

Cheers,
Ross

L31Sleeper
September 2nd, 2010, 02:17 PM
Come on we would love for you to rush something out with tons of bugs.............LOL

Cougar281
September 2nd, 2010, 02:20 PM
What about those of us not running XP or working with LML's? :pokey: :D

GMPX
September 2nd, 2010, 02:22 PM
Yeah, I figured it wouldn't take long for someone to post that :bash:
Should have started an office bet on how long that might be.

Tordne
September 2nd, 2010, 02:23 PM
There is also the valid question "who's running Windows XP these days anyway" ;)

5.7ute
September 2nd, 2010, 02:35 PM
There is also the valid question "who's running Windows XP these days anyway" ;)

Me! On all 3 computers lol. (I still have dial up as well):shock:

Tordne
September 2nd, 2010, 02:39 PM
Me! On all 3 computers lol. (I still have dial up as well):shock:

You sir are the most patient person on earth then :). I am a huge fan of bandwidth (23MB download and 960KB upload here).

5.7ute
September 2nd, 2010, 03:15 PM
31.2k lol. If I start downloading now I should have it by next week:shock:.
A bit off topic, but will .cax files still be supported with V8?

Tordne
September 2nd, 2010, 03:20 PM
I'll put a neck out and say that yes the functionality extension available with the current .cax format will be retained in the V8 software. It may be that the file format changes (as many other files have between V7 and V8).

wesam
September 2nd, 2010, 04:12 PM
There is also the valid question "who's running Windows XP these days anyway" ;)

Me in all my computers :)

DAVe3283
September 2nd, 2010, 04:19 PM
Well, I'm excited! I am really anxious to play with the reading & writing from the V8 software, it looks really nice. I'm sure it's a tad more stable than reading/writing from V7 to boot.

P.S. No XP machines here anymore, after all of them caught a nasty virus (despite full updates, antivirus, & firewalls). Now using Windows Vista, 7, & Server 2008 R2 for months now, not a single virus or problem. Never looking back!

GMPX
September 2nd, 2010, 04:51 PM
Thanks Dave, looking at your signature I'm afraid to say the communications bus your truck uses is the cause of any instability you might encounter. This is probably why GM moved to CAN on many 2006 up cars and trucks, it's faster and doesn't crash and burn with the slightest interruption.

ScarabEpic22
September 3rd, 2010, 05:19 AM
At work this summer I was upgrading all the workstations to Windows 7 from XP because XP finally hit end of life cycle and no more updates from Microsoft. People complain, but Microsoft extended the deadline at least another 18mo from when they initially said they were going to end support for XP plus it's been out since Oct 2001, thats almost 9 years! Now that every new machine and most older machines have the hardware to run W7, its a no-brainer IMO. I know a lot of people love XP, and I do too, but W7 is better in every way. Except that it takes a little more RAM to run, but heck, with 4gb and 8gb in my systems, I dont care!


End rant on XP!

Im stoked for this update! Finally be able to read with V8 and play with other fun new stuff!

joecar
September 3rd, 2010, 05:48 AM
"V8" has a nice ring to it... :hihi:

bballer182
September 3rd, 2010, 11:51 AM
"V8" has a nice ring to it... :hihi:

dieselV8 has a nice rumble to it... :hihi:

gmh308
September 3rd, 2010, 01:11 PM
What's an "end model number" ? :)

DAVe3283
September 3rd, 2010, 04:26 PM
Thanks Dave, looking at your signature I'm afraid to say the communications bus your truck uses is the cause of any instability you might encounter. This is probably why GM moved to CAN on many 2006 up cars and trucks, it's faster and doesn't crash and burn with the slightest interruption.
LOL, yeah, that's probably it. If I accidentally open my door when flashing, it drops to like 10% speed until it finishes. At least is doesn't crash, right?
I'm very happy with EFILive overall, I've been able to diagnose and tune quite a few vehicles, working around things that people thought they'd have to live with forever. Not with EFILive!

mr.prick
September 4th, 2010, 12:23 AM
The week is almost over. :sneaky:

Chevy366
September 4th, 2010, 01:55 AM
Knew V8 would be ground breaking , but be careful there guys and don't sink the whole place (in reference to Earthquake).
Glad no one got hurt . :-)

DURAtotheMAX
September 5th, 2010, 01:21 PM
Ross this is sort of just a random question regarding the new V8 software...

Will we now be able to compare tunes that have different operating systems?

also...I was wondering if it would be possible for the software to automatically add an internal reference tick mark/notifier to the file that was most recently flashed into an ECM? Sort of a silly trivial thing, but sometimes when I have a zillion different revisions of a single tune in my "tunes" folder I forget which one is currently loaded in the ECM. Maybe once it flashes a tune, it then puts a check mark on that file icon or something?

Ben

Tordne
September 5th, 2010, 02:23 PM
Will we now be able to compare tunes that have different operating systems?

This is defintely going to be included in the V8 software. Be aware though that the operating systems will likely need to be 'similar' due to table numbering difference between ECM controller calibrations. For instance comparing an LBZ Duramax to an LS1 is probably not going to be too useful.


also...I was wondering if it would be possible for the software to automatically add an internal reference tick mark/notifier to the file that was most recently flashed into an ECM? Sort of a silly trivial thing, but sometimes when I have a zillion different revisions of a single tune in my "tunes" folder I forget which one is currently loaded in the ECM. Maybe once it flashes a tune, it then puts a check mark on that file icon or something?

Your best mecanism to manage that scenario is going to be through a diligent file naming convention on your part. The reason is that the calibration obviously doesn't have any awareness of if it has been flashing or not, let along into which ECM controller.

It might be possible to introduce (although the file format for V8 may not accommodate this) the update to the .CTD file upon a completed flash of the calibration. This might simply indicate that the calibration has been flashed, and probably all of your files would inevitably be marked like that and therefore somewhat negate to purpose I think you're after.

L31Sleeper
September 5th, 2010, 03:01 PM
DURAtotheMAX try this EFI Live Collate (http://forum.efilive.com/showthread.php?9481-EFILive-Collate)

duramaximizer
September 6th, 2010, 05:50 AM
If it stores the Vin for the truck, then the tick would follow the vin around if that's the last time it was flashed in to the truck with that vin. Make sense?

Tordne
September 6th, 2010, 06:29 AM
If it stores the Vin for the truck, then the tick would follow the vin around if that's the last time it was flashed in to the truck with that vin. Make sense?

To enable the tick then the software would need to probe the truck for the VIN (to make the match). Also, while the file auto-numbering is like 0000, 0001 etc there is now way to determine that 0000 wasn't flashed after 0000.

Cougar281
September 6th, 2010, 06:53 AM
Probing the VIN on flash would be easy I think. If I'm not mistaken, the VIN comes across the data stream every time you flash a tune. as for tracking what was flashed last, I suspect it could be accomplished with some kind of database in the software.

Tordne
September 6th, 2010, 07:26 AM
Probing the VIN on flash would be easy I think. If I'm not mistaken, the VIN comes across the data stream every time you flash a tune. as for tracking what was flashed last, I suspect it could be accomplished with some kind of database in the software.

The key word LOL. With a complex database you can of course do anything you like with data. The downside is that the EFILive software becomes bloated (and uses more resource on your PC) and becomes more complicated support wise. We have avoided using a "database" for anything in the V7 and V8 software pretty much for those reasons.

Paul will have a better idea than me though so I'm not putting a "no" out there necessarily.

Cougar281
September 6th, 2010, 07:40 AM
The key word LOL. With a complex database you can of course do anything you like with data. The downside is that the EFILive software becomes bloated (and uses more resource on your PC) and becomes more complicated support wise. We have avoided using a "database" for anything in the V7 and V8 software pretty much for those reasons.

Paul will have a better idea than me though so I'm not putting a "no" out there necessarily.

And to be honest, I figured as much :). I was just throwing that out there.

Chalky
September 7th, 2010, 05:28 AM
Is It Time Yet?

L31Sleeper
September 7th, 2010, 06:09 AM
Are we there yet, are we there yet ?

"This" week has already gone by we are already into "next" week.........

Blacky
September 7th, 2010, 10:53 AM
Lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The release that we are currently working on is not the full V8 Scan and Tune release. The only feature that we are releasing this week is the ability to do laptop based pass-through reading of VPW and CAN controllers. The release will not include any editing options. You will still need to save the tune after reading it using V8 and then edit it and flash it using the current V7.5 software.

The reason we are releasing the pass-through reading option now is to allow reading of controllers that are not able to be read using the V7.5 software. Such as the E39 and the E78.

The pass-through reading update should be ready, at the latest, by the end of this week. I don't want to release it now with some features missing and some features incomplete, so I've held it back until all the options for pass-through reading are implemented correctly.

Regards
Paul

bballer182
September 8th, 2010, 12:24 AM
sometimes when I have a zillion different revisions of a single tune in my "tunes" folder I forget which one is currently loaded in the ECM. Maybe once it flashes a tune, it then puts a check mark on that file icon or something?

Ben

I too have that problem from time to time. especially with the Allison tunes.

DAVe3283
September 9th, 2010, 06:40 AM
IIRC, EFILive allowed you to manually set the CVN back in the day, so you could tell what tune you had loaded into the vehicle. They removed this feature due to concerns with warranty and the EPA, I believe. (It could be used to make a modified tune look stock or something). I wish they'd bring it back, as I also forget exactly what tune I have in my truck.

Cougar281
September 9th, 2010, 07:01 AM
IIRC, EFILive allowed you to manually set the CVN back in the day, so you could tell what tune you had loaded into the vehicle. They removed this feature due to concerns with warranty and the EPA, I believe. (It could be used to make a modified tune look stock or something). I wish they'd bring it back, as I also forget exactly what tune I have in my truck.

That would be a good way to be able to tell which tune you have loaded... Just increment the CVN for each revision and then you coudld easily tell which tune is loaded... But I don't know if the feature woukd be re-added for the reason above.

Tordne
September 9th, 2010, 07:17 AM
That ability to re-write the CVN will not be reintroduced.

Here are some suggestions for tracking calibrations which leverage already available options:
1) Renaming files: After a flash to a vehicle you can simply rename the file (with a marker of your choice) to indicate that the tune has been flashed. I have taken to putting an 'x' in the front of the file name that is currently in the vehicle.
2) Use the tune Comments/History: When flashed into a vehicle the Comments/History area of the calibration could be updated to included a comment (with date stamp) that the calibration has been flashed.
3) Use a spreadsheet: Create a spreadsheet with customer/vehicle record and a cell which can be used to track the current calibration numbers.

Right now all of them are obviously manual actions required on the tuners part, but may assist with the objective of tune tracking.

If we can think of a way to implement such a thing we'd definitely consider it :)

Blacky
September 9th, 2010, 07:21 AM
Too add to what Andrew said...

The feature that was removed was the ability to allow the end user to set the CVN to specific value. As was pointed out by Cougar281 that feature could have been abused to set the CVN back to a CVN that matched one of GM's stock tunes which would make a modified tune appear stock to GM and to EPA testing stations. The potential for fraud was too great so we removed that feature. The CVNs that are stored in the controller are usually a check-sum of the calibration data and so they will automatically change every time the tune is modified.

That is the standard and correct behavior of CVNs. You can display the CVNs for a particular controller using the CVN display option on FlashScan.
Some (most but not all) tune files will show the CVN as the Checksum when you load it into the EFILive software.
You could match up those CVN and checksum values to determine which tune was in your vehicle.

Regards
Paul

Cougar281
September 9th, 2010, 07:50 AM
Paul, would it be possible to allow custom CVN's to be entered in specific segments, or is it an "all or nothing"? If you could enable it for one segment, what about allowing the "speedometer" segment to be customized? This would allow he tuner to tag the tune with an obvious number, yet it wouldn't be possible to put GM CVNs in the engine and diag segments.

Blacky
September 9th, 2010, 08:05 AM
Paul, would it be possible to allow custom CVN's to be entered in specific segments, or is it an "all or nothing"? If you could enable it for one segment, what about allowing the "speedometer" segment to be customized? This would allow he tuner to tag the tune with an obvious number, yet it wouldn't be possible to put GM CVNs in the engine and diag segments.

Its all or nothing.

Some tuners use the 4 character BCC field to enter their own tracking values. There's no harm in doing that for the controllers that support modifying the BCC.

Regards
Paul

GMPX
September 9th, 2010, 08:56 AM
We've had a number of requests for people to be able to enter in their own segment part numbers, that is something we will try to do for V8.
If you search back far enough on this forum you will find the reason the CVN change was removed :bad:

L31Sleeper
September 9th, 2010, 04:07 PM
So what version number was that feature it enabled on ??

GMPX
September 9th, 2010, 04:12 PM
Not sure exactly, late last year sometime, but it wasn't for the LBZ/LMM, manual entry of the CVN can't be done on them.

DAVe3283
September 11th, 2010, 02:27 AM
We've had a number of requests for people to be able to enter in their own segment part numbers, that is something we will try to do for V8.
If you search back far enough on this forum you will find the reason the CVN change was removed :bad:
That would be nice!

Would it be possible for the program to have a list of all the "stock" CVN's, and let the user change it to anything except those? Then there would be no warranty/emissions concerns, but still can track the version. Or, let the user enter the last digits of the CVN, and have the program force the first digit or two to something that is not used by the factory? Just throwing ideas out, don't know if they are feasible.


So what version number was that feature it enabled on ??
They removed the ability to customize the CVN from 7.5.5 Build 81 and later.

GMPX
September 11th, 2010, 08:34 AM
You can imagine the logistics of us having to keep track of every CVN out there, sorry, but it's not going to happen, it's gone. The unfortunate part is it was removed after the actions of another company in the automotive after market (or so we were told), I guess they couldn't figure out how to do it so they wanted to stop us.

Chalky
September 11th, 2010, 08:38 AM
Any news on the pending update for EFiLive?

GMPX
September 11th, 2010, 08:47 AM
Poor Paul, he spent most of the week totally changing the directory structures of V8 after the problems we had with WinXP, this wasn't a trivial thing and required a lot more testing (for all Windows versions). Then in the final hours during the testing on Friday we struck a really weird problem where the E37 ECM would read fine in Win7, but not XP which was very odd because V7 has been working fine with the E37.
Paul got that problem figured out yesterday (Sat arvo NZ time), so given he's allowed one day off a week :grin: I suppose we will say it will be released Monday our time.
This release will only have reading, writing will be released shortly after (like the end of the week) when it looks like there is no immediate issues at hand with V8. We don't expect any drama's but it will help minimise support if we release in sections.

L31Sleeper
September 11th, 2010, 10:02 AM
The unfortunate part is it was removed after the actions of another company in the automotive after market (or so we were told), I guess they couldn't figure out how to do it so they wanted to stop us.

Are you referring to the original CVN changing issue or the new V8 segment changing ?

What company I'll send "the boys" to take care of them !!!

DAVe3283
September 11th, 2010, 11:49 AM
You can imagine the logistics of us having to keep track of every CVN out there, sorry, but it's not going to happen, it's gone. The unfortunate part is it was removed after the actions of another company in the automotive after market (or so we were told), I guess they couldn't figure out how to do it so they wanted to stop us.
Yeah, it would be prohibitive to keep track of all the CVN's, oh well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but since it is a checksum, don't you simply alter the "unused" data in the tune (normally all 1's or all 0's) until the CVN is what you want? That's how you alter the checksum of normal ROM files, I assume the ECU ROMs are the same... If that's all there is to it, seems the other company didn't really have a clue, lol. Too bad your V8 tunes are encrypted, otherwise I could probably write a C++ application to set the CVN. Hmmm....

Oh well, that's life, and the CVN is not exactly a critical feature on an otherwise AMAZING tuning tool.

L31Sleeper
September 12th, 2010, 04:53 AM
I'm starting to think that "secretly" Developing the software and releasing it when it's done might be the way to go?

GMPX
September 12th, 2010, 09:01 AM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but since it is a checksum, don't you simply alter the "unused" data in the tune (normally all 1's or all 0's) until the CVN is what you want? That's how you alter the checksum of normal ROM files, I assume the ECU ROMs are the same... If that's all there is to it, seems the other company didn't really have a clue, lol. Too bad your V8 tunes are encrypted, otherwise I could probably write a C++ application to set the CVN. Hmmm....
A CVN is not calculated by a simple adding checksum. Eg, if you add one to the data, take one from the checksum. It uses CRC instead, a little bit trickier to fool, near on impossible in the Bosch ECM because of the layout of the segments.


I'm starting to think that "secretly" Developing the software and releasing it when it's done might be the way to go?
We tend to do that, but honestly we were so close to release state a few weeks back we thought we would announce something, oh well, if you have even been involved in software development you know how things can turn bad on the 11th hour! We certainly never planned on having to totally redo the directory structures of the software, you can imagine there is a lot of changes that need to be done to account for that. What a shame M$ never stuck to any sort of standard.

Cheers,
Ross

DAVe3283
September 12th, 2010, 09:50 AM
A CVN is not calculated by a simple adding checksum. Eg, if you add one to the data, take one from the checksum. It uses CRC instead, a little bit trickier to fool, near on impossible in the Bosch ECM because of the layout of the segments.
Aah, I didn't realize it was a CRC. That would be a bit harder to fool than a simple checksum. Also, without knowing how the ECM does the segmentation, I suppose I couldn't really write a CVN tool. Drat. There's no chance the source code for changing the CVN would ever "mysteriously" leak out, is there? :angel_innocent: Lol, I can dream, right?

We tend to do that, but honestly we were so close to release state a few weeks back we thought we would announce something, oh well, if you have even been involved in software development you know how things can turn bad on the 11th hour! We certainly never planned on having to totally redo the directory structures of the software, you can imagine there is a lot of changes that need to be done to account for that. What a shame M$ never stuck to any sort of standard.
I know what you mean about things going wrong at the last second. Hopefully Microsoft will stick with the directory structure they use in Vista & 7. It would make life a lot easier in the future.

Too bad you couldn't just drop XP support for the V8 software. Although you'd probably make a lot of people very unhappy, the operating system is over 9 YEARS old. Heck, I don't support windows XP in 50% of my programs anymore, it's just too much of a hassle. Unless a customer specifically asks for it, I don't bother.

Oh, and sorry if we're bugging you guys, we're just excited about the new version!

GMPX
September 12th, 2010, 10:09 AM
Too bad you couldn't just drop XP support for the V8 software. Although you'd probably make a lot of people very unhappy, the operating system is over 9 YEARS old.
That might be true, but I still run XP on my development PC, some old software just doesn't run on anything later and I don't see why I would pay for an upgrade that does when the one I have is fine.
Abandoning Win98 I can understand, but not XP (yet!).

Cheers,
Ross

5.7ute
September 12th, 2010, 10:24 AM
Not to mention that if you had to buy a new laptop or OS everytime there was an upgrade, it would add a significant cost to longtime users.

L31Sleeper
September 12th, 2010, 10:36 AM
Some software has "slightly" different versions based on what you are running.

Blacky
September 15th, 2010, 07:11 PM
The V8 pass-through pre-release has been made available here:
http://forum.efilive.com/showthread.php?14421-V8-Pass-Through-Reading-Support-%28pre-release%29&p=129431#post129431

Regards
Paul