PIWIS 3 Coding Retrofit and Feature Request
#241
Burning Brakes
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But back to warranty concerns... I'd say it would be tough for them to prove that you bricked something with improper coding. Given how a lot of dealer techs are just parts changers these days, I'd wager that if the car came in on a flatbed one morning with "randomly wouldn't start" - the first thing they'll do is pull codes. If they get indications of a failed module or a bunch of unexpected "coding errors", they will just assume "bad module" and order a new one. I don't know that they'd even bother digging into WHY or HOW the module may have failed.
If by "warez" version you mean "free"... I think at one point I'd found some obscure web forum that had hard drive images available. The hard part is, from what I understand, the hardware requirements. Both the interface dongle, and the laptop itself, with the HD image expecting it to be living inside specific model laptops.
#242
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If by "warez" version you mean "free"... I think at one point I'd found some obscure web forum that had hard drive images available. The hard part is, from what I understand, the hardware requirements. Both the interface dongle, and the laptop itself, with the HD image expecting it to be living inside specific model laptops.
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#243
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There is always a risk with coding. You can mitigate the risk by taking proper steps for coding. Use a battery maintainer and always document what you will be coding. Here, we are enabling a lot of features already available in Europe or ROW. You can always revert to factory default by Auto coding your module. As far as the warranty, the dealer would need to find and prove what you coded caused the issue, to void your warranty. There are a lot of free version of PIWIS floating around which might be incomplete. I chose to pay for mine because I get support when I need it.
#244
Burning Brakes
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I never bothered to save any of the links or info since I wound up buying a Chinese version that has suited all my needs. To me it wasn't going to be worth the hassle or aggravation of getting it all sorted by assembling the components piecemeal. I remember finding it through a long Google rabbit hole (Google led to some site which linked to some other site). I do recall it was a more generic site where people were trying to hack multiple kinds of OBD type computers. PIWIS was a thread but it wasn't a forum dedicated to PIWIS. Guy was out of Russia somewhere.
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718socal (01-03-2023)
#245
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What version of Piwis are you guys using? Is anyone using it through a VM? Dongle?
Last edited by Lucifer; 01-04-2023 at 12:44 AM.
#246
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#247
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#249
Instructor
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Love this and lets keep this going.
I have a PIWIS 3, which I haven't used much - but did own a PIWIS 2 at one point and used it to help code/fix a lot of things on my old 987. Had to get the 3 to be able to talk to the newer cars. I've found that there isn't a lot of knowledge being shared out there - the guys who know their way around the PIWIS aren't sharing (because it's also part of their business....)
Two things I have figured out:
I have a PIWIS 3, which I haven't used much - but did own a PIWIS 2 at one point and used it to help code/fix a lot of things on my old 987. Had to get the 3 to be able to talk to the newer cars. I've found that there isn't a lot of knowledge being shared out there - the guys who know their way around the PIWIS aren't sharing (because it's also part of their business....)
Two things I have figured out:
- if you have an iPhone (this may exist on the Android), download the Google Translate app. It has a mode where you use the camera on your phone, can point it at text, and it will translate the text for you. Helpful for going through some of these German menus!
- The PIWIS version matters. So if/when posting the coding changes - be sure to post which version of PIWIS you're on. Seems that as the newer versions roll out, coding options are removed. My PIWIS 3 came with 2 partitions: a v40.xxx and a v38.xx. There are a LOT more options available for coding in v38 than v40... and I suspect if you can find someone to sell you something older than v38, you should probably do it. I haven't looked too hard but it's something I'll look into once I actually get a few other projects done
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daaa nope (01-06-2023)
#250
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Will a 38.250 work with a '23 Spyder? Or do I need a newer version? Also - how can I make sure my Piwis setup has engineering mode without actually having the car yet? (I read something about simulation mode)
#251
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Not sure if 38.250 works on 23 Spyder or not. PIWIS 2 supports cars up to 2017. So for sure you would need PIWIS 3. You can run PIWIS 3 in Engineering Mode without being connected to a car.
#252
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Do I need a charger for simple programming like the Spyder roof? Anything else I need to do after changing the value?
#253
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#254
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The Panamera forum wasn't of much help; maybe here, people have a deeper understanding of the process:
I am trying to get a better, deeper understanding of what a VCI is and all the different VCIs out there.
If I understand it correctly, the VCI is the part that connects to the car, but it isn't just a dumb connector; it has a board and some chips on it.
It makes sense as it connects to a USB and something has to convert the signals from the car to something an x86 driver can work with.
Otherwise, each car manufacturer would have to have its own driver, and it would be a mess.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but originally, there was only the OEM Porsche VCI, which is manufactured by ACTIA.
China is a huge market for Porsche, and someone there decided to make a clone of the original VCI to save some costs.
If I understand correctly, the OEM VCI, while being super expensive, actually works with all the different warezed Piwis versions floating around.
So the clone was for the purpose of saving money (as opposed to overcoming some restrictions in the OEM one, for i.e.).
Cloning a connector like this for someone with even a little experience in embedded reverse engineering is a simple thing to do, so I can see the appeal.
Still not sure about the part of VXDIAG in all of that. It seems they have a VCI of their own, and they also own VX Manager?
Now, because all the tutorials out there guide to replacing the driver and application of the VCI, I assume the originals had some limitations that were patched out (I will probably bindiff them as a weekend project to see what was changed).
Would appreciate it if someone has more specifics.
Is there a significant difference for the hobbyist between the OEM VCI and the Chinese clones? Is there any difference between the 100 different clones, or are they all the same?
I plan on ordering this as some other members in the 718forums reported it worked well for them.
If I got something wrong - please correct me. I am here to learn.
I am trying to get a better, deeper understanding of what a VCI is and all the different VCIs out there.
If I understand it correctly, the VCI is the part that connects to the car, but it isn't just a dumb connector; it has a board and some chips on it.
It makes sense as it connects to a USB and something has to convert the signals from the car to something an x86 driver can work with.
Otherwise, each car manufacturer would have to have its own driver, and it would be a mess.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but originally, there was only the OEM Porsche VCI, which is manufactured by ACTIA.
China is a huge market for Porsche, and someone there decided to make a clone of the original VCI to save some costs.
If I understand correctly, the OEM VCI, while being super expensive, actually works with all the different warezed Piwis versions floating around.
So the clone was for the purpose of saving money (as opposed to overcoming some restrictions in the OEM one, for i.e.).
Cloning a connector like this for someone with even a little experience in embedded reverse engineering is a simple thing to do, so I can see the appeal.
Still not sure about the part of VXDIAG in all of that. It seems they have a VCI of their own, and they also own VX Manager?
Now, because all the tutorials out there guide to replacing the driver and application of the VCI, I assume the originals had some limitations that were patched out (I will probably bindiff them as a weekend project to see what was changed).
Would appreciate it if someone has more specifics.
Is there a significant difference for the hobbyist between the OEM VCI and the Chinese clones? Is there any difference between the 100 different clones, or are they all the same?
I plan on ordering this as some other members in the 718forums reported it worked well for them.
If I got something wrong - please correct me. I am here to learn.
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Z06jerry (01-07-2023)
#255
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The Panamera forum wasn't of much help; maybe here, people have a deeper understanding of the process:
I am trying to get a better, deeper understanding of what a VCI is and all the different VCIs out there.
If I understand it correctly, the VCI is the part that connects to the car, but it isn't just a dumb connector; it has a board and some chips on it.
It makes sense as it connects to a USB and something has to convert the signals from the car to something an x86 driver can work with.
Otherwise, each car manufacturer would have to have its own driver, and it would be a mess.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but originally, there was only the OEM Porsche VCI, which is manufactured by ACTIA.
China is a huge market for Porsche, and someone there decided to make a clone of the original VCI to save some costs.
If I understand correctly, the OEM VCI, while being super expensive, actually works with all the different warezed Piwis versions floating around.
So the clone was for the purpose of saving money (as opposed to overcoming some restrictions in the OEM one, for i.e.).
Cloning a connector like this for someone with even a little experience in embedded reverse engineering is a simple thing to do, so I can see the appeal.
Still not sure about the part of VXDIAG in all of that. It seems they have a VCI of their own, and they also own VX Manager?
Now, because all the tutorials out there guide to replacing the driver and application of the VCI, I assume the originals had some limitations that were patched out (I will probably bindiff them as a weekend project to see what was changed).
Would appreciate it if someone has more specifics.
Is there a significant difference for the hobbyist between the OEM VCI and the Chinese clones? Is there any difference between the 100 different clones, or are they all the same?
I plan on ordering this as some other members in the 718forums reported it worked well for them.
If I got something wrong - please correct me. I am here to learn.
I am trying to get a better, deeper understanding of what a VCI is and all the different VCIs out there.
If I understand it correctly, the VCI is the part that connects to the car, but it isn't just a dumb connector; it has a board and some chips on it.
It makes sense as it connects to a USB and something has to convert the signals from the car to something an x86 driver can work with.
Otherwise, each car manufacturer would have to have its own driver, and it would be a mess.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but originally, there was only the OEM Porsche VCI, which is manufactured by ACTIA.
China is a huge market for Porsche, and someone there decided to make a clone of the original VCI to save some costs.
If I understand correctly, the OEM VCI, while being super expensive, actually works with all the different warezed Piwis versions floating around.
So the clone was for the purpose of saving money (as opposed to overcoming some restrictions in the OEM one, for i.e.).
Cloning a connector like this for someone with even a little experience in embedded reverse engineering is a simple thing to do, so I can see the appeal.
Still not sure about the part of VXDIAG in all of that. It seems they have a VCI of their own, and they also own VX Manager?
Now, because all the tutorials out there guide to replacing the driver and application of the VCI, I assume the originals had some limitations that were patched out (I will probably bindiff them as a weekend project to see what was changed).
Would appreciate it if someone has more specifics.
Is there a significant difference for the hobbyist between the OEM VCI and the Chinese clones? Is there any difference between the 100 different clones, or are they all the same?
I plan on ordering this as some other members in the 718forums reported it worked well for them.
If I got something wrong - please correct me. I am here to learn.
The following 2 users liked this post by 718socal:
Larry Cable (01-29-2023),
Z06jerry (01-07-2023)