how to: build a bench flash/boot mode harness for your me7 ecu

[k0mpresd]

what you need:

ecu harness + connector.
obd2 connector + harness.
1k ohm resistor.
soldering iron.
maybe other stuff (heat shrink tubing, switch for 12v wire).

only wires you need from ecu connector:

-brown
-green/black
-white/black
-red
-black/blue



obd2 connector:

-brown
-green
-red/black



1k ohm resistor:



connect:

ecu side: >>>> obd2 side:

red, black/blue, white/black >>>> red/black
brown >>>> brown
green/black >>>> green

now since red and brown are 12v and ground, you need to also solder a power wire and ground wire to those connections to run to your power source.
you will also need to solder a 2nd wire to ground and attach your 1k ohm resistor to the end to probe the boot pin on the ecu during power on.



finished:

[widgget]

like a boss!

[nihil]

Win

[n7plus1]

word.

[kwimberly]

[Seerlah]

For flashing ECUs with tunes. Not sure what the boot mode is

[k0mpresd]

boot mode, for when your flash craps out, bad chksum flash, read/write via obd is disabled. all kinds of reasons. reading/writing eeprom too.

[AudiA4_20T]

Back at it Ian? Seemed like you were busy with other things for awhile

[Seerlah]

Sending PM

[Mr. Wolfsberg]

Can you take a better picture of the wire locations? My connector doesn't have identical wire colors so wanting to know pin locations, thanks

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

[Mr. Wolfsberg]

From what I could see from the picture I'm assuming it looked like this?

[DPDISXR4Ti]

From what I could see from the picture I'm assuming it looked like this?

Did this ^^^ work out for you? I picked up a PCM w/ harness clip at the junkyard the other day with the intent of building a bench harness.

[Luxus Panzer]

Any chance we could get the pics back? Not from photobucket ?

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Any chance we could get the pics back? Not from photobucket ?

I'm running the "Photobucket fix" for Chrome and all pics in this thread are appearing in-line.

[Kevin C]

what you need:

ecu harness + connector.
obd2 connector + harness.
1k ohm resistor.
soldering iron.
maybe other stuff (heat shrink tubing, switch for 12v wire).

only wires you need from ecu connector:

-brown
-green/black
-white/black
-red
-black/blue


obd2 connector:

-brown
-green
-red/black



1k ohm resistor:



connect:

ecu side: >>>> obd2 side:

red, black/blue, white/black >>>> red/black
brown >>>> brown
green/black >>>> green

now since red and brown are 12v and ground, you need to also solder a power wire and ground wire to those connections to run to your power source.
you will also need to solder a 2nd wire to ground and attach your 1k ohm resistor to the end to probe the boot pin on the ecu during power on.



finished:

Bench_Flash1.JPGBenchflash2.JPGBenchflash3.JPGbenchflash4.JPGBenchflash5.JPG

- - - Updated - - -

Any chance we could get the pics back? Not from photobucket ?

No

[fR3ZNO]

Just an FYI for anyone who builds this in the future, I used it successfully for getting my ECU into bootmode and successfully flashing a new immo off bin file to the EEPROM. But I was unable to get it to work for Nefmoto bench flashing. In order to do that, it appears that you need to also power pin 121 which is on the second smaller ECU connector.

http://nefariousmotorsports.com/foru...Hb8b-ygASh_pg4

Also, that Nefmoto thread shows that you need to connect pin 2 to ground as well (the other large brown wire that is cut in the image), in this DIY k0mpressed only connects pin 1 to ground. Not sure if that is a deal breaker or not.

[Gin+]

Truth.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Just an FYI for anyone who builds this in the future, I used it successfully for getting my ECU into bootmode and successfully flashing a new immo off bin file to the EEPROM. But I was unable to get it to work for Nefmoto bench flashing. In order to do that, it appears that you need to also power pin 121 which is on the second smaller ECU connector.

http://nefariousmotorsports.com/foru...Hb8b-ygASh_pg4

Also, that Nefmoto thread shows that you need to connect pin 2 to ground as well (the other large brown wire that is cut in the image), in this DIY k0mpressed only connects pin 1 to ground. Not sure if that is a deal breaker or not.

Thanks for the important update. I haven't gotten around to doing anything with mine yet - I'm sure I'll re-visit this thread when I do.

[EuroxS4]

You could just buy a MPPS and not have to open the ecu to read and flash.

[fR3ZNO]

You could just buy a MPPS and not have to open the ecu to read and flash.

I opened just for getting it into boot mode for the EEPROM stuff, afaik if it wasn't for the IMMO I wouldn't have to open the ECU

Thanks for the important update. I haven't gotten around to doing anything with mine yet - I'm sure I'll re-visit this thread when I do.

You're welcome. Yeah, bench flashing this ECU has been on the back burner for awhile for me too. Finally got it to work after struggling to get a read on the EEPROM with a junk eBay cable. Got one with an actual FTDI chip and all is well.

[Gin+]

You could just buy a MPPS and not have to open the ecu to read and flash.

Anything to look out for with the ebay MPPS interfaces or are they relatively reliable in your opionon?

[EuroxS4]

Anything to look out for with the ebay MPPS interfaces or are they relatively reliable in your opionon?

Normally any clone tools are just that.Clones that work to a various extent.Nothing beats the original tool.this is why original tools are so much money.Ebay clones are hit or miss.Just about everything comes out of china.If you could find a clone coming out of czech republic or norway that would be a better option.

[M7noob]

You could just buy a MPPS and not have to open the ecu to read and flash.

Reviving this as I'm in the process of trying to clone my me7.1 ecu to a used one.
Can MPPS really do this without opening the ecu?
immo off an ecu.
clone my ecu onto the spare one.
I found this ready-made cable on aliexpress. What do you guys think?

https://aliexpress.com/item/4001062550068.html


Thanks.

[EuroxS4]

If you have a modified ecu I doubt you'll be able to clone it as most tuners read/write protect their intellectual property. Having said that if the ecu is stock chances are you just need to clone the immobilizer. aliexpress Is gonna have cheap clones that may or may not work. Hard to say. But good tools for this business are not cheap. I spent upwards of 10 grand so far for equipment for module repair, reading/writing and cloning.

[grayjay]

If you have a modified ecu I doubt you'll be able to clone it as most tuners read/write protect their intellectual property. Having said that if the ecu is stock chances are you just need to clone the immobilizer. aliexpress Is gonna have cheap clones that may or may not work. Hard to say. But good tools for this business are not cheap. I spent upwards of 10 grand so far for equipment for module repair, reading/writing and cloning.

Eurox - can you please clarify, using MPPS cable and software (V12?, V16?, V21?) is it possible to force ECU into boot mode purely via the OBD port or is it always necessary to open the ECU case in order to ground out the boot pin #24 to enter boot mode? I am slowly getting familiar with nefmoto and getting ready to start work on a used stock replacement ECU (2003 A4 B6 1.8t with 8E0909518AF ECU) for which I understand I will first need to deactivate the immobilizer to work with since I don't have the matching cluster to pair with it. If there is a MPPS cable that will enable entering boot mode without opening, I would rather figure that out and get the correct cable but definitive info on this is hard to find.

Do you have a preference/suggestion between using MPPS cable or galletto 1260 cables for boot mode?

Any chance you have a well populated table map definition .xdf file for reading the .bin file from my 8E0909518AF ECU? The shared .xdf files Ive found on nefmoto are only sparsely populated with the table definitions when I view them in Tunerpro. If I cannot locate (or make) an .xdf with many of the tables identified for my particular ECU, I have found an .xdf for the 8E0909518AK (-368072) which is just a slightly later version of the ME7.5 ECU, intended for same engine hardware. I am thinking that I will flash the stock .bin for 8E0909518AK to my 8E0909518AF and use that combination as a starting point for tuning. Sound like a reasonable approach for starting or am I missing anything obvious?

Thanks-

[Gin+]

Sounds like you are on the right track.

Skip the whole bootmode in the car idea and put together a bench harness. Doesn't need to be fancy, clip leads work if your careful.

I went the ebay Galletto 1260 route and the cable didn't work. Fortunately, I followed a nefmoto thread and was able to use my generic blue kline cable with the galletto software, worked like a charm. I would crossflash with 8E0909518AK_368072 SW:0003 as there's already a well packed tuner pro definition file being shared.

[ADCS]

No you cannot boot mode via OBD. You need to ground the boot pin. It's not hard. Make a bench harness from a cut-up old engine harness + a galletto 1260 cable. There is an 'English' version of the galletto software on nefmoto.

Is it possible to read and write the EEPROM via OBD? Yes. There is a tool on Nefmoto for reading/writing the EEPROM. The creator originally made it possibly to read and write via OBD. It's since been modified to read via OBD but only write while in boot mode. Writing the EEPROM via OBD is dangerous in the wrong hands (car thief). So if you are a programming wizard it is possible.

[grayjay]

Thanks Gin & ADCS -
I have a spare electrical harness that I will use to make a bench test/flash rig for the ECU. I've now read up on modifying Galletto software to accept the generic kline cable (which I already have) so will try that first rather than purchasing either a cloned Galletto or MPPS cable.
I have a copy of the well defined .xdf for 8E0909518AK_368072 SW:0003 and I am spending time with tunerpro to get acquainted with all the tables. I will start with boot flashing my spare ECU with the .bin files for 8E0909518AK_368072 SW:0003 and use that for my project. For time being, I am slowly trying to learn from comparing tuned .bin files to the stock files to see examples of how others made changes.

[ADCS]

If all you want to do is read/write the flash then you can absolutely do that via OBD. It is the EEPROM you need bootmode for.

[seanf86]

Eurox - can you please clarify, using MPPS cable and software (V12?, V16?, V21?) is it possible to force ECU into boot mode purely via the OBD port or is it always necessary to open the ECU case in order to ground out the boot pin #24 to enter boot mode? I am slowly getting familiar with nefmoto and getting ready to start work on a used stock replacement ECU (2003 A4 B6 1.8t with 8E0909518AF ECU) for which I understand I will first need to deactivate the immobilizer to work with since I don't have the matching cluster to pair with it. If there is a MPPS cable that will enable entering boot mode without opening, I would rather figure that out and get the correct cable but definitive info on this is hard to find.

Do you have a preference/suggestion between using MPPS cable or galletto 1260 cables for boot mode?

Any chance you have a well populated table map definition .xdf file for reading the .bin file from my 8E0909518AF ECU? The shared .xdf files Ive found on nefmoto are only sparsely populated with the table definitions when I view them in Tunerpro. If I cannot locate (or make) an .xdf with many of the tables identified for my particular ECU, I have found an .xdf for the 8E0909518AK (-368072) which is just a slightly later version of the ME7.5 ECU, intended for same engine hardware. I am thinking that I will flash the stock .bin for 8E0909518AK to my 8E0909518AF and use that combination as a starting point for tuning. Sound like a reasonable approach for starting or am I missing anything obvious?

Thanks-

I just use a blue $9 kkl cable with nefmoto and with the eeprom tools on nefmoto, if you have vcds don't bother doing immo off on the ecu I would just pull the skc from your ecu in your current car and from your new ecu and adapt it, then you retain the immobilizer function so no one can drive your car off with a screw driver and both ecus are learned to your car so you can swap them back and forth as you please.

as for the boot mode cable, I don't have mpps or a galetto cable for recovering a bricked ecu as I've got a stack of spares currently but its something always on my mind, I also don't do this for other people. You can use the cheap blue kkl for boot mode flashing an eeprom.

[grayjay]

My total nooby nefmoto progress thus far; I finished making a bench harness from a spare used engine harness and used ME7-EEPROM software tool with a KKL cable to access thee ECU is in boot mode and read the EEPROM file from a spare used ECU. I then set the EEPROM immobilizer off and reset the ECU to my actual VIN number, and verified that the soft coding was already correct for my A4 quattro 1.8 5-speed and I then re-flashed the (checksum corrected) EEPROM file back to the ECU. With the Immo off, I was then able to use nefmoto flasher over a non-bootmode connection to update the ECU flash bin file to 8E0909518AK_368072 SW:0003 (which has a well defined ECU map). I will next try to install the spare ECU in my car and get it running with the stock tuning and try recording some log files via nefmoto before trying any basic tuning. My initial tuning goals will be to code out and remove the SAI pump, add a left side SMIC and adjust stock tuning to adapt a set of 386cc injectors that I sourced from a TT. Later goals will be to raise boost a bit and replace the stock K03 turbo with a K04 that I already have.

The original ECU that came in my car appears to have been previously jacked-up with expired BS promotional trial tuning (APR or Revo?). I am unable to read the flash .bin or log the ECU data over the OBDII port with Nefmoto. I can make a basic connection and see the basic ECU model info but trying to read the .bin or initiate logging gives me an error message about security access denying the connection. I can log a few basic ECU parameters with VCDS-lite but nefmoto logging is not working. From the VCDS-lite logs, I cannot see the boost pressure directly but it appears that the ECU reverted back to stock tune, the MAF maxes out around 130 g/s which should equate to around just 160hp. If I can get the replacement ECU running in my car, I will try to boot-mode on the original trial-jacked ECU to see if I can get the IMMO-3 SKC so I can transfer that to the replacement ECU if I want to re-enable immobilizer.
One other bit of progress, (as GIN suggested previously ) from direction in a nefmoto thread I was able to change and re-flash the serial number assigned to my generic KKL cable so that it matched the serial number expected by Galletto software. I was then able to connect to the ECU with Galletto with my same regular KKL cable. Ive not yet tried Galletto for any of the read/write flashing operations but nice to have another option to using ME7-EEPROM.exe for the boot mode flashing.

[ADCS]

Good work!

For the IMMO, you can also clone your existing ECUs IMMO in order to retain IMMO on the backup ECU. Or just turn it off like you did.
For the security access error, try lowering the baud rate in nefmoto. I get the same error message when attempting to read/write certain ME7.1.1 ECUs (stock). Need to lower it to 10400 baud to make it work. Takes about 15 mins to flash at this lower baud rate.

[EuroxS4]

To answer some of the question in this thread. A real/original MPPS can read and write with ecu in the car, without removal. However a clone will not be able to do so. If working on a budget with cloned tools its hit or miss. ECU needs to be immo off in order to read all the contents and write contents to it. ME7.1.1 ecu and ME7.5 are similar but different. Normally me7.1.1 have infineon chips and require a 1k ohms resist inline or need to be powered up on the bench with both 12v terminal and ignition on out of the gate with pin 28 being shorted for 3-4seconds in order to get a good read on the bench.


I purchased a regulated dc bench power supply or you can make one from a old ATX power supply. I will post some pictures of modifications I did to make things easier for doing things on the bench.

[grayjay]

I am working on a 2003 A4 quattro with 1.8T using a stock ME7.5 ECU # 8E0909518AF. I did successfully get the stock tune .bin file # 8E0909518AK_368072 SW:0003 (from a 2004 A4 1.8T i think?) bench flashed to the spare ECU with nefmoto flashing via KKL cable. I got the re-flashed 518AK ECU swapped into the car in place of the original 518AF, it did start and run but the idle was very,very rough. I watched the lambda % correction routinely spike at 25% while idling and driving lightly. When I test drove a bit with the 518AK it actually felt OK when I got on the throttle but idle was still really rough and was missing even after warming up and driving a bit.
After the bad idle and test drive, I used nefmoto via the OBDII port in to overwrite the 518AK .bin on the new ECU and reverted to the stock 8E0909518AF .bin file for my car and the idle problems completely resolved. Any idea why the cross flashing from 518AF to 518AK did not work well? Is it causing problems to use the ECUs original 518AF EEPROM file together with the later 518AK flash .bin? Should I instead use a 518AK EPROM bin matched with this flash .bin?
I may just stick with trying to further tune from the 518AF bin file even though the xdf maps I've located for it are not as well defined. Alternately, I suppose that if I can figure out what it was within the 518AK file that worked so poorly for my engine and fix it could provide a good learning opportunity.

Euroxs4- I did follow the bench harness schematic that included an 1K resistor for grounding of the EEPROM boot pin. I used an old laptop PC power supply brick to supply +12v and it seems to work well, I managed to get the ECU into boot mode on first try and boot flashing was successful.

[grayjay]

Progress update- I never did figure out why the stock 8E0909518AK .bin file that I cross-flashed onto my 518AF ECU ran so roughly. After some initial troubles, I got the ME7logger GUI working and was able to log some baseline data on my stock tune and got familiar with interpreting the data logs and also with reading the .bin tune files in tunerPro. The .xdf map for the 518AK .bin file is so much better defined than the available .xdf for the 518AF that I decided it would be worth one more try to cross-flash a 518AK bin onto my 518AF ECU since everything I read indicated that should work OK. Rather than re-flash the same stock 518AK.bin that I had already tried and had trouble with, I decided to instead take the plunge and flashed the 518AK based "community 1.8T stage 1 tune" that is well documented and available at; http://nefariousmotorsports.com/foru...p?topic=6955.0
The 518AK stage 1 .bin flashed easily with nefmoto flasher, started and ran fine, it had none of the rough idle problems that I encountered with the previous cross-flashed stock 518AK .bin file. I refilled my tank with premium octane gas and went ahead and did some testing and used ME7logger to record data from all the engine sensors. I anticipated that the stage 1 tune would need additional adjustment for my particular car but after several logging sessions and 2 weeks of daily testing, I am very pleased with the tuning as-is. It is entirely usable and makes the car much more fun to drive and I really find no faults with the tuning. Even at lower end of the RPM boost range, the throttle response is much faster than stock and the torque available throughout the low to midrange RPM is dramatically better. This stage 1 tune was developed around safety limitations of the stock 240cc/min injector capacity and the flow limitations of the K03 turbo map so the raised boost (around 14PSI max at midrange RPM) then gradually tapers off to near stock levels as the RPM climb toward redline. The stock injectors and turbo cannot support a big increase of the higher RPM peak HP but the increased area available beneath the torque curve from around 2500-4500 RPM is dramatically better than stock, very much reminds me of the instantaneous lower RPM grunt that I had on my old 2.8L B5 before I got my 1.8t B6. My daily commute involves a 7 mile drive up a steep, winding mountain road and the extra boost of the stage 1 tune does a much better job of being able to stay in 3rd gear on the steep sections without needing to downshift in order to keep speed up.
It would be foolish to blindly flash this tune to your engine if you don't have a good sense of what you are doing and if you are not willing to data log and verify that it is working well. The tune does require a healthy engine and premium fuel. Beyond that, I would say that the nefmoto stage 1 is a great starting point for experimenting and learning to tune your own ECU and is an amazing resource for those 1.8T owners from approximately 2002.5-2005, applicable ECUs are 8E0909518AF, 8E0909518AK, & 8E0909518BC. Other earlier/later 1.8T models can still benefit from studying the tuning approach but will need to actually perform the tuning the maps of their ECU accordingly.

[Gin+]

That thread on nefmoto was definitely a good jumping off point for me.