ArchAudi

then why don't the tuners just flash their program into the unit. Why do they have to physically remove the chip?

EdP

you can DOWNLOAD it.....

ArchAudi

Could they have compared the code from a 150 HP program and a 180hp and found the differences. Then creating a new fuel map would be easy??

EdP

The code is in assembly, and what you "download" is pure machine code. Pure gibberish to you and me. You have to rebuild the code, and decompile it to get back to the source. That is NOT easy. BUT....

the way tuners used to swipe other tuners tricks is to use a hex editor, take a data dump of both a stock chip, and a tuned chip. What you get is then an easy way to compare the two, and what you get is the places where the program is manipulated. In most cases it's only the mapping data, as the routines themselves are near impossible to decipher, unless you do what I first mentioned.

With that you can see the maps that are played with and then make your own tuned chip. It was rampant early in the tuning market. It required no real knowledge. Modifiying the actual bosch routines is another matter, and is not usually necessary - the data maps are what used to matter. With DBW, it's a different ballgame. The code is much more complex and interdependent, even NEW subroutines are necessary. Again, if that was downloadable because there was no copy protection, then an dubious tuner could steal valuable tuning information.

BlueMaxx

I can just imagine what a VVT program looks like in ASM...

ArchAudi

Thanks...I learned something. I was wondering why tuners just didn't flash with a Euro program.

Alf Arkin

that go beyond the OBD-II specification, and these are hard to decipher.

In other words, you can read the values but you don't know exactly what they represent and how they correlate.