VE Radio / HVAC EEPROM reprogramming information

[LangasLS]

Hey Guys,

So I've just spent a night playing with a VE II IQ Headunit.

I made up a patch loom using an Aerpro T harness and the wiring connector from a VE Series II to plug into the OEM Series 1 wiring.

I've been playing with the EEPROM on the main PCB and was able to take a dump from it using my Keeprog programmer. The VIN number is fairly obvious (16char) in the dump and is comprised of the first 8 characters of the VIN backwards, followed by the last 8 characters of the VIN backwards - excluding the leading '6' at the start of the vin number.

Anyway, I edited the units VIN and wrote it back to the eeprom but am still getting the security lockout message. Any ideas? I have my suspicions I didn't solder the eeprom back in place 100% but will have to check it again in the morning. To write back to the eeprom I ended up desoldering the eeprom from the PCB and using my old faithful elvis programmer.

Attached are two dumps - one unadultered and one modified.

Any help thoroughly appreciated! I hate admitting defeat...

Simon

[doubledip]

whats your vin

wiring could be wrong as well

why did you remove chip.. best to use a clip and get rid of the crap reader

[LangasLS]

I ended up pulling the eeprom off the board as I couldn't get it to write whilst in situ, in hindsight I should have just tried the powered Elvis programmer instead of the shitty Keeprog.

The VIN No. of the car its gone into is 6G1EP4EY9AL401159

As for the wiring - I followed the tech doc on here very closely. The main wire I think would affect operation of the HU is the can bus wire. I have it wired from X1 pin 16 on the Series 2 connector to X4 pin 6 on the Series 1 harness, as per the doco. I'm almost 100% sure this is correct!

Thanks for your help!

[ZerOne]

Hi LangasLS,

If you are happy with the wiring, then I would probably be running some tests on the EEPROM and physical electric connections to it.

I would be checking continuity with a multimeter between the EEPROM pins, and tracing the tracks from those pins
back to a spot such as a pad, or another pin on a chip.

I have removed a number of SMT devices from different boards, and I still manage to lift tracks on the odd occasion.
Sometimes the damage is not visible to the naked eye, sometimes it very obvious.

I would be also checking the EEPROM itself. It may be possible that it is fried from the heat, or is on the verge of failing.
(We dont know the hardware that the IQ uses to read and write to the EEPROM, so it could be that you EEPROM programmer may be able to read and write to it, but the IQs line voltages may be lower, or voltage tolerances may be tighter, hence it may not be accepting the EEPROM data as being valid).

Worse case, you may need to source another EEPROM from RS, Element 12, or fleabay, and then swap the EEPROM over to see if this makes a difference.

Different devices behave differently if they cannot read the EEPROM. (For example clusters will power up, but the back lighting, warning lights will be on, and the LCD displays will be inverse blank).

I haven't tried powering up an IQ unit without an EEPROM connected, so I dont know how it behaves, but we do know that the EEPROM doesnt store a lot of cruicial information (Apart from the VIN), so it is a distinct possibility that the IQ tries a read of the EEPROM for the VIN, interprets the line data as some blank string (eg 0000000000, or FFFFFFFFF), and then will expect the same string on the SWCan VIN broadcast.

Professionals such as DoubleDip use another method to program the VIN (Using a specialized tool), which could attempt to read the current VIN from the unit itself (Not from the EEPROM directly),
so they will be able to tell if the EEPROM is returning faulty data - which is another option if you really get stuck.

I hope this helps ?

[LangasLS]

Thanks mate, Its got to be damn close to working! I will pull it back out again tomorrow when I have access to the car and go over it with a fine tooth comb.
(I take it you saw my friends post on JC?).

Thanks for your help.

Simon

[doubledip]

Yes. Avoid lifting eproms like the plague. A decent program and hardware for reading proms would have sorted it. 99% of proms I read in situ. And the ones I can't I lift one leg to stop the current draw issue.

The keeprog is garbage waste of money. Everyone seems to buy it to try and save money and think that it can all be done through EPROM. Have flashed about 5 or so guys units after they have had a go and stuffed the EPROM read up. And they ended up wasting money and nearly ruining the unit.

Hope yours is just a dry joint on the EPROM. But if you plan on trying to do it correctly buy a Willem programmer and a decent clip. Will cost about US$250 but much better that thus other crap

[LangasLS]

Its all good fun! I've probably bricked the unit, but atleast I've had a crack at it and learnt a thing or two in the process.

I don't spose you could upload a known good eeprom dump? Would be great to compare it to what I've got (as I think that may be part of the issue!)

Thanks for the help.

[LangasLS]

Further more to my previous post - It would appear that what I can read back from the eeprom and what I am writing to it are two different things. Specifically the Y and E in the vin no. are being changed...

[doubledip]

Heres a file

[LangasLS]

Bingo! After two small wire links on the PCB where I messed up pads / tracks from removing the eeprom multiple times and writing to the IC more times than I can count - it is working. Very pleased I ended up using ponyprog with a parallel port programmer circuit to write to the IC - took a few goes to get a clean write, but it worked.

Massive thanks to you both (ZerOne and Doubledip). Legends.