NefMoto

Hi Guys,

I have a VCDS cable it says it supports premium features etc, but when I try to connect I just get "failed to read test echo from FTDI device". Do I need to buy another cable?  The one I have is black and printed VAG106 in gold

You need to go into VCDS and turn off "boot in intelligent mode"

HI tony thanks for the reply , unfortunately I did do that and it didn't seem to help :(

same for me just today.

I didn't realize my ross tech cable was is the mail box. I plugged it all in and got vcds up and running. It can read all my modules in my car. I tried the nefmoto software and although it knows I have the ross-tech cable because it auto populates that field in the software, it will not connect to the ecu. I've turned off "boot in intelligent mode" in vcds, saved and closed it, then open nefmoto software and still it does not connect.

Out of curiousity I pushed the slow init connect and the fast init connect with no change. It says in the status window that it doesn't recieve an echo reply from the FTDI or something. Right now all I wish to do it read the ecu. If I can successfully read it then I will try to save that and then write the 551r file.

Update: First try was on a Windows XP pro 32bit laptop. Got another laptop with win 7 64 bit, fresh download of nefmoto, fresh install of the VCDS software. Same results. No connection to the FTDI device, but the cable is recognized and usable by the computer and the VCDS software.

AARDQ has been an amazing help to me. He has provided this information that I think, when I have time to try it out, will resolve the problem. Just thought I would share his info to help you as well. The link to the pertinent info is here: http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/usb/virtual-com-port.html

I tried that with no luck :(  Was excited too as it seem to be the answer. I ordered a BLUE 409 cable from ebay I hope that works

Took a few tries myself to get it to work, now it's 100%.  Make sure VSP is set to load (check the check box; default is not checked).  Double check in Device Manager that "USB Serial Port" shows up in Ports, and that there is no conflict.  Other FTDI drivers/devices on your computer can also conflict.  I ended up blowing out Galetto and "blue" cable drivers altogether.  VCDS must be set to "not boot in intelligent mode", and then VCDS must be closed.  (VCDS will still work fine booting in dumb mode.)

Use Slow Init.

Hope this helps.

Ok, so far I downloaded and installed the VCP drivers. Tried at least 4 times on win xp computer, wouldn't take. Then I tried it on the win 7 pc and it installed. I checked the "load VCP driver" after installation. Also checked to make sure "not intelligent mode" was unchecked in VCDS. Never could find USB serial port in device manager to change latency to 2ms. Tried to connect multiple times using slow init and tried all the different baud rates. Same result, no echo FTDI. Here is the log readout:

01/Oct/2012 08:42:44.309: LOG: Setting Address: 0x01 KeyByte1: 0x6B KeyByte2: 0x0F
01/Oct/2012 08:42:44.356: LOG: Opened FTDI device.
01/Oct/2012 08:42:44.356: LOG: FTDI device info - Description: Ross-Tech HEX-USB Serial Number: RT000001 Device Type: FT_DEVICE_232R ID: 0x403FA30 Device Flags: 0x0
01/Oct/2012 08:42:44.357: LOG: FTDI ChipID DLL is loaded, checking chip ID...
01/Oct/2012 08:42:44.360: LOG: FTDI device chip ID: 0x1C9CB3D9
01/Oct/2012 08:42:45.393: USER: Failed to read test echo from FTDI device.

Sometimes you have to click then unclick boot in intelligent mode to get that to stick in the VCDS cable... not sure if it is a known bug but i've seen it happen several times.

Thanks for the reply mate , I had tried all that still no dice

Must be set up as an admin to begin with, I'm on an XP machine at the moment but something along the lines of don't click on the Port settings tab at the top, but rather Advanced button (or Properties?) at the bottom and then Port (maybe Properties and then Advanced, i.e. a second layer).  Something like that, anyway.  Port Baud should be 9600 BPS; I think I remember someone saying that they found it set way higher initially and that was the issue.

Tried everything as noted, nothing worked. Got it recognized, made the adjustments to vcds, usb serial port settings, tried all different connection speeds in nefmoto and slow init and fast init. nothing works. getting my blue cable tomorrow. hopefully that will work. keeping my fingers crossed.

Any updates on this as I'm having the same problems  :(

I made "some" progress if you can call it that. I never was able to get the ross tech cable to talk whatsoever. I tried everything I could think of. I did get the blue cable to recognize and communicate but when I did a read or write function I was stopped at about 14% and disconnected from the ecu. Any attempt to reconnect and pick up where it left off didn't work. So ultimately I think I need to try a flash with the galletto cable that just arrived. The next dilemma is how to actually get this finicky 551 AA ecu to enter into boot mode. I've done more reading and I think, with the help of the replies I've received, I'm about read to attempt to boot mode it. Or...I may just send it to another, more experienced, nefmoto member and let them try first.

Im still waiting for my blue cable to arrive. Must be on the slow boat from china :(

Have you tried all usb ports?
Perhaps your laptop after short time goes into some kind of power save mode and disables usb power?

I am having the Same problem, I am not able to flash the ecu with the map provided by a member here.

I tried two cables i have and here are the messages i got when trying to connect:

First Cable:
Failed to read test echo from ftdi on Ross Tech cable

Second Cable:
Failed to setup ftdi

Car is a 2001 Audi S3 AMK, and I am using windows 7

Ross tech cable should be n dump moe to work with nefmoto tool.
Also choose the latest ftdi drivers to install for your cables, try in different usb ports and always double check baud rates  before flashing (prefer the 52800 speed).

It was set in dump mode, correct ftdi drivers. No matter what i do it wont work. I have read pretty much all the threads on this forum that are connected to my problem and still no solution.

My Ross tech is not original.

I guess i will try to get a blue cable from the recommended sellers, uninstall everything that is related to vcds from my pc, and try again.

All i need is the cable, ftdi drivers, and nefmoto software, right?

And the help of God of course.

Just to verify, you are closing VCDS after setting to dumb mode and before opening nefmoto?

You likely cannot have drivers for blue cable and Hex Can installed at the same time.  I couldn't, anyway.  After I made that mistake I had to blow out all drivers and only put one set back (for Hex Can in my case).

Also, maybe borrow a known good ecu you can try to bench flash? You mentioned the AA is a bit finicky. Are you doing this in car, or on the bench?

If in car

1) try disconnecting the cluster
2) try a lower baud rate

I am doing this on the car via obdII. Ecu in the car

I always test the cable in dumb mode in vcds then close vcds and try to flash.

Maybe it is because I had more than one driver installed on this computer.

I never select baud speed, i usually leave it at unspecified baud. And i am using version 1.9.3.2

For reference given that my Hex Can setup works, I'm using the VCP drivers (with VCP enabled - -default is not enabled) from the Ross-Tech site http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/usb/virtual-com-port.html  Not to say that the newer drivers from the ftdi Web site http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm don't work; just that these work for me.

Forgot to mention that i had same problem while battery on my laptop and ac adapter connected to 12V->220V converter.
When ac adapter removed and laptop was fed only via battery, ftdi was recognized without problem.

Exactly same problem here, setup:

Original HEX+CAN USB Ross tech 11.11.3,
Audi TT 1.8T
ECU ME7.5


Tried NefMoto 1.6, 1.8, 1.9.3.2
With all above tried FTDI VCP drivers (VCP enabled), Rosstech VCP drivers (VCP enabled)

intelligent mode unchecked, saved, vcds closed,

tried all possible BAUDs, all possible modes, actually there has left very little i haven't tried
no luck to connect to ecu at all, not a sign, tried select map layout before connecting too
always seeing same log:

19/Feb/2013 10:07:50.473: LOG: Opened NefMoto VW Audi ME7 Flasher Logger 1.9.3.2
19/Feb/2013 10:08:04.962: LOG: Setting Address: 0x01 KeyByte1: 0x6B KeyByte2: 0x0F
19/Feb/2013 10:08:05.007: LOG: Opened FTDI device.
19/Feb/2013 10:08:05.008: LOG: FTDI device info - Description: Ross-Tech HEX-USB Serial Number: RT000001 Device Type: FT_DEVICE_232R ID: 0x403FA30 Device Flags: 0x0
19/Feb/2013 10:08:05.008: LOG: FTDI ChipID DLL is loaded, checking chip ID...
19/Feb/2013 10:08:05.011: LOG: FTDI device chip ID: 0x829146C5
19/Feb/2013 10:08:06.041: USER: Failed to read test echo from FTDI device.
19/Feb/2013 10:08:26.692: LOG: Closing FTDI device.

Please help, i'm quite clueless at the moment

You aren't even getting to the point where Nef will try to connect to the ECU.  Nef isn't communicating with the cable in essence.  Does VCDS work?

One thing you might try is connecting to the ECU using VCDS, look at DTCs or something, then close out of VCDS (need to be out of it before connecting with anything else, Nefmoto included) and then try Nefmoto.

VCDS works just fine, there is couple of DTCS, Headlight motors, Level sensor
AND one that maybe blocking access is 'Incorrect Key Programming',  it appeared when i lost my keys
and had service guy to program new keys, it can't be deleted though

I don't think so.  The FTDI echo message means that Nefmoto isn't playing nice with the cable.  Wish I could help more, except to suggest removing the drivers, reboot and try again.  Do you have another laptop you can try?

@papasound

I see by your screenshot that you unchecked the "boot in intelligent mode" box, but I'm fairly certain that you need to CHECK both of the KWP protocol boxes in vcds, test, save, then close.

It works for me (genuine kII-USB), hope it works for you.
-Cyril

No, definitely needs to be in dumb (non-intelligent) mode.

^^i agree, and unchecking the "boot in intelligent mode" box accomplishes that.

nefmoto uses kwp protocols to communicate with the ECU, so at least one of them needs to be checked within the VCDS option box before the cable will allow the KWP communication. Please reference the edited screenshot below for graphic detail.

Pretty sure this is not how it works... all those options do is change how the VCDS application handles the com port, they do not have any effect on the cable whatsoever.

I cannot vouch for whether or how those settings affect the cable, but my experience has been that they do affect whether other programs see the cable. I'll take screen shots of a nefmoto attempt using all three scenarios during my lunch hour.

1)all deselected
2)intelligent de-selected, and kwp protocols selected
3)all selected

(soon...)

I don't need screenshots when I know exactly what the code does ;)
Actually Ross-Tech's manual also says what it does.

You need to:
1) Open VCDS, uncheck "Boot in intelligent mode".
2) Click "Test".

After that with it still open you can use any other application in pass through if you have the VCP drivers.
You are not "checking protocols" or "enabling" anything, you are just changing how often VCDS polls the port when it is communicating, but it never does!

I've read quite a few of your posts, and I believe that you know exactly what the code does.

From a practical standpoint, with the check-box scenario that I have described, I have connection success with everything but vag-tacho (which needs a specific EPT that I'm not willing to flash to my vcds cable), and all of it without leaving vcds open in the background.

EDIT: I tried it, and I DO connect to the ecu whether kwp boxes are checked or unchecked, so those kwp boxes are indeed not the cause of the connection issues, as PRJ stated.

Thank you ! That worked for me !

I'm in the same boat as a lot of people in this thread. I only just came across NefMoto a few weeks ago but haven't yet been able to connect to my ecu at all. I have a 2000 S4, 6 speed.

First, I tried the Ross-Tech cable but I had no luck and decided just to get a cable off of ebay. It is an F232, I have the drivers installed and NefMoto recognizes the cable, but when I try to connect I just get the failed to read test echo message and failed to open ftdi device. These two messages will just alternate as I try various things.

I've tried every USB port and different baud rates and fast and slow init. Also, as recommended earlier in this thread, in the device's port settings I set latency to 2ms and the baud rate to 9600. Although, someone else said 52800 preferred when flashing...
I also made sure the COM port was between 1 and 4 (it's COM2), I think I remember reading somewhere that that's important.

All of this is a little over my head. I don't actually know things like latency and baud are lol  :-[

It was also mentioned to try disconnecting the cluster when connecting via the car's OBD port. What does this accomplish? I'll try tomorrow but I'm just curious.


Thanks in advance for any help. I'm pretty much out of ideas. I wish I had a different laptop to try, but I don't. That's pretty much where I'm at now. I can't think of anything to try except a different computer.

Just an update in case it might help somebody else:

I haven't tried flashing yet but I have finally gotten the software to communicate with my ecm. I'm not sure what the issue was but I finally just uninstalled everything and started fresh. I had a cable with a CH340 chip, my Ross-Tech Hex CAN USB, and my new FT232R, so I uninstalled all their drivers, uninstalled NefMoto, reinstalled NefMoto and the drivers posted with the software, restarted and everything seems to work now  :)

My FTDI OBDII cable took a shit today, just out of the blue it does not work anymore. It gets attached as a correct FTDI device, I can read everything with FT Prog just fine, but still it fails to read a test echo from it and VCDS stopped to be able to use it as well. Inspected the chipset on the board everything seems just fine. Anyone had this before?  ???

They do fail occasionally.

Not to mention that I blew $20 today because I needed a cable really fast and bought one locally which was a completely useless FTDI one, it was able to connect to the ECU but then both VCDS and NefMoto hangs. Stupid Chinese shit.

I use a real Vag-com cable but I was having trouble at first. I had to select a different memory layout before everything worked. Im still pretty much clueless about all this but I was able to pull a bin file and load it into tunerpro. Just my 2 cents. Sorry if this is useless info.

there is also in nefmoto kwp2000 settings "should verify cable in dump mode" when i turn it off my hex+can rosstech cable start to work. i'm confused...

Having the same problem. I'm new to this and just trying to learn.

Anything new happen here?

I have the same problem "failed to read test echo from FTDI device".

I have the ross tech cable, with ross tech drivers with the "boot in intelligent mode" uncheck.

Anybody know's what to do?

Try to uncheck "Should Verify Cable In Dumb Mode" in KWP2000 Settings.

Able to read and write a flash last week, tried two cables and 3 different laptops. All having the same errors.   Any more info on this?  I know there was something about a windows update bricking cables but after checking it's supposedly fine.   

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RZH_qGautqM

In car or on bench? What car/ECU?

In car, vw med7 ecu.    Going to try on the bench tonight.