NefMoto

Ok guys, so after a few weeks of reading I finally decided to take the plunge and attempt to flash my ECU. I've got a 2000 GTI Vr6, generic FTDI ebay cable, Windows 7 32 bit laptop. On Thursday I managed to connect with Nefmoto and get the stock flash off my car. 29f400bb is what I was told to use for my specific car, when I wrote to the laptop it popped up a message saying that it didn't think that was the correct memory layout, so I also wrote a file as 29f800bb. after running them both through the me7check the 29f400bb came out as good, and the 29f800bb came out with 35 errors, so I assumed 400 was the correct file. When I tried to write the file to the ECU it made it 5% and errored out and disconnected, so obviously I do the worst possible thing and panic, turn the key off then try to reload the original .bin file. Now it won't connect at all, from what I read I need to run in boot mode with Galletto, so I pull the ecu and open it up (29f400bb for sure) Somewhere through my hours of reading I come across someone that says you can use an FTDI cable with Galletto program and it'll work. I've tried boot mode and it won't connect. Most of the guides I've seen claim that this is because the drivers are wrong, but I can't get the driver that everyone claims I need. At this point I've realized I'm really screwed and its time to finally post my problem. I've ordered a spare ECU from ebay that matches the numbers on mine, but I'm pretty sure even if I put it in the immobilizer is going to keep me from going anywhere. This car is pretty much my DD and now I'm stuck driving my rusty old wood hauler till its up and going again. If anyone thinks they can step me through this that would be awesome.

To recap
Original ECU is currently a brick
New ECU on the way
I'm mildly computer savvy, but useless when it comes to command line, or hex

Not to make light of your situation, but HAHA!

That's how it usually happens :(

Well, my advice: Use the old one to practice bootmode with.

As for Galletto, did you ensure the serial in the cable matches the program?

Post some screenshots, happy to assist.

I'm sure the serial doesn't match the cable, but I don't really know how to check. As for screenshots.. I'm not really sure how to do that either. The plan is to mess with the original ecu and try to get it to work and leave the other one for a backup when I do dumb things like this.

I can walk you through this. I am willing to lend a hand as many others have done so for me. http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=3088.0title=   
this should walk you through changing either the serial number on your cable or the serial in the code for galleto. If it where me i would simply change the code in the cable to match the code in galleto. Very easy to do with that write up.

 You can boot mode with the ecu plugged into the car which is not really recomended but can be done. I would try this if i was in your shoes. Just to get you outa this situation. Pin 21 ground before you power up the ecu and hold it for 3-5 seconds. release the ground and the ecu is in boot mode.
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=6506.0

However, a banch flashing harness will be extremely useful if you are serious about tuning your car.
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=417.0

If you have any questions or anything unclear

hit the "print scrn" button. Open up paint and hold the ctrl key and press the v key. or when in paint simply go to "paste" action

someone is feeling extra sassy tonight. lol.
at least you know i can appreciate it. ;)

I remember my first brick. I nearly cried!

shoot. i still cry.  ;D

That crushing feeling when you turn the key and nothing happens, then you realise you're 30 miles from home and your bootmode kit is sat on the kitchen table :(


Op - immo in the new ecu can be fixed :)

that one can just as easily, if not easier, be adapted to the car using vcds since its immo2.

Wow, you guys are lifesavers! I thought for sure I would get flamed for now knowing enough to be trying this kind of thing. I don't have any time today to work, but I'll keep you updated as I suffer throughout the week. I've decided to take it slow and build a bench flashing setup and just drive the truck for the next week or two till the car is back online. After the kids go to bed tonight I'll try to match my serial numbers on the galletto with my cable and get that up and running. Is it possible to use vcds lite to get rid of the immo problem if I only have the free version? Otherwise I'll have to probably figure that situation out. I tried to use my saved .bin flash file in the command prompt program 95040.exe but I've realized I need the immo eeprom and I'm a little lost on how to get that.

again, thanks for the help and suggestions, once I get through this I'll have a really fun VW and a lot more experience.

Ok so I went through the steps to get the serial numbers to match and made it a little further. I still get an error message on galletto, but its a different one. Probably not a good one though. I'm not sure how to post the pic do I just put the address from my computer in between the braces and img? (http://) the error I'm getting now is no interface found :( I'm thinking this probably isn't good

If you are using a real VCDS cable, I would not hold out hope. I have never gotten mine to work with any bootmode tools FWIW.

If not, just hit the print screen button, and paste it into paint, save it, and post it so we can see the error.

I have a pic, but I don't know how to attach it to the post (http://pic.png)

ok scratch that, I finally figured it out.

That error is pretty self explanatory-lol.

Are you sure the serial matches?

yes, just checked the serial number and its the same one as the Galletto program, Is there a process for finding an interface or is it just gone? I plugged the ecu into the car, hooked up the laptop to the port with Galletto open. found my original .bin file. Then I jumpered pin 24 to ground while my wife cycled the key on, wait 5 seconds, release the jumper, then press the write button. Am I possibly just doing something out of order?

The process sounds fine, although sometimes in-car is tricky. What cable are you using?

D is right, sometimes in-car bootmode is very tricky. If you have either a computer power supply or 12v wall adapter then you can make a bench rig as detailed here on the site. I don't use mine much, but its pure gold to have when needed.

Also, try varying the amount of time you ground pin 24. Two, three, four seconds, etc. I had one that took many attempts. Shortening the time the pin was grounded got it in bootmode finally... Sounds like your procedure is correct otherwise. Best of luck.

Ok, so tonight I found some more hope. I got my new ecu and heard the car run again, for 2 seconds before the immobilizer killed it. I had to change my com port on the cable to use vcds to try to eliminate the immo (which I cant do with the free version) but when I tried to use Galletto on the old ecu after that it actually tries to work, but says I'm not in boot mode. I've tried jumpering every way I can think of and then some, the only way I havn't tried is holding it on shorter amount of time (because I just seen that idea when I logged on). At least I'm making progress in the right direction!

Update: I got sick of dealing with the cold (its 6 degrees outside) Drug the battery in the house, built a really iffy bench setup with large amounts of electrical tape and alligator clips and got it to boot. I reloaded the original .bin that I took out of it and put it back in the car. It starts, runs, and drives, but if I shut it off it won't start again. Unplug the ECU wait 20 seconds, plug it back in and it'll start... once. Whats going on? I don't have an immobilizer light and when it doesn't start again It won't communicate with the laptop, its like the computer just dies.

You have a checksum error!

I certainly do, I just realized I emailed my wife the original file and then modified the file on tunerpro. So it had the same name as the original, but I hadn't ran it through the me7check yet. I just checked it and found 6 errors. Good news! Tomorrow I'll be back in business, and while it was running I parked it in my heated garage so no more suffering. Thanks so much for helping me everyone! I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders after I heard it start back up :)

Good Deal for reference, what com port does galleto want??

IIRC galletto talks native usb, not com port.

ok so tonight I fixed my checksums in my .bin file and tried to flash it back on with Nef, same story as the first time at 5% it failed. Now its back out of the car and on my bench and it will not go into boot mode. I'm so ready to end its life!! I've tried everything from 2 seconds to 15 seconds on pin 24 and ground. I've checked and I'm on the same com port I was last night, cable serial numbers match galletto. What can I be doing wrong?

Are you changing the baud to 38400 after connecting with nef? I think you're not if the flash is failing.

I guess I wasn't aware I was supposed to. So after I connect, I change it to 34400 then hit full write flash? Also is there any place to get definition files for a 12v vr6? I think the one I got was bad, I finally got it to write and the car would start, but it did some very strange things that are unrelated to what I had changed. my air bag light came on, and whenever I turn the key forward my flashers would come on for about 30 seconds. I'm back to the bench just trying to get it back to normal now.

Lowering the baud rate makes flashing flaky cars more reliable. As for an xdf, not really. What are you trying to do? Whats your ecu number?

I have a 2000 golf GTI VR6, ME 7.1 according to VCDS. 29f400BB layout. I want to remove SAI, remove rear o2, and try to get rid of the big dead spot from where I removed the shift changeover valve. I'm also planning bigger cams this spring, and I'm not sure if its possible, but I would also like to get rid of the stability control without having the light on the dash.

Alright I flashed back to my very first file I pulled off the car, never touched or messed with. I still have flashers on with the key and an airbag light. Is this unrelated, or did I really mess something up?

Check and clear faultcodes.

I opened up Nef, connected, then pressed read DTCs, then I hit clear DTC's and its still flashing at me. I think It has to do with something other than my main ECU though because even if I unplug the ECU and turn the key forward they go off. Is this a good assumption or is it not that simple?

Or you could just ignore me because now that I unhooked the computer it works just fine. Thanks for the help, You are a lifesaver!

No problem! Stick around, maybe you can help the next guy that goes through this! It's a weekly occurrence, and the solutions are always the same-lol.

My airbag light will come on after the occasional flash. Always the same 'intermittent communication with airbag module'. As Master D says, just clear the code. It will stay gone (until the next time lol).

Good for you for keeping on with it and making progress. Just remember, if this stuff was easy everyone would do it. And it wouldn't make for much of a hobby either...

Now comes the difficult part: the actual tuning. I'm great at tuning old V8's and carburetors, but this will be something very different, even the megasquirt that I've got has a nice interface to tune with. The idea of .bin and .xdf files and all this hex coding I keep reading about is going to keep me really busy.

Im curious about ftdi cables. I am currently trying to bench flash my ecu and the minute i power up the ftdi cable has trouble. From galleto i get the error no interface found. If i exit and try to use nefmoto it doesnt show any devices. I have changed galleto binary to match the code on my cable. My cable is a true ftdi cable i have used many times for flashing and logging.

I am thinking maybe 13.8v is to much for the cable? wondering if anyone has ran into similar issues.

Is the ecu currently bricked? If not, can you connect with VCDS? That's a good way to verify your wiring is correct. Post pictures of your bench setup.

As for the voltage, I have used everthing from 10 to 17 volts (would not recommend it) to flash, My experience has been that the ecus are not super picky.

It is bricked :(
Got them all wired corrctly. I am grounding 24 on the metal surrounding of the board
tried all sorts of stuff, still no interface found.

If the ecu is bricked nef won't help you, I personally found galletto to be a buggy pos, you get what you pirate!

Re interface detection in nef, I find I quite often have to plug/re plug and restart nef a few times to get it to detect interfaces. But it's also worth checking the manufacturer and device ids for your FTDI cable in device manager, as some ftdi drivers will brick fake cables. If the device if is all 0 then that's probably (part of) your problem.

It is not all zero's. I do have a good ftdi cable. Thanks for the thought tho. Should i just bite bullet and get mpps? I have tried so many combinations of stuff its crazy. Is there any issues with specific drivers being used with galleto?? Thats all i can think of at this point.


***turns out windows xp wanted to use its drivers for everything and wouldn't let me change them. I used a windows 7 pc and it was butter! as smooth as some nasty! Feels so good!!!****

I had trouble with my FTDI cable and Galletto with windows 7. It turned out that it didn't like being on COM 8, I changed it to COM 2 to run VCDS Lite and Galletto took to it right away. I know you already got your answer, but in case someone else has the same problem.

Thanks, this is good in case someone else has trouble

Note that it probably needs to be win7-32 for galletto, I never managed to make it work on the 64-bit version.

I run x64 exclusively. Never a problem fwiw.

Very interesting, Im afk for a while, but I may hit you up to find out exactly what version you use when Im back. Is yours a genuine galletto or the hacked binary from here with a blue kkl?

Mine uses the hacked binary, and ebay cable.

Something of note, disabling the serial number check didn't work for me. I just match them and it's fine.

I used 64bit as well. Ez peazy when galleto is happy. not finicky at all. I realized now how much time i wasted just doing stupid things.