Anyone on here aware of custom firmware for vehicle tuners? Something that disables the tuner being locked to a single VIN. I haven't married my tuner to the vehicle yet so if it's a possibility I'd like to mod it. My specific model is the Bully Dog GT Tuner 40417
Automotive: GT Tuner CFW
- Thread starter djinc91
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While many electrically inclined types could happily wire a car radio and many more are inclined to turn a spanner that is a rather specialist field, possibly combined with some countermeasures; I am not inclined in general to stick random pieces of junk in my ODB port (even the insurance company can go do one), never mind have something deliberately designed to tickle a proper can bus or speak to my ECU. Having one that also tries to lock things down and might do all kinds of even more random nonsense if it thinks it is being abused... definitely no thanks on that one. Not to mention most tuners if they are not straight placebo only serve to spike emissions, blow engines quicker, possibly kill the clutch quicker and drop fuel economy, and any improvements are usually blown out of the water by "drive better" or proper mods (including do mods properly -- without even considering ride comfort I have never seen a dropped car have any performance boost worth noting that was not done by a drift team mechanic, and usually is way into the negative). Likewise a bit of proper mapping software normally found in dealers often does all the same stuff, and that is far easier to sort out in the world (with the added bonus of you then likely having dealer grade programming and scan tools if you decide to blow something up that apparently needs to be paired with the car despite being purely mechanical).
Anyway 3 main approaches in general, can't say I have seen that specific one, never mind pulled it apart with the intent of learning how it works.
1) Hope it has a reset/debug option you can abuse. What this might be I don't know.
2) Figure out where it stores the VIN and alter that, bypassing any protections in the process. This could be anything from write once memory to some kind of crazy protection to just need an EEPROM writer to write it accordingly. I have not pulled apart the most of these yet, usually just laughing at them when the kids crash their car and someone stripping it chucks one on the bench for me to have a gander at, but I have also seen them run the gamut from assuming the people installing it don't know a thing about electronics to "actually that is some impressive security".
3) Fake your VIN if it is one of the things to read it from the vehicle. Depending upon where the chip finds itself this can be easier said than done. Do make sure that the paired VIN matches specs with the vehicle you want (different manufacturers have different things here but the numbers tend to be more than a random serial).
4) is an odd one and arguably a combo of all three. Depending upon what it is you might be able to fake out a write line to say the write once/eeprom if it is separate, and maybe internally (writing tends to take more current/voltage than reading and doing).
Anyway 3 main approaches in general, can't say I have seen that specific one, never mind pulled it apart with the intent of learning how it works.
1) Hope it has a reset/debug option you can abuse. What this might be I don't know.
2) Figure out where it stores the VIN and alter that, bypassing any protections in the process. This could be anything from write once memory to some kind of crazy protection to just need an EEPROM writer to write it accordingly. I have not pulled apart the most of these yet, usually just laughing at them when the kids crash their car and someone stripping it chucks one on the bench for me to have a gander at, but I have also seen them run the gamut from assuming the people installing it don't know a thing about electronics to "actually that is some impressive security".
3) Fake your VIN if it is one of the things to read it from the vehicle. Depending upon where the chip finds itself this can be easier said than done. Do make sure that the paired VIN matches specs with the vehicle you want (different manufacturers have different things here but the numbers tend to be more than a random serial).
4) is an odd one and arguably a combo of all three. Depending upon what it is you might be able to fake out a write line to say the write once/eeprom if it is separate, and maybe internally (writing tends to take more current/voltage than reading and doing).
Using this tuner as more of a datalogger and real-time temp monitor. Also to do basic things like remove the governor. I work for Ford and can tweak my F-150 all I like but this is for a GMC and my Autel scanner can only do so much.
Unit comes with a SD card full of tunes but VIN info seems to be stored in the unit itself.
Unit comes with a SD card full of tunes but VIN info seems to be stored in the unit itself.
Last edited by djinc91,
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