It has been my understanding that the Tactrix2.0 has built in software within the interface plug that decodes the Mitsubishi ECU into a readable format that EvoScan and other programs understand. Knock-off plugs dont have this feature, so they cant read it.

 

Ebay VAG-COM cable (FTDI-based) + EVOscan's freebie flashing utility + 12v to pin 113 = read/write to the ecu .

You read with EVOscan, edit the ROM file with ECUFLASH, and then write it back with EVOscan. I do this all the time.

The subie guys have been flashing with the eBay VAG COM cables for years. Nobody in the mitsu world gave it a try. Gave it a try...and it worked .

You have to register, but this is THE place for info. We've put a lot of work into compiling everything we've got. If you're a serious DIY-er...go there .
http://forum.dsmecu.com/viewforum.php?id=17

 

I didn't know you could flash without the tactrix cable as the tactrix cable has to end plugs for the 1 usb input? (At least the 1.3) How did you end up flashing with the pin? I guess i'll have to look into that as I was planning on buying the Tactrix 1.3 Cable because I'm going FI,

As for error codes, I personally bought a USBII to USB (VAG-COM) cable for like 15$ on eBay and I installed drivers and it hooked right up to EvoScan (EvoScan 2.6 i believe). Could tell me codes (I think i never had any) but it read all my sensors and idle and speed, everything a typical tactrix would. I just could flash because I'm missing the second input.

This was on an 03 Eclipse GS Manual

 

Flashing isn't magic, it just requires that you feed 12v to the 'flash pin' at the ecu to put it into boot mode. This is exactly what the 1.3 does when you plug in the 12-pin connector. The flash pin on your ecu is the same as the Evo 8, #79. If you apply 12v to this pin, this engages boot mode, and you can read/write with Evoscan. On an MT car, you use the evo 8 flash mode, and on the AT you use evo 9.

Now that the ecu is in boot mode, you can use the VAG-COM cable to flash the ecu. Easy peasy. The subie guys have been doing this for years, not sure why nobody in the mitsu world ever thought of it, lol.

note:
***ECUFLASH READ/WRITE DOES NOT WORK WITH THIS METHOD***

 

Well I registered on that forum but there is no forum id=17. There's only id=1 and id=2 and I tried viewtopic.php?id=17 and that's not it either. Are there "secret" forums that newbs can't see?

 

Okay a kind soul over there gave me the updated link. Check post #62 in the linked thread:
http://dsmecu.com/viewtopic.php?id=473&p=2

 

Okay I'm going to ask this on this forum rather than dsmecu and go through my steps. I got the VAG KKL cable, I opened it up and soldered an alligator clip extension onto the corner pin #16, to feed +12v to the single pin in the white connector immediately adjacent to the OBD2 connector.

That seemed fairly straightforward, but my problem is more fundamental.

I can't get evoscan or ecuflash to see the cable. I bought and installed the evoscan software, and it has device drivers in its directory. I force placed those drivers on the cable in windows device manager. There were several from which to choose and I wasn't sure which was the correct one.

Is the general game plan to emulate the older 1.3 cables? Does that necessitate using an older version of evoscan? Should I delete the VAG COM drivers? Because each time I unplug and replug the cable it defaults to the VAG COM drivers and I have to force place drivers all over again. So I wonder if what's causing the problem is that evoscan needs to see the initial plugging in of the cable AND that the drivers are its own. Kinda grasping at straws there, I admit.

 

What version of windows are you using? If its Windows 7 and up (maybe Vista), drivers for the cable should be installed automatically (unless they fail). EvoScan shouldn't be needed to install drivers.

What I did was, Plug cable to OBD port, then plug in USB. I got the beep and the installing drivers pop-up. From there it worked fine and nothing else was needed to get the cable to run correctly.

Are you sure you didnt kill the cable?

Oh, And this just clued in, If your giving the pin 79 power (ie, for flashing the ECU), you CANNOT log! It puts the ECU in boot mode and EvoScan will not connect to the Ecu through logging. EvoScan WILL connect to the ECU if you go into the Read/Write ROM tab and try and read your rom. (Make sure your 12V+ wire is thick enough. Mine wasnt the first time and there wasnt enough voltage to put the ECU into boot mode properly so I couldn't read or write)

Goodluck, And I learned most of this from Broke4Speed. He was a great help

 

Oh, and anything after EcuFlash 1.29a wont be able to read non-tactrix cables. They incorporated a cable checker after that.

Cheers

 

Thanks. As background I should tell you the ONLY thing I want to do is delete the stupid immobilizer, since I only have one key for the car and cannot program another. I put a key coffin in the car to effect this, but when it's sub zero outdoors it quits working. My remote starter works great - as long as I take the warm key out to the car and start it first. lol - kind of defeats the purpose. More like a "remote warmup theft prevention" device.

I'm on Vista and I got ECUFlash 1.29a from the mediafire link and used only those drivers. I plug the cable in and Vista doesn't find the driver automagically. It shows up under Other Devices as USB2.0-Serial. I go to the ECUFlash driver repository, the "x86" one since I'm running 32bit Vista and choose FTDIBUS.INF and am presented with several options:

OpenPort 1.3 Mitsubishi
OpenPort 1.3 Mitsubishi (as serial port)
OpenPort 1.3 Subaru
OpenPort 1.3 Subaru (as serial port)
USB Serial Converter
USB Serial Port

I would appreciate knowing which one you chose. I chose USB Serial Converter, which moves the device down under the section of Universal Serial Bus Controllers, so it is not a COM port at all. Now when I plug and unplug the cable the Read Icon in ECUFlash responds, even though the cable identification in the bottom right corner returns a null value. The box goes blank and shrinks to the size of one character. Weird.

Forgive the utter noob questions, but do I put the 12v on the single pin in the white connector ONLY on flashing, i.e. I can still *read* the rom without that pin energized? Or do I need to energize the pin to read? And when that pin is energized should I expect a response such as a flashing CEL? Thanks.

And yes I put a fairly heavy wire on to tap battery power off #16 - way overkill. I saw the pic on the dmsecu forum where Broke's wire was just a light hookup wire. I can't have much voltage drop at all in 6 inches on a 14 or 16 gauge wire. I've heard voltages can be fickle though, that some cars need 16v on that pin. I didn't think a 2001 eclipse needed that though. I thought it was older cars. But I have a variac on a bridge rectifier I use on my electronics bench. So in a pinch I could do whatever was necessary.

 

That 12v is required for read/write only. Logging can do without it.

I use the generic FTDI/VAG drivers, and if there's a conflict, remove ALL ecuflash drivers (I use a program like revouninstall to clear out the registry), uninstall ecuflash and evoscan, and re-install evoscan first. Before installing ecuflash, try to get the cable to connect to evoscan in logging mode first. DO NOT connect the 12v. Make sure the cable is viewed as a COM port, and if evoscan asks you which drivers you want to install during it's re-installation, ignore it. The goal here is to start fresh, and go step by step until it connects. Remove all extra variables.

You will use Evoscan to flash the car, and you will edit the immo in the rom with Ecuflash. Make sure evoscan connects first though, before installing anything else. I have found that there are many driver conflicts between the two programs, especially for the VAGCOM flashing.

This is bound to be a slow process at first, since at last count, there are only 4-5 people who are posting about using the VAG cable for flashing. 99.9% of the mitsubishi community still believes it can't be done, or hasn't thought of it.

 

I'm thinking for the money I wasted on an $8 cable and $25 of software which I evidently NEVER needed I could have got 5 key fobs and an RFID copier from Hong Kong. Maybe that brand new RFID would work in in the key coffin even when it's cold. I'm just pissed about this not working.

 

Thanks again. I am confident this has worked for some people, but I think the drivers might be the key. For instance I'm not sure the drivers that successful people have used are the same ones that came on the disc with my cable. I'll give it another shot tonight and post the details of my drivers, particularly if they prove successful.

What com port number should I make the cable? Do I need to alter the baud rate on the port settings? I know the logging and ECU flashing modules of evoscan are separate, but should I change the baud rate in the main screen of evoscan? Sorry to come off like such a spoon feeder.

And to make it even worse - just so I'm not missing a supernoob step, you turn the ignition on just prior to your attempted read, correct? Nothing funny like the doors have to be closed or anything weird? Is the ignition power supposed to be on before I plug the cable into the computer, or at least before I fire up evoscan?

 

You can make it any COM port you'd like, as long as you change it to the same one in Evoscan. I tend to use COM1, but that's not arbitrary. Some programs I work with will not see anything over COM4, so it's just habit.

I plug the cable into the car, fire up the IGN/ACC power, and then open evoscan. I don't think it makes a big difference, but I can say that the above method works for me.

The VAG drivers may not be the ones you're after. If it is an FTDI-based cable, then the latest drivers are available on the FTDI site. Those, again, work for me. The ECUFlash drivers are strictly for the Evoscan 1.3 and Tactrix 2.0 cables, so don't bother with them. The ones included on the VAG COM disc could be out of date, or some other funky thing, so I'd skip them if they're not the generic FTDI stuff. My cable's disc came with an older FTDI driver, but I updated it.

I've left the baud rate untouched, but I can check my settings tonight and confirm.

 

If it's set up as a com port then you can't datalog with evoscan. I'm using the latest version right now, 2.9.0023 When you click logging and try to configure it to read from a com port it says it doesn't support com ports for logging, but if you're trying to pick up wideband data head over there. Also when you go to the flashing module of evoscan it says Openport cable connected and when it fails it says USB cable failed to respond. None of these things portends me being able to use it as a com port.

My chip is not FTDI. The brand is WCH and the chip is CH340T.
wch-ic.com/download/down.asp?id=79

So I installed the VAG COM drivers from the CD and the device shows up as a com port with device name USB-SERIAL CH340. I made it com port 3 because that was the default com port setting in the wideband menu. It seemed pointless to try other port numbers when you can't even configure data logging on a com port.

Should I be using an earlier version of evoscan that can indeed use a com port to log? I can understand if the drivers for this chipset are incompatible, but it's counterintuitive to use it as a com port when the program itself seems to reject that.

 

No, I mean you need to configure Evoscan to look for your usb-serial on the COM port you set it to.

Unfortunately, none of this is going to work. It needs to be an FTDI-based cable, as posted in post # 3.

Where do you get the drivers? If that chipset uses the FTDI drivers, it may still work.

 

I must be missing something. I'm putting a screen cap below. When you go to evoscan to configure data logging you're presented with three options - USB, COM and ELM. If you attempt to configure the COM port it waves you off and reminds you that you're probably trying to read a wideband:

As far as forcing the drivers I would give it a shot except I don't know where the FTDI package installer put them or what names to search for. I noticed under Program Files there was a new directory, 4 letters starting with D. It contained three subdirectories with strings of numbers for names. Each of those directories contained a DPinst.exe, none of which claimed to have drivers compatible with that laptop's system, Vista.

Maybe not tonight, but soon I'll try the other driver again and make it a USB port rather than com. That seems like what evoscan is anticipating. If that fails and I can't locate and force place the FTDI driver then maybe I'll look for another cable vendor using an FTDI chip. But this could be the reason your innovation isn't going mainstream - if the converter chip that doesn't work is more prevalent in the crop of cables on ebay.

 

What about this? $10 from a US vendor, $5 from China if I want to wait, but it's the FTDI FT232RL chip. I would just be reusing my molded plug. But looking at cable vendors nobody is telling you what chipset they have.
1x FT232RL USB to Serial TTL UART FTDI Converter Adapter for Arduino USA Now | eBay

 

I see the reason it's FTDI or nothing, at least on the Read/Flash. I forgot evoscan throws an exception until you copy the DLL into its directory, which is tellingly named FTD2XX.dll

So yeah, their dll is written specifically for the FTDI architecture and that 232 chip that's ubiquitous on the arduino bootloaders should be fine. Imma buy that right now and I'll get back to you. I would still appreciate your input on the configuration questions. It simply HAS to be USB, at least for logging. Throw me a bone. lol

 

I don't have access to evoscan right now, so I could be incorrect, but there should be a 'preferences' or 'options' tab somewhere. That's where you'll find the communication settings. It's been a while since I did any configuring on my own stuff, so I could be wrong. It may just auto-detect.

I'm really surprised that there are non-FTDI chipsets out there now. Every VAG COM I've seen in the past year or so has been FTDI. The Evoscan 1.3 and Tactrix 2.0 are both FTDI, which is why it's required.

I'm not sure that device would work, it would be a science project at that point.

As far as drivers go, I'd download the latest from the FTDI site, save them to the desktop or somewhere easy to access, open up the device manager to find the current USB-Serial com port (when the cable is plugged in), and try to update the drivers with the FTDI ones. If it doesn't work, then I'm afraid you'll need another cable.

I ebay searched "FTDI VAG COM" and a bunch showed up, stating the chipset.
This one looks like mine:
KKL 409 1 VAG 409 1 VW Audi OBD2 OBD USB VAG com 409 1 FTDI FT232RL Chip Inside | eBay

 

Sorry this is turning out to be a hassle for ya man. I really want to see more folks going this route for flashing, since it essentially breaks the monopoly, but it's clearly got some teething pains, lol.

Suffice to say, when it works, it works awesomely .

 

Okay thanks for that. I ordered it but it will be a while. In the mean time I'm going the science project route - only 4 or 5 solder connections to make.

 

Well the only thing that blindsided me was the chipset. I assumed incorrectly. I should have known right away when the thing identified in windows as "CH340" that something was amiss.

 

I, for one, am watching closely lol.

The immobilizer is the first thing on my kill list, when the science behind the cables is resolved...

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Resolved?
It works great, the problem is cable choice. As mentioned, some ebay sellers don't list the chipsets .

I flash my car all the time with my VAG COM cable .

If you look up my username on Youtube, I have a video of the first VAG-COM flash on a 3G ECU, ever . It was on my workbench, but in-car is the same thing. I can't access Youtube from work, otherwise I'd post the link.

 

Yea i'll check out the yt.

The devil is in the details as they say, the FTDI thing is very worthy info.

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It wouldn't be such a big issue, but the two available programs both use FTDI kernels and such, so we have to work around that.

My voice is kinda douchey in the video, just to warn, lol.

 

It looks like I'll be springing for the vag com cable and playing with logging and such for awhile. Ive a list of maintenance to tackle too.
After two weeks, the dsmecu site seems useless, my account never got approved or something. oh well lol

Edit to add:

Took me a min to find your vid Broke4Speed, your voice is fine lol. Mine don't carry well at all.