Turbotrix working on ECU Flash

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

Keep it open, and let's discuss this instead.

I just spoke with the gentleman at Dynotronics Tuning. He said that there are actually two ECUs for the Yaris and depending on which one you have in your ride will determine whether or not they have actually hacked it or not. Traditionally speaking he also said that if you have the one that they have not played with then he would need between 100-150 owners to pipe up and say that they would be willing to pay the roughly 400-450 to have it done. He said that when it comes to the process it can be whittled down to:

1) Accessing the ROM
2) Deciphering the ROM
3) Creating an easy/quick to use GUI for the ROM

Since Toyota is notorious for making the ROMs pretty heavily locked and he had a single owner for example looking for the ECU to be tuned they are looking at around $20-$40k in the R&D process as it is very time consuming. Even at the 150 owners having an ECU build he would only be breaking even. It can take months and a lot of trial and error. He also said that there is no true open loop anymore with ECUs as they have the Wideband/Narrowband style front O2 sensors which plays havoc with configurations coupled with the Long Term Fuel Trim (LTFT) ability however the LTFT is academic compared to how critical to the ECU that front O2 sensor reading is. He was able to confirm right away that is definitely the reason why someone with a piggyback such as the FIC has to retune a lot as well as disco'ing the battery every so often.

Essentially this place looks like a practical dead end as well with one exception. The owner at Dynotronics Tuning is having me email him and he will be passing on the contact info for a newish "very hungry" company out of the midwest. He said that he met they at SEMA this year and that they very well may have an ECU that could replace the stock one that would support all functionality of the OEM one to include ABS and DBW however he also said that they very well may only support true racing applications as messing with the throttle system (DBW) can be a serious legal liability which is why the bulk of the standalone ECU companies will for the most part tell you that they can't do DBW. He said also what is interesting is that the ECU box from this company is very small and looks like something on a Yamaha or Kawasaki motorcycle.

MTF

[cali yaris]

^ but you said this:

He said that there are actually two ECUs for the Yaris

So what about the one they DID hack?

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

^ but you said this:



So what about the one they DID hack?

He didn't really elaborate on it. He said that the first step is to confirm which ECU an owner contacting him has in their car. He was actually out walking his dog when I called so he didn't have info readily available. He apparently keeps his dog with him while in his shop.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

He didn't really elaborate on it. He said that the first step is to confirm which ECU an owner contacting him has in their car. He was actually out walking his dog when I called so he didn't have info readily available. He apparently keeps his dog with him while in his shop.

The only difference (external) I have seen is 2007-2011 VS 2012+. I doubt he has either reflashed at this point in time.

[cali yaris]

It all sounds vague to me at this point.

depending on which one you have in your ride will determine whether or not they have actually hacked it or not.

1. This statement says they hacked one of the two ECU's. Is this a guess or is that confirmed 100%? And which one?

2. Does "hacked" mean they gained access to the ROM (meaning they could read it), or that they gained CONTROL of the ECU?

2a. If so, what exactly can they control and how?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

It all sounds vague to me at this point.



1. This statement says they hacked one of the two ECU's. Is this a guess or is that confirmed 100%? And which one?

2. Does "hacked" mean they gained access to the ROM (meaning they could read it), or that they gained CONTROL of the ECU?

2a. If so, what exactly can they control and how?

There are actually quite a few variations. From my experimentation the easiest one to hack at this time is the 2007 one, which required a firmware update as part of a TSB. Having that firmware file allowed me to easily find the area of the firmware that contains the maps. The problem though is the process of getting the modified firmware back into the ECM, due to the security measures that Toyota implements.

[xnamerxx]

Last convo I had with Joe was that there was multiple ECU's for the car and he wasn't sure if it was something he could do. Seeing as his database is pulled from Piasini(sp) he was't sure if it was something they supported or not. From my emails with him I'm guessing he hadn't tuned a Yaris yet, and I'm guessing the only ECU's that were in his supported database were the European ECU's which aren't shared with the North America ECU's. Although I never got word back if mine was supported or not but mine is (89661-52g30).

There are 4-5 versions of the ECU iirc when I was attempting to purchase a spare. Connectors are identical but they carry different code.



AFAIK there is nothing stopping some entrepreneurial person from contacting Piasini and buy their serial suite tuning tool... aside from maybe funding

[xnamerxx]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

It all sounds vague to me at this point.



1. This statement says they hacked one of the two ECU's. Is this a guess or is that confirmed 100%? And which one?

2. Does "hacked" mean they gained access to the ROM (meaning they could read it), or that they gained CONTROL of the ECU?

2a. If so, what exactly can they control and how?

Yes. http://www.piasiniengineering.com/index.php?id=73

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

It all sounds vague to me at this point.



1. This statement says they hacked one of the two ECU's. Is this a guess or is that confirmed 100%? And which one?

2. Does "hacked" mean they gained access to the ROM (meaning they could read it), or that they gained CONTROL of the ECU?

2a. If so, what exactly can they control and how?

The gent said that the best way to ask further questions etc was to email him at sales@dynotronicstuning.com

[cali yaris]

Yes. http://www.piasiniengineering.com/index.php?id=73

namer, thanks. As far as I'm concerned, it's a dead end.

[Focus_Sh1ft]

Out of curiosity - has ANY Toyota ECU been read, interpreted, and rewritten?

[Golddeenoh]

i think Tom's is the only company that is allowed to