ECU TEK cable question...

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by dwx

Most of the tuners have tried to be accommodating to popular mods like intakes, exhausts, etc. and have offered updated tunes for free. If you want to spend $2K+ on a standalone that is certainly an option. Right now there is only one I'm aware of (Hydra EMS) which can fully control everything.

Also the only parts which really have shown a need to retune are intakes which is understandable.

The car is new, so cheaper options may come in the future. In the Subaru world if you want an ECU reflash the only real options were Ecutek and Cobb, and Cobb has no plans to build anything for this car. I don't know if and when Ecutek will see competition, might not be until open source tuning is a reality.

the initial investment of stand alone is larger yes.
ecutek is 800 upfront
then to FI figure another tune charge of atleast 500 hell you are damn near there.
i guess i am just going to have to bend over and take it on this one..

[1strwdcar]

this sucks because i have a rosstech cable as well.

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

not true... the software isnt married to the cable its married to the ecu on our cars.
also they appear to be the exact same cable in construction.

Not true? You're the one asking the question. If it's not true than you already have your answer.

Fact remains, ECUtek needs their cable. I have 3 OBD2 connectors, one from ECUtek, a VCI from some Chinese techstream knockoff, and one is a standard ELM that I use with torque. Only the ECUtek works with ECUtek software. Only the VCI works with techstream, and torque doesn't see ECUtek or VCI.

In summary, ECUtek software requires their cable and their dongle. It requires a license married to your ECU to flash. It won't work with anything else.

It's basically a multilayered protection scheme to make it harder for someone to leverage their work and provide their own ECU tuning options.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Shit Luck]

have you ever seen a Ross tech cable.
Its the exact same cable. I would bet my car they are assembled in the same factory by the same child in china.

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

have you ever seen a Ross tech cable.
Its the exact same cable. I would bet my car they are assembled in the same factory by the same child in china.

Anything with a USB interface on one end and an OBD2 interface on the other is going to look the same, color and light options notwithstanding.

For arguments sake, even if they were identical, you still only have half of the cable solution, as the cable is sold with an ECUTek Dongle that is uniquely tagged. The software won't even start without that dongle slotted.

But again, like I said above - I've tried all three of my USB-OBD2 cables with the software, and it only worked with the ECUTek one.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

have you ever seen a Ross tech cable.
Its the exact same cable. I would bet my car they are assembled in the same factory by the same child in china.

I don't get why you keep arguing it "should" work. It doesn't. ECUTek have set it up that way. The cable has certain level of "encryption" that couple with the USB dongle is unique to each cable and its only programmed by ECUTek. Yes all cables look the same, the programming on all is not the same.

In addition on why the cable is so expensive (which is a money grab by the way) I wrote on another thread:

I'm not defending ECUTek here because the cable is extremely overpriced, but another reason for this proprietary cable is to keep things as closed as possible and try and prevent their methods to be stolen as it has happened in the past.

They hold the key, they have a monopoly, until anyone else cracks the ECU. Also, this is what happens when things get stolen, they closed everything out to prevent their methods to be stolen again.

[cruzinbill]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

have you ever seen a Ross tech cable.
Its the exact same cable. I would bet my car they are assembled in the same factory by the same child in china.

Oh what a lucky employed child that would be.....

you do know companies use the same casing, but have different boards/chips inside dont you?

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by Sportsguy83

I don't get why you keep arguing it "should" work. It doesn't. ECUTek have set it up that way. The cable has certain level of "encryption" that couple with the USB dongle is unique to each cable and its only programmed by ECUTek. Yes all cables look the same, the programming on all is not the same.

In addition on why the cable is so expensive (which is a money grab by the way) I wrote on another thread:

again if you were capable of actually reading the thread.
I stated that I know I need to buy the license, that's what the dongle is for, I am trying not to buy the over priced cable that I already own....
I am done here.
This forum is as bad as the vw forums, everyone is an expert on things they have no actaul knowledge of.
Go post more pics of you overly slammed or stock cars.

[xjohnx]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

I am done here.
This forum is as bad as the vw forums, everyone is an expert on things they have no actaul knowledge of.
Go post more pics of you overly slammed or stock cars.

Good riddance.

He'll be back.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

again if you were capable of actually reading the thread.
I stated that I know I need to buy the license, that's what the dongle is for, I am trying not to buy the over priced cable that I already own....
I am done here.
This forum is as bad as the vw forums, everyone is an expert on things they have no actaul knowledge of.
Go post more pics of you overly slammed or stock cars.

I wonder in what part of my post was I talking about the license.. Every word I said had to do with the cable. If you don't like forums where people explain to you how things work and why they won't work like you think they should then yeah, I understand why you don't like it here.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by Sportsguy83

I wonder in what part of my post was I talking about the license.. Every word I said had to do with the cable. If you don't like forums where people explain to you how things work and why they won't work like you think they should then yeah, I understand why you don't like it here.

actually you have not stated at reason that it wont work other than... "its not the same cable".
i am looking for an actual reason from someone who can explain the difference between the two peices of hardware.
No one who has posted here is an actual tuner, just a bunch of forum jockeys that bought it from someone else with no actual knowledge of the products internal workings.
there are many different cables out there, i agree. however if i have a can bus cable, or a hex cable or whatever other forms of cables are out there i would love to know the actual difference between them.

you guys are like the clowns at autozone that tell people a gm ignition module wont work on a toyota truck just because your computer says so. (it does work by the way and is a much cheaper option than the toyota)

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

actually you have not stated at reason that it wont work other than... "its not the same cable".
i am looking for an actual reason from someone who can explain the difference between the two peices of hardware.
No one who has posted here is an actual tuner, just a bunch of forum jockeys that bought it from someone else with no actual knowledge of the products internal workings.
there are many different cables out there, i agree. however if i have a can bus cable, or a hex cable or whatever other forms of cables are out there i would love to know the actual difference between them.

you guys are like the clowns at autozone that tell people a gm ignition module wont work on a toyota truck just because your computer says so. (it does work by the way and is a much cheaper option than the toyota)

Well, you get what you ask for. If you want what regular people have researched and found out as to why the cable is proprietary, ask about it in a thread (ding ding ding, exactly what you are doing).

If you want the specific word by word technical reason you need to do one of three: either contact Visconti himself, or FA20club, or email ECUTek themselves and they will gladly give you the very specific technical reason why it will not work.

[cnk]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

actually you have not stated at reason that it wont work other than... "its not the same cable".
i am looking for an actual reason from someone who can explain the difference between the two peices of hardware.
No one who has posted here is an actual tuner, just a bunch of forum jockeys that bought it from someone else with no actual knowledge of the products internal workings.
there are many different cables out there, i agree. however if i have a can bus cable, or a hex cable or whatever other forms of cables are out there i would love to know the actual difference between them.

you guys are like the clowns at autozone that tell people a gm ignition module wont work on a toyota truck just because your computer says so. (it does work by the way and is a much cheaper option than the toyota)

So let me understand you correctly. Ecutek has modified a cable so that it is the only cable that will work with their software so that they can make it more difficult for competitors to reverse engineer their R&D efforts in cracking the ecu. You want someone to tell you how that cable is different. Good luck with that.

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[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

So i have to ask this question.
what is the difference between an ecutek cable and a rosstech cable?
my rosstech from my vw will do a generic obd2 reading on any car so it must be pinned out the same as any obd2 reader cable.
so if that is the case i should be able to use the cable i already have with an ecutek liscense to load ecutek tunes on to my frs, correct?
if visconti or someone could chime in here and explain how the cables differ i would appreciate it.
i cant see now the cables are different.

damn... i guess the original post must be in code?