DIY: F8x Software Update Tips

[aboulfad]

@rokkuchan , it seems your PSU wasn't up to the task. The battery should have very little drain when connected to a PSU, if not what's the point.

Did you check at all times that your PSU had stable voltage around 13.6V? And that it's capable of supplying well over 20-30A at that stable voltage?

You can learn much more in one of the older DIY PSU thread that I contributed to.

[rokkuchan]

Originally Posted by aboulfad

@rokkuchan , it seems your PSU wasn't up to the task. The battery should have very little drain when connected to a PSU, if not what's the point.

Did you check at all times that your PSU had stable voltage around 13.6V? And that it's capable of supplying well over 20-30A at that stable voltage?

You can learn much more in one of the older DIY PSU thread that I contributed to.

Yeah I double checked before I connected to the car and read exactly 13.6volts. I followed exact from the psu guide and it works the same. The potential meter works too and can increase up to 14v and then it shutdown. Turning potential meter all the way down starts at 12.88volts.

Don't see why the psu not working. Label says rated 47A

[rokkuchan]

Update:

My previous posting of current readings are wrong!

The culprit is the fuse on the red alligator clip. I opened it up and the damn fuse was only rated 20A and some reason causing a bit of resistance too! Where I got it from says it's rated 120A - probably the cable/clips not the fuse.

So I decided to cut it off as the PSU has protection anyway and now the reading is easily over 20A just putting the car in ignition with lamps on. It was only reading around 5-8A with ignition on before.

So please ignore my amp readings previously. It's why my battery was drained.

Picture attached with just car ignition on with radio, vent and lights on. Easily over 20A....

If ur building PSU perhaps don't use those in-line fuses.

[cossie1]

Sorry if this is off topic.

I have a 2015 F82 M4 and it's still on it's original software (dated Nov. 2014) and I want to get it updated.

However I like the way the car tries to kill me when I floor the throttle and i've read the later DME updates kill the low down torque.

So after I have the car fully updated, is it possible to downgrade the SW on the engine DME back to pre 2016 software ?

If so, what is the latest software version before they killed all the fun ?

[rokkuchan]

Originally Posted by cossie1

Sorry if this is off topic.

I have a 2015 F82 M4 and it's still on it's original software (dated Nov. 2014) and I want to get it updated.

However I like the way the car tries to kill me when I floor the throttle and i've read the later DME updates kill the low down torque.

So after I have the car fully updated, is it possible to downgrade the SW on the engine DME back to pre 2016 software ?

If so, what is the latest software version before they killed all the fun ?

It felt the same to me when I did mine except that it's smoother but I updated tranny as well. (I have 2015 LCI). Most noticeable difference is Dsc - has a slight delay before kicking in which is pleasant. Before it just kicks in as soon as it detects wheel spin. So everything that's updated compliments everything together.

But It all didn't matter to me as I have bootmod3.

[cossie1]

Yeh I have bootmod3 too, but I have still read that the 2014 dme software is more aggressive than the later dme software.

[psyki]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask but this is one of the more comprehensive posts about flashing BMW ECUs. Can anyone link me to a copy of full PSdZ data pre Feb 2017? I want to update my FEM_BODY (to get heated steering wheel indication in kombi) but retain the option to change the number of turn signal blinks. I only have 4.19.30.

Or if someone could give me the version number or i-step level I can try searching myself. The latest i-step number I've found that that is still pre Feb 2017 is F020-16-11-503 but I don't know how that translates into the psdzdata version number.

Thank you!

[aboulfad]

Originally Posted by psyki

...The latest i-step number I've found that that is still pre Feb 2017 is F020-16-11-503 but I don't know how that translates into the psdzdata version number.

Thank you!

Check this document for mapping between psdZ and F releases.

[psyki]

Originally Posted by aboulfad

Check this document for mapping between psdZ and F releases.

Thanks! This will help, hopefully I can find an older version floating around.

[calubi]

Are there any particular requirements when using another (running) car as a PSU? Would most modern cars be up to the challenge? Or do you need a particularly strong alternator?

[shawnsheridan]

Originally Posted by calubi

Are there any particular requirements when using another (running) car as a PSU? Would most modern cars be up to the challenge? Or do you need a particularly strong alternator?

No. Any car should work.

[psyki]

Originally Posted by Railgun

Welp, I figure I'll give this a go.

I've got an 07/15 M4 that has never been updated to the best of my knowledge. I'll be confirming this soon enough. I'd coded it myself however long ago, but am doing some other tweaks and would like up update/flash it to something considerably newer. Potentially to address a couple of small issues (delay in media controlling via steering wheel, which looks like I have to target the FEM) and will be upgrading to an ID6 HU among other niceties I'd like to change. I'll be pulling my tune off ahead of time, and I've got 4.21.32 ready to go. Not concerned about needing to re-code things after the fact. But my question stems more around whether anyone here has tried a full blown, automatic flash?

Operating on the assumption that the tool is smart enough to handle it, why not let it do what it's designed to do?

However, and unless I've missed it (and 400+ posts is enough to go through) aboulfad ...


...the link to the guide is bunk. Is there an updated/new location for this? I thought I'd DL'd it in the past, but as the laptop for this had died (and me being the idiot I am inadvertently wiped the old drive) it's gone, as are all my pre-coding files.

Should I be turned off the idea of a big bang update, I'll at least start with your steps, though as old as my SW may be, I'm well aware of possible/probable dependencies.

So, who's done a set and forget update?

I did a full update on my F32, for a power source I jumped it to my F15 with the engine running. The only hiccup I encountered was a module that I had retrofit did not flash because it had a different i-step level. I manually flashed that one afterwards and all was well. I only updated to a late 2015 integration level because I wanted to retain certain features that were removed in later versions, such as 5 blink turn signals, and surround view as default when reversing.

Well, the flashing itself was fine but since then my one-touch window opening and closing hasn't worked. I've tried everything but cannot seem to initialize them. They still move automatically when opening and closing the door though.

[aboulfad]

@Railgun sorry haven't done or looked into this for long time, it's all a blur. But i found the guide and updated the link in post 1, credit to @zkiifreak from BF.

[rokkuchan]

Should I be turned off the idea of a big bang update, I'll at least start with your steps, though as old as my SW may be, I'm well aware of possible/probable dependencies.

So, who's done a set and forget update?

I did a few at a time.

I bricked one of them I can't remember which but no response from car at all. Water pump stuck on and can't even open boot haha. Esys stuck says requires xx hours to go.

If you ever stuck in that situation don't despair. Just kill the window start again.

As long as u don't brick Fem gw, you can always connect to it via gateway and force a reflash on the one that u bricked.

I did update on gw last and that just took 1-2min I recall.

[sctyboy]

For reasons I won't get into, I was trying to get my ECUs (2016 F80) flashed to a more recent I-Step (from shipment F020_15_07_506 to F020_20_07_530)

This was my first time flashing, so I started slow. I flashed one module, it worked fine. So I proceded to flash a second module (FEM_GW) as I understood it was responsible for communication to many other modules. That went fine as well.

Then, I ran it again and flashed all the modules. This worked fine for all but two, HU_NBT2 and KOMBI came back with errors. Afterwards, the HU_NBT2 and KOMBI modules showed a ton of red/blue entries during the tal calculation (including the bootloaders).

Further attempts to flash HU_NBT2/Kombi failed.

Currently, the idrive display shows a blue screen that reads "Flashing Time: 00:00:00". I've gotten it to take a new bootlader (now shows black in e-sys) by flashing it via UDS (took hours). But trying to do the same for the SWFL failed after about 15 hours / 44% of the first file.

The dashboard shows the blue high-beams light flashing, and nothing else. I've not really tried much to flash that, as it depends on HU_NBT2 as I understand it.

Anyways, I know this isn't a lot of info to go on, but I'm happy to provide whatever would be helpful to anyone willing to try and help me out. I've been trying to flash with e-sys 3.33.4 (as well as 3.27.1 and 3.30.1, in case there were issues) using an ENET cable. I'm currently connected through a network with DHCP server (I was originally connected using the APIPA addresses directly to my laptop, and then later with a locally running DHCP server on my laptop).


Currently, it's attempting a swDeploy to HU_NBT2, with messages as the following: (though the in-car display shows that it is making (slow) progress:
[HU_NBT2 - 63 - swfl_0000271a-001_056_001] Transaction type: swDeploy; Message: 0% progress on ECUId:HU_NBT2_0x63 [0% of swfl_0000271a-001_056_001] [TRANSACTION]

[EDIT:] Currently shows 62% progress, after about 55 hours. It's going, but very slowly. [HU_NBT2 - 63 - swfl_00002727-001_056_001] Transaction type: swDeploy; Message: 62% progress on ECUId:HU_NBT2_0x63 [0% of swfl_00002727-001_056_001] [TRANSACTION]

I'm hopeful that if this does finish, I can get the HU_NBT2 back up and working properly, and then the KOMBI module will be flashable again. I suppose I'll keep updating, if for no other reason than to help the next poor fool who gets stuck in the situation I am in.


Any help is appreciated, and like I said, happy to share whatever source is necessary, thanks in advance!

[Matt Devo]

Originally Posted by aboulfad

NOTE: Esys Tal-Processing Options:
Few posts have recommended to set Esys Options for full update: "Update VCM and MSM after TAL execution" but Update VCM/I-step can be still set manually post flash.

Originally Posted by hakcar

Should you carry out update flashes with the option set like this, you'd have to write the I-STEPs manually after updating the car (via Expert => VCM).

I've not seen any documentation on the process. Does one simply read the i-step version, change 'last' version to 'current,' then update 'current' with new version and hit the 'write' button?

eg,

current:  F020-19-11-530
last:     F020-16-11-502
shipment: F020-16-11-502

becomes

current:  F020-20-07-540
last:     F020-19-11-530
shipment: F020-16-11-502

and then write?

[kubax86]

Originally Posted by Matt Devo

I've not seen any documentation on the process. Does one simply read the i-step version, change 'last' version to 'current,' then update 'current' with new version and hit the 'write' button?

eg,

current:  F020-19-11-530
last:     F020-16-11-502
shipment: F020-16-11-502

becomes

current:  F020-20-07-540
last:     F020-19-11-530
shipment: F020-16-11-502

and then write?

Yes, that will work.

[Matt Devo]

Originally Posted by kubax86

Yes, that will work.

gracias, worked like a charm

[omorzo]

Hello, i want to upgrade the REM for install rear LCI performance tail lights in my 2013 F31. It is possible? Which is the best version update?
Thanks.

[kubax86]

Originally Posted by omorzo

Hello, i want to upgrade the REM for install rear LCI performance tail lights in my 2013 F31. It is possible? Which is the best version update?
Thanks.

Update to the newest one which is 20-11-XXX

[omorzo]

Originally Posted by kubax86

Update to the newest one which is 20-11-XXX

OK thanks, i can update only the REM ecu? Or i must update all the ecus?

[kubax86]

Originally Posted by omorzo

OK thanks, i can update only the REM ecu? Or i must update all the ecus?

You can update only REM.