williamsr.andrew

So I just ordered a cheapo ELM 327 OBD-II Bluetooth module from Amazon for use with the Torque Android application on my F150 (and other cars we have). I know that there is a product called the iTSX which connects to iPhones and allows for performance tuning.

Anyway, my question is: is it possible to use something like an ELM 327 Bluetooth module to tune your car/truck? I don't think that Torque has this capability but just hypothetically, does a chip like this have the necessary capabilities to send the required information to the vehicles computers to change values in the computer to provide performance/tuning upgrades. If so, why hasn't an app capable of this come out yet? And if not, what is different about the iTSX that gives it this capability?

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

I'm not familiar with the ELM but there is a vast difference between tuners and readers. It's easy to tap into the OBII port to read info, very different to program it as to begin with, the tuners have to be able to crack the encrpytion that Ford puts on their computers then modify the edit tables correctly.

Flash!

The ELM 327 is read only (with the exception of being able to clear DTCs). Being a generic read only device that follows the ODBII standard is why they are so cheap to produce.

I'm not very familiar with the iTSX, but if I had to guess I would say that the difference between it and the ELM (aside from $400+) is that the iTSX has the same basic internals as the SCT X3 only with the interface and logic moved to an iOS app.

williamsr.andrew

Thank you for the replies! But that still leaves some room for...hacking I guess you could say. I don't know what it takes to clear DTCs but it must have some kind of write capability. And if the logic of the iTSX is on the app, then why can't someone build an app to crack the encryption keys and edit the tables. I mean someone must have done it already, because that product exists as the iTSX.

So I guess my question is, hardware wise, what is different between the iTSX (or even SCT X3 for that matter) and a "read only" devices? Is it possible(difficult) to modify the readers to have some kind of write functionality, and then use software to crack the encryption?

I'm sure all of this is possible, I'm just really trying to figure out what it would take. Because with software cracking and all that I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to get these encryption keys all of these tuning chip companies use (let alone the tables.) Whats left is just modifying the cheap chip to be able to write to the vehicles computers like the tuning chips can.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

You would be surprised by the encryption Ford uses. There is a reason that the Ecoboost which Ford released two years ago, that tunes are just NOW becoming available for it. There was teams of dedicated software techs devoted entirely to cracking it and still took almost two years.

williamsr.andrew

Oh thank you, that makes sense. Now since these HAVE been cracked, is there anyway to get a hold of these codes? Even just finding a way to get the code off of the tuner chip and compiling a database of our own.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

That I don't know of to be honest. You can get a SCT pro racer software package allows you to tune a vehicle yourself but you have to know pretty what you are doing.

williamsr.andrew

Thank you for your help! This has all mostly been hypothetical, I don't think I am advanced enough as a software programmer to really make something like this a reality, i just wanted to see if there was any way. If I do happen to come upon anything I will be sure to post it, I doubt I'm the only one looking into this.