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Thread: VCM Scanner - Error Trying to Connect

  1. #1
    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    Exclamation VCM Scanner - Error Trying to Connect

    Earlier today, I wrote my TCM with some new shift tables and then took the car for a test drive; logged the results with VCM Scanner. All worked well with both the editor and scanner. Later, I wanted to troubleshoot a different issue so I loaded an XML file of a different batch of channels and attempted to connect to my car again and got a connection error message. I tried shutting the car completely down, letting it sit for a few hours, restarting my laptop and trying again. Same issue. The car starts and runs fine so... anyone ever seen this before and if so, how can I fix it?

    Capture.PNG

  2. #2
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    Try downloading the latest beta of vcm suite and see if that helps. It's possible some of the channels aren't in your version, etc.

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    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by spoolboy View Post
    Try downloading the latest beta of vcm suite and see if that helps. It's possible some of the channels aren't in your version, etc.
    This channel list is the channel list you gave me to work on my jerking / surging issue. I thought that maybe that channel list contained something not supported by my software so I tried reloading the channels I used for my shift tables. Still getting the same error. I’ll try just loading the standard channel that come OOTB with VCM Suite and see what happens. I’ll get the latest Beta if that doesn’t work.

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    Advanced Tuner coanan's Avatar
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    I get that some times. unplug from computer and OBT and wait for about a min, then plug into OBT, then computer and try.
    2018 Trackhawk PCM/TCM tune by Dusterhoff.
    Flex Fuel, MMX faux 95mm TB, GripTec 2.85, 10% ATI lower, FIC1200, ARH 1 7/8 w/cats, 180 T-stat

    13 Chrysler 300S, RAM BGE 412 stroker, cam motion 232/246 619/619 118 +4, ATI 18% OD pulley
    Whipple Gen5 3.0, 2.50 upper pulley, Smooth Boost controller, FIC 1200 inj. Nick W 108mm TB, FORE dual return fuel system, E85, FTI 2800 stall(SRT83380), SHR WAR Viking trans and valve body, Getrag 3.73, 1 7/8 kooks w/hi-flow cats, 3" Magnaflow Cat-back 943rwhp

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    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by coanan View Post
    I get that some times. unplug from computer and OBT and wait for about a min, then plug into OBT, then computer and try.
    Car just sat overnight and computer was shut down. Still getting the error. Completely uninstalled and reinstalled VCM Suite. Same error. This is maddening. The only thing I did to this car is write the TCM with some custom shift tables. The tables wrote just fine and are working as intended. I was even able to do a test drive afterwards and log the results. What could have possibily changed between now and then?

    I have an email into support.

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    Advanced Tuner coanan's Avatar
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    2018 Trackhawk PCM/TCM tune by Dusterhoff.
    Flex Fuel, MMX faux 95mm TB, GripTec 2.85, 10% ATI lower, FIC1200, ARH 1 7/8 w/cats, 180 T-stat

    13 Chrysler 300S, RAM BGE 412 stroker, cam motion 232/246 619/619 118 +4, ATI 18% OD pulley
    Whipple Gen5 3.0, 2.50 upper pulley, Smooth Boost controller, FIC 1200 inj. Nick W 108mm TB, FORE dual return fuel system, E85, FTI 2800 stall(SRT83380), SHR WAR Viking trans and valve body, Getrag 3.73, 1 7/8 kooks w/hi-flow cats, 3" Magnaflow Cat-back 943rwhp

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    Quote Originally Posted by breal5825 View Post
    Car just sat overnight and computer was shut down. Still getting the error. Completely uninstalled and reinstalled VCM Suite. Same error. This is maddening. The only thing I did to this car is write the TCM with some custom shift tables. The tables wrote just fine and are working as intended. I was even able to do a test drive afterwards and log the results. What could have possibily changed between now and then?

    I have an email into support.
    If this is AN MPVI 1 interface, make sure the serial connection is fully seated into the device. If it's an MPVI 2, this wouldn't apply.

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    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by coanan View Post
    Tried this. Still getting the same error. Haven't heard anything back from support yet either.

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    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by B00STJUNKY View Post
    If this is AN MPVI 1 interface, make sure the serial connection is fully seated into the device. If it's an MPVI 2, this wouldn't apply.
    It is an MPVI2.

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    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    So my problem has gone from bad to worse. I did some searching on the forum and found a few other people with the same issue and at least one person was able to solve the issue by upgrading to v4.5 Beta VCM Suite. I figured, no harm in trying. As soon as I did this and tried to connect to my car, a window came up and said a firmware update was processing. It noted that I should be connected to my device and not a vehicle but it started the whole process but I had no idea this firmware was going to start, it just started and my device was already plugged into my vehicle.

    Anyway, the update seemingly didn't complete successfully and now I'm getting a new error when I tried to connect my laptop to my MPVI2 and the red HOST light is lit. I hope support responds to my issue soon.

    Capture2.PNG

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    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    So I have this fixed but the method I had to use to fix it was really stupid.

    I have a second laptop that I only use for music stuff but it's never had HP Tuners stuff installed on it so I decided to install VCM Suite on that laptop and resynced the MPVI2 device with HP Tuners. That cleared up the second issue. I then connected to the vehicle and it worked 100%. In the end, what appears to be happening is something got corrupted in the HP Tuners files and the uninstall process is terrible and doesn't actually remove all of the files and settings related to VCM Suite. Once I installed it on a laptop that had no previous installation, all was well.

    To me, that sucks. When I uninstall VCM Suite, it should remove everything related to that software and that's not happening. Thankfully, I'm an IT Developer by day so I'll uninstall VCM Suite again and manually get into the file system and registry and remove everything related to the software but wow... I shouldn't have to do that.

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    Definitely seems to be a lot of quirks in the software. When you run into one of them help is hard to come by. Thanks for sharing your experience and solution. I am currently having issues where I can't connect and HPtuners support hasn't responded for over 24 hours. (Validate Cable License Failed Error F0) I think my issue came about when I had to upgrade to version 4.4 due to a sample tune that was sent to me. I hate changing anything for this reason.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SB2PRO View Post
    Definitely seems to be a lot of quirks in the software. When you run into one of them help is hard to come by. Thanks for sharing your experience and solution. I am currently having issues where I can't connect and HPtuners support hasn't responded for over 24 hours. (Validate Cable License Failed Error F0) I think my issue came about when I had to upgrade to version 4.4 due to a sample tune that was sent to me. I hate changing anything for this reason.
    Yeah... I also know that it's SEMA this week so I'm sure a lot of their people are at the show and not attending to their regular jobs but that's really no excuse. I happen to be a recreational tuner so this isn't a HUGE deal for me, even though it's very frustrating. Think about someone who making a living doing aftermarket performance upgrades? Being down for even a day would be brutal.

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    Which is what I do, and yes it is very frustrating.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SB2PRO View Post
    Which is what I do, and yes it is very frustrating.
    Hey... since your a tuner by trade, do you think you could look at another thread I have going? I have a cam in my 392 and when stopped at red lights, it does some jerking around. It's worse when it's cold but even when warm, it still happens. It's much better when warm but not totally still. Any insight a professional would have would be appreciated. The thread's name is, "Spark, Advance, Min. Spark Question".

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    I read through the thread, but don't have a lot of time this AM to go into it too deep. If I get a minute, I will try to pull up your files. A few things that might help would be a better description of the problem. Surge is an oscillation of the RPM up and down. I primarily tune GM vehicles, but have recently started doing some Dodge stuff. I purchased the Dodge Beginners course through the Tuning School to get started. I have only tuned a couple at this point. One was a built 6.1 with a Whipple supercharger. It made 760 hp to the wheels. I worked through a lot of issues, one of which was idle surge. It was very sensitive to corrective adjustments to spark and throttle to maintain idle. The ECU would sense the RPM was low and would add timing or throttle to correct and overshoot. It would then do the same thing reducing RPM. It was not very intuitive just looking at the tables, but I reduced the corrections and it seemed much better. I don't have my laptop to name the tables I adjusted. You are calling your issue jerk. That almost sounds like a miss or running roughly.

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    Tuner breal5825's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SB2PRO View Post
    I read through the thread, but don't have a lot of time this AM to go into it too deep. If I get a minute, I will try to pull up your files. A few things that might help would be a better description of the problem. Surge is an oscillation of the RPM up and down. I primarily tune GM vehicles, but have recently started doing some Dodge stuff. I purchased the Dodge Beginners course through the Tuning School to get started. I have only tuned a couple at this point. One was a built 6.1 with a Whipple supercharger. It made 760 hp to the wheels. I worked through a lot of issues, one of which was idle surge. It was very sensitive to corrective adjustments to spark and throttle to maintain idle. The ECU would sense the RPM was low and would add timing or throttle to correct and overshoot. It would then do the same thing reducing RPM. It was not very intuitive just looking at the tables, but I reduced the corrections and it seemed much better. I don't have my laptop to name the tables I adjusted. You are calling your issue jerk. That almost sounds like a miss or running roughly.
    And right there shows my level of inexperience with tuning. I'm at that stage where I'm doing a lot of online research and asking a lot of questions. I'm probably not using correct terminology. If surging is where the RPMs get low and then the engine corrects this and the RPMs spike... that is not what's happening. I'll stop using that term. What's happening is, I'll be stopped at a red light, foot off the gas and fully on the break and the car will just jerk back and forth; RPMs remain steady at 925. When it's warm, it is more still but it will still occasionally happen. If it's annoying enough, I'll put the car in neutral until the light turns green.

    The shop I was working with has done a number of iterations on the tune and it's way better than it was after the Stage 1 package was installed but it's still not totally perfected. The last time I spoke with the shop, I mentioned an upgraded torque converter but they felt they could still do better and tune out the jerking some more but after that, they've stopped responding to my emails and text messages. At this point, I'm getting the idea that I'm on my own so yeah... I'm asking questions here on the forums in the hopes someone out there with far more experience will be able to get me to the finish line.

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    There are many different levels of knowledge so one can't assume what someone is describing. I had one customer that thought his car was missing and it had a cam in it. They are going to have a bumpity bump sound.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SB2PRO View Post
    There are many different levels of knowledge so one can't assume what someone is describing. I had one customer that thought his car was missing and it had a cam in it. They are going to have a bumpity bump sound.
    Mine does have a cam in it and I'm hearing some people say that this jerking around is just par for the course and it can never be fully tuned out but I've sat in aftermarket cars with cams that, while the engine shakes around due to the extra power, that jerking doesn't happen. Maybe I'm too much a perfectionist but man, if I could get this last element of my car under control, I'd be happy as a clam with it.