New to VCM. Few Noobie questions

[tuningtuner]

Hello everyone

I've been researching & learning about tuning for the past 2 weeks. It really feels like early 90s/2000s when the internet was new and you had simple HTML pages, not that much resource on [insert topic] etc. It's really hard to find any specific information. A lot of people both in forums & videos use a lot of jargons and abbreviations, which makes it hard to understand what's happening for a beginner.

I bought obdlink mx+ for Tunerpro RT. Got the idea from an old video where the guy uses this setup to tune his car. Today, I was watching a video where the tuner uses VCM scanner & editor to monitor vehicle's performance and adjust the ECU's parameters. I know HP Tuners has this dumb credit system, which is whole another can of worms in and on itself, but my questions is regarding the VCM.

1) Can I use already bought obdlink mx+ to connect VCM with vehicle?
2) If not, what can I hardware do I need?
3) Am I forced to buy MPVI 2+? Are there any alternatives?
4) Once I connect VCM scanner/editor to the vehicle, do I need to buy credits in order to tune the car?

Thanks!

[R Horn]

1) Can I use already bought obdlink mx+ to connect VCM with vehicle?
2) If not, what can I hardware do I need?
3) Am I forced to buy MPVI 2+? Are there any alternatives?
4) Once I connect VCM scanner/editor to the vehicle, do I need to buy credits in order to tune the car?

Thanks!

1) Can I use already bought obdlink mx+ to connect VCM with vehicle?
No

2) If not, what can I hardware do I need?
Very difficult question, there are many different tuning options and interfaces that only work with specific hardware and vehicles

3) Am I forced to buy MPVI 2+? Are there any alternatives?
The primary reason I purchased the MPVI2+ was as a logging tool and the robust features VCM scanner has not as much for my tuning interface. I did register it to one vehicle but again as a learning tool. I could edit and write the ECU with the MPVI2 and Editor and then read it with open source and compare the file and use those tools to find memory address's or changes verbally in the interfaces

4) Once I connect VCM scanner/editor to the vehicle, do I need to buy credits in order to tune the car?
VCM Scanner requires "NO" credits.
VCM Editor requires no credits to Read or edit however credits are required to write the file back too the ECU. Some ECU's do require an additional step sending them out for unlock before you can work with them.

[tuningtuner]

Thank you for your quick response!

So, theoretically, if I were to get the .bin file (if I'm not mistaken), load it into VCM editor, edit few things and save the file, that's possible?

Let's say I want to scan 1JZ engine on my toyota. How do I go on about finding the right hardware/cables/reader in order to scan the vehicle with VCM scanner and extract the ECU/PCM file required for tuning?

[tuningtuner]

Update: Looking through the internet, it seems like everyone is forced to buy into these dogshit credit systems in order to learn how to tune properly. Otherwise you'll spend more time & money figuring out what car you have, then what files you need, what cables etc. It is true that HP Tuners makes this process a lot easier, but the credit system is plain rip-off imo.

Will move into this direction then. Again, thanks for your reply!

[5FDP]

Just know too that HP Tuners does not support a lot of parameters on vehicles it does not support itself.

Like for example the 1JZ engine is rather old with a rather old computer, it's likely that barely any tables will populate in the scanner and of course you won't be able to edit anything on the computer because it's not supported.