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Tech 2, alternatives?

NickD on Sun September 07, 2003 8:18 AM User is offline

Year: newer
Make: GM
Model: all

Ha, with all the posts on making a vacuum pump with an old bicycle pump or can I use my pencil tire gauge to check pressures, the cost of a first class set of gauges and a good micron rated vacuum pump is nothing. Even good used recovery machines are dirt cheap now.

Ha, for my R-12 vehicles still getting by with my pump and gauges that I purchased back in 1965, that was a darn good investment, my $27.00 GM English distributor wrench is useless as are the many other one time tools I have purchased over the years. Still cheaper to DIM, (do it myself).

It's the electronic end that is of concern now, just priced a Tech 2 scanner and this does not include the special programming software for $5,500.00, GM is now just as bad as Ford and Mercedes. It wasn't too long ago when a guy could buy a PROM programmer cheap to make backups of microcontroller equipment. This really paid off as any transients either vehicular or running off the wall outlet could fry these little bastards, pop in your backup, and you are back in business. Today that code is embedded and you can't get it out.

Anti-thief seems to be the main excuse offered by the auto makers, though I can't visualized anyone that stupid to swipe an OE radio. Thief is not the problem either, with an alternator capable of kicking out 200 volt transients or a 40 KV ignition system, not to mention all those highly inductive poorly protected motors plus using highly corrosive materials in manufacturer and the oldest sin in the world, the joining of dissimilar metals, a transient is bound to happen. Ha, if you get such a transient, you would wish a thief did swipe your vehicle.

The EEPROM, which stands for an electrically erasable programmable read only memory chip, has no history, it's too young yet, but claims are that it will hold it's state for at least ten years. The action is trapping a sub nano joule of charge in a field effect transistor that is suppose to stay that way and not leak off, and this transistor is in the sub micron charge. It's this data that determines whether your vehicle will run or not, most are commercial rated, with not much mention of the temperature extremes an automobile will undergo.

Maybe we should keep our cars in an air-conditioned dry room. Hell, if your BIOS goes in your PC's mommy board, just download free off the net before this happens, a new BIOS program, reload it, and you are back in business. It only takes a 3V microsecond pulse on the erase pin to make that flashrom braindead and nothing in the vehicle will work.

But who gives a damn about a 40 buck motherboard anyway, it's going to be obsolete in a year anyway, what about the $40,000 piece of trash parked in the driveway you have 60 months of payments on?

I looked at the Tech 2 last night and seeing a twenty buck scanner, a couple of bucks worth of cables, a two buck memory card, stashed neatly in a couple of buck vacuum formed plastic box, that price tag is a tad unreasonable. Ha, and I would complain about lack of a fuel pump access plate, that is nothing anymore. They can't say that these along with the other scanners are in a dedicated market, volume for this encrypted contraptions has to be in the hundreds of thousands. And like anything else electronic will be worthless in a couple of years.

I see this as the major problem now in doing AC work, ha, don't complain about the price of a good vacuum pump, you will be using that 30 years from now.

Bigchris on Sun September 07, 2003 2:05 PM User is offline

Ha, time is slipping past you Nick! I've got 13 year old EEPROMS that are still holding their charge very nicely thanks and there are millions of PCs all over the world that haven't forgotten their BIOS for many, many years.

We live in a disposable society which is very wasteful, no question about that. We also live in a society that rewards greed, and I think that's the underlying reason why those scanners cost so much. The car manufacturers want ALL the service business and they price replacement parts and tools to maximize profits. They get some competition from aftermarket parts but they've got it completely their way with tools like that scanner.

Still, there are individuals and independent shops tweaking the code in those onboard computers to improve performance so I'm betting there are pirated copies of that GM scanner code out there and underground distribution channels where you could obtain it. The trick is finding them without getting stung in the process.

A year or so ago I found code to authorize pirated copies of Windows XP in the music sharing channels where people normally get their mp3s. That peer to peer software can handle any type of files, so if you have a filename and filetype you can probably find it there.

NickD on Sun September 07, 2003 5:20 PM User is offline

I am not that much into business, but it's all business. Henry Ford I brought anything to do with manufacturing the Model T under one roof so to speak to keep the prices low as possible including his own transportation, rubber plantations, glass, you name it. Now his grand kid is dumping all these owned part suppliers going to the open market for a better price. Some CEO's come in and say we have to diversify, the next guy comes in and says we have to specialize. Companies are being traded faster than baseball cards when they weren't worth anything, ha, they still aren't worth anything.

After WW II keeping up with the Jone's was of utmost importance, two year nice vehicles were worthless, everyone wanted a new car, even with worthless tail fins, the auto makers then couldn't care less about replacement parts, thus the strong start of the rebuilding and aftermarket parts business. That was going strong until the mid 80's when new car sales hit an all time low and has been on a downhill ride ever since. If the new car business would go up again, this would revert to how it was. Not bad for some aftermarket companies, many have become first tier suppliers to the auto industry and had to resort to Asian manufacturing. Either that or close the doors.

In a way you can't blame the auto makers, their decisions are based on the buying public, if people didn't want large SUV's they wouldn't make them, course now the government has stepped in with the insurance companies so that threw a wrench in the gears of progress to a point.

Ha, Ford had enough money in their petty cash box to buy Honda, Honda wouldn't sell, so they picked up Jaguar and Volvo instead, GM owns a big hunk of Toyota and we are down to two domestic auto makers now, their isn't any competition left. It's crazy, GM is taking advantage of cheap Mexican labor and Honda advantage of cheap American labor.

I just want to change my own spark plugs, so do I have to pirate software to do that? Does the public know what's going on? Or don't they care. All I know now is the last place to buy a used car is from a private party, so that greed has gone way beyond the corporations.

Bigchris on Sun September 07, 2003 9:21 PM User is offline

If you want to know that your car is running too rich because the sparkplugs are worn, you can remove and inspect them at the risk of damaging those fragile wires, buy $5000 worth of software to tell you what your pcm already knows, use pirated software and risk a long prison term, or take it to Mr. Goodwrench and pay through the nose to have him screw something else up while he's checking your plugs. Lots of options but not a lot of good choices are there?

I think the public at large is dumbing down and becoming more docile. If you don't go along with what someone else decides for you, then you are considered an outlaw, or a hacker, or a pirate, or some kind of a sociopath. Remember when "question authority" was a popular slogan? That kind of thinking could get you into the slammer or dead today. I think you and I have seen this country at its best and all that's left is to look back and remember.
Heck, when I was born income tax percentages ranged from 1 - 7% and 90% of the population wasn't even required to file! Do you see us getting back to those levels in our lifetimes?

Edited: Mon September 08, 2003 at 3:47 AM by Bigchris

steve325is on Mon September 08, 2003 12:21 PM User is offline

The only alternative is a generic OBD-II scantool. Snap-On makes a nice one, there are quite a few others. Some are marketed to the D.I.Y. folks.

They allow access to the "generic" OBD-II functions only, not the manufacturer-specific. I have never used one on a GM product, so maybe someone else here can give you better info. You will be able to read/clear codes, check OBD-II monitors for completion, and monitor a few parameters like vehicle speed, TPS position, etc.

HTH

Steve

Bigchris on Mon September 08, 2003 4:36 PM User is offline

Steve, I think Nick has already found a DIY scantool project so he can get the generic data. His beef is with GM for selling him a car but then keeping the manufacturer specific data confidential. That is kind of outrageous isn't it. Kind of like selling you a computer for $1000 and then saying if you want to see what it's doing, there's only one kind of monitor you can use with it and it costs $5000.

NickD on Mon September 08, 2003 4:48 PM User is offline

I was offered this site by opelgt on batauto.com:

Cardone

They are an aftermarket company and seem to be well aware of the problem for the private the shop that has to send his customers to the dealer. But I haven't found anything on line to buy nor any prices to purchase their flash programmer. Have to call their sales representative.

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