Clone your immobilizer chip to a replacement ECM/ECU

[06imprezawrxsti]

Anyone whom can assist me perhaps remotely in getting this done? Having issues/lack of understanding on running the read and write scripts. I think I have gotten everything else set up correctly on Mac, gave up on Windows after couple days of attempts. Any help would be extremely appreciated.

[Infosecdad]

Where are you at with it?

What’s your setup and are you seeing error messages?

[06imprezawrxsti]

Currently seem to have board wired up properly and Python3 working on Mac OSX, as per the following instructions https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpython-on-any-computer-with-ft232h/mac-osx Not sure how to run the "read" "write" scripts though to pull any data off the chip (I believe that seems to be the next step where I should be going).

 

I ran into issues with these instructions https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-ft232h-breakout/mac-osx-setup for Mac OSX and could not get the software running. For the Windows setup I got stuck in adding the Adafruit Python GPIO Library. Thus my reasoning for finally following the instructions mentioned for Mac OSX.

 

Also bear with me I have little to no experience in the computer software aspect as far as writing programs and such. Mechanically I do anything from engine/transmission rebuilding, wiring schematic diagnostics, automotive software programming, etc.

[Infosecdad]

If you have downloaded the ft232h project from GitHub with the eeprom-read.py and eeprom-write.py files, you can call them with

python3 eeprom-read.py

or

python3 eeprom-write.py

commands.

 

I haven't tried them with python3, I had python 2.7 at the time, so I'm not 100% sure they will work with python3.

It'll likely be dependent on if there are python3 versions of the libraries needed from the import statements.

 

You might also have python 2.7 on your Mac as well, depending on your version.

You can test this by typing "python" in a terminal window.

You might see a message like this:

 

WARNING: Python 2.7 is not recommended. 
This version is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. 
Future versions of macOS will not include Python 2.7. 
Instead, it is recommended that you transition to using 'python3' from within Terminal.

Python 2.7.16 (default, Feb 29 2020, 01:55:37) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.29.20) (-macos10.15-objc- on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 

 

type "quit()" to close the python interpreter.

 

If that worked, then you can use python 2.7 by running:

 

python eeprom-read.py

or

python eeprom-write.py

 

from the directory they are located in from the terminal.

 

Let me know if that helps or not.

[awfulwaffle]

I had issues with Python 3 and ft232h. I chose the lazy path and reinstalled 2.7.

[Infosecdad]

You can run them in parallel, that's why they have "python" and "python3".

Just managing their respective environments can be a real pain...

[06imprezawrxsti]

Ok, so I've ran python 2.7 (already installed as mentioned, but I never installed any drivers or libraries such as I did for python3. That perhaps might be another issue all together?) and python3 on terminal followed by dragging the eeprom-read.py which is located on the desktop with the following result after pressing enter (return) (girlfriend's laptop so disregard user name haha)

 

File "<stdin>", line 1

/Users/mariaestherjoaquintaveras/Desktop/eeprom-read.py

^

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

 

Also I am doing this with just the ft232h connected via usb (test clip is not connected to ECU at the moment, if I'm correct this shouldn't be an issue currently as I'm just tying to get everything running properly before hooking up the test clip)

Edited May 12, 2020 by 06imprezawrxsti

[Infosecdad]

On the Mac you need to open the Terminal.

You can pull up spotlight with command+space and type "terminal"

 

Once terminal is open

cd ~/Desktop
python eeprom-read.py

 

You should see some note from it attempting to execute the python file.

[06imprezawrxsti]

That was helpful I see how it changed directory to look in the desktop, was not aware how to do that. Following were the results

 

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "eeprom-read.py", line 1, in <module>

import ftdi1, os, sys, time, logging

ImportError: No module named ftdi1

marias-Air:desktop mariaestherjoaquintaveras$

 

going to try and follow these instructions for python2.7 https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-ft232h-breakout/mac-osx-setup maybe I'm missing something? Since I followed the python3 directions.

[Infosecdad]

That’s progress.

That says that it can’t find the ftdi1 module, so you should go back to that section of the instructions and try to get that module installed.

[06imprezawrxsti]

Kept getting an error. Gave up on Mac OSX this time around, went back on my Windows this afternoon and started from scratch carefully following each step. GOT IT TO WORK!! Vehicle is now running on the donor ECM, going to be testing it the next couple days. Thanks for all the help.

[jdmchico]

I read Ryan's thread, I ended up getting that adafruit and never used it. The raspberry pi 4 turned out to be the best and error free method. In my case I wanted to change clusters as I had a pre-facelift and I been converting my car over to a facelift version. My car is a 2006 JDM Spec B. I was able to source the tuned by Sti cluster and finally figure out how to convert my immobilizer code to the new cluster.

[SAABaruu]

In my case i am replacing my ecu with a JDM one in order to properly run my new JDM engine.

 

It was my understanding that I could hire a car locksmith to program my key to the new ECU? Why not have that done to the replacement ECU? This would be pre facelift cars only from my understanding

[jdmchico]

I have a spare ECU that I sourced (tuned by STI); I just basically copied my current ECU's eeprom using a raspberry pi 4 and 8 pin chip clip. and it worked without issue. No locksmith needed. Edited May 23, 2020 by jdmchico

[Infosecdad]

In my case i am replacing my ecu with a JDM one in order to properly run my new JDM engine.

 

It was my understanding that I could hire a car locksmith to program my key to the new ECU? Why not have that done to the replacement ECU? This would be pre facelift cars only from my understanding

 

The ECU has to match two other components in the system, you can't just program the key to the ECU; you need to update the ECU to match the rest of the car.

 

From my understanding there are three ways to do that:

 

1. Take it to a dealer with the system and willingness to actually reprogram a replacement ECU. Not all will do it.

 

2. Physically move the eeprom chip from your old ECU to the replacement. If you are good with soldering this is fairly easy, but you risk bricking both.

 

3. The method in this thread to clone the "code" (your VIN and whatnot in a specific format) to the replacement ECU.

[Gogetter]

I have an ECU that looks slightly different. Can anyone assist in identifying the correct chip?

[Infosecdad]

That's a little blurry, but I don't see it on this side; can you upload a picture of the other side as well?

[awfulwaffle]

Hard to see the component labels in that pic. Every board I've handled (which is 4 so far) had the immobilizer EEPROM tagged IC405.

[Gogetter]

Thank you.

[Gogetter]

More pics

This ECU is from a 2009 Outback

Edited July 24, 2020 by Gogetter

[Gogetter]

Hard to see the component labels in that pic. Every board I've handled (which is 4 so far) had the immobilizer EEPROM tagged IC405.

 

I don't see any 8 leg marked IC405 on this board the chip i think it is compairing this video is IC402

It looks a lot like the board from this video

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Gogetter

[Infosecdad]

I believe it would be the IC402.

 

Someone from the romraider forum indicated the same.

http://romraider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11379

[Gogetter]

Thank you. I've read and verified successfully a couple times. Can you check this dump? I don't see a vin anywhere but the read wasn't all FFFF

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/00oc1fbdqs1jx63/subecu2.bin/file

[EatingInternet]

Can this be used to program a new key to the same ecu? Or only for a key that was already programmed? From what I understand you're copying a rom over but not editing it.

[d22597]

Thank you. I've read and verified successfully a couple times. Can you check this dump? I don't see a vin anywhere but the read wasn't all FFFF

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/00oc1fbdqs1jx63/subecu2.bin/file

 

 

I’m having a similar issue with my 09. It appears my ecu has a different model eeprom with a different storage capacity. I’m still working through the code and confirming, but I’m guessing the code needs to assign a different address sequence for the different chip. Can you get a clear pic of the eeprom model? Mine is an S93C86. The code was written for a BR93L56. The 56 is a 2Kbit capacity and the 86 is a 16Kbit capacity.