• Automotive,  Tech

    Coding a Porsche Cayenne (E3/9Y0) with a x431

    First thing’s first:

    1. Attach a battery maintainer, charge vehicle battery to >80% or a use a power supply to maintain 14.4V to the vehicle
    2. Plug in the communication module into the OBD2 CAN-BUS port
    3. Turn the ignition to the ON position (all the way clock-wise WITHOUT stepping on the BRAKE).

    Getting to the Coding Menu on a x431

    • Diagnosis
      • Porsche
        • Manually Select
          • Cayenne
            • Cayenne -9YA (As of 2018)
              • System Selection

    Select individual Systems for Coding from here.

    Activating Wireless CarPlay on 2018 Cayennes

    Porsche could not come to a licensing agreement with Apple for the 2018 model year production in time. So even though the hardware is there, the software is not turned on for Wireless CarPlay.

    • PCM (Communication Management/Cd Radio)
      • Code/Brush Hiding
        • Brush/Hidden Modified
          • Vehicle Configuration
            • Vehicle configuration_1
              • Vehicle configuration–WLAN-5GHz Disabled -> Enabled [[WRITE]]
              • Vehicle configuration–Apple_DIO_Wireless Closed -> Open [[WRITE]]

    Activate Full CarPlay Song Scrolling and Full Keyboard Search while driving

    For safety reasons the NHTSA mandated that song scrolling and keyboard searches be limited while the vehicle is in motion. Remove that limit AT YOUR OWN RISK.

    • PCM (Communication Management/Cd Radio)
      • Code/Brush Hiding
        • Brush/Hidden Modified
          • Vehicle Configuration
            • nhtsa-properties
              • nhtsa_properties—NHTSA_limitation_switches_for_carplay_no_soft keyboard Activated —> Not Activated [[WRITE]]
              • nhtsa_properties—NHTSA_limitation_switches_for_carplay_limit_music lists Activated —> Not Activated [[WRITE]]

    Activate Rear Cross Traffic Assist (RCTA) on vehicles equipped with LCA

    You have the hardware if you have Lane Change Assist. BUT Volkswagen/Audi Group could not come up with a coherent specification for all VAG vehicles on audio/visual cues for RCTA, so this feature has been turned off. Red chevrons (>>> <<<) will appear on the PCM screen when the vehicle gear is in Reverse and there is cross traffic, BUT there is no separate audio cue from the regular Park Assist proximity sensors and the Emergecy Braking feature may or may not work when in Reverse. This is consistent with the official RCTA available in the MY2024 Cayenne per this post on Rennlist. Use AT YOUR OWN RISK.

    • Lane Change Assist, Right (Master)
      • Code/Brush Hiding
        • Brush/Hidden Modified
          • Coding Value
            • Coding value—Rear Cross Traffic Alert Without_RCTA —> With RCTA [[WRITE]]
            • Coding value—z FAS without ZFAS —> with ZFAS [[WRITE]]
    • Lane Change Assist, Left (Slave)
      • Code/Brush Hiding
        • Brush/Hidden Modified
          • Coding Value
            • Coding value—Rear Cross Traffic Alert Without_RCTA —> With RCTA [[WRITE]]
            • Coding value—z FAS without ZFAS —> with ZFAS [[WRITE]]
    • PSM (Porsche Stability Management)
      • Code/Brush Hiding
        • Brush/Hidden Modified
          • Coding value
            • Coding value_0
              • Coding value-Byte 12—Rear Cross Traffic Alert No/Off —> Yes/On [[WRITE]]

    Disable Engine Auto Start/Stop (AESS aka AS/S)

    • DME (Digital Engine Electronics)
      • Code/Brush Hiding
        • Brush Hidden/Modified
          • Activation of start-stop function Activated —> Not Activated [[WRITE]]
        • Coding value
          • Coding value_0
            • Coding value—Block07(1)—Start_stop Present —> Not Present/coding Cell Not Used [[WRITE]]
            • *This will temporarily display a drivetrain error on the gauge cluster.
    • Front-End Electronics
      • Code/Brush Hiding
        • Brush Hidden/Modified
          • Coding value
            • Coding value_3
              • Coding value-Ara start-stop Start_stop_prevention_allowed —> Start_stop_prevention_not_allowed [[WRITE]]

    Clear the DTC codes

    You will have to scan DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Codes) peruse through them and CLEAR them as trouble codes have been registered while the programming have been taking place. There should be no ECU, Transmission, or PSM trouble codes registering anymore. You should come back and recheck for codes after 50 miles or so to see if anything is broken.

    The only DTC that remained for me was that the Satellite Radio was disabled. Yeah I don’t subscribe to XM Radio. Porsche regards that as a Trouble.

  • Automotive,  Tech

    Updating the iCarsoft POR OBD tool using a Mac?

    THIS IS NOT A HOWTO ARTICLE. THIS IS A HINT FOR EXPERIENCED USERS. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

    Yep, you’ve read that correctly. You can update the iCarsoft firmware using a Mac. The key is to use Wine, the compatibility layer for Mac hardware that lets you run Windows apps. You can then use Wineskin PortingKit or CrossOver to wrap up the runtime environment into an icon that looks like a Mac app that you can launch by double-clicking on it. You will want PortingKit or CrossOver to run the iCarsoft update app in 32-bit, because modern MacOS is 64-bit and making Wine run in 32-bit without a wrapper is a hassle.

    Once you make those wrappers, you might want to change the boring default icons. You can use

  • Tech

    Is TurboTax still telling you “It Looks Like We Hit A Snag”?

    If your TurboTax for Mac is still telling you “It Looks Like We Hit A Snag” after an initial crash AND sending in the error report EVERY TIME you start TurboTax, then you have to clear TurboTax’s instance from the cache for KSCrash.

    If you’ve had the situation outlined in: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253681263?

    … but ended up with Step 5 like @Williamfromroswell did, where TurboTax shows that pesky error report window every time you restart, then the one last place you have to look is:

    ~/Library/Caches/KSCrash/TurboTax

    Quit TurboTax and move this folder to the Trash. When you start TurboTax again, it should not show you the error report screen until the next time TurboTax actually crashes.

  • Home Improvement

    What’s with these weak-ass DC garage door motors these days?

    If you’re DC motor garage door opener seems weak, either your door is too heavy or the springs are past half their life. Be prepared to shell out some dough.

    If you’ve been in the market for a garage door opener in the past 5 years or so, you may have noticed the switch from AC motors to DC motors. Manufacturers like Chamberlain (Liftmaster/Craftsman) market the DC motor openers as “Ultra-Quiet” versus just “Quiet” of the old.

    The 2018 California SB 969 mandates that new garage door openers are available with battery backup – that necessitates the motors to work on DC power off of a battery. The rest of the country gets to enjoy the benefits and pitfalls of this new device at their own leisure.

    Yes, DC motors are quiet, especially if they are paired with a belt drive instead of the traditional chain drive mechanism. No clanking, no buzzing, no thunk at the start and end of the cycle. The AC/DC inverter (transformer)  quietly supplies constant steady power to the drive system. 

    But because it doesn’t draw its power directly from the house’s AC circuit, it will not answer to demand. That means, if the the springs on the door gets old and weak, you’ll notice the door slow down. If you’re an installer, you’ll also find out the hard way that the motor will not be able to assist you when lifting the door under a broken spring. 

    This is not because the motor itself is weak. It is because the motor is not allowed to draw more current from the house because there’s a DC inverter playing gatekeeper. It is in theory a safety mechanism that prevents problematic doors from being lifted and then falling on a person. The controller board should register an error and cease to function until the problem is remedied.

    Unfortunately there is an unintended effect. In case of a broken spring, the door will move a smidge under extreme load and damage the motor control unit – not the physical motor, but a small gearbox and circuit board attached to the motor.

    In an effort to make safer more quieter garage door openers, manufacturers have complicated the design of these units and made it more difficult to diagnose and fix. Fortunately, we have the internet, so we can sit at a desk and search instead of tinkering with the greasy innards of the garage door motor.

    The easiest solution for manufacturers would probably be to increase the motor current to 24V and put two 12V batteries in there…

  • Tech

    That Mac script that passes MP4v to ffmpeg

    Because of how Mac OS Mojave, Big Sur, Monterey handles file permissions, many Firefox add-ons are not able to pass downloaded files to outside binaries. Usually, the add-on will return a “file/directory not found” or “permission” error.

    I use one such add-on that converts movies to audio-only so that I can listen to a video in a car. After the upgrade to Mojave, the add-on started having problems with passing the downloaded MP4 file to ffmpeg to convert into M4A (MP4 Audio). So instead of typing commands into the Terminal to pass the file to ffmpeg, I decided to make an Automator script to convert MP4 to M4A from contextual menu by right-clicking on the file

    1. In Automator create a new Quick Action
    2. Make the item shown below. I usually keep the ffmpeg executable in ~/bin
    3. Save the script
    4. Name it Convert MP4 to M4A

    That’s it. Now you can right click on a MP4 file and call up the conversion script from the Quick Action or Services item.

    This script is meant for people who know what they’re doing. It won’t check if the file you’re trying to convert is an actual MP4 file, and it won’t display any errors to the GUI. Use with caution.