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Reverse Engineering The Vct 2000


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first this project is about tuning for performance, and monitoring the effects of changes, although the end product could be used for diagnosis which is it's primary purpose. would anyone else be interested in reverse engineering this unit? i suppose volvo would have a program of rounding them up before they hi ebay once the new diag system comes on line, so i don't expect everyone having a VADIS/VCT2000 setup. i haave access to at least one to open and work on, but it's the guys lively hood having this thing operational. i would like my ownto calibrate my car, and was wondering if others would be interested in help reverse engineer or, buy one the similar purposes. the price would be a parts and labor et. al., no profit requirements in the cost structure. first objective is to determine if there are any custom components that can't be recreated sush as ASIC's or some types of FPGA program streams.

thanks

Sky

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I just saw one go off on eBay for over $1500 :o

yeah and not a good volume of them either; i've ben watching for over a few months,and it's been one or two a month. there are a number of financial incentives to keep them off the open market when the new system switches over. so i don't expect a glut in a couple of years. new from volvo they re VERY expensive. and i shudder at the thought of the new system. anyway, this is just exploratory at this stage. i have logic analyzers, scopes, and meters enough to do the job, i've done it before. i'll open one up this week and see if there are any gotchas as mentioned before. if there aren't; i would love to have one. (you can buy the VADIS discs of ebay) it would be nice to be able to extract the patches from cars too :) just so you know what version you have at least.

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The VCT itself is "only" 700 Euro's.

The cable depending on model up to 300 Euro's..

Hi Johann, that's still pretty expensive. what's your general impression of the unit? can you get access to engine internal measurements like IC intake temp, and software version numbers, or other advanced features like change A/R maps etc.... or is it really just an expensive scan tool? any help appreciated.

thanks!

Sky

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Hi Johann, that's still pretty expensive. what's your general impression of the unit? can you get access to engine internal measurements like IC intake temp, and software version numbers, or other advanced features like change A/R maps etc.... or is it really just an expensive scan tool? any help appreciated.

thanks!

Sky

You can diagnose a lot of functions but for software access a connection to the Volvo database is needed.

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You can diagnose a lot of functions but for software access a connection to the Volvo database is needed.

by software access do you mean downloading identifing pactches and existing software etc...? this would make sense for stuff that was deployed once then changed 'all the time'. i assume you can take real time readings of the car etc, 'offline' though. might just be worth building into the car at that point. oh i had one more question if you could answer it; i've seen several hardware versions of the VCT2000, are they tied to specific version of the VADIS disc? can i use any version of the VCT2000 program and VCT do you know of?

thanks Again!

Sky

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by software access do you mean downloading identifing pactches and existing software etc...? this would make sense for stuff that was deployed once then changed 'all the time'. i assume you can take real time readings of the car etc, 'offline' though. might just be worth building into the car at that point. oh i had one more question if you could answer it; i've seen several hardware versions of the VCT2000, are they tied to specific version of the VADIS disc? can i use any version of the VCT2000 program and VCT do you know of?

thanks Again!

Sky

I don't know about the HW versions. I did see that VADIS is telling me about a firmware update for the VCT but didn't install it.

Each software package must be downloaded from the Volvo site in Sweden. VADIS needs a modem connection for it.

You can diagnose a lot with it down to sensor voltage level etc. You can activate/deactivate relays etc.

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I don't know about the HW versions. I did see that the volvo parts program is telling me about a firmware update for the VCT but didn't install it.

Each software package must be downloaded from the Volvo site in Sweden. the volvo parts program needs a modem connection for it.

You can diagnose a lot with it down to sensor voltage level etc. You can activate/deactivate relays etc.

im sure you could fool the software into thinking it was connecting to the volvo site in sweden...

emulators and loopbacks would do the trick.

i've had similar success in the IT world when fooling modems into allowing me to upgrade my firmware.

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John,

PM me, I have details about the VCT for you...

hi George, i already had enough question into you about other things. i can take the vct2000 wfir a ride at my mechanics. but i never passed up an opportunity for info (rule #1 of reverse engineerngs)

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