COBRARTP FlashOnline Tool For Live Tuning of the Standard ECUs User Manual

: June 6, 2024
: COBRARTP

Table of Contents

WARNING
GETTING STARTED
- Setting up a Bluetooth wireless connection (Bluetooth versions only)
INSTALLATION AND CONNECTION TO ECU
- Removing the adapter
- Connection by injection method
USE WITH PC SOFTWARE
DUAL-MOD function
FLASHONLINE RESTRICTIONS
POSSIBLE ISSUES AND THEIR SOLUTION
Specifications
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

COBRARTP FlashOnline Tool For Live Tuning of the Standard ECUs

WARNING

Connect (disconnect) the device to the ECU only in a de-energized state. Connecting during operation (switched on) may damage the device or the vehicle’s ECU!
Be careful when handling the device even when it is switched off due to the presence of a battery (cell CR2032). Short-circuiting the battery for a long time may cause an explosion or fire!
Be extremely careful when working with high temperatures!
When disconnecting (removing) the cable from the emulator and the SOP44 adapter, pull strictly perpendicularly, in no case do not pull it to the side, you will damage the connector!
Carefully study this manual to avoid unwanted consequences! The operation of this device requires certain skills.

GETTING STARTED

A USB Mini-USB cable is used to connect FlashOnline to a PC.

After connecting the device to the PC, a new device should appear, and, accordingly, the USB driver must be installed on the PC for Flashonlin to work. The driver can be downloaded on our website at the link: https://cobrartp.com/en/downloads or from the website of the supplier of the USB controller (CP2102): https://www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uartbridge- vcp-drivers.

You can install drivers from the Device Manager menu or using the installer supplied with the drivers, depending on the bitness of your operating system.

The installation process is standard.

After successful completion of the driver installation, in the device manager, if there is a connected emulator, a virtual COM port should appear:

After that, the device can be available for connection and operation in supported software (hereinafter referred to as software).

No driver configuration required.

Setting up a Bluetooth wireless connection (Bluetooth versions only)

Wireless connection on your PC requires Bluetooth v2.0 (hereinafter referred to as BT) or higher. Connection is made in the following sequence:

Connect the emulator to the ECU or via USB. At the same time, the red indicator of the BT module should blink quickly (about 3 times / sec)
Turn on the BT module of the PC and pair with a new device (the name is usually “FlashOnline BT”). Password 1234 or 0000.
After successful pairing, 2 virtual COM ports should appear (see Device Manager), one of which will be used for data exchange. How correctly programs (TunerPRO RT, CobraRTP Utility) find the right port automatically if the device is turned on and ready to connect.
Note: after each disconnection of the emulator (for example, when the ignition is turned off), in order to continue working in the software, you must reconnect in the program.

You can check the device using our software – CobraRTP Utility (https://cobrartp.com/en/cobrartp-utility):

- emulator firmware version.
– the number of the used COM port on which the device is operating at a given time (may differ in your case).

Note: read the utility manual in the archive with the program (pdf).

To check and work with the emulator on a PC, there is no need to connect to an ECU! The device can be powered both from the ECU and from the USB connector.

INSTALLATION AND CONNECTION TO ECU

The FlashOnline board is connected to the ECU using a proprietary adapter (SOP44 adapter) using a special cable from the kit:

Before installation, pay attention to the correct connection of the adapter (the locks must be on one side):

Since the device is an emulator of a memory chip, for correct operation it is required to dismantle or disconnect the standard memory chip from the ECU board.
In this regard, we offer 2 methods for pairing FlashOnline with an ECU, namely, connecting an adapter (SOP44 adapter):

1. Direct connection instead of a chip

Removing the flash memory chip from the ECU board
With this method, the flash memory chip must be removed from the ECU board. For this we recommend using hot air, i.e. hot air soldering station with high quality neutral flux gel. We also recommend using a board preheater whenever possible.
The air temperature at the outlet of the nozzle and the distance should be selected in such a way that the temperature of the computer board eventually reaches a temperature of 210 ° C and no more than 240°C. Thus, the recommended air temperature should be 340-350 ° C.
After you remove the chip, the board surface should look like this:

ATTENTION: be careful when removing the chip, since there is a high probability of touching and moving or completely losing other elements on the board when the melting temperature of the solder of the elements of the ECU board is reached! You should also pay special attention to the elements on the back of the board! Therefore, for these works, we strongly recommend using a special holder or a preheater of the boards.

Mounting the adapter
Remember to apply flux to the pads before installing the adapter:

Next, you should disconnect the cable from the adapter, and mount it on the ECU board.
Installation can be done in two ways – using hot air or using a soldering iron:
The first method is faster, but each heating of the ECU board and adapter negatively affects the printed circuit boards and their elements, so we recommend the second method, the essence of which is to solder each contact with a soldering iron.
In both cases, you should get the following picture:

ATTENTION: be extremely careful when installing the adapter in the first way, since the solder on all contacts of the adapter board also reaches the melting temperature and, accordingly, you can accidentally move or completely separate the connector (cable connection socket) of the adapter from the board! Also note that the maximum temperature of the adapter connector material is 240 ° C, exceeding which the connector may be irreversibly damaged! Check, if possible, the actual outlet temperature of your hot air station. Leave the heated elements at rest until they cool completely!

In the first method of mounting the adapter, the air temperature at the nozzle outlet and the distance should be selected in such a way that the temperature of the adapter board and the ECU eventually reaches a temperature of 210 ° C and no more than 240°C. Thus, the recommended air temperature should be 320-340 °C (read above, why the adapter mounting temperature is lower than the chip dismounting temperature, this is important).

After you have done these steps, check all connections and contacts, connect the emulator using a flat cable. When the computer is turned on (the emulator should not be connected via USB), the “Status” indicator on the emulator board should light up, if this does not happen – check the correct connection and contacts.
If the indicator lights up – get to work!

Removing the adapter

The adapter is dismantled at the installation temperature, i.e. about 320340 ° C, otherwise the same rules are followed as when dismantling the chip, but you should pay attention to the adapter connector, the maximum temperature of the material of which is 240 ° C, as well as the fact that the solder holding the connector also melts and it can be easy to move.

Never pull on the connector when removing the adapter! It is allowed to hold the adapter during instsall / deinstal only for a fee (base)! Heating of each side separately is also not allowed! Heat both sides of the adapter evenly!

Connection by injection method

With this method, the flash memory chip is not removed from the ECU; the adapter is connected by soldering in parallel to the memory chip. As an advantage, this method does not require a hot air soldering station and a preheater for the boards, as well as the adapter boards and ECUs are exposed to minimal loads, but the method is more painstaking and takes more time.
Connections can be made using small pieces of wire:

For connection with this method, you can use not all 44 pins, but only those listed below for specific emulated memory types (x-not used):

With this method, the flash memory chip must be disabled to avoid a conflict with the emulator on the data bus. To do this, it is necessary to disconnect the 14th pin of the microcircuit from its contact ECU and connect to the + 5V bus, i.e. at 23 (Vcc) output or anywhere else on the + 5V bus on the ECU board.

Next, connect the 14th contact of the adapter board to the place where the 14th pin of the flash memory chip was connected, or also in any other place of the printed conductor (track), which leads to the 14th contact pad:

After you have done these steps, check all connections and contacts, connect the emulator using a flat cable. When the computer is turned on (the emulator should not be connected via USB), the “Status” indicator on the emulator board should light up, if this does not happen – check the correct connection and contacts.
If the indicator lights up – get to work!

USE WITH PC SOFTWARE

TunerPRO RT

To work with TunerPRO RT, make sure you have build version 5.00.9332.00 or higher (Help -> About…):

We recommend downloading the program from the official website: www.tunerpro.net
Further, if this condition is met, the device is connected, and the drivers are installed correctly, then at startup the program will automatically detect the device:

After that the program is ready to work.. We recommend that you study our article on using TunerPRO RT: https://cobrartp.com/en/online_tuning

Address tracking

Hardware tracing is a feature that allows you to track which areas of memory the ECU processor is accessing without using any third-party hardware. In other words, you can observe the coordinates in the maps of interest, according to which the ECU is working at a particular moment in time. To accomplish this, this function is supported in TunerPRO RT, as well as in CobraRTP Utility with v2.8 (Address watch function).
To enable this function in TunerPRO RT, use the corresponding button on the toolbar of the table of interest:

Note: you may not see the pointer (yellow cell) on certain maps at a certain point in time. This does not mean that this function is not working correctly, it means that the ECU processor does not access this card (address range) at the expected time. It is also possible that the card is not used at all during normal engine operation, such as cranking cards.
Call Address watch, i.e. tracking the addresses by which the ECU processor accesses a given address range (memory area). It works on the principle of the table trace function in TunerPRO RT (for more details, see the manual for CobraRTP Utility):

CobraRTP Utility

This is a proprietary utility for working with CobraRTP emulators, incl. and with FlashOnile since version 2.7. Allows you to load (read) firmware into the emulator, check and download firmware updates, configure the device, check the operability.
A detailed manual is contained in the archive with the program. More information, as well as download the latest version of the program: https://cobrartp.com/en/cobrartp-utility/

Other software

You can use other firmware editors, for example WinOLS, RomRaider, ECM Titanium, etc., which save the firmware in binary format (.bin), and then upload the firmware via CobraRTP Utility. With the powerful “Live scan” function, the firmware will be automatically loaded online when its file is changed, ie. after saving (overwriting) the file to disk. (more in the CobraRTP Utility manual).

General note on used firmware

For the emulator to work, you need to download the full ECU firmware (256-1024kb) at least once for a specific ECU, then you can change (upload) only individual maps, tables, parameters (calibrations) of the firmware online in TunerPRO RT, WinOLS, RomRaider, etc. and, accordingly, there is no need to download the firmware completely every time, for this there is a “Live scanner” function in our utility, or, if you use TunerPRO RT, the maps are loaded from the program itself online (See. TunerPRO).
Check if you need to correct the checksum for a specific firmware (ECU), as well as when editing the firmware for writing to flash memory!
FlashOnline does not correct the checksum! In TunerPRO, you can check this in the XDF edit section:
Use firmware 100% compatible with your ECU and only complete, not calibrations (the emulator performs the same role as the chip that was uploaded – it will work!). Ideally, the firmware can be downloaded via the OBD connector from the ECU with which you will use FlashOnline.
After downloading the full firmware, many ECUs require a complete restart, at least by turning off the ignition. In this case, the emulator does not need to be restarted, turned off, etc.

DUAL-MOD function

Dual-mod is an additional function that allows you to upload several independent complete firmwares to the emulator, then switch online.
For this purpose, the FlashOnline board has corresponding contacts, upon closing or opening of which the corresponding memory block of the emulator is selected (firmware):

Dual-mod works only in emulation mode 28F200, 28F400, 29F200, 29F400, i.e. with firmware 256-512kB, tk. FlashOnline total memory 1024kB (100000h) or 2 conventional blocks of 512kB each. When emulating 29F800, this function does not work.!
To select a memory block into which the firmware will be loaded, you must install in the utility:

Selecting memory blocks (switching) on the FlashOnline board:
Block 0 – contacts open
Block 1 – contacts closed (jumper installed)
Note: In TunerPRO, only memory block 0 is used by default. Therefore, for full use of the dual-mod with TunerPRO, save the firmware (bin) and load them through the CobraRTP Utility already with the ability to select memory blocks.

FLASHONLINE RESTRICTIONS

FlashOnline can only work in read mode, i.e. there is no hardware ability to program the emulator via the ECU as well as the chip (for example, via the OBD2 connector)! Data can only be recorded via the USB interface of the device. In this regard, for ECUs that use flash memory to record calibrations (adaptations) in normal ECU operation, data will not be written to FlashOnline as well as to a flash memory chip.
FlashOnline can be installed and used instead of the memory chip on a permanent basis, but it should be borne in mind that the CR2032 3V battery installed on the device board serves to power the volatile memory, which stores the firmware (s) when the device is turned off. Accordingly, the charge of this element is sufficient for 1.5-2 years. After the cell is discharged below 1.5V, the data in the memory will be corrupted after each power outage.
Dual-mod function only works in emulation mode 29f200 / 28f200, 29f400 / 28f400 (256-512kB), and is not supported for 29f800 (1024kB).

POSSIBLE ISSUES AND THEIR SOLUTION

The engine will not start.

check if the firmware is compatible with your ECU
check if the checksum is correct
The wrong memory block of the emulator (DualMod) may be selected
When loading the firmware via CobraRTP Utility, the wrong type of emulated memory was selected 5. Check all contacts and connections of the device with the computer.

Tracing does not work in TunerPRO RT

Perhaps you have selected an inactive map (see the paragraph on tracing, note)
Check if Memory Block 0 is selected in DualMod
Make sure the XDF file matches your firmware (bin).
Make sure your FlashOnline firmware version is v1.20 or later.

An error appears when loading data into the emulator

Replace USB cable. If the problem persists after replacing the cable, contact tech. Support.

After turning off the emulator for a while, the car stops starting, although it did start before turning off
Check the backup battery (CR2032), the voltage in the disconnected state should not be lower than 2.5V. Replace the element.