MK7 and VCDS (VAG-COM) thread

[GeoBog]

The front wiper adaptation channels is:
(17)-Windshield wiper-Traenenwischen Front Status (rough translation (17) - Windshield wiper Tears wipe Front Status)

The rear Wiper adaptation channels is:
(4)-Rear Window Wiper-Traenenwischen Heck (translation (4) -Rear Window Wiper rear wipe tears)

The default setting for both channels is "not active". Change either, or both settings to "active". I haven't done this tweak, but I suspect that you will first need to enter the magic number 31347 into the security code

Cheers for confirming this. As I have previously said, I have set both of the channels to active but the tear drop function still doesn't work. Any ideas?

[BOFH]

BOFH: Definitely some curious stuff happening on your car! May I ask the history of the vehicle-please? Did your car come fitted with Xenon lamps, or have they been retrofitted?

The car is a TDI, new, was ordered with bi-xenon/LED DRL in front and the GTI-style LEDs in the back. Nothing was retrofitted, it's all stock, except for my few VCDS adaptations. It's my company car, and to be honest, I asked my employer to get me that one because of all the electronics and lights in it. I LOVE LIGHTS! I don't regret it either, it's a GREAT car. (/offtopic)

 

Have you made the coding change to BIT 5-6 of Byte 6 in the BCM (so that the BCM recognises the shutters)?

NO, I HAVEN'T changed anything in there. I see bit 5 is 1 and bit 6 is 0, what value do I set them?

dv52, I seem to see your adaptation channels indicate you have xenon headlights, do you also have DLA/FLA? Do your beams rise when you flash while your low beams are initially off?

How up-to-date is the version of my spreadsheet that you have (I have updated it a couple of times)? My car is the one headed 103TSI  on the latest version and you will notice in shutters are not activated. I have plain ordinary halogen lamps - alas.

I have version _4 of the sheet; my bad, i got mixed up in the columns, indeed I see you're in the third column

Someone here with DLA/FLA is far better qualified (than am I) to provide advice on the shutter behaviour on your car. But as a prompt for others to reply, I've just checked with a VWVortex forum colleague who has xenon lamps on his car ( it's an NAR model). My colleague has confirmed that on his car the xenon lamps ignite and the shutters open when he flashes high beam during daylight hours! Not sure if ROW models are different, but I would think that they are the same.

This indeed confirms there is something weird going on. I am tempted to take it to the shop, after all it's a lease under warranty, and it "sounds" like an issue, I can always ask the dealer what he thinks of those quirks... I hope he won't nag about my VCDS adaptations. I might just as well roll back most of them and pretend I didn't touch :p

Do you know if it's a lost cause because I adapted some channels, or if garages are happy to see us fiddle? (i guess not :p)

PS:If you can't fix your problem, it's a easy task to change the adaptation settings so that your low beam lights flash when the stalk is operated - I'm happy to give you the tweak instructions if you want

When I pull the stalk, the low beams turn on (they strike), when I release the stalk, the low beams turn off. Is your tweak different? I don't think I have separate low beams than the xenons (it's not a GTI, just a regular TDI with the fancy xenon/angel eyes... maybe I should have started there?)

The two adaptation channels that you can't alter are the fault detect channels. You are correct the settings are Hexadecimal addresses (not decimal). Again not much is known about these two channels, but from my analysis of other vehicles I believe that the settings for the parenthesis (2) and (3) channels  must be unique values that appear no where else in any of the other 35 x lamps

Here's the settings for all the current vehicles in my spreadsheet for Lampendefektbitposition channel for every light. I've ordered the table according to the last column (Highline - it happens to be a NAR model). You can see that each setting is unique for this car (and for all other cars) - except of course for HEX0



Here's the same table, but this time for  Fehlerort mittleres Byte DTC-DFCC channel


Same thing - all settings are unique
Is it possible that an other Leuchte channel in your car has already been assigned these values? Have you done an admap for the BCM on your car yet - it's the best way to check this.

Many thanks again for the explaination; thanks to it I seem to understand that the DTC-DFCC byte refers to a "light configuration" number which must be unique, much alike a memory pointer pointing to the configuration for that light...

I seem to have no problems tweaking lights that have already been working before, but this one is a tricky one

I actually did a BCM map the other day to compare with your compilation with VLOOKUPS and find back the stuff I changed I'll post it tomorrow!

Thanks a lot for your help so far!

[dv52]

@dv52: That is some great work you have done there. What is FLA? Is it lane assist?

My car is RHD, has xenons and dynamic light assist. I took an adaption map of every module before I started tweaking with vcds. Would the scans from my car be of any use to you?

Kevin: Thanks for your kind words and for your very generous offer.  I always greatly value receiving new admaps from different models. My growing mk7 data base needs constant feeding and this type of information is its food source!

I hope that you will allow me to add your information to the next version of my spreadsheet which should be released soon. I don't have many European models, so yours will be extra special! I'll PM my email details shortly - thanks again for the offer

FLA as applied to VW cars is an acronym which has its genesis in the German word FernLichtAssistent (I think) and its literal translation is Main Beam Assist in English. But for most English speaking folk the TLA is more commonly known as Front Lighting Assist to preserve the original German lettering.
My understanding is that FLA is a digital system on the mk7 and it switches between high beam and low beam

Lane Assist is a different function which uses the front camera on the windscreen. I don't have Lane assist on my car but from what I've read, it seems to be a real neat system. In essence, lane assist predicts and it corrects the car's travel  if the vehicle seems likely to leave the lane without an active steering manoeuvre by the driver.

Lane assist uses the front camera to build-up an image of where the lane marker lines are on that part of the road on which the car is travelling. The lane assist "smarts" also gets positioning data from the electromechanical steering wheel. Using these inputs, if the system detects that it is likely that the car is diverging from the lane that it's in without the driver's deliberate intervention, then it automatically counteracts the manoeuvre  - how nifty is that?

As I said, I don't have the system on my car but I understand that the countersteering activity on Lane assist is gentle, but that it can however be overridden by the driver at any time with relative ease. Have you found this to be the case on your car?

If you haven't noticed Lane assist working on your car, then it might be fun to try it out on a safe part of the road. I can't remember for sure, but I think that you need to be travelling over 65 km/h (?) before lane assist kicks-in. From memory, I think that you also have to put a tick in the set-up screen on the MFD to enable the function (not entirely sure about this).

Anyhow, as a test,  drive the car for a while in the one lane to allow the front camera to establish the location of the lane markers on the road. Then allow the car to slowly diverge from the lane that it is travelling in (when safe to do so- of course) and you should feel the steering wheel "tighten-up" and counteract the vehicle's travel.

[dv52]

The front wiper adaptation channels is:
(17)-Windshield wiper-Traenenwischen Front Status (rough translation (17) - Windshield wiper Tears wipe Front Status)

The rear Wiper adaptation channels is:
(4)-Rear Window Wiper-Traenenwischen Heck (translation (4) -Rear Window Wiper rear wipe tears)

The default setting for both channels is "not active". Change either, or both settings to "active". I haven't done this tweak, but I suspect that you will first need to enter the magic number 31347 into the security code

Cheers for confirming this. As I have previously said, I have set both of the channels to active but the tear drop function still doesn't work. Any ideas?

GeoBog: Sorry to learn of your difficulties! The two settings that I gave you would normally suffice for tear wipe .

Also, given that I'm a newbie here I apologise for monopolising this tread - this certainly wasn't  my intention. I came here primarily to learn from others (and to help where I can)

OK - don't take this the wrong way, but I always have trouble answering requests for additional information because of the wide ranging dependencies for correct operation of the adaptation channels in the BCM.

The control module at address 09 really is quite a sophisticated beast, and at last count the BCM in the mk7 has 2,316 different adaptation channels that it manages (in general, the BCM makes up about 43% of all the adaptation channels in the mk7).

So, assuming that there isn't a hardware failure anywhere in your car, the only other suggestion that I can make is that you check the complete suite of adaptation channels that control the operation of the two wipers.

 I've included below a table of the correct default settings for the front and rear wiper. As I don't know what particular part numbers you have in your car, I've taken a guess at which channels are relevant for your vehicle. Your car may not have the greyed-out cells - don't worry if some channels are missing. But if the channels are there, then they must have the settings indicated

And a final word of caution which you probably already know (but it's worth reinforcing) - please notate any change that you make in case you need to revert the setting. I've found from bitter experience that it's not good practice to rely entirely on the data in the CodingLog.txt file in RT's software when tweaks go-pear-shaped. Whilst the value of this file should not be under-estimated, it only records the setting change request when the Do it! tab is pressed. It does not record a failed change request, so the file can be confusing

Good luck - and please share any findings with the rest of us (it's how we learn)





 

[dv52]

NO, I HAVEN'T changed anything in there. I see bit 5 is 1 and bit 6 is 0, what value do I set them?

BOFH: Here's a pic of the long coding helper screen from my car showing the coding for byte 6 for the BCM



As I said in my previous post, I don't have Xenon/shutters in my car and you can see the entry in Bit5-6 confirms this setting. To establish what the coding value should be for cars that have shutters installed, I enclose the table below which shows the coding stings from a number of models. All the cars in the table (except mine) have xenon/shutters installed. In the lower part of the table, I have converted to binary the Hex value for Byte 6. Clearly the correct value for cars with Xenon/shutters is Bit 5=I & bit 6=0

This indeed confirms there is something weird going on. I am tempted to take it to the shop, after all it's a lease under warranty, and it "sounds" like an issue, I can always ask the dealer what he thinks of those quirks... I hope he won't nag about my VCDS adaptations. I might just as well roll back most of them and pretend I didn't touch :p
Do you know if it's a lost cause because I adapted some channels, or if garages are happy to see us fiddle? (i guess not :p)

Yes, I would definitely make your problem, the problem of your dealer. Revert the settings for the shutters back to their original values and don't say anything about the fact that you have a VCDS cable (this is one of those times when ignorance is bliss!). Down here, the dealer's attitude to VCDS cable users varies - some don't mind and I've had the satisfaction on a very few occasions of actually teaching the tech something new (but mostly, they teach me stuff). But there are dealers here who try to deny their warranty obligations because of unrelated tweaks. I generally find that it's better to say nothing at all, unless I know the tech.

When I pull the stalk, the low beams turn on (they strike), when I release the stalk, the low beams turn off. Is your tweak different? I don't think I have separate low beams than the xenons (it's not a GTI, just a regular TDI with the fancy xenon/angel eyes... maybe I should have started there?)

hahaha - yes, this would have been a good thing to disclose in your first post!! I'm pretty sure that you have Bi-Xenon lamps, so the tweak that I was thinking-of won't apply in your case (it only made sense for the ordinary Xenon lamps)

I actually did a BCM map the other day to compare with your compilation with VLOOKUPS and find back the stuff I changed I'll post it tomorrow!

Look forward to see your admap . I assume that this forum has the CODE facility for posting long files? That is, precede the pasted data with [ CODE] command then paste data, then use [ /CODE] 

[kevinm]

@dv52: scans sent. Yes I use lane assist all the time. It's a great system. It can be thwarted by worn road markings and standing water over the markings but I would definitely spec it again.

[dv52]

@dv52: scans sent.

Kevin: My first admap from Ireland !! Once again, many thanks. The updated version of my BCM compare spreadsheet (which now contains 13 different mk7 models) can be downloaded from the link below

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/f197/mkvii-vcds-tweak-reference-thread-98034-post1067600.html#post1067600

[Diehammer]

What exactly do I need to purchase to make these changes and how much is it going to cost?

[neil_79]

Hi,

I've had my Golf GTi for around 6 months now and just bought a VCDS cable.  The forum has been a fantastic source of information on the changes possible and I've even managed to get the rain closing function working.  However, can someone help with two questions.

1. I can't find 'Battery Charge' under the drop down list of 'Adaptions' within Channel 17 (Instruments).  Any reason why this may be so and is there something I need to activate in the long code helper?

2.  In some markets the Golf has a 'Air Conditioning Settings' menu within the Car/Setup menu.  Can anyone tell me how I could activate this menu?

Thanks for your help.

[BOFH]

NO, I HAVEN'T changed anything in there. I see bit 5 is 1 and bit 6 is 0, what value do I set them?

BOFH: Here's a pic of the long coding helper screen from my car showing the coding for byte 6 for the BCM



As I said in my previous post, I don't have Xenon/shutters in my car and you can see the entry in Bit5-6 confirms this setting. To establish what the coding value should be for cars that have shutters installed, I enclose the table below which shows the coding stings from a number of models. All the cars in the table (except mine) have xenon/shutters installed. In the lower part of the table, I have converted to binary the Hex value for Byte 6. Clearly the correct value for cars with Xenon/shutters is Bit 5=I & bit 6=0

So, I played around with those bits.... and I screwed up. I ended up leaving them programmed at bit5=0 and bit 6=1 ; the opposite of what was initially programmed. Imagine my surprise when I was driving tonight on a very dark highway with my xenons on with FLA activated, and my xenons TURNED OFF in the darkest patch of the road  I had to turn the light switch to manually turn on my lights again. In fact, when the FLA was switching to high beams, it turned off the xenon bulbs. Nasty side effect 

On another note, my colleague just got the new Passat, also on the MQB platform, and also a TDI with Xenon headlights. I asked him to flash me while his low beams were off, and sure enough, his shutters are moving.

I've started to roll back my most obvious VCDS tweaks, and i'll get the garage to look at it

Again, thanks for all the time you took to share your findings on the BCM, it is indeed a fascinating way to manage the lights on that vehicle. I wonder how the actual electronics of that BCM light driver looks like; can it switch between the different types of load on-the-fly, or does it merely drive an open collector which is then hooked to the specific driver on each port at build time? (constant current driver for LEDs, ballast for HID/xenons, triac/FET for halogens...)... I wish I could tear it down to see how they engineered it

Oh, and regarding Lane Assist, I love it too and use it all the time. Actually, to me it feels like it's turning the wheel for me, i just have to keep my hands on it. There is a green/orange LED on the dashboard, so you know if it's engaged; sometimes I try to release the wheel and I am amazed at how it drives by itself for a few seconds. Sure enough, after ~10 seconds, it turns off while beeping angrily. I haven't tried for longer, but it might as well drive you in the oncoming traffic to punish you for playing with it 

PS, here is my BCM admap, i figured it'd be annoying for the others to see 2300 lines of pasted data, so I uploaded it here : https://gofile.me/25l2Z/E65fQiQ3 . If you want, you can include it to your compilation, let me know if you need some more details; it's a 1.6 TDI with Lane Assist and bi-xenons, in Belgium.