Recently helped
@mr_hyde to setup toolbox 3 to diag a 2014 MS with the most economical 1 day subscription. Seems like most first timers spend quite awhile dealing with computer IT/connection issues. 1 day subscription could even expires before even getting proper connection to the car working. Here is a quick summary how to set up connection before before starting subscription.
Toolbox 3 is server based. This means the entire diagnostic software is running on Tesla server with Chrome web browser as interface. Very different from traditional car diagnostic tools.
Diagnostic Hardware Interface
Tesla keeps on changing these with each new car model. Here is a summary on page 4. Some of these are cheap ($50 on Amazon for the 2014 MS) while others are quite expensive (21-22 MS/X Powered Media Converter Box)
Configuring Computer and Test Connection to car
On this 2014 MCU2 car with a Mac, here is a good video
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General steps are as follows
- Setup a ethernet connection to the car and view its internal diagnostic webserver (presumably running on MCU CPU) at 192.168.90.100:8080 This is just like using a specific url address and port number (the 8080) to access say a router or network printer administrative server page. This step confirm your computer is talking to the Tesla properly through the hardware diagnostic cable.
- Enable unsecured content to properly communicate with toolbox server over the internet
I don't really know how macOS knows to route 192.168.90.125 to the ethernet dongle and toolbox.tesla.com over internet connection but it works on macOS. For Windows, may need extra steps to ensure this dual network connection works (saw some info online but didn't end up using windows)
Unfortunately, Tesla seems to have removed the server at 192.168.90.100:8080 with recent firmware (
link ) so will probably get 404 not found instead. To test, make sure
- Get 404 not found at 192.168.90.100:8080 (this confirm computer is talking to the Tesla properly via diagnostic interface cable)
- Make sure can connect to internet by hitting a website
MCU1
For MCU1 cars, I think need to run a proxy windows app. This car was MCU2 so didn't need to do this step.
Enable Unsecured Content on Chrome
This is a must (above video shows how to but its already enabled so didn't show the actual transition). Without this, get some kind of ODIN failure message trying to connect to Tesla's toolbox server. Test it with a unsecured content website to confirm setup properly. I use a unsecured content Chinese headunit firmware server as test
enabling/disabling unsecure content wasn't straight forward. We would enable unsecure content for toolbox.tesla.com but hitting the website would still show a lock icon instead "Unsecured Content" to the left of the url. Eventually it worked and not sure how (tried some closing and opening new tabs but not sure that was the solution). But it is a must you need to see Not Secured to the left of url to work properly.
Subscribe Toolbox 3
After everything above works, IT/computer issues should be solved. Then pay for your subscription and hopefully spend most of the subscription time using toolbox rather than fighting IT issues.
Successful Connection
Looks like this
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Remote Desktop
If know someone who knows how to setup toolbox (or more IT savoy) can use a remote desktop solution (
@mr_hyde and I used free realvnc) for them to drive your computer to setup
Of course this requires keeping internet connection alive during the process for remote desktop. Might be a challenge if Windows present too much roadblock trying to setup 2x network connections (1 to car, 1 to internet)