DIY MCU Replacement To Add Nav and LTE

[Th3_V1ru5]

I am looking to replace my MCU to add Nav and upgrade from 3g to LTE.
I see a lot of people selling them on eBay and a few here on TMC Forums.

It doesn’t really look much harder physically than a standard radio swap in a car but I read somewhere that they aren’t exactly plug and play when you swap them.
I am very technically advanced and wouldn’t have problems flashing a chip if needed just haven’t found a tutorial or step by step at all.

I also really want to make sure that I won’t be voiding my supercharger rights or something. The car has 110k miles so I’m not worried about voiding a warranty on the MCU or dash instruments since that’s long gone.

 

[Th3_V1ru5]

Anybody have experience swapping an MCU that can weigh in?

 

[tyson]

You will have to have root on the new MCU in order to get the files/settings you need. A quick Google for DIY electric car Tesla root should get you where you need to go. It's not going to be easy... There is no step by step guide for this process.

 

[glide]

Were there any Tesla’s that did not come with Nav?

You can have them upgrade your cell radio from 3G to LTE for a nominal fee at the service center.

 

[Th3_V1ru5]

You will have to have root on the new MCU in order to get the files/settings you need. A quick Google for DIY electric car Tesla root should get you where you need to go. It's not going to be easy... There is no step by step guide for this process.

@tyson Thanks! Do you know if it will void my lifetime supercharging through Tesla? Or will Tesla care?

 

[Th3_V1ru5]

Were there any Tesla’s that did not come with Nav?

You can have them upgrade your cell radio from 3G to LTE for a nominal fee at the service center.

Yeah, Nav didn’t come standard until 2014/2015.

 

[MP3Mike]

@rooter might be able to help you. He has posted some information here: HowTo Tesla - Backing Up the Firmware - DIY Electric Car Forums

Though I wonder if you can just transfer the NVidia daughter card from your old MCU to the new MCU to retain your car configuration, but then you would need to somehow update that configuration so that it knows your MCU has the nav capabilities. (Unless it is automatic.)

Or I think Tesla would do it for you for about $2,500. (Though I have seen some people say that it is possible you have the correct MCU already and that if you do Tesla can enable it OTA for $500.)

 

[dannycamps]

Rich Rebuild recently posted a video doing a MCU swap in his car to replace a leaking/bubbled screen. Pretty in-depth look at what goes into doing it as well as what impact the leaking fluid has on the electronics behind the dash (hint: it's bad).

 

[MP3Mike]

Rich Rebuild recently posted a video doing a MCU swap in his car to replace a leaking/bubbled screen.

Actually he just swapped the screen on the MCU, not the MCU itself. (Swapping the screen doesn't require any hacking or programming.)

 

[Chaserr]

You will need to root the new MCU to make it work in your car, and if you have root you can just enable Nav on the old MCU and swap the 3G module to LTE (it's a separate part that just plugs in).

 

[Th3_V1ru5]

You will need to root the new MCU to make it work in your car, and if you have root you can just enable Nav on the old MCU and swap the 3G module to LTE (it's a separate part that just plugs in).

So I’m theory if I rooted the MCU I could software enable nav?
How do I know that my MCU has nav at all and wouldn’t need a different unit?

I would highly prefer to keep my same MCU and just unlock the nav function if that would be possible.

 

[Chaserr]

Enabling it is a software toggle. It's possible it might need a Nav antenna if it wasn't installed factory but they don't have separate part numbers for nav and navless MCU so you don't need a new one either way.

 

[rooter]

@rooter might be able to help you. He has posted some information here: HowTo Tesla - Backing Up the Firmware - DIY Electric Car Forums

Not any more, sorry.

Seems I was violating protocol or something.

Who knows...

 

[whitex]

Not any more, sorry.

Seems I was violating protocol or something.

Who knows...

Did Tesla shut you down, or did opening this into a community project potentially cut into revenue stream of a secret hacker collective, either by allowing people to do it themselves or because it gave away vulnerabilities for Tesla to patch? I don't think that Tesla cares that much about MCU1 anymore, so I suspect it's the latter. To bad, while I have a professional NDA which would prevent me in participating in this particular community project, I though it was great that such a community project allowing servicing your own Tesla was started, given the issues associated with Tesla service today, their monopoly on parts and prices, etc.

 

[rooter]

I never gave away any info which Tesla could counter, and specified over and over that I never would. My methods were specifically and intentionally uncounterable without changing/upgrading hardware, and Tesla-safe.

I am the second one to figure out replacing the eMMC (after wk), and taught Ingineer how to fix his stack of 20 or so burned-out CIDs. I also gave him many parts for free, and sent scores of customers his way when I was (the first to) parting out my extra car. And I taught him how to fix a contaminated A/C system (Error: Low resistance between B+ & B-) without replacing all components. He never, never acknowledged that I had helped him in any way. What a vicious person.

When Rich Benoit first started here he disassembled his first flood car, and when he ended up with parts he asked and asked for my price list. When I finally gave it to him he started competing against me selling parts!

And now I seem to be shut out. Why? I have no idea. I need the Tesla variant of the Fusee Gelee exploit which was developed by a member here, and have requested it through multiple channels but have been met with silence. This exploit BTW is also unfixable by Tesla without replacing hardware, but I made clear that I would honor any request to not share it.

I have two CIDs which do not answer up. It is a serious problem and I am in trouble. I have a very challenging job, and on weekends I'm doing a 5 house housing development. But somehow over the next couple of years I'll have to figure this out.

So the zeitgeist is that we do not share. What am I left to do but the same.

 

[whitex]

I never gave away any info which Tesla could counter, and specified over and over that I never would. My methods were specifically and intentionally uncounterable without changing/upgrading hardware, and Tesla-safe.

Well, that is not exactly entirely accurate. While securing it 100% could be hard if not impossible, there were definitely things Tesla could have done to disable specific hacks you posted, such as signing the shadow file or crontab, maybe sign parts of even entire read only partitions 3&4, add a periodic check for enabled user root, etc. That would force you and others to have to find other ways to root the device.

When Rich Benoit first started here he disassembled his first flood car, and when he ended up with parts he asked and asked for my price list. When I finally gave it to him he started competing against me selling parts!

Come on, I get you are frustrated, but competition is inevitable in this world. Did you really expect to have a monopoly on second hand Tesla parts? AFAIK Rich also complains about competition raising prices on wrecked Tesla's - everyone has competition.

And now I seem to be shut out. Why? I have no idea. I need the Tesla variant of the Fusee Gelee exploit which was developed by a member here, and have requested it through multiple channels but have been met with silence. This exploit BTW is also unfixable by Tesla without replacing hardware, but I made clear that I would honor any request to not share it.

I have two CIDs which do not answer up. It is a serious problem and I am in trouble. I have a very challenging job, and on weekends I'm doing a 5 house housing development. But somehow over the next couple of years I'll have to figure this out.

So the zeitgeist is that we do not share. What am I left to do but the same.

I don't get how you got shot out? Someone hacked into your car and hacked your CID without your permission? That would probably be criminal, you could report it. Also, did they hack it remotely? If anyone other than Tesla can remotely hack the cars, that would be a rather big deal as all Teslas would be vulnerable. Or, did you give them access to you CID and they took advantage of that (still potentially illegal, but now in the grey area)?

 

[rooter]

Ok that was my bad. Handing red meat to whitex of all ppl.

Any look at your posting history shows that you don't seem to... have any common sense. Nattering nabob of negativism.

Beat it.

 

[MP3Mike]

I don't get how you got shot out?

He is saying that he helped them out to get them going and making money and now they refuse to help him at all.

 

[whitex]

He is saying that he helped them out to get them going and making money and now they refuse to help him at all.

The post he left at the link you supplied above says he suspects someone has done it to him.

 

[whitex]

Ok that was my bad. Handing red meat to whitex of all ppl.

Any look at your posting history shows that you don't seem to... have any common sense. Nattering nabob of negativism.

Beat it.

Your reply here makes me think that maybe, just maybe, what you are experiencing with the other hackers could be a result of a personality conflict?