I retrofit MCU2, IC2, Tuner2, and FSD Computer into my HW2.0 Car

Here's my story of my DIY HW2.0 retrofit for MCU2, IC2, TUNER2, and FSD Computer:

I want to begin this post by offering the most honest caveat I can: I do not encourage you to repeat anything I have done. In fact, now that Tesla is offering the MCU2 and FSD Computer retrofits officially, I highly recommend you go do that. MCU2 + FSD is wonderful. I am presenting this post to hopefully provide some guidance and entertainment to members of this great community – a place that I’ve found endlessly fun for the past several years during my Tesla ownership. I make no claims that the guidance offered below is correct or suited to your circumstances.

Towards the end of January, late one night while tinkering with my Tesla, I had a realization – I finally knew enough about the Model S/X hardware & software architecture to attempt one of the most involved retrofits I’ve ever done on a vehicle – an MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 retrofit into my HW2.0 MCU1 Model S. After a LOT of research, and with tons of help from others in this community (thank you to those that helped; you know who you are), I wanted to share my success story of retrofitting MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 to work in my car. All told – I have a fully working MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 with all the Theater, Arcade, Caraoke, FM Radio, Web Browser, Dashcam, Sentry, FSD visualizations and other goodies you would expect.

“But Tesla now offers an official MCU2/APE3 retrofit!” you say…” Why would you want to do a retrofit yourself?” Good question…there’s a couple reasons I chose to do this myself:

• I completed the retrofit a couple months before Tesla finally came out with a public announcement that MCU2 retrofits were officially official. I’d been waiting for Tesla to follow-through on Elon’s never-ending tweets promising a retrofit was coming and finally just decided I’d do it myself.
• Tesla charges $2,500 for the MCU2/IC2 retrofit and does not include the XM/FM Tuner2. I thought I’d try getting Tuner2 to work – which I did.
• I found a person with a wrecked 2018 Model S who was willing to sell me the MCU2, IC2, Tuner2, and wiring harness out of the car – everything I needed from a hardware perspective for a reasonable price. All in, I saved roughly $1,000 doing this myself compared to asking Tesla to do it. Honestly though, I probably put 100+ hours into this project and went from knowing nothing to knowing a lot. I didn’t really save time/money; quite the contrary. I did this because it was a ton of fun.
• I got the APE3 (FSD Computer) unit on loan from a friend. I did purchase FSD from Tesla and will have Tesla install my forthcoming APE3 unit whenever they actually do it.

Come along as I take you through my journey of retrofitting the MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 hardware into my HW2.0 car.

 

[alangrig]

Best write-up ever!
Please advise whether front radar Bosch stayed unchanged to Continental when upgraded to AP3.0?

 

[KyleDay]

Yes radar is unchanged. The radar is a separate configuration value not needing to be changed

 

[alangrig]

Yes radar is unchanged. The radar is a separate configuration value not needing to be changed

Very much appreciated! This is really valuable information. Based on this information upgrade from AP1 to AP3 on Model X is possible, considering the fact MCU2 is already installed! Only left to sort out the question regarding software with Tesla.

 

[KyleDay]

I don’t know that to be the case. I believe there may be other hardware requirements like SCCM which is different between hw1 and hw2 cars. I simply do not know because I never had an AP1 car. The ap1 car also has completely different front camera and lacks the repeater and pillar cameras. It won’t work with ap3 without serious modifications and wiring changes. I know someone that has done it - it was a Frankenstein project

 

[alangrig]

I don’t know that to be the case. I believe there may be other hardware requirements like SCCM which is different between hw1 and hw2 cars. I simply do not know because I never had an AP1 car. The ap1 car also has completely different front camera and lacks the repeater and pillar cameras. It won’t work with ap3 without serious modifications and wiring changes. I know someone that has done it - it was a Frankenstein project

Have been carrying out assessment. Should be possible without any Frankensteinment.
The idea is to simplify the process:
1. Upgrade to AP2.0
2. Get approval from Tesla
3. Upgrade to AP3.0

 

[verygreen]

Have been carrying out assessment. Should be possible without any Frankensteinment.
The idea is to simplify the process:
1. Upgrade to AP2.0
2. Get approval from Tesla
3. Upgrade to AP3.0

upgrade to ap2.0 is not all that easy.

you need to put in all the surround cameras, you need to put in the autopilot behind the glove box (there is no bracket so you need to make up something to hold it in place. It believe it needs different ultrasonics that were announced at the time of hw2.0 introduction. The rear camera reportedly also was changed to one that has heating element.
All of that needs harness changes throughout the car.

Chances of Tesla pproval for such changes are.... slim.

 

[Akikiki]

Someone is a glutton for punishment. Now that its been done by someone that knows what they are doing. And is explaining its not that easy. That should be sufficient warning. I believe it would be much easier, simpler, and less a risk regarding Tesla approval to simple sell the current one and find a used one with AP2.5/3.0 and drive it.

 

[Trebek1762]

If anyone is in the market for doing this, I've been cleaning out my basement and came upon my EasyJtag, a stand, and probes that I used to do my own DIY MCU2 upgrade. You just need to place the probes and get writing! DM if you're in the market and we'll work something out.

 

[coug77]

If anyone is in the market for doing this, I've been cleaning out my basement and came upon my EasyJtag, a stand, and probes that I used to do my own DIY MCU2 upgrade. You just need to place the probes and get writing! DM if you're in the market and we'll work something out.

I am interested in DIY upgrade of Model 3 HW2.5 to FSD and seems like direct access to eMMC is the way to go if it is not encrypted. Any reasons why it would not work?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I am interested in DIY upgrade of Model 3 HW2.5 to FSD and seems like direct access to eMMC is the way to go if it is not encrypted. Any reasons why it would not work?

I know someone with an FSD computer (HW3) available for sale if you are interested.

 

[coug77]

I know someone with an FSD computer (HW3) available for sale if you are interested.

Would that someone be able to transfer keys from my HW2.5 and edit internal.dat ? How to connect?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Would that someone be able to transfer keys from my HW2.5 and edit internal.dat ? How to connect?

Sorry, he just has the hardware available and can't help with that.

 

[Art VandeIay]

I know someone with an FSD computer (HW3) available for sale if you are interested.

WTB - Model S/X Autopilot 3.0 FSD computer ECU

This may be a very long shot but here it goes... I'm looking for a Fused Autopilot 3.0 FSD hardware computer ECU for Model S/X Legacy (pre-Palladium). Must be confirmed to be working, since it's going to be used on a bench set-up to do firmware testing/development. If you have one "casually...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Trebek1762]

I am interested in DIY upgrade of Model 3 HW2.5 to FSD and seems like direct access to eMMC is the way to go if it is not encrypted. Any reasons why it would not work?

No reason why it won't work as long as you've got the pinouts. it's painfully slow, but it works.

 

[Trebek1762]

Would that someone be able to transfer keys from my HW2.5 and edit internal.dat ? How to connect?

There's a reason this is listed as DIY. I learned how to do it myself after initially thinking there was no way I could do it....guess what, I did...and so can you!

 

[Solar40]

You don’t need mcu2 for dashcam. You need ape 2.5 or 3. Mcu1 with ape2.5 or 3 will do dashcam. The reason I gained dashcam was because of ape3. However, mcu2 adds rear backup camera functionality into dashcam. Mcu1 won’t do backup cam dashcam.

If someone sent you a mcu2. How much do you charge to program it?

 

[KyleDay]

Sorry I can’t offer this service. It’s been years since the vulnerability I knew about closed, most mcu2 were already patched at that time, and I don’t have the tooling any longer.

 

[cloneguru]

I was able to get my MCU2 provisioned for my car by completely disassembling it and writing some key files using a BDM Table/Probes and a (slow) easyJtag box to read and write data to the MCU2’s emmc flash chip. MCU2 has a 64GB emmc chip (much bigger than MCU1’s), and only 32GB is provisioned, so there is lots of headroom for wear-leveling – it should last considerably longer than MCU1’s emmc chips that constantly fail.
View attachment 531267

Would you by any chance remember/share the pin assignments used to perform this dump?

 

[KyleDay]

Here you go. It’s been so long I remember CMD as being a tough pin. I also only used D0

 

[Akikiki]

@KyleDay, Kyle Day You DA MAN. Always been DA MAN. And still DA MAN. I can't guess where we wouldn't be without you. Good to see a comment from you.