Tazer JL Mini Programming - One Guy's Experience/Review

[bjm00se]

I don't claim to be an expert here. Far from it. To the contrary, I think the benefit I bring to any potential discussion here is as an uninitiated user.

Time was I worked on accounting software. I used to joke that our product was "the software folks loved to hate" because it had quirks and oddities that made it much harder to pick up and use than you'd ideally like; and yet, people keep using it because it let them run their businesses like no other product would. But I digress.

Anyhow, Tazer is kinda like that. I love it, because without it - my modified Jeep wouldn't work right at all. But MAN it's quirky, and therefore I also hate it.

Start off with the manual. All 15 pages of it. It's OK. You can see they're trying. But it could still be better.

NOOB LESSON ONE: Allow time to read the manual. It's important.

Yeah, you want to read through that to see what it can do for you. But, some of the descriptions are terse, and what you think they mean, vs what they actually mean, may not always line up. An example is: (text edited from original) the OffRoad menu "SwayBar" setting. You set it to "YES" to indicate that you've REMOVED the original Rubicon electronic swaybar. Then in the "live" section, there's a separate function titled "SwayKill" to allow use of sway bar disconnect in 2wd In newer versions of the software, on the display it's called "SwayBar Kill" (or was it SwayKill?) and you turn it ON if you've REMOVED the Rubicon electronic sway bar. But the manual still just calls it the "SwayBar" setting.

And another place in the manual. There's some description, some description about the radio display, and then "Turn It Off." Do they mean turn the JEEP off, or the RADIO off? I'm pretty sure they meant the Jeep. But still to this day not 100% sure.

And "anchor mode" for winching. That seems really useful; be able to run your winch on the Jeep while not simultaneously sitting in the driver seat holding the brake pedal. I thought I followed the steps, but what I did didn't cause anything to happen. So I've got "some more learnings" to get before I can activate that feature.

NOOB LESSON TWO - After reading the instructions, you may still need to try things a couple different times or a couple different ways to get the result you expected.

And that leads us to setting the programming. The most important pages in the manual are pages 5 and 6, which tell you how to access the settings programming, and the critical "reboot" steps that are performed after you change settings.

You have to have the dash display (i.e. the digital display between the tach and the speedo - they call it the EVIC display) set to the "audio" page by using the up/down controls on the left side of the front of the steering wheel. Once there, Tazer has you control the programming by using key combinations of the left side arrows and right side cruise-control buttons to program the tazer.

But while you're doing that, the dash display keeps flipping up Jeep messages about the cruise control features that are not active while you're in this mode. This does NOT inspire confidence in the user. Did I do it right? Am I in the wrong mode?? Jeep thinks I'm trying to activate cruise control instead of program Tazer. Arg!

NOOB LESSON THREE - Don't be distracted by "cruise control" messages you see while trying to program Tazer. Ignore those and proceed.

SUGGESTION: We're have the display in audio mode here. On the BACK of the steering wheel are buttons dedicated ONLY to audio controls. Why doesn't Tazer programming take its input from those controls instead? Perhaps there's a good reason, but that would seem to me to be an aid in avoiding needless distraction and confusion.

But that's really only the beginning of my Tale of Quirks and Oddities. My Jeep has a six speed manual transmission. When you change the tire size on a manual, there's an ENTIRE manual supplement on additional steps you have to take to get the Jeep to recognize those settings:

FURTHER EDIT - folks don't seem to be aware that I'm both aware of and specifically referring to this supplement on the Zautomotive page. If you're changing tire size or gear ratio on a 6sp wrangler, you need this supplement!
https://www.zautomotive.com/zpu/instructions/jlm6relearn.pdf

BUT -- EVEN AFTER following those instructions (which I printed out and did)
You may STILL experience the following failure:

• Gears one thru four function normally.
• then, 5 to 30 seconds after shifting into 5th or 6th gear, you'll get an ESS error on the dash.
• the gear position indicator will blank out.
• the front and rear camera displays will cease to work
• ...until the next time you restart the Jeep.

I followed those instructions multiple times, as did the shop that installed my gears and tires. Finally, on this forum, I connected with a couple other owners of 6 speed JLs. They both confirmed that for the new size to fully be accepted, an additional step, not listed in the manual, needed to be performed - disconnect the battery for 30 minutes to reset the computer. (I won't describe those steps here. Suffice to say that simply disconnecting the black negative terminal on the main battery is NOT sufficient.)

THAT was the magic incantation to get ESS working again with the new tire size.

OK! Great! We're done! The Jeep is working and I won't need to change anything. Except. After a long road trip, I came to realize that 37psi is really not required, nor particularly comfortable, when running oversize 37" tires. After a quick "chalk test" and some driving, I settled on 28psi. Tazer lets you change the TPMS threshold. Yay! I've got this programming down cold now. How hard could it be? A quick run thru of the steps, change front/rear PSI and.....

Oh My Gawd.

Check Engine Light. ABS light. SRT radio display. Fuel indicator shows weird combination of completely full/completely empty. U0140E. "Implausible Vehicle Configuration Received" U0415. BCM U1514-87

What. In. The. Actual. Fuck?

OK. No problem. Part of the process in solving any hard complicated problem is what I call "problem solving mindset." This has two parts:

• Being open to any new information about the problem, whether or not it agrees with what I *think* I know about the problem
• Absolute confidence that the problem WILL finally be solved, and the only unanswered question is, how long will it take to come to a resolution?

I think I first read about this type of mindset decades ago in a book called "Zen, and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. But I digress.

Google showed me that other folks have experienced other similar problems after using Tazer.

1. It's not JUST me.
2. It's solvable.

NOOB LESSON FOUR: Don't Panic!

I'd recently had good experience by doing full battery disconnect reset. So I tried that first. No dice. Nothing changed.

Forums suggested that once in this untenable state, the best approach is to "UnMarry" the Tazer to return to stock configuration, and start over. This I did.

Navigate through all the menus and write down on paper all my custom configuration settings. Tire size. Gear ratio. Swaybar Kill. Front TPMS. Rear TPMS.

Use the Tazer to clear all the current trouble codes.

Unmarry. (full reboot and two sleep cycles)
Marry. (full reboot and two sleep cycles)
Navigate through all the menus re-applying my Jeep's custom settings.
Full reboot and two sleep cycles.

Restart. Voila! No errors! It works!!

I still have no idea what caused the weird state errors. Maybe I fat-fingered some setting. Maybe I had my foot on the brake during the reboots. Maybe the steering wheel wasn't perfectly straight. Maybe the Tazer was hit by stray cosmic radiation from a solar flare.

SUMMARY NOOB BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS:

• Allow more time than you think you'll need, and don't be in a hurry.
• Print out the instructions, make an extra copy of page five "Menu Navigation" to leave up on the dash for quick reference to keystrokes while separately turning to whatever menu page the description of the current setting/feature is on.
• It's probably best to record all your settings on a separate piece of paper.
• Navigating settings will generate irrelevant "cruise control" messages on the dash display that you should ignore.
• You have to "full reboot and two sleep cycles" after changing settings, but you can set ALL the settings you want, and THEN go thru the reboot process. You don't have to set/reboot, set/reboot, set/reboot etc....
• The instructions point out that full reboots should have the wheel straight and your foot off the brake. That's probably important.
• Don't Panic.
• You may need to disconnect the battery to get your settings fully accepted.
• You may need to unmarry the tazer and remarry, especially if you do something wrong along the way.

Hope someone finds this helpful, or at least mildly entertaining.

Sponsored

 

[Rhinebeck01]

@bjm00se

Undoubtedly, (maybe) had you taken the same amount of time (or a tad more time)as you did to author this thread, to forum research / internet research how to properly use the Tazer JL..... you would not have had all the trials and tribulations you mention in regard to the Tazer JL.

I'm pro both Tazer JL and JSCAN (Use both heavily) and often say/post here, that some people should not even consider using any programming tool..... they just should have the dealer program their JL for tire size.

For sure, there is a moderately heavy learning curve and some people should not even consider using a programmer in regard to their JL....especially, those guys/gals that are still using clam shell cellphones..

 

[bjm00se]

Undoubtedly, (maybe) had you taken the same amount of time (or a tad more time)as you did to author this thread, to forum research / internet research how to properly use the Tazer JL..... you would not have had all the trials and tribulations you mention in regard to the Tazer JL.

I get that you're pro Tazer, and I don't want to get in a good Tazer/bad Tazer argument with you.

But I disagree with the statement you made above, and as a professional software developer, I resent the "clamshell phone" backhanded comment.

I spent considerable time reading the manual, and *trying* to do everything correct, AND working with a shop that's done many tazer installs. They were as mystified as me, and unable to resolve the problem with tazer support, as far as the sixth gear ESS issue.

Your comment seems to suffer from "the curse of knowledge." i.e. Once you know something, it becomes obvious. And it's hard to imagine not knowing it. And the more familiar you are, the harder it is to remember how much trouble you may have gone to learn it in the first place.

NOWHERE, but NOWHERE is it documented that for the six speed manual instructions to stick, you may need to unplug the battery.

Also, show me anywhere else that it tells you that while you're driving the Tazer menus, gratuitous "cruise control" messages will flip up on the EVIC display and you should ignore those, and that it's safe to do so??

The point of my post is to give fellow Tazer Noobs some helpful hints that DON't seem to be documented elsewhere. Isn't that a good thing?

 

[chadk77]

Most definitely a pretty big learning curve with the Tazer. It took me a lot of trial and error to figure it out and I still learn more about it every day. lol. Worth it if you plan on going to bigger tires and a different gear set.

 

[Rhinebeck01]

Most definitely a pretty big learning curve with the Tazer. It took me a lot of trial and error to figure it out and I still learn more about it every day. lol. Worth it if you plan on going to bigger tires and a different gear set.

@chadk77

Yes a very sizeable learning curve..

I have been using the Tazer JL since it was born in the Spring of 2018 and still learn more and more about it weekly.... especially with Joe Z., regularly adding features and fixing hiccups, etc..

Anyone that wants to use a Tazer JL or JSCAN needs to be prepared for the learning curve and the trial and tribulations so to speak. And they need to know it is an ongoing learning process.

As for the Tazer JL info the author of this thread says is not out there.... it's out there and been out there for a long while now.. Search for it and have your Tazer JL installer get up to speed on basic Tazer JL related stuff.. No, I'm not going to do the research for you or pointing you too.

@chadk77 For those that program gearing... I suggest a hybrid approach. Do gearing with JSCAN and other stuff with Tazer JL.

Last post for me in this thread. Tazer JL user's... watch out for a bit of misinformation in the original post in this thread.

.

 

[bjm00se]

Last post for me in this thread. Tazer JL user's... watch out for a bit of misinformation in the original post in this thread.

That's pretty vague. If I made a specific mis-statement, I'm happy to correct it and eat any required crow.

Otherwise, I stand by what I wrote.

 

[oldcjguy]

As for the Tazer JL info the author of this thread says is not out there.... it's out there and been out there for a long while now.. Search for it and have your Tazer JL installer get up to speed on basic Tazer JL related stuff.. No, I'm not going to do the research for you or pointing you too.

Last post for me in this thread. Tazer JL user's... watch out for a bit of misinformation in the original post in this thread.

I wouldn't fault someone for not expecting to have to go out and "search" for information on how to use a product I bought. If the information is there and been there for a long while, are we out of line to thing the maker of the product to include all that in their documentation?
That being said, yes there is plenty of information out there and it comes from posts like this. This post may have put tips found in multiple posts in one place which may be helpful for the next user. The op didn't seem to be whining to me. He posted his issues and posted suggestions a long with them.

 

[bjm00se]

One of the things you'll find if you google jeep wrangler jl tazer mini install is a lot of threads on this forum, with a lot of posts by a specific user saying things that more or less boil down to

• if you're having problems, it's because you're doing it wrong
• the information on how to do it right is there if you just search for it
• i can't be bothered to do that for you, you just need to search

Just sayin'

 

[Headbarcode]

That's pretty vague. If I made a specific mis-statement, I'm happy to correct it and eat any required crow.

Otherwise, I stand by what I wrote.

I'm far from a programming expert, but I've been using the Tazer Mini to make a lot of changes over the last few years. I fully agree about there being a bit of vagueness in the instructions that cause a bit of trial and error.

The only misinterpretation that stood out to me in your first post is concerning "Sway Kill". All it does is prevent the Rubicon sway bar from automatically reconnecting over 18 or 20 mph, or somewhere around that speed. There's a seperate menu listing for those who delete the Rubicon sway motor assembly. I used to use Sway Kill, before I swapped to Antirocks and deleted the edisconnect to avoid any warning lights.

 

[bjm00se]

The only misinterpretation that stood out to me in your first post is concerning "Sway Kill". All it does is prevent the Rubicon sway bar from automatically reconnecting over 18 or 20 mph, or somewhere around that speed. There's a seperate menu listing for those who delete the Rubicon sway motor assembly. I used to use Sway Kill, before I swapped to Antirocks and deleted the edisconnect to avoid any warning lights.

Thanks. Quite right. Updated in original.

 

[Recoil]

I just ordered one today actually, but I've been watching videos. The method of configuring stuff looked clumsy. I get that there is probably limitations on what they can display and control on the dash, but then it just makes me wonder why even go that route? Why not add a Bluetooth chip and use a phone app to configure it? Would probably be much easier on the user and could explain stuff in greater detail. I imagine it could also make updates easier to apply as well.

I work in IT, so the current way of doing it doesn't spook me any, but I can definitely see ways it could be easier or more fool proof.

 

[Jhint77]

The customer service department is outstanding IMO. Had to contact them (by email) twice and both times they got back to me QUICK. Both times with helpful answers to my issues.

 

[diesel_dave]

I just ordered one today actually, but I've been watching videos. The method of configuring stuff looked clumsy. I get that there is probably limitations on what they can display and control on the dash, but then it just makes me wonder why even go that route? Why not add a Bluetooth chip and use a phone app to configure it? Would probably be much easier on the user and could explain stuff in greater detail. I imagine it could also make updates easier to apply as well.

I work in IT, so the current way of doing it doesn't spook me any, but I can definitely see ways it could be easier or more fool proof.

I was actually considering buying one and figured it was controlled via a bluetooth app (like everything these days) but was surprised to find that wasn't the case. After some more research, it looks like pretty much none of the features I'd want to use are supported on 4xe so I guess I'll be waiting to see if 4xe support is ever included for those features before making a purchase.

 

[Tncdrew]

@chadk77
For those that program gearing... I suggest a hybrid approach. Do gearing with JSCAN and other stuff with Tazer JL.

+1 for thissuggestion! For changing THE two most important parameters (IMO), tire size, and gear ratio change, perform these using Jscan prior to utilizing a Tazer. That way you can marry and un-marry/remove at will, the Tazer for any dealer service trips, and not compromise those two changed settings.

 

[Jtclayton612]

I’ve found the tazer mini to be pretty easy to use.

The manual I found to be straight forward and not really vague at all. Certainly after fiddling with bios and ram settings in my PC overclocking hobby the tazer is child’s play comparatively and much less nerve wracking that I may fry a few hundred to a few thousand dollars worth of equipment lol.

I think a lot of problems are user error or people not having an understanding of the wording of the manual. Not to say there aren’t legitimate cases of the tazer just not playing nicely with some individuals.

Sponsored