jmccorm
Well-Known Member
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- #46
SHORT ANSWER:I have no idea or knowledge about any of this but it leads to me asking, why? What’s the purpose of what your doing.
We're figuring out how the Wrangler's components talk to each other (via the CAN bus). While everyone else is focused on hardware mods, we're starting a new focus on software mods. And further down the road, maybe we'll collaborate on new mods that have both hardware AND software components. (Smart hardware mods that know the status of your vehicle and respond appropriately.)
LONG ANSWER:
For me, it all started with a complaint. It was cold outside. I remote started the Wrangler. Once I let it warm up, I came outside and hopped in. And you know what? THE CABIN WAS AS COLD AS ANYTHING!
As it turns out, when you remote-start the Wrangler (perhaps for safety reasons) it doesn't turn on the AC blower fan and it doesn't do any kind of cabin heating. Best you'll get, if the temperature is below a pre-set level, is that it'll turn on your seat warmers and steering wheel warmer. My Wrangler is parked outside (making it safe for the heater to run), and I wanted to have a nice warm cab in the winter (and cool in the summer, too). So I set out to figure out how that might work.
This is one of those little things where you might have been saying to yourself, "My Wrangler would be perfect if only it could..." and you've got a problem that could be solved if only the Wrangler's computer acted a little differently. As another example, I think it would be perfect, after taking the doors off of the Wrangler, if it would remote start. (No, it won't do it.) But with a little computer work, we could make that happen.
So what we're actually doing is decoding the vehicle's CAN bus (the electronic bus that ties most of it's components together). The more we figure out about the CAN bus, the more we can change the vehicle's behavior to make it do more of the things we want it to do. And we're more able to add brand new features that nobody has seen before.
Other people have different reasons. For example, they want to replace the built-in radio with a project of their own making, and they still want it to be able to read the current status of the vehicle and make configuration changes just like you can in a uConnect radio. The information we're uncovering helps make that possible. And more.
Hope this helps. We're actually being productive here. One of the other differences is that we're not being secretive and hording the information to ourselves. We're sharing with everyone else along the way. We're hoping other like-minded individuals will join in. Not you? That's fine. You're still welcome to watch, if you're interested!
EDIT: April, 2021 - Grammar.
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