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toyota software

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Tombukt2, Apr 27, 2024.

  1. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Now that I have like six Priuses here on premises I've noticed some different things in Toyota software in the generation 2 when I connect to scan for codes look for problems etc pretty normal run of the mill things go on but when I scan generation 3s and up the software sees problems and I click to look at the freeze frame data lots of things show up highlighted in orange in the generation 3 I'm guessing that these are things that the software sees that it wants me to look at because a number changed a little bit like in the given squares for RPM under a given issue it'll highlight a box because the RPM changed by 50 RPMs while the engine was running which in normal engines that wouldn't be anything to even really think about honestly but apparently in these computer control designs that must be a thing or in my generation too should I also be seeing these orange highlighted events? Because I never see them in the generation too all the boxes and the squares are white with black numerals in them for whatever value there showing over the freeze frame time. But in the generation 3 it's not like that. So I'm guessing as the cars get newer the software becomes more capable and does different things as far as highlighting and making notations and getting the human to see and look at different things?
     
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    As far as I know, the ECUs in the car are not involved in this highlighting of particular values. The protocol where the scan tool requests a PID and the ECU replies with a number does not, that I know of, make any room for the ECU to say "and this number is weird".

    So I would guess that the rules for what numbers to highlight are built into Techstream, and maybe they just did more of that for the gen 3s than for gen 2s.

    Assuming the logic is in Techstream, nothing would necessarily stop them from going back and adding similar rules for gen 2s if they wanted to, which might show up in a newer Techstream release. But they might just not have the interest in going back and investing that effort for a long-ago model.
     
  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I was just trying to figure out what the orange highlighting was all about and by looking at the data whatever it is I'm looking at at the time it looks like these squares are lit up in orange for the human looking at the screen to notice that given box for a reason like with this ignition coil problem I was having in the generation 3 it's showing me for one thing the RPM the engine is turning when this code is happening or going on and I noticed that on all four of the boxes the only thing that's different about any of the numbers is a difference of 50 RPM while the engine's only turning about I don't know 1,300 or so to begin with so it's like in one box it's 1350 and the other box is $12.95 and the next box it's 1388 RPM whatever so there's a variance in the RPM and I guess for some reason the software wants me to notice that. So I guess that's a without knowing what values I would be looking for to begin with seems kind of strange I mean my mechanic buddies they look at the software and they're like yeah right great so I've got a different RPM at this second and it's 50 more at that second and..
     
  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    My experience with this is that when you clear codes in Gen2 Prius they go away... When you clear codes in Gen3 Prius they may go away from the system, but they're still stored in the memory and make you think they haven't gone away. But then after you drive around for a while they finally go away.

    So I suspect Gen3 has a more thorough protocol for holding onto data that Gen2 usually wipes clean soon as you clear the code... Maybe that helps with diagnosis?
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Gen 3 for sure implements the OBD notion of 'permanent' trouble codes, retained after a 'current' code is cleared, and not forgotten until the associated self-test has passed the right number of times in a row.

    But I think the orange highlighting Tom is talking about is highlighting of values being shown in a data list or a freeze frame, not of trouble codes.
     
    PriusCamper likes this.