The instructions below explain how to read the FSW_PSW.TRC and NETTODAT.TRC trace files from modules with NCS Expert. Despite some people’s claims of how dangerous NCS Expert is, reading trace files from a module is perfectly safe as long as you keep your head at the job. NCS Expert’s default setting is to code,which is definitely not wanted (at this point), but once the job type is changed to reading the application is harmless.
Please note that NCS Expert uses FSW_PSW.TRC as a temporary file for other purposes as well. In other words; most of the time the FSW_PSW.TRC trace file does not contain valid traces! Therefore it is important to follow the steps below carefully to end up with a proper trace file.
BMW Coding/Flashing/Progrmming PDF+Video Guide
- Launch NCS Expert. At this moment no profile is loaded, so the screen is quite empty.
- From the “File” menu, choose “Load Profil”.
- In the “Choose profile” dialog box, select “NCS Dummy profile” and click “OK”. Nothing much happens, but you’ll notice some of the buttons on the bottom now have labels.
- Click the “VIN/ZCS/FA” button (F1). The button labels change once again.
- Click the “ZCS/FA f. ECU” button (F3).
- In the “Choose CHASSIS” dialog box, select your chassis and click “OK”.
- In the “Choose ECU” dialog box, select one of the presented modules (for example “CAS”, “EWS” or “EKM”) and click “OK”.
- After a short moment, the top groupbox should now show information regarding your car.
- Click the “Back” button (F6). The middle groupbox now shows the available modules and default job name. Depending on the used profile the default job is “SG_CODIEREN” (coding) which we definitely don’t want, so pay attention to what buttons you press right now!
- Click the “Process ECU” button (F4).
- In the “Choose ECU” dialog box, select the desired module and click “OK”. If you want to read all modules, you’ll have to work module by module.
- If “JOBNAME” in the middle groupbox already reads “CODIERDATEN_LESEN”, skip the following steps and jump to 16.
- Click the “Change job” button (F2).
- In the “Choose job” dialog box, select “CODIERDATEN_LESEN” and click “OK”. The default job action is now reading instead of coding. Note that NCS Expert will still say “get coded” in the middle groupbox and during the read operation it says it’s coding… but it will not. “CODIERDATEN_LESEN” is a safe read-only operation.
- Confirm “JOBNAME” in the middle groupbox says “CODIERDATEN_LESEN”.
- Click the “Execute job” button (F3). The process takes only seconds. As said, NCS Expert may indicate it’s coding but it’s actually only reading.
- After the job completed, write down the *.C?? module description file name displayed right below “JOBNAME = CODIERDATEN_LESEN” in the middle groupbox (for example EKM.C25 for the E31 body electronics module). The *.C?? file is the module name that will be used in NCS Dummy. It is important to do this after reading as the module description file shown before reading is the one NCS Expert expects and not necessarily the one that is actually present in the vehicle! Steps 12 to 16 can be performed in a single step by clicking the “Read ECU” (F4) button instead but that always opens an annoying nettodata window… Newer versions of the “NCS Dummy profile” default to job “CODIERDATEN_LESEN” making steps 12 to 16 redundant.
Head over to the C:\NCSEXPER\WORK\ folder and look for FSW/PSW trace file FSW_PSW.TRC and nettodata trace file NETTODAT.TRC . Do not perform any other actions in NCS Expert until the trace files are processed with NCS Dummy or saved to another location because NCS Expert uses FSW_PSW.TRC as temporary file for other actions and may overwrite the traces you just generated.
If you rename the trace files using file namestructure CHASSIS-MODULE[-optionaltext].TRC , for example E31-EKM.C25-FSW_PSW.TRC and E31-EKM.C25-NETTODAT.TRC,NCS Dummy will automatically set chassis and module when loading the trace files.
It is strongly recommended to keep a backup of the original unmodified trace files (before coding changes) for future reference.