Beginning BBX Flashing

Black Box Reading and Flashing, also called BBX, is when you read or flash the ECM, PCM or TCM in your vehicle without using a computer.

In order to Black Box Read or Flash (BBX) you need to train your AutoCal to speak to the vehicles you wish to work with.

Start by making sure that the Autocals firmware is completely current.

Then open up EFILive Scan and Tune and click the F5:BBX button.

Make sure that F2:Scan is selected and click the Read button at the bottom of the page.

This is where you'll set up BBX Scanning. If more things are selected than you want, either uncheck all the items you're not interested in or right click on the list and choose Uncheck All Items and then check only the items you're interested in.

At the bottom of the page is a bar that shows the used and free space available in the AutoCal's Config File System. It's important that there is some free space available. If the bar is red, then you've selected to much stuff. You don't need to worry about that now, but you do need to pay attention to it as we go on.

After you've got only the ECMs you're interested in scanning checked we can move on to the reading and flashing part by clicking the F3 Tune Button on the left edge of the window.

Now we need to do the same basic thing. Make sure only the items of interest are checked. Again, right clicking and choosing Uncheck All Items will give you a clean slate to work from.

Make sure the bar is still green bar, if it's red, you need to uncheck some items.

If you have a V2 instead of an AutoCal you will also be able to select the F4:Switch tab which will let you name the 5 DSP tunes you have in your diesel truck. That assumes you have a diesel with a DSP5 tune that supports serial tune switching, otherwise this tab is rather useless.

Lastly, you can select the F5:DTC tab and select the DTC descriptions you'd like loaded into the device. If you're not using the device to scan codes, you can uncheck all of these, saving a lot of space to allow scanning, reading and flashing a lot more kinds of controllers.

When you've got everything set the way you want it, you may choose Save so the Scan and Tune tool will remember your settings. You may also choose Save As by clicking the tiny arrow on the right edge of the Save button.

When you're completely happy with your settings, you need to program them into the device. In theory you just need to click the Program button. I like to erase the config file system before programming so I'm sure that only what I've just chosen is loaded I do that by pressing the tiny arrow at the right edge of the Program button and then choosing Format CONFIG File System. After doing that, you will need to press the Program button to write all your selections to the device.

At this point your device should be able to perform all of the BBX features you programmed into the unit.