Fake product with stolen software? (with schematic)
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2022
- There's something VERY suspicious about this fake fuel saving product. Why would they use analogue circuitry to turn a microcontroller on and off?
This is a fake OBD engine optimiser which incorporates rogue network interface circuitry with the usual pretend network activity LEDs, but it uses an on/off button that could have used a spare I/O pin on the microcontroller, but instead fudges it with transistors. That makes me wonder if the design was done by someone who used existing software, but didn't have the knowledge to customise it or rewrite it from scratch.
It's not complex software at all. Even in raw assembly code it's just a sequence of bit toggling, loops and delays. It's easily a days work to write and fine tune the software from scratch.
The use of a double sided PCB with fake tracks leading to hidden through holes is pretty devious. It cast enough doubt into my mind to make me desolder components to confirm that the tracks were indeed hidden dead-ends.
Pretty devious. But the reverse engineering was aided admirably by rum and cream soda.
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My local and independent auto repair shop is literally a Ma and Pa operation with their son doing the hi-tech work now. As you walk in, they have a big glass jar labeled "Fake Fuel Savers" that's filling up rapidly with OBD scam boxes they find plugged into customers OBD ports. A few of them have been found guilty of causing the engine to misfire until removed. The jar is a good way to get people talking about scam boxes.
I love how Techmoan is reviewing CD audio scams as BigClive is investigating Fuel Saving scams.
They should've put a blob of black epoxy on there somewhere as as "secret chip"
Keeping up the Star Trek tradition. In the original series when characters opened access ports for theatrical messing with magic smoke and sparks, there were pipes that bore the official looking stencils ‘GNDN’. The set designer later said these stood for ‘goes nowhere, does nothing’.
i've never a seen a bi-stable circuit done like that before! its kind of incredible considering it skirts the problem of stolen code from a stolen design. the ingenuity of thieves is always impressive
Oh! I love it when you go on mini-deep dives in a subject. A string of similar but different tear-downs really cements something in my memory quite well.
You are doing an important job Clive. Thank you!
They went to the trouble of adding these elaborate traces to nowhere, probably the initial version had all the resistors populated as well, just to give the impression that the device is actually connected to the bus in case someone opens it up. But then they thought "oh f** it, no one's gonna do that anyway, let's save that half a cent per unit" 😂
Gotta give them some credit, they had a chance to really mess up the car's computer using this interface, but were decent enough to resist the urge....
Redraw the two NPN transistors as a simple flip-flop, which will simplify the schematic so that your eyes don't cross. In my distant past, I have used this same circuit, but using TTL logic, to make a toggle on-off switch. The key to making it work is that the value of the resistor in the RC network be at least 10x higher than the impedance of the flip flop output that it connects to. The C debounces the switch.
This video just inadvertently made me realize an error I’ve been making and now everything actually makes sense. For WEEKS I’ve been thinking that CAN-Hi is 500k and CAN-low is 250k… when I was working out the circuitry of the “fuel saver” I came across my issue!
Hey big Clive. Just wanted to say thank you. I got my first job after graduation from university as electrical engineer and your videos helped me very much.
Those of us of A Certain Age will remember the small glass phials with spark gaps that were sold in street markets. You put this in your HT lead from the coil and the improvement in performance was demonstrated on the stall with a much bigger, brighter spark. I never saw the Secret Switch they had under the table though . . . .
That seems like they went to a lot of trouble to try and scam a particular group. I hope they don't start messing with the network in future attempts.
Ahh, but Clive, those connector pins are used to hold it in place. We can't expect it to hold on with two pins.
I can only imagine how many people get duped by these globally. Of course everything feels like a scam these days for those of us who pay attention.
Looking forward to all the projects that you are going to build with these "OBD" cases.
Given the odd design, they may have designed it to work using cheap E-Waste components they could get from recyclers, rather than using new and far more expensive sourced components.
In a previous life I got quite experienced with CAN Bus and wrote a software stack for interfacing with the protocol (supporting multiple devices through their own device driver). It was quite entertaining when I applied my CAB scan and detect code to a car and found, naturally, that I had access to all the functionality that a car manufacturer kept for main dealers and prevented independent garages from accessing. In theory, it is quite possible to have something on the car's CAN network that would impact vehicle efficiency. Likely not well advised, and it is also very likely the that vehicle's EMU (Engine Management Unit) will do a far better job.
So glad I serendipitously came across this channel. Totally addicted 👌