I've had zero experience with VCDS as a whole, I've been waiting for Hex-Net to come out for many years now as I did not want to buy a laptop strictly for work, nor did I want to string a long USB cable around my work bay. Once your used to using a wireless scan tool (VAS toughbooks) it's tough to go back.
( if you just want to see the questions I have, scroll down towards the bottom, much of this is my initial experience using vcds/hex-net for the first time)
My main reason for purchase is for quickly clearing non warranty CEL and for resetting service lights, it's been a long ongoing battle to have enough scan tools to perform some of these task.. About 7 laptops and 2 roll around scan tools for 18 techs... At times it can take 10-20 mins to find a scan tool not is use or calling dibs on one someone is almost done with... I bought one tool from autel and it will clear a CEL and read some codes.. But is very vague and doesn't work well, and resetting service lights.... Almost impossible for anything newer. There are various other aftermarket devices, but they are as expensive or are more by 4-6 times what this cost, and they can either reset the service light, or only read codes, not both. Not to mention they are not nearly as in depth of the capabilities, nor have the support that is provided by Ross-Tech. Plus I like the portability that Hex-Net provides, I can pack it away when we take the Audi on a road trip and if the need arises, can diagnose an issue. On top of it all, I Own it!
The initial speed bumps were a little upsetting, but it is a beta product after all so it was understandable. AP mode is highly responsive, and works great every time. I tried switching over to infrastructure mode at home while plugged into the car outside and had some difficulty, initially trying to set it up strictly through my iPhone, which somehow I managed to make it work which I later found out, initially though I believe my wifi router was a problem at this point due to its range being very poor. I managed to get to the login screen in infrastructure mode, however that was it. I had forgot about the forums, and the connection utility. I found the utility, and using a windows desktop ( laptop crashed, which doesn't help any of this) I set it up again that way and went back to the car, it took a long time, but the self test passed. However when I was on my iPhone and trying to connect to vcds cloud, I got nothing but a sky blue blank screen.. Finally gave up and decided to try it at work. Quickly got it into infrastructure mode at work using a laptop now that I knew more of what I was doing, and plugged it into a car, again, tried using my iPhone to gain access to vcds cloud for the advanced functions and got no where, tried a laptop and saw the sign in screen, tried registering, but that didn't work either, sent an email in and got no response, dug around the site some more and found the info about the forums. Next day I decided to try again before making a post, this time on my ipad mini, with no luck making a vcds cloud account, tried my iPhone and success! I was able to output test a turn signal, fog light, wiper arms, and xenon headlight on a newer Q5 from my phone! Awesome!
Next test was resetting a service light on a 2010 or 12 A5 that needed it, went to 17, known adaptions, and hit the service reset, it reset the oil interval and that was it... Went to the other Adaption channels and manually reset the day and mileage counter for the service interval... Little disappointed there... But I got it done... Then I decided to run VCDS off a USB stick on the VAS laptop and found that the full version has a hot key so to speak for resetting the service intervals, performed that and saw all the functions it performed, worked great. While I was running the full PC version I also decided to look at changing the coding of a module like 09 or 46 as I peaked at it on vcds cloud and wasn't sure how it worked ( I've modified coding before on cars to enable features, but I was literally changing 1's and 0's using the factory scan tool as it's not laid out quite like it is using VCDS and the long coding helper). Once I understood you had to select each hex character that is apart of the total long coding on the helper ( so you can see the available check boxes) I understood what had to be done on vcds cloud.
I haven't played with MVB much yet, and only briefly messed with the live HUD feature, that'll be on an as needed basis.
Over the past couple of days I've plugged it in to check faults or clear codes, and it connects to the shop wifi pretty quickly and I can gain access to it through my ipad mini within I'd say 10-20 seconds of plugging it in, about as fast as the factory scan tool recognizes it being connected to the factory Bluetooth dongle. Speed of going through the menus is pretty quick being that it has a strong wifi signal vs what I have at home.
now onto my questions!
Can it/ will it be possible to Mass Load ASAM data for 1 brand?
I don't know the size of storage on the interface, but this would be a nice feature to have for me atleast, since I know I'll be working with one brand mainly. When it searches for ASAM updates, sometimes it finds it, sometimes it times out, sometimes it seems to search and search and search... And I finally give up... and on a 4.0t S8 it found no updates available.
Is there anything that can be done by me to help you with the ASAM data for the modules that don't have it available ?
I've done a couple of auto scans before I had a vcds cloud account so I couldn't save them as I found out,however when I would do the scan it would say that ASAM data wasn't available but would be downloaded afterwards, I've hit the done,go back after the scan and it didn't do anything, then I ran a partial scan, making sure it had scanned a module or 2 that it had no data for and paused it, and hit save, again, no result or attempt to find the ASAM data. Was it because I didn't have an account?
Like the full PC version, can there be a quick link for service reset on the select module page of vcds mobile that resets oil and service interval? I know it requires infrastructure mode and vcds cloud to be performed since it's an adaption, it would help cut down time from having to select 17, let it load, then functions, vcds cloud... Etc etc
Another feature I'm not sure if it exist on vcds mobile, but a clear all codes function, I know VCDS has it, just not sure if I'm missing it somewhere. I was hunting down a rattle on a car and ended up removing part of the center console and the front A/c head on the side of the road, which lead to a bunch of codes in many modules that needed to be cleared before it went back to the customer.
Last question I have for now, I remember reading on another forum, I believe it was from a Ross-Tech employee that the interface can data log without being connected to a device. So for example I've got a car with a intermittent concern, I set it to log the MVBs I select and either I go drive the car, or have someone test drive it and view the log later. How can that be performed if possible? And is it displayed in graph form?
Alright, done for the night, quite a long post to type out on an ipad...
( if you just want to see the questions I have, scroll down towards the bottom, much of this is my initial experience using vcds/hex-net for the first time)
My main reason for purchase is for quickly clearing non warranty CEL and for resetting service lights, it's been a long ongoing battle to have enough scan tools to perform some of these task.. About 7 laptops and 2 roll around scan tools for 18 techs... At times it can take 10-20 mins to find a scan tool not is use or calling dibs on one someone is almost done with... I bought one tool from autel and it will clear a CEL and read some codes.. But is very vague and doesn't work well, and resetting service lights.... Almost impossible for anything newer. There are various other aftermarket devices, but they are as expensive or are more by 4-6 times what this cost, and they can either reset the service light, or only read codes, not both. Not to mention they are not nearly as in depth of the capabilities, nor have the support that is provided by Ross-Tech. Plus I like the portability that Hex-Net provides, I can pack it away when we take the Audi on a road trip and if the need arises, can diagnose an issue. On top of it all, I Own it!
The initial speed bumps were a little upsetting, but it is a beta product after all so it was understandable. AP mode is highly responsive, and works great every time. I tried switching over to infrastructure mode at home while plugged into the car outside and had some difficulty, initially trying to set it up strictly through my iPhone, which somehow I managed to make it work which I later found out, initially though I believe my wifi router was a problem at this point due to its range being very poor. I managed to get to the login screen in infrastructure mode, however that was it. I had forgot about the forums, and the connection utility. I found the utility, and using a windows desktop ( laptop crashed, which doesn't help any of this) I set it up again that way and went back to the car, it took a long time, but the self test passed. However when I was on my iPhone and trying to connect to vcds cloud, I got nothing but a sky blue blank screen.. Finally gave up and decided to try it at work. Quickly got it into infrastructure mode at work using a laptop now that I knew more of what I was doing, and plugged it into a car, again, tried using my iPhone to gain access to vcds cloud for the advanced functions and got no where, tried a laptop and saw the sign in screen, tried registering, but that didn't work either, sent an email in and got no response, dug around the site some more and found the info about the forums. Next day I decided to try again before making a post, this time on my ipad mini, with no luck making a vcds cloud account, tried my iPhone and success! I was able to output test a turn signal, fog light, wiper arms, and xenon headlight on a newer Q5 from my phone! Awesome!
Next test was resetting a service light on a 2010 or 12 A5 that needed it, went to 17, known adaptions, and hit the service reset, it reset the oil interval and that was it... Went to the other Adaption channels and manually reset the day and mileage counter for the service interval... Little disappointed there... But I got it done... Then I decided to run VCDS off a USB stick on the VAS laptop and found that the full version has a hot key so to speak for resetting the service intervals, performed that and saw all the functions it performed, worked great. While I was running the full PC version I also decided to look at changing the coding of a module like 09 or 46 as I peaked at it on vcds cloud and wasn't sure how it worked ( I've modified coding before on cars to enable features, but I was literally changing 1's and 0's using the factory scan tool as it's not laid out quite like it is using VCDS and the long coding helper). Once I understood you had to select each hex character that is apart of the total long coding on the helper ( so you can see the available check boxes) I understood what had to be done on vcds cloud.
I haven't played with MVB much yet, and only briefly messed with the live HUD feature, that'll be on an as needed basis.
Over the past couple of days I've plugged it in to check faults or clear codes, and it connects to the shop wifi pretty quickly and I can gain access to it through my ipad mini within I'd say 10-20 seconds of plugging it in, about as fast as the factory scan tool recognizes it being connected to the factory Bluetooth dongle. Speed of going through the menus is pretty quick being that it has a strong wifi signal vs what I have at home.
now onto my questions!
Can it/ will it be possible to Mass Load ASAM data for 1 brand?
I don't know the size of storage on the interface, but this would be a nice feature to have for me atleast, since I know I'll be working with one brand mainly. When it searches for ASAM updates, sometimes it finds it, sometimes it times out, sometimes it seems to search and search and search... And I finally give up... and on a 4.0t S8 it found no updates available.
Is there anything that can be done by me to help you with the ASAM data for the modules that don't have it available ?
I've done a couple of auto scans before I had a vcds cloud account so I couldn't save them as I found out,however when I would do the scan it would say that ASAM data wasn't available but would be downloaded afterwards, I've hit the done,go back after the scan and it didn't do anything, then I ran a partial scan, making sure it had scanned a module or 2 that it had no data for and paused it, and hit save, again, no result or attempt to find the ASAM data. Was it because I didn't have an account?
Like the full PC version, can there be a quick link for service reset on the select module page of vcds mobile that resets oil and service interval? I know it requires infrastructure mode and vcds cloud to be performed since it's an adaption, it would help cut down time from having to select 17, let it load, then functions, vcds cloud... Etc etc
Another feature I'm not sure if it exist on vcds mobile, but a clear all codes function, I know VCDS has it, just not sure if I'm missing it somewhere. I was hunting down a rattle on a car and ended up removing part of the center console and the front A/c head on the side of the road, which lead to a bunch of codes in many modules that needed to be cleared before it went back to the customer.
Last question I have for now, I remember reading on another forum, I believe it was from a Ross-Tech employee that the interface can data log without being connected to a device. So for example I've got a car with a intermittent concern, I set it to log the MVBs I select and either I go drive the car, or have someone test drive it and view the log later. How can that be performed if possible? And is it displayed in graph form?
Alright, done for the night, quite a long post to type out on an ipad...
