Tazer startup screen fix?

[NachoRuby]

"customer service"

Are you 100% certain you didnt reset trip counter b, rather than a? Or one of the two mpg screens? Because that trip counter just looks like it's never been reset before. It just starts over at 0 again ever time it hits 10000 under normal usage. Did you check counter B? The one above matches your truck's odometer perfectly, which is why I ask. That's your lifetime mileage and lifetime hours driven.

Also, not to sound like a spokesperson for tazer, but it would make sense that the aftermarket head unit wouldn't show up on the vehicle audio screen, being aftermarket and all.

I'm with you, but just trying to help find the root cause. The tazer shouldn't be able to do anything once umarried, and especially once unplugged, because there would be no coding injected into the canbus.

Personally, I'd just check the other mpg screens and trip planners first, and then I'd try the stock head unit to see if it also shows x's on the audio screen. I'm an Ockham's Razor kind of person, so I'd just want to try those explanations before moving on to another cause.

If I went back and tried trip planner b and then the stock radio, and it still didn't work right, I'd start questioning the tazer. And then there's the dedicated mpg screen too (not the one under the trip planners). There are two of those, which reset independently of the two trip planners and of each other. What mpg do they show?

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[ShastaJT6]

Really sorry. I hate these programmers. I heard all the venting from others, but needed to program for gearing and tire size.

What if you unmarry it, then reset the vehicle to factory defaults, then remarry it just for the couple of needed settings? Just a thought. If it works, you could then unplug and store it.

Thats actually where I'm at currently. Unmarried it but the goofiness with the dash display didn't go away, so I remarried it and changed the tire size again, then removed it. If I'm stuck with it being goofed up by this thing I can at least have my speedometer correct. I'm going to try to get it to the shop soon to have them look at it but life has been getting in the way.

 

[ShastaJT6]

Are you 100% certain you didnt reset trip counter b, rather than a? Or one of the two mpg screens? Because that trip counter just looks like it's never been reset before. It just starts over at 0 again ever time it hits 10000 under normal usage. Did you check counter B? The one above matches your truck's odometer perfectly, which is why I ask. That's your lifetime mileage and lifetime hours driven.

Also, not to sound like a spokesperson for tazer, but it would make sense that the aftermarket head unit wouldn't show up on the vehicle audio screen, being aftermarket and all.

I'm with you, but just trying to help find the root cause. The tazer shouldn't be able to do anything once umarried, and especially once unplugged, because there would be no coding injected into the canbus.

Personally, I'd just check the other mpg screens and trip planners first, and then I'd try the stock head unit to see if it also shows x's on the audio screen. I'm an Ockham's Razor kind of person, so I'd just want to try those explanations before moving on to another cause.

If I went back and tried trip planner b and then the stock radio, and it still didn't work right, I'd start questioning the tazer. And then there's the dedicated mpg screen too (not the one under the trip planners). There are two of those, which reset independently of the two trip planners and of each other. What mpg do they show?

Totally valid suggestions here, I get you. That's my biggest concern - shouldn't. I have these problems that aren't supposed to happen (bad their "engineer" seems more confused than I am) that started once the tazer was married the first time and don't go away when it's unmarried. None of this happened before the tazer was introduced, but their team has been zero help.

I was able to recreate the trip meter issue. I zerod it before work this morning and took a picture when I left the house and again before I left work in the afternoon. It's only been.. 8 hours or so? Not 82.. and you can see the odometer has only moved by 18 miles, but the trip meter reported over 7000?

 

[ShastaJT6]

Are you 100% certain you didnt reset trip counter b, rather than a? Or one of the two mpg screens? Because that trip counter just looks like it's never been reset before. It just starts over at 0 again ever time it hits 10000 under normal usage. Did you check counter B? The one above matches your truck's odometer perfectly, which is why I ask. That's your lifetime mileage and lifetime hours driven.

Also, not to sound like a spokesperson for tazer, but it would make sense that the aftermarket head unit wouldn't show up on the vehicle audio screen, being aftermarket and all.

I'm with you, but just trying to help find the root cause. The tazer shouldn't be able to do anything once umarried, and especially once unplugged, because there would be no coding injected into the canbus.

Personally, I'd just check the other mpg screens and trip planners first, and then I'd try the stock head unit to see if it also shows x's on the audio screen. I'm an Ockham's Razor kind of person, so I'd just want to try those explanations before moving on to another cause.

If I went back and tried trip planner b and then the stock radio, and it still didn't work right, I'd start questioning the tazer. And then there's the dedicated mpg screen too (not the one under the trip planners). There are two of those, which reset independently of the two trip planners and of each other. What mpg do they show?

Sorry, just realized I didn't address your comments on the Audio page of the dash display. There are two problems there, I'll try to explain more clearly.

1) the audio page used to work, with the insane Audio unit, before the tazer was installed - album art from Spotify etc would show on the dash display.

2) the dash display used to remember what page it was on - if I was on the speedometer when I turned off the truck, it would return to that when I started the truck again. Now it just goes to the audio page with the Xs everytime I start the truck. Gotta tell ya, being greeted with a reminder that my firmware is goofed every time I start the truck is not doing a lot of good for my stress level.

Sure, there could be worse problems, the truck isn't stuck in limp mode, but there are a few key concerns here.

1, I didn't pay $400 for this module to goof my firmware.

2, if these are the issues I can see, what's going wrong that I can't see?

3, the issues with the audio page don't go away when the unit is unmarried, which means it's done some sort of permant damage (in my mind anyways)

The only responses I've got from texting them are basically "that's weird" or "I don't know how that could happen" which.. isn't great..

 

[IamPro2A]

My only guesses at this point...
I believe when you initially marry the tazer, it makes a backup of the original firmware (or at least every possible setting it can access) and saves it internally. Then you use it to make your changes. When you unmarry, it downloads that original saved programming back into your computer.

Now, maybe it's possible, when you admittedly did not follow the instructions to use the taser, that the original programming did not get saved, or was damaged? It's really the same as if you unplugged your pc or smart tv in the middle of an update, or your cellphone's battery died in the middle of an update. The results are unpredictable, and it's possible your pc, tv, or phone may not work properly or at all after. Anyway, if that was the case, unmarrying might not help. When you talked to Z Auto, did you tell them exactly and honestly exactly what you did and didn't do in the beginning? If that's the issue, I wonder if a dealer reflash might fix things? Just tossing stuff against the wall here, seeing if anything sticks...

 

[NachoRuby]

My only guesses at this point...
I believe when you initially marry the tazer, it makes a backup of the original firmware (or at least every possible setting it can access) and saves it internally. Then you use it to make your changes. When you unmarry, it downloads that original saved programming back into your computer.

Now, maybe it's possible, when you admittedly did not follow the instructions to use the taser, that the original programming did not get saved, or was damaged? It's really the same as if you unplugged your pc or smart tv in the middle of an update, or your cellphone's battery died in the middle of an update. The results are unpredictable, and it's possible your pc, tv, or phone may not work properly or at all after. Anyway, if that was the case, unmarrying might not help. When you talked to Z Auto, did you tell them exactly and honestly exactly what you did and didn't do in the beginning? If that's the issue, I wonder if a dealer reflash might fix things? Just tossing stuff against the wall here, seeing if anything sticks...

Great points. Zautomotive may even have a firmware on file that they might be able to walk OP through reflashing. I remember having to do that when I used to work on tuned vws

 

[ShastaJT6]

My only guesses at this point...
I believe when you initially marry the tazer, it makes a backup of the original firmware (or at least every possible setting it can access) and saves it internally. Then you use it to make your changes. When you unmarry, it downloads that original saved programming back into your computer.

Now, maybe it's possible, when you admittedly did not follow the instructions to use the taser, that the original programming did not get saved, or was damaged? It's really the same as if you unplugged your pc or smart tv in the middle of an update, or your cellphone's battery died in the middle of an update. The results are unpredictable, and it's possible your pc, tv, or phone may not work properly or at all after. Anyway, if that was the case, unmarrying might not help. When you talked to Z Auto, did you tell them exactly and honestly exactly what you did and didn't do in the beginning? If that's the issue, I wonder if a dealer reflash might fix things? Just tossing stuff against the wall here, seeing if anything sticks...

This is a solid point here - the way I remember it is that I did follow the procedure for marrying and changing settings up until the 2x power cycles after, I'll own that for sure and as you said I've mentioned it here previously.

I would imagine that the scenario you laid out would be more likely if I disconnected 12v or unplugged the module halfway through the marrying process, but I could be completely wrong.

My biggest concern is that if I do have to do a dealer reflash, and then the tazer ends up goofing the firmware a second time, I'm back where I started.

I had seen a recent post here by one of the supercharger manufacturers mentioning a car computer change that occurred that had been throwing their tunes out of whack for customers and I can't help but wonder if that's somehow related. Grasping straws at this point.

 

[ShastaJT6]

Great points. Zautomotive may even have a firmware on file that they might be able to walk OP through reflashing. I remember having to do that when I used to work on tuned vws

This was what I expected from them - their website even mentions they may send you files, and they have the update tool etc - but their customer service has been pretty worthless so far. It takes 24-48 hours to get a text back and they all pretty much amount to "that's weird, man".. which is stressing me out since it makes me feel like I'm on my own here to figure this out.

If I can get this thing sorted I'd definitely like to switch to another brand or solution after.

 

[IamPro2A]

I would imagine that the scenario you laid out would be more likely if I disconnected 12v or unplugged the module halfway through the marrying process, but I could be completely wrong.

I totally agree. But maybe it didn't save properly without the reboot?

I feel your pain and am grasping at straws here since I've never seen anyone else with this problem and all the usual solutions aren't working. I have a real love/hate relationship with troubleshooting.

If I can get this thing sorted I'd definitely like to switch to another brand or solution after.

If all you are looking for is fixing tire size, JScan is certainly another option. AlphaOBD is slightly more $$$, but a more economical option if you have more than one vehicle it works with, plan to own more, or have friends you wanna help out. There are other devices to "fix" the ESS, if you are also after that. Unfortunately, the Tazer is the only solution if you want any of the other live functions it offers.

 

[ShastaJT6]

Officially throwing in the towel on this one. Last week or two have been crazy - lots of overtime, family events, and a funeral on the horizon - Ive been stressed out and really havent handled this well. Lots of appreciation to the folks that tolerated my rambling and tried to support.

I took the truck to the shop this morning and they looked at it and basically said "Nope, youre not crazy, this is just really really weird.". Unmarried and returned it for a full refund. Issues are still present - x`s on the screen, trip meter and audio screen broken, etc - but Im going to take it to the dealership and ask them to flash it back to stock.

Long term, will likely purchase an AEV Procal Snap for dealing with tire / gear calibration.

For the record, Z Automotive texted me again this morning and recommended an unmarry and power cycle.. and I told them, for the 10th time, thats been done and hasnt fixed it, and repeating the same copy/paste no effort response is just giving me the finger, but its not relevant at this point because Ive realized I wont get any support from them and returned the product.

Going to see if I can get the truck to the dealership this weekend and close this chapter.

 

[jjs3845]

Officially throwing in the towel on this one. Last week or two have been crazy - lots of overtime, family events, and a funeral on the horizon - Ive been stressed out and really havent handled this well. Lots of appreciation to the folks that tolerated my rambling and tried to support.

I took the truck to the shop this morning and they looked at it and basically said "Nope, youre not crazy, this is just really really weird.". Unmarried and returned it for a full refund. Issues are still present - x`s on the screen, trip meter and audio screen broken, etc - but Im going to take it to the dealership and ask them to flash it back to stock.

Long term, will likely purchase an AEV Procal Snap for dealing with tire / gear calibration.

For the record, Z Automotive texted me again this morning and recommended an unmarry and power cycle.. and I told them, for the 10th time, thats been done and hasnt fixed it, and repeating the same copy/paste no effort response is just giving me the finger, but its not relevant at this point because Ive realized I wont get any support from them and returned the product.

Going to see if I can get the truck to the dealership this weekend and close this chapter.

Hopefully they'll be nice to you. I'm sure you're not the first to have a device cause an issue like this.

 

[NachoRuby]

Your experience is your experience, and I don't want to negate it. All I'm going to add, is that when I needed help with them, supprt was top notch.

It still seems like that if you explained to them what happened you might have been able to download a firmware file to start over. I'm betting that whatever happened when it married the first time corrupted the firmware file.

 

[ShastaJT6]

Your experience is your experience, and I don't want to negate it. All I'm going to add, is that when I needed help with them, supprt was top notch.

It still seems like that if you explained to them what happened you might have been able to download a firmware file to start over. I'm betting that whatever happened when it married the first time corrupted the firmware file.

Im glad that you had a better experience, didnt have a bunch of headaches. I wouldnt want to wish that on someone else (unless maybe they have a grumpy grille..) Its entirely possible I just got the wrong person or something.

I would have really appreciated if they offered that level of support (referring to them providing a file to start over) but unfortunately they didnt. I provided a lot of clear details and pictures and all I ever got from them was "Thats weird, unmarry it and try again". I made it clear to them that if the unmarry fixed it, I wouldnt be contacting customer service, I need to move on to next steps.. but they just beat around the bush and repeated themselves.

Im in agreement that the firmware was corrupted during the initial marry - whether that was from not doing the two power cycles after the marry, or another component in the truck conflicted (the insane audio unit perhaps) or I simply got a lemon unit, I cant really say. I have considered that my IA unit is set to power off the truck as soon as it is switched off, rather than on a 15 second delay (or whatever seconds it usually is from OEM) and I wonder if that caused the power cycles not to "take" properly.

Either way, I cant just keep beating my head against the wall and waiting for it to get softer, time to switch strategies and try something different..

 

[ShastaJT6]

In case anyone is curious - got some followup on this.

As stated previously, despite the nonsense the Tazer team spews - after unmarrying / removing / multiple power cycles, my dash was still goofed. Also, settings that I changed had not reverted (for example, the seatbelt minder remained disabled). Their claims that the Tazer does not write to the vehicle are obviously false.

Got my hands on a Superchips Flashcal ( 3571-JT version ) and have made some progress.

1) Resetting the instrument cluster and body control module via the Flashcal unfortunately did not fix the "screen with the xxs" showing on boot every time I start the truck. My trip meter is also still broken... BUT resetting the modules with the Flashcal DID seem to fix some things - the seatbelt minder came back on, for example, so it seemed to have some sort of effect.

2) Flashcal has been WAY easier to use and was like $50 less. None of this marrying nonsense, plug it in and go. The standalone device with its own screen, interface, buttons is SO much easier to use. It has you do one power cycle after making changes and walks you through it (Turn off engine and press ok / turn on engine and press ok).

3) The truck was BURNING gas when I changed the tire size with the Tazer - this has NOT been the case with the superchips. In both situations, Tazer and Superchips, I fired up google maps on the cell phone and adjusted the tire size options until the truck speedometer matched the google maps reported speed. This was done on the freeway using cruise control to allow for constant steady speeds to ensure the phone / truck were synced. Did this at night or early morning for safety reasons, and matched speeds at 55mph and 75mph. Pulled off the freeway and parked before making any changes / operating any devices / all that stuff.

I did not mention this before because I thought my gas mileage had simply plummeted due to new / bigger wheels and tires - after having calibrated with both the Tazer and the Superchips, its now obvious that when using the Tazer the truck was running FAR richer than it should have been.

4) Shift points are way better. The truck is handling really well. Just got back from a few hundred mile road trip for opening of turkey season and she handled great.

So, yea, some goofiness with the cluster still, but overall Ive got a much better product and the truck is driving much better. I still have to cycle through the menus to get back to the speedo every time I start the truck, trip meter is broken, BUT the truck is calibrated properly, speedo is matched & running well, I think im ready to close this chapter and get on with my life. Hopefully I can figure out the dash at some point but it is what it is.

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