Bronco ForScan Thread

Airborne_Ape

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I understand some users here may not be in the Ford eco system at the moment so this thread may seem unusual, but in time, I hope you will learn from this thread how to modify your Bronco and add factory features it may not have shipped with. A lot of what I will discuss here at first will be Sync 3 related, due simply to the fact that the Bronco doesn't really exist at the moment, but it's so much more than that.

Utilities which can be used to splice bits of different Ford's together include, Ford's IDS, UCDSYS, ForScan, FoCCCus. Users in this website will find each of these programs very useful for a broad assortment of reasons which may be discussed here over time.

Linked here is the best ForScan tutorial on the web and will explain nearly all aspects of how to get started.

I have these words of caution: If you're tempted to order a Bronco with the assumption you can add factory features to it later which may not be offered in your tier or trim package; yes it should probably be possible. My warning is that in nearly every example on other Ford forums, it's almost always more difficult, more time consuming, and more costly than just ordering the package or feature from Ford in the first place. This thread will be of more use to owners once used Broncos hit the market a few years from now. Future used car owners don't have the luxury of ordering every option they want from the factory; but you do, so don't cheap out.

I figure the best way to kick off this thread is to explain below how I was able to record the Bronco boot animation in Sync 3. You can enable it for yourself too on any new Ford vehicle since it's not a 'leak' and Ford knowing published the content onto every new model already. Just don't redistribute the content since there's a press embargo, I learned the hard way LOL.
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Husker

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It's my first day.

I understand some users here may not be in the Ford eco system at the moment so this thread may seem unusual, but in time, I hope you will learn from this thread how to modify your Bronco and add factory features it may not have shipped with. A lot of what I will discuss here at first will be Sync 3 related, due simply to the fact that the Bronco doesn't really exist at the moment, but Sync 3 technical discussions should be isolated to it's own thread.

Utilities which can be used to splice bits of different Ford's together include, Ford's IDS, UCDSYS, ForScan, FoCCCus. Users in this website will find each of these programs very useful for a broad assortment of reasons which will be discussed here over time.

I figure the best way to kick off this topic is to explain how I posted the video of the Bronco boot animation to YouTube and how you can enable it to see it for yourself on any new Ford vehicle since it's not a 'leak' and Ford knowing published the content onto every new production model.
Glad youā€™re here.
 
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Airborne_Ape

Airborne_Ape

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To understand how I was able to display the Ford Bronco Boot animation on my 2017 F150, thereā€™s a few concepts I must explain first so that you grasp my motivation to get to this point, which has nothing to do with the Bronco.

Itā€™s not difficult to comprehend that most (if not all) automotive manufactures will use the same ECUā€™s across multiple vehicles to reduce overhead in development costs. Example, the windows and mirror module found in a Ford Mustang, is the same as an F150, Lincoln MKX, Fusion and so on. Many of these modules are typically the same across a wide range of models or years. In many cases model specific features are just logical binary bits that are either flipped on and off. If a Ford Mustang owner can roll down their windows with a key fob but an F150 owner canā€™t; one would think there must be a way to turn on the feature? the same principle applies to auto folding mirrors upon ignition start, if a Lincoln can do it, why canā€™t other models? Well, this dilemma has been solved already in other Ford forms you may not be aware of.

Enter ForScan. In a nutshell it's a free software utility which emulates Fordā€™s in vehicle network communication protocol in such a way that anyone can purchase an MS / HS can compatible OBD II adapter online to read and edit hex values in the modules in their Ford, Lincoln or Mazda vehicle. While itā€™s tempting to affiliate-link one from Amazon, I wonā€™t because most are terrible. Essentially, Ford owners have the power to enable or disable typically inaccessible features. ForScan is not the only program which can do this. Ford allows anyone to input a VIN at this MotoCraft Service website (select country, then refresh page) to generate a file containing expected stock programming values found in a vehicle's modules. A community member in the F150 Forums created this utility which allows users to take multiple Motocraft files and compare them against each other in a streamlined way, so that users can isolate feature sets to hexadecimal code variations when comparing two or more window stickers.

Example:
If a Super Deluxe Bronco has a built in espresso machine in the arm rest but a Soccer Mom Edition Bronco doesn't, you can compare the raw module data between the two VINs, isolate which bits enable said espresso machine. Then find a wrecked Bronco to pull said parts form and retrofit an unavailable feature into a any other trim level.

By using this method, Ford community members, specifically in this thread, have mapped out nearly all the modules in the 13 Gen F150 and other Ford vehicles by isolating which modules data controls which features. By isolating data between VINs, we are able to create a theory of what should happen, test it, confirm it, and then have proven configurations listed in this decoding sheet for others to use. This is the process I used to access the Bronco startup screen (more on that below), but itā€™s also a process you can use to uncover a large magnitude of other factory mods and transferable features. There's other ways to uncover what bits control what options as well such as monitoring before and after data sets when making changes with tuners, dealer tools, ect.

Example: last year before the 2019 F150 spec sheet was published, Ford teased the market by releasing a few photos of the Limited editionā€™s interior. Thanks to the fact Ford stitches the VIN to the center console on the limited edition, I took the VIN they published in photo's, downloaded the data from the MotoCraft site, compared it to known data from the same modules in other Ford vehicles and was the first person to conclude 2019 F150ā€™s would not ship with a CD player. At the time Ford chose not to publish or blur out the center dash. While no CD player is not exactly click-bait news, you could adopt the same principals to pull specs from Ford and Lincoln Vehicles you see at auto shows, I certainly have, but only for personal reference.

My motivation to dig for new Sync 3.4 boot animations, was a just something I did to kill a few minutes one weekend afternoon. I enjoy testing features on my F150 which I assume exist (but aren't listed or enabled) based on what's in other vehicle profiles. This is how the Bronco animation was uncovered. I wrote this guide outlining how Ford owners can format older Sync 3 assemblies to install the newer Sync 3.4 user interface. Having previous experience programming stock Sync 3 themes and boot animations, in addition to knowing that the new Ford Explorer had a new boot animation not yet listed on the data sheet, led me to search for possible new content in this area. Previous hex data was known and mapped out at an address between 00 and 0E.

I had learned that the new Ford Explorer animation was addressed to 12(HEX) from an explorer owner. So my thought process was: If 00 to 0E is data we know, and 12 is the new Explorer content, what is located at 0F, 10, 11? there must be more, and sure enough there is. I messed around and tried experimental data and mapped out my findings, which just so happened to be one of the YouTube videos that got passed around here.

Using the same principles, a community member worked out how to add Sync Connect to any Ford vehicle and I wrote a tutorial on the subject here, which is where you'll also find the origins of the Bronco boot screen subject around post #212.

I laugh when I see most automotive ECUā€™s are labeled with the manufacturing sticker ā€˜dispose of if droppedā€™. Somewhere there must be a garbage bin full of perfectly good Bronco ECUā€™s you could theoretically connect a laptop, via a donor vehicle to pull every unlisted spec from, but... it's my first day.
 
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Stampede.Offroad

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I figure the best way to kick off this topic is to explain how I posted the video of the Bronco boot animation to YouTube and how you can enable it to see it for yourself on any new Ford vehicle since it's not a 'leak' and Ford knowing published the content onto every new production model.
I look forward to that.

:thumbsup:
 


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Airborne_Ape

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My advice is that if you're tempted to order a Bronco with the assumption you can add factory features to it later which may not be offered in the trim package ordered; yes that's possible, but in nearly every example on F150, Mustang, Fusion, Focus, ect forums, it's been proven to almost always be more difficult and costly than just ordering the correct package or feature from Ford in the first place.
 
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Airborne_Ape

Airborne_Ape

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I created my avatar from your video!
If I had known anyone cared, I would have at least wiped the fingerprints off the screen first. I never clued in that it was even for the Bronco. When I first saw it, I was wondering why Ford would want to advertise that the Mustang is made of garbage which rolled down hill.
 

BroncoMike

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Welcome, and thanks for taking the time to stop by. The ForScan community is one of those indeed rare forums where people spend a lot of time collaborating on projects to understand and improve the digital environment we live in. Please accept my gratitude for sharing your knowledge; what you do may be self-entertaining, but it can be of great value to many and you have no responsibility to freely distribute your hard-earned knowledge. Thanks.

I've been playing with ForScan for some time now, using it in a limited fashion to run diagnostics on older 7.3 Diesels. I was aware that the community was much larger and diverse in its research, but I was not familiar with any specific projects. I'll spend some time exploring the threads you linked, maybe get a head start on familiarity with the more modern internal side of things before there's one in my driveway to start modifying.

Thanks again for posting and sharing your hard-earned data. Great work on the Bronco already!
 

Jalisurr

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This is really cool. As a sysadmin and programmer by trade, it's cool to see how much control and information we are able to get from modern vehicles now. I don't own anything new enough to do this level of digging on but now I'm very intrigued.
 


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Airborne_Ape

Airborne_Ape

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This is really cool. As a sysadmin and programmer by trade, it's cool to see how much control and information we are able to get from modern vehicles now. I don't own anything new enough to do this level of digging on but now I'm very intrigued.
Well Dave, I'm Vancouver often. Next time I'm in a Ford I could show you the basics involved to pass some time, it beats sitting around at the bar all night. My day job is programming slot machines in every casino, so most of the time I just tell people I live at Holiday Inn.
 
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Chad....great to have someone like you in the forum. A few questions please:

modify your Bronco and add factory features it may not have shipped with
Ford owners have the power to enable or disable typically inaccessible features.
Knowing the vehicle is 99% mystery at the moment, can you offer a few examples here. If window or folding mirror control is simply a digital on/off setting, why would Ford not ship the vehicle with everything enabled?

Your fellow forum members here are hungry for even the most basic information about U725. For example, after learning the word "Bronco" will be a prefix for SEVERAL different Ford Vehicles, we're not even sure what the vehicle in question will be called. Any basic info you've gleaned on U725 would be Most welcome.

Again...welcome & look forward to reading your posts.
 

Jalisurr

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If window or folding mirror control is simply a digital on/off setting, why would Ford not ship the vehicle with everything enabled?
Because then they can offer auto-power-folding-mirrors as part of the 'premium package' and charge you more for it, without adding any cost to manufacture.

It's like on some older cars where all the wiring for features you don't have is still there and you can just plug one right in.
 

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Knowing the vehicle is 99% mystery at the moment, can you offer a few examples here. If window or folding mirror control is simply a digital on/off setting, why would Ford not ship the vehicle with everything enabled? . .
One part to stock, one installation to train people/robots to do. While still getting to charge some people more money for more functionality.
 
 




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