FORSCAN best practices and procedures?

[Firn]

As the experienced hands well know FORSCAN is a powerful tool but is a bit like trimming a bonsai tree with a chainsaw.

Being a newby I didnt have a good procedure for using forscan but am working on it.

That said, how do you use forscan? When and how do you do saves? What is your folder structure? Any other "best practices" for using this powerful but dangerous tool?

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[21st Century Truck]

As the experienced hands well know FORSCAN is a powerful tool but is a bit like trimming a bonsai tree with a chainsaw.

Being a newby I didnt have a good procedure for using forscan but am working on it.

That said, how do you use forscan? When and how do you do saves? What is your folder structure? Any other "best practices" for using this powerful but dangerous tool?

THIS here thread below (1st post) is a very good intro. Enjoy!

http://www.2gfusions.net/showthread.php?tid=4573&highlight=forscan

 

[Firn]

THIS here thread below (1st post) is a very good intro. Enjoy!

http://www.2gfusions.net/showthread.php?tid=4573&highlight=forscan

To be honest, this is a bit of my concern. That is a really good tutorial on HOW to use FORSCAN, but in a quick scan it appeared they didn't recommend saving the module until AFTER they had made changes.

With out trucks getting OTA updates, and worse sending the on-vehicle As Built data BACK it is super easy to end up with an unrecoverable situation. It's WAY too easy to screw it up with no way out and forscan has almost ZERO safety net.

I guess what I am asking is now the how to on using forscan, but how do you manage it outside of forscan.
What folder structure do you use? Do you back up all modules before starting, or just the ones you are changing? Naming conventions?

What works for managing saves and changes, not strictly how to interact with the software itself.

I wanted to post this since I don't see enough focus on "save often, save early, save always".

And sorry if it is in there, I only did a quick scan and will read it all tomorrow.

 

[21st Century Truck]

To be honest, this is a bit of my concern. That is a really good tutorial on HOW to use FORSCAN, but in a quick scan it appeared they didn't recommend saving the module until AFTER they had made changes.

With out trucks getting OTA updates, and worse sending the on-vehicle As Built data BACK it is super easy to end up with an unrecoverable situation. It's WAY too easy to screw it up with no way out and forscan has almost ZERO safety net.

I guess what I am asking is now the how to on using forscan, but how do you manage it outside of forscan.
What folder structure do you use? Do you back up all modules before starting, or just the ones you are changing? Naming conventions?

What works for managing saves and changes, not strictly how to interact with the software itself.

I wanted to post this since I don't see enough focus on "save often, save early, save always".

And sorry if it is in there, I only did a quick scan and will read it all tomorrow.

Gotcha.

I used to write down every change, in two columns, i.e. the module code line, the FROM and then the TO.

I used to do this by hand on a special notebook.

Never looked back thru that notebook, after several years of use. This was on my 2015 Fusion Energi and on my son's 2013 Fusion Energi (now both long gone).

Now, on my 3d Ford since those Fusion days, I write the FROM and the TO columns down, sometimes. Just in case something doesn't work... as occasionally, it doesn't. BTW - this method was instrumental in eventually proving to myself that every time I did a well-documented change, and it failed to work, that it was (so far) always my fault in skipping some detail of the attempted change.

Separately, I do back up and rescan the car's modules to the laptop. I use this convention: Carname YYYYMMDD so that I can quickly sort and find the latest sequential scan for the given car. I've found that with the car name (i.e. "Lightning") and YYYYMMDD, my memory always jogs me to what I was trying to change, when, as I practically never change more than one or two settings per session. This works for me.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lytning]

I am using this thread ...
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/2021-f-150-forscan-list-database-spreadsheet.1578/

Which contains a link to this tutorial ...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-8dKaS_Spu4Zw4hV_CrKC4tLoP9G8yejqegF1wxIqxY/edit

The tutorial contains the following content regarding backup ... which is followed by a section on how to perform the backup including a link to a demo video ...

Using FORScan
When you connect to your truck for the first time with FORScan, it is absolutely essential that you perform a backup of your modules before making any changes so you have an easy way to revert changes in the future. After you complete all the module backups I highly recommend you copy the backed-up module files to a secondary location such as a usb drive just in case your computer ever crashes. The default location where FORScan saves the files you create below is in the \documents\Forscan\ folder.

 

[rugedraw]

I would youtube a FORScan tutorial. Personally, I learn better that way than I do from reading, so may make you more comfortable.

I take a pic of whatever it there before I change anything in case I need to revert back to it. I don't find it necessary to make full back-ups of a module(s) if I am just going to do a simple change in one line, but that's just me.

 

[Lytning]

I would youtube a FORScan tutorial. Personally, I learn better that way than I do from reading, so may make you more comfortable.

I take a pic of whatever it there before I change anything in case I need to revert back to it. I don't find it necessary to make full back-ups of a module(s) if I am just going to do a simple change in one line, but that's just me.

The photos and video tutorial are very good suggestions.
Do you have a favorite tutorial video you would recommend?

 

[Zprime29]

I read Livinitup's guide and watched a few random videos, they where all very similar. I was a little nervous about mucking with the code, but it was very straight forward. The videos helped as a quick guide on which buttons do what in FORScan, but I found the written guide a little better when it came to making the edits and how that works.

 

[rugedraw]

The photos and video tutorial are very good suggestions.
Do you have a favorite tutorial video you would recommend?

I do not know of any in specific.....sorry. I know there are plenty of them on there, though.

 

[jdmackes]

If you're concerned about losing the information, you can always use the https://www.motorcraftservice.com/ website and put in your VIN. I believe that some of the settings can change on the website after you've changed them in forscan, but I'm not 100% sure on that. You can always try and get the VIN of a matching model and copy that to correct an issue too.

 

[bmwhitetx]

In FORScan, when you are about to do anything to a module, just click the Save All button first (only available in the As Built screens for each module). It will automatically save the file with the name vin_module_date_time (to the second).

After the update (especially if using Easy mode), do another Save All. I then use As-Built Explorer to compare/confirm the changes made. In a separate Excel sheet, I just note the date and changes made with any url that discusses the mod.

I just make sure all of these files are stored in the same folder on my laptop. I use cloud storage like OneDrive so I can then see them on my desktop.

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