ECU's

[jkc89]

hey all still quite new to the owners club so bear with lol.....

anyway im starting on a research project which involves examining in-car computers such as GPS and the ECU for digital evidence for incriminating bad people , the theory is criminals who use computers are now storing data they dont want in the wrong hands in there own cars...literally; this has already been done with in-car GPS's and your standard tomtom GPS's but now there are ways to store small data files like word documents in the memory chips on the ECU. As i dont have any knowledge at all with ECU's i wondered if anyone on here could comment on this and perhaps give knowledge to the layouts of ECU's and how to connect laptops/pc's to it and types of software used to access the ECU for performance tuning on cars. Any comments on this and i would be greatful!

Thanks

[Reaper]

I think you may be confusing yourself somewhat..

Firstly TomTom's (Satellite Navigation) won't have an ECU inside them. The ECU or Engine Control Unit is a blackbox which contains a Silicon Chip, more commonly known as a EEPROM, which has flashed (written to) to it a program which has set (or a monitoring range) values, in which will monitor and optimize the operation and performance of your engine, among other things (eg mileage).

The tomtom can store things like word documents and images due to it wither having internally or facilitating by way of insertion socket, a memory card/stick which has (loosely similar to an ECU) which enables you to store such things (which is also where the maps are stored).

ECU's can have modified ROM's (software) written to them, to change the AFR (Air to Fuel Ratio) to increase to size of combustion, making the car release more power. These are as you say can be flashed from a laptop, but more commonly done from an ODBII unit which has had the software pre written to it.

Being able to facilitate the ECU to track people would bean having a GPS unit attached separately (AFAIK there isn't one built together) for example a trakker system.

for more info.. consult Wiki

[jkc89]

I think you may be confusing yourself somewhat..

Firstly TomTom's (Satellite Navigation) won't have an ECU inside them. The ECU or Engine Control Unit is a blackbox which contains a Silicon Chip, more commonly known as a EEPROM, which has flashed (written to) to it a program which has set (or a monitoring range) values, in which will monitor and optimize the operation and performance of your engine, among other things (eg mileage).

The TomTom can store things like word documents and images due to it wither having internally or facilitating by way of insertion socket, a memory card/stick which has (loosely similar to an ECU) which enables you to store such things (which is also where the maps are stored).

ECU's can have modified ROM's (software) written to them, to change the AFR (Air to Fuel Ratio) to increase to size of combustion, making the car release more power. These are as you say can be flashed from a laptop, but more commonly done from an ODBII unit which has had the software pre written to it.

Being able to facilitate the ECU to track people would bean having a GPS unit attached separately (AFAIK there isn't one built together) for example a trakker system.

for more info.. consult Wiki

Sorry to confuse buddy, i didnt mean to say TomTom's have ECU's in them i was just stating how files can be hidden in GPS's. I just wanted to hear what knowledge people have of there inner works, i realise hiding data on the rom chip would eaily break things LOL....i just wanted to know if people knew of any other memory chips on the ECU where files could be stored without destroying the control system for the car?

[KeithC]

Sorry to confuse buddy, i didnt mean to say TomTom's have ECU's in them i was just stating how files can be hidden in GPS's. I just wanted to hear what knowledge people have of there inner works, i realise hiding data on the rom chip would eaily break things LOL....i just wanted to know if people knew of any other memory chips on the ECU where files could be stored without destroying the control system for the car?

So, what docs are you trying to hide? ;)