So in the forestry world, there are these machines called "skidders" whos job it is to pull the felled logs out of the woods and stack them where the logs are loaded on the trucks. Well - skidding logs is generally paid by the log or by the run. More logs = more money.
John Deere makes a few different varieties of skidders with different rated power, but the engine, trans, axles are all the same. The higher horsepower ones can pull bigger loads faster and are worth more because they can move more logs in the same amount of time. They place more load on driveline components and cost more to purchase.
Well, as you would imagine, there is a whole cottage industry dedicated to cranking up these skidders to run the specs of the big boys with the low cost unit's buy-in. Voids the warranty, but since it is a factory flash, the warranty problems don't usually arise from overpowering the machines.
So in some industries, the low power cheap model and the high power big boy models are the same with a different cal, and flashing the high power cal on it makes the cheap version into the high power version. Saves a lot on development costs and lets Deere offer different units at different price points.
It can't remain uncracked forever. The problem is that unless the software is receiving regular updates, eventually it's going to stagnate and someone will find a vulnerability to get into it.
Despite billions of dollars spent, it hasn't ever worked for the entertainment software industry. Game manufacturers have been trying to build uncrackable DRM for decades now and it's always defeated at some point. The end result was game devs finally settling on a DRM scheme which is just hard enough to crack that it got them through the initial sales period of the game where they make the most money. After that, oh well.
morello159 said:
Hell, it's by a different mechanism, but the situation is essentially the same as it was for NA/NB Miatas. There was no way to reflash those ECU's either, and we still got along, either through piggy back systems or replacing the engine controls altogether.
The difference is that the newer ECUs are a lot smarter than the NA/NB Miata ones were and they can figure out they're being spoofed. Heck, even the old Miata stuff will do that to some extent if you cared enough to pay attention to the tuning. We have to mask some of our alterations from the stock ECU so it won't react. You can even see it on the reflashed NDs, the first dyno pull is the "marketing chart"*, because the ECU will catch on after the next couple of pulls and a bunch of your gains will disappear.
Replacing the engine controls completely - you don't realize just HOW far ahead the manufacturers are over the aftermarket. Not just the hardware (but also the hardware), but the time spent in calibration. I have a friend who works doing calibration for one of the big manufacturers, and every time they stop by it's a wonder to look at just how instrumented those cars are. The sheer number of man hours put into the mapping is mind-boggling. And then they continue to improve - drive a 2016 and a 2019 Miata back to back and you'll feel the difference in the calibration.
*not for us
