X-cal 1 To Become Useless?

[qik1]

I dont have anything constructive to add but Charlie & in sure theres a few on here that would like you & your mates at SCT. This could get abit messy before theres a conculsion to this story/problem.

[mic]

if there is a live update for the x-cal, I dont know why anyone did not expect this. if I knew this was a possibility, I never would have opted 4 it. they had somethin up their sleeve from day 1.

[arronm]

Someone in WA is selling them for $695. Its funny too, they started to push them on a few of the forums only 2 days ago. They got more then a few in stock too. Hmmmm....

they can sell them cheap as they deal directly with SCT.

[HIRO F6]

So who is allowed to sell SCTs gear now? Is everyone allowed to except Capa or have others been dropped as well? My next question would be who would want to sell X Cal 3 after all this has happened?

[Superdan]

IMO, a few tuners/suppliers will be happy to offer (if only for a short time) it as a lot of X1&2 owners will not be as fortunate as us to have this kind of information at hand, and will simply fork over the cash as they know no better (or the real story!).

There is one (maybe two) WA members who have had their cars tuned with this house, so that's only a very small percentage of people with these boxes who will have heard about this so far.

Edited 31/01/09 01:35 PM by Superdan

[arronm]

So who is allowed to sell SCTs gear now? Is everyone allowed to except Capa or have others been dropped as well? My next question would be who would want to sell X Cal 3 after all this has happened?

I just spent a few moments reading the sniper software, you can store multiple bullets (tunes) on the box and these can be for multiple cars. This seems superior to SCT item. It suits me as I have more than one car. Now we need the major tuners to switch over.

[01txr]

Becareful, anyone looking at the sniper.

I tried this option with no success.

Apparently it does not support all ecu's in BA's.

I spent like 10mths being stuffed around trying to be able to use it.

For the last 6mths the seller and myself where trying to locate another

ecu to suit a BA Manual XR6T, unsuccessful.

This would have also need to be reset by Ford.

Then ended up purchasing the Xcal2 from this dealer as he said I could

adjust Air, Fuel, ignition, gear ratio etc.

This was not the case so sent it back.

In the end the seller refunded me the cost of the unit.

I still lost heaps on std calls, sending registed insured post three times to the west coast etc.

I then purchased from my current dealer a Xcal2 and Racer Pro Tuning software.

I am currently using Xcal2 with Racer Pro tuning software that was not purchased from capa or above dealer.

I am still uncertain at present weather I will be affected or not, waiting answers.

Maybe lucky I didn't purchase from capa, since they could not offer me the Racer Pro software.

So found another supplier that could.

This could be some of the reason why capa is the center of attention in all this, as they are affecting

sales of other SCT products.

What I can't seem to work out is if capa is the problem due to resetting the flash tuner as mentioned throughout

this thread, why had SCT advertised there product to be able to be reset up to 5 times??????

Another thing I have been told is the Xcal3 has compatability issues with the BA/BF, weather this might

just be using the Racer Pro software or the unit to car being the issue.

I was originally going to pay the extra to purchase the Xcal3 (Livewire tuner) but was told to purchase the Xcal2 because of the problems

with the Xcal3.

everyone needs to reserch what options to choose.

the SCT product is great.

Its a pitty they have taken steps that affect the end user instead of the offending dealer.

Its So wrong......

not very well thoughout......

we the end user's will never know the truths of this and will just have to not stress to much as it

will be a very long process if it goes to the courts.

If I was SCT, I would just cut the loss at the Barra era using SCT's Xcal1 & Xcal2 and just look into the future with the Xcal3 and Orion on wards, learn from there mistakes so this never will occur again & dont advertise multiply lives.

If the problem is with capa, make it public so everyone knows what has occurred.

Stupid punishing the end user when they are the bread for the future.

Eg I own a BA XR6T and when I purchase a FG I would be looking at a tuner for it.

There actions have made me decide to not purchase one of there products again (first Loss)

my brother has just purchased a FG XR6T yesterday morning and I will be informing him of the actions SCT have taken (2nd loss)

A friend of mine is also awaiting a settlement and is looking to purchase a FG F6 also wanting to tune(3rd loss)

then every other potential Ford purchaser also will learn of this (3rd to 10 000 and counting loss's)

Cant beleive a large company with world wide trades could make such a stupid decission as they have.

The internet is very powerful and the word spreads.

[Romulus]

Sounds like you have an ecu issue.

[HI PSI]

WelL I must say thatb this has left a citter taste in my mouth. If this problem is not resolved , I like many will be looking for alternatives. I will not support a company that offers me no support.

They might get me once... They will never get me twice......

So ???? What is our best alternative ???

[ratter]

Hi guys

after taking 2 days of reading different forums and talking to a couple of the major players involved in all this, I have to admit I'm not 100% clear of the future of our tuning product, but will try to set a few things straight as far as I'm aware of things.

When we purchased the SCT software, we had to sign 2 contract agreements, a contract for Capa and a contract for SCT. Some of the clauses in these contracts relate to us not trying to hack the software or reverse engineer their tuning devices and also not willingly allow another person to do the same.

As tuners we have the ability to unlock a flash box, providing the original tune was returned to the original car, the owner could then reuse his flash box on another car and this could be done up to a total of 5 cars. Now if this orignal tune was not returned, we as tuners could not unlock these boxes, so they originally would have to go back to SCT to be unlocked. They would normally only do this after a car was written off or was stolen and the owner still had their flash box, but legal proof would have to be produced.

SCT eventually allowed an australian distributor the ability to unlock these boxes to save sending them back to the states.

It has been reported that an australian distributor was recently trying to sell flash boxes that they would continually unlock for a fee, which means a customer could get a car tuned but without the cost of a flash box, but they would not own a flash box. Now this may work out cheaper for the customer for a 1 off tune, but if they wanted tune touch ups they would continiually have to absorb the unlocking fee, so after maybe 3or4 changes, they would be worse off and still not own a flash box. This distributor has also posted, that this was not happening, but they threw it out there to see if there was a need for it.

This may not seem like a big deal to some customers, but it would be for SCT. Most software companies make their income by receiving licence fees. If you have another brand of car tuned, normally in part of the price is a fee for a vehicle licence or if no licence fee is applied, the tuner has paid a lot more money to have unlimited licences for a particular model and he would be passing on some of that extra cost as part of his price to meet his overheads. We have to think of these flash boxes as SCT's licence fee, every time they sell a flash box they received their licence fee. By a company/person having the ability to reuse a box over and over on different cars is basically robbing SCT, basically piratcy.

Now I don't think at this stage anyone actually cares about SCT at the moment, because of the way they have decided to conduct themselves, but they had to take measures to stop this from happening. The way they have done it is wrong as far as I'm concerned, I believe there is better ways, but now we have to suffer.

SCT has not sold any Xcal1 (our flash box) since 2005, they are old technology and all companies stop supporting an old product at some stage, but they should not stop it from working, just allow it to die a natural death from either old age or using all it's lives.

As far as Herrod, they have not just been made the distributor, we were informed before october last year that they were now the australian distributor and once anyone elses stock was sold, Herrod would be the sole distributor for australia. Now SCT has told us in the last 8 months or so, that we could deal directly with them, so I'm not sure whether this still applies with Herrods being the local distributor. I believe Herrod sell the X3 as this is the current unit being used in the states, SCT do not sell the Xcal1 or flash 2 anymore.

The unit is dearer than what we have become accustomed to, but remeber that the flash box was $1295 when it came out.

X3 is not the Livewire tuner

It appears that next week, SCT will be going over tuners and allowing some the ability to be able to flash the boxes again, but this appears to be for only another 90 days at this stage, but I know talks are still happening regarding this.

As far as other tuning options, I have spoken to some other tuners that have toyed with other software and it appears they are not compatiable with all processor codes and models at this stage, so some cars could be tuned with brand A but not brand B, so it appears SCT is the best product at the moment, but things may change in the future.

I think if distributors of sniper or VCM suite are serious about their product, they could offer tuners a sample of their software with possibly the ability to flash 1 car, so a good comparison can be made about products.

I believe SCT had to act

I believe they went about it the wrong way

I don't believe Herrod's are the villians

Pit Lane still has 290 burns left so we can still do a few cars and hopefully it will be sorted by the time they are used.