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Diagnosing "Failed to Initialize..." Errors


Most of the time ECU flashing works without a problem but there is always the small chance that something could go wrong.  ECUs from different manufacturers all have their unique characteristics as well as potential problems too.

The Woolich Racing Tuned software is used to read/write information to/from an ECU and uses different communication protocols based on the specific ECU.  Sometimes there are problems with the communication and an error like "Failed to initialise..." is shown in the software.

The ECU is a kind of computer that on a bike controls all the functions of the engine while the bike is running, in this mode the ECU is reading signals from the bike sensors and sending commands in real time to tell the bike's hardware what to do next.  In order to read or write to the ECU it is necessary to stop this normal mode of operation and get the ECU ready to send/receive data to/from the WRT software.  

This means that the ECU must stop trying to communicate with the bike and get ready to communicate with the WRT software.  The first step in this process is known as initialisation and although it is different for various ECUs, the common factor is that we need to tell the ECU to stop what it is doing so that we can control it directly.  If this is not successful then we may see an error like 'Failed to initialise...' and this may or may not contain further information about the error.  This error will typically occur before any reading or writing has happened and there can be a number of causes.

This article is about issues encountered when attempting to communicate with an ECU (eg. read or write) however the operation does not complete successfully.  In most of these cases the WRT software will provide further information about the error, this article provides information and tips on how to resolve these sorts of issues.

These error messages can come in a number of different forms, please see below for suggested resolutions:
  • Failed to Initialize Communications with ECU - No Initial Response. 
    • This means that the ECU is not answering requests from WRT which could be due to it not being turned on (ie. power issue), connected correctly (ie. harness issue), or maybe the wrong bike model is selected to the ECU doesn't understand the commands that we are sending.
    • In this case please confirm the following: 
      • You are using the correct Woolich Racing harness for the bike and it is installed according to our Installation Instructions
      • The USB Device is connected and installed correctly
      • The Mode Switch on the v3 device is in the right-hand side position (Green LED on)
      • The Ignition is switched on
      • The Bike is in neutral
      • The Kill Switch is in the Run position
  • Failed to Initialize Communications with ECU. Read ECU is only available after the ECU has been written using Woolich Racing Tuned software.
    • This error indicates that the ECU is unable to be read out and must first be written to using the WRT software.  Only after writing to the ECU for the first time with the WRT software is it possible to read the bin file out.
    • This issue has nothing to do with power, harness connections etc and is a well known issue which is common for many eg. Denso ECUs where reading the ECU is not natively supported
  • It is also possible that the ECU may have been previously written to and locked by another software package.  This effectively prevents the WRT software from being able to communicate with the ECU.

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