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Porsche CAN Gateway cannot read anything on CAN Crash anymore after tapping

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1 year 9 months ago - 1 year 9 months ago #56769 by martopoulos
This is on a 2019 718 Cayman. So, here's the sequence of events that led to the failure (in Porsche's PIWIS scanner tool, it's like nothing at all, including the factory blind spot radar is hooked up):

1. Disconnected the CAN gateway plug
2. Added PosiTaps to CAN Gateway's Crash High/Low, hooked up a Lane Departure Warning camera
3. Reconnected CAN gateway plug
4. Everything looks peachy -- camera can be read, no problems on CAN Crash at all
5. Disconnected CAN gateway plug again
6. I moved two more CAN Crash wires to the same PosiTaps (headlight leveling module), so two sets of 22 AWG CAN high/low wires per tap.
7. Previously, the headlight leveling module was tapped into CAN Comfort, where it mostly worked but it wasn't supposed to be there.
8. Ignition on and kaboom.... nothing can be read anymore.
9. I disconnected both sets of wires from the gateway wires and start troubleshooting (so the taps are still in place, but nothing is connected to them)

What I've tried:

* Voltage readings with multimeter: the factory wires (on the accessory-side of the tap, not the plug side) are both showing 2.5V, which mirrors what others in forums have found on working CAN wires
* Continuity checks
* Reset CAN gateway control module with PIWIS and auto-coded
* Disconnected negative terminal from the battery to reset everything
* Checked various Gateway readings from PIWIS' Actual Values tab -- nothing obvious stands out, everything is showing "OK", though if anyone knows something specific to check, I'll look again
* Reset Gateway shutoff (I think that was the name) in PIWIS, though it did not indicate anything was shut off before

Out of ideas here. Everything seems to be functioning from an electrical perspective. I'll include some random other details in case they're somehow relevant:

* The headlight leveling module was previously wire tapped to the Comfort Entry sensor in the frunk (CAN Comfort?). That wire is still in place, in case I have to move back to it, albeit disconnected on one side. I wrapped the ends in fabric looming tape.

* I discovered the ground connection on the Lane Departure Warning camera has a high resistance (I mirror tapped into the mirror's ground connection, so that's weird), but the camera is not currently connected and I don't know if that would matter even if it were still powered except for the functionality of the camera itself. Something to be fixed later, I'd say.

* I haven't tried outright removing the CAN gateway taps, as I do need them and wouldn't want to make a new insertion point later.

Is it possible Porsche built in some ultra sensitive 'tripwire' of sorts where if it detects anything off on the CAN gateway, it'll just shut off communication via the affected segment and there's no way to restore it!?

Any insights are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Last edit: 1 year 9 months ago by martopoulos. Reason: add year and model

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1 year 9 months ago #56803 by martopoulos
Answering my own question: turns out if you have long, unterminated CAN wires still hooked up, even if they're tapped into a totally different segment than the one you're working on, it can cause bus failures. I originally had the headlights hooked up to CAN comfort, as they were the most convenient location to tap into at the time. I left the wires dangling unterminated, but didn't want to remove the tap in case I had to fall back to it. Welp, I removed the tap today and instantly 2 out of 3 devices on the CAN Crash segment came back to life. Now to figure out why the third isn't recognized...
The following user(s) said Thank You: Noah

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