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Intro to Forscan

Savage160

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I hear a lot about Forscan. I have no clue what it is or how it could be used. Can anyone point me in the direction of where I can go to learn about this and get my feet wet on how to use it? I tried googling it, but I was overwhelmed with a bunch of places that wanted my money.
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CACTUSGREYFX4

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There are multiple Forscan threads on here, check out those. I leave my trucks stock so I don't use it but lots of people have.
 
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Savage160

Savage160

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There are multiple Forscan threads on here, check out those. I leave my trucks stock so I don't use it but lots of people have.
yeah, it’s just hard sifting through the threads to figure out a good starting point to learning it.
 

CACTUSGREYFX4

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yeah, it’s just hard sifting through the threads to figure out a good starting point to learning it.
There are many knowledgeable people on here just asks some of them, they would probably be happy to help.
 

stemplar

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yeah, it’s just hard sifting through the threads to figure out a good starting point to learning it.
I agree with this. I went through forum posts and web search results but don’t recall coming across any general introductions or things that explain the different areas well for newbies. I did manage to make the changes I wanted to (tire size and camera views while driving), but my confidence while doing so wasn’t great, and a year later my confidence in undoing what I did isn’t near where I’d like it to be. In other words, I found enough info to muddle through it, but felt like I was copying answers I didn’t understand.
 

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rugedraw

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RedTurboMr2

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It's very easy to do and some of the features are awesome. Main one in my opinion is the glare free lighting, highbeams stay on all the time and pixels go out when there's oncoming cars. Here's a list of things I did....

-Glare free lighting
-Changed the three turn blinks to five blinks, gives you more time to switch lanes.
-Removed the black box saying full view not available when using the rear camera.
-Bambi mode, foglights stay on with highbeams
-TPMS, add tire temperature with the tire pressure
-Added the power distribution screen
-Enabled trail turn assist

There's a bunch of other things you can do, especially if you don't have a raptor since a bunch of it is already enabled on the Raptor.
 

OxygenMask

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I agree with the OP.
All I ever see is things about asbuilts and pids and pcm and dcm and backups and saves and I don't know what that stuff is... I've been aware of forscan for many years and a mechanic buddy used it to enable remote start and a few other things on my F350 a few years back. I know 2 people who bricked their vehicle computer with forscan, so "messing around with it" is bad idea if you aren't sure.
 

RedTurboMr2

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I agree with the OP.
All I ever see is things about asbuilts and pids and pcm and dcm and backups and saves and I don't know what that stuff is... I've been aware of forscan for many years and a mechanic buddy used it to enable remote start and a few other things on my F350 a few years back. I know 2 people who bricked their vehicle computer with forscan, so "messing around with it" is bad idea if you aren't sure.
Just look up youtube videos, it's easy. And if you mess something up, all you do is undo the last thing you did. I tried adding adaptive lighting on top of the glare free lighting, and it didn't like that. I lost all the buttons on the steering wheel. All I did after that was disable adaptive lighting and the buttons worked again. You can use Google AI to help you step by step, just don't input the numbers they tell you if using as built, since they can be different from model to model even if you type in your model. Have the forscan spreadsheet open and input those numbers/letters. You can use the non as built option for some of the features, .makes it even easier since you just select enabled and don't have to change numbers.
 

midnight270

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I found this YouTube video to be very helpful. He explains everything you need and how to get started.

You only need two things, a laptop and an OBD2 connection. You can follow his instructions and pretty much change the usual things. I would make sure to take a picture or screen shot of the OEM programming before changing anything. Just as a backup if anything goes wrong.
 

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RedTurboMr2

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Is it still the case that forscan only works with Windows?
Yes, Forscan does not have a Mac version, but i'm pretty sure you can use a mac by using programs like CrossOver Mac where it lets you run Microsoft applications or a virtual machine that lets you run Windows. I would just use a laptop running windows, makes it much easier without the extra programs needed.
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