I don't think it is a standard QR code due to the absence of the three 'cornery bits'.

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

It's on a Skoda window motor module circuit board on the microcontroller chip, so may well be a software ID sticker or similar.

 

I scanned it and got -

 

Barcode

DATA_MATRIX

03591746

 

Not sure that'll help you much

It's not obvious at first glance how that might help, but thanks for trying. 

(I was writing this before Aspman replied.)

 

I'll go for the (probably) obvious, even though it (probably) won't help you much. It is very probably an internal reference, so you'd have to wonder whether knowing that someone's internal reference for this board is 1234567AB2 would actually do you that much good (it would probably be the bare board, or the board with components, and that might include software and version numbers, but probably isn't the board in a box, if that's a thing)?

 

Firstly, it is not on all that straight. Sometimes such things as use for initial alignment of the pick 'n place machines, but if that was the case, I'd expect it to be on straighter (so, probably applied by hand rather than by machine).

 

Also, the code doesn't have a massive number of bits in it; certainly enough for the 1234567AB2 kind of thing mentioned earlier, but not enough for a database index of everything in the entire world.

 

Secondly, there seem to be a lot of miscellaneous capacitors scattered around. You could understand  a lot of capacitors for EMC/ESD reasons, if they they were grouped around I/O connectors, but they don't seem to be, not in any organised way, anyway. The values aren't very similar, either, which they would normally be if they were EMC/ESD capacitors.

 

Maybe a stepper motor driver, which has multiple phases to drive? Then, you would expect to see several similar sections, and that isn't apparent.

 

Some of the soldering looks questionable, but not in a way that leads you to suspect dry joints - this is a little excess solder in a couple of places, but that leads you more to suspect that, at the extreme end of the distribution, there might be solder shorts on some boards.

 

While you'd normally expect more organisation than this, and that might raise suspicions about ESD vulnerability, the board should still have been through some level of testing, so while it raises some suspicion, it ought to be alright, really.

11 minutes ago, Camlobe said:

initial alignment of the pick 'n place machines

I believe the diamond shape in the bottom right hand corner (and two  other corners) is a 'fiducial' for this sort of purpose.

 

I probably peeled off that sticker to attempt to ID the chip underneath so it may not be oriented as it was.

 

I was hoping it would contain some minimal and human-readable data when decoded, along the lines of SW vers: 1.0

 

It (the board) operates a relay that in turn powers the window motor either way, and there's current sensing of the motor power presumably for end-stopping etc. There's also another big chip just in shot on the left which is a dedicated chip for these applications: MC33689

Edited 23 April, 20215 yr by Wino

That MC33689 is, these days, an NXP chip, although it would have have started out as a Motorola number, then Freescale.

 

Anyway, the data sheet is here.

 

I'd have expected some kind of power driver(s) along with it, whether that be discrete power devices or some integrated device that drives multiple outputs, possibly also some simple microcontroller (the  MC33689 doesn't really have intelligence - it is unclear if that is an issue, but it may be possible to provide whatever intelligence is needed from the other end of the bus).

Yeah, got the datasheet already ta.

I haven't investigated too much of the circuitry yet, but as far as I could see/measure the MC33689 chip drives the (dual) relay coils directly. The chip under the QR sticker is the micro. 

 

 

Edited 23 April, 20215 yr by Wino

Not sure if this is any help but my web ferreting confirmed that it's a "Simple Vector Data Matrix Icon" but I couldn't find any claims to ownership thereof :(

 

[Update] I've attached an (almost) orthogonal clip of the icon and I now know how to get you a T-shirt made from it if you want one

 

Edited 23 April, 20215 yr by MikeTheThinker
update

38 minutes ago, Wino said:

 

It (the board) operates a relay that in turn powers the window motor either way, and there's current sensing of the motor power presumably for end-stopping etc. There's also another big chip just in shot on the left which is a dedicated chip for these applications: MC33689

 

Usually, the thing that requires the fastest reaction is start/stop, and particularly, current limit in fault conditions. It isn't all 'deliberate' start/stop, if someone puts their hand, or neck, in the way of the window, you don't want a quasi-unlimited current/torque to be available, on the other hand you do want enough torque to be available to wind the window up or down reliably.

 

So, it has got to be controlled, and within a moderately narrow range, or one extreme of the range will go wrong.

10 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

I now know how to get you a T-shirt made from it if you want one

God yeah!

Errr, asking for a friend, of course. Is there software to compose such things, and does that mean that you could compose T-shirts with more-or-less arbitrary messages on them that no one else could read?

 

Just hypothetically, of course.

If there is no other individual codes on the PCB, it will be a traceability code with the look up tables held by the PCB manufacturer for dates and bill of materials etc. Skoda won't necessarily know whats in this code unless they requested a breakdown of details from the supplier.

I'll have a look at the rest of the board and case when I get home shortly, ta.

There are various codes on the casework, both original manufacturer (Temic) and Skoda applied, but according to one ebay seller who deals in a lot of NOS genuine VW group stuff, the actual software installed by VAG isn't discernable via any of these.  Whether that's true or not I don't know.

@MikeTheThinker - Could you do one that reads "There's no place like localhost"? For the ultimate Unix geek joke.

Ken:

You'd go for "localhost", rather than "192.168.0.0", which, to me seems geekier?

 

9 hours ago, Wino said:

I'll have a look at the rest of the board and case when I get home shortly, ta.

There are various codes on the casework, both original manufacturer (Temic) and Skoda applied, but according to one ebay seller who deals in a lot of NOS genuine VW group stuff, the actual software installed by VAG isn't discernable via any of these.  Whether that's true or not I don't know.

 

Normally, the software would be installed by the Manufacturer (Temic, in this case). If Temic didn't install the software, they couldn't really test it thoroughly, in most cases.

 

Now, there may be a facility for VAG to overwrite that software, but, generally, that would only be used to fix unanticipated problems, and not very often at that (it breaks all of the production test procedures, but if push comes to shove...).

 

Again, normally, you would expect some simple monitor software which you could use to toggle outputs and report version numbers, but, that will consume memory (and development time) so could easily be the kind of thing that is sacrificed. And, if the whole program can be overwritten, the monitor software may only be available by overwriting the production code (although that, in turn, is a recipe for vehicles escaping with the wrong software, and probably the only way the dealer has to deal with that is to strip the module out and replace it, and you really don't want that to happen often).

Surely it would read There’s no place like ~/

8 hours ago, Camlobe said:

Ken:

You'd go for "localhost", rather than "192.168.0.0", which, to me seems geekier?

That's arguable, but isn't knowing "localhost" geekier than confusing it with "home" which is user configurable and need not reference a specific IP address on every system.

So happy that this line of thinking means nothing to me! 

The background to the 'why care' of this thread stems form the fairly unreliable nature of these modules in later life, and trying to understand which parts can work in which cars. 

The part numbering is complex, and according to the aforementioned ebay seller, what you see on the units themselves doesn't even tell the whole story.  My first post in this thread includes links to various bits of info https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/492722-window-regulator-motor-control-unit-part-number/ but I still have very little grasp of what's really different between the electronics and software within each of the multitude of variants. 

Does the 'SK3' suffix on the part numbers for Mk2 Fabia even refer to the software loaded inside? Someone must know! Mk1 Fabia has a different suffix, as does Roomster, and VW applications all have ones starting with VW instead of SK.  What's it all about?

 

 

 

Edited 24 April, 20215 yr by Wino

There weren't any other stickers on the circuit board, but there are two on the rest of the module, pictured below.  Two more QR/barcode things too, which I suspect say much the same as the accompanying text?

 

The odd thing is that the parts listing (and the source - a member on here) say this is from drivers side front door of a 2007 Mk1 Fabia, so the suffix should be SK1, which doesn't correlate obviously to anything I'm looking at on those labels.

Parts page: individual parts; for models with electrically op... - Fabia(FAB) [EUROPA 2007 year] (7zap.com)

The SK1 part has been superseded, but not until 2014, so couldn't apply to this unit made in early 2007: Buy 6Y2959802SK1 window regulator motor Skoda genuine OEM part (oemwolf.com)

 

19 hours ago, Camlobe said:

Errr, asking for a friend, of course. Is there software to compose such things, and does that mean that you could compose T-shirts with more-or-less arbitrary messages on them that no one else could read?

 

Just hypothetically, of course.

 

The French seem to think that its Uber cool to wear T shirts with slogans in English most of which are complete and utter gibberish, so if you change the ending of your question from "read" to "understand" the market is already cornered.

 

The most upsetting example I have seen was in a Hypermarket, a pink childs T shirt emblazoned with lareg lettering saying "Daddies little f**k toy" and I have seen families out walking with the youngest child wearing them

6 hours ago, Wino said:

There weren't any other stickers on the circuit board, but there are two on the rest of the module, pictured below.  Two more QR/barcode things too, which I suspect say much the same as the accompanying text?

 

The odd thing is that the parts listing (and the source - a member on here) say this is from drivers side front door of a 2007 Mk1 Fabia, so the suffix should be SK1, which doesn't correlate obviously to anything I'm looking at on those labels.

Parts page: individual parts; for models with electrically op... - Fabia(FAB) [EUROPA 2007 year] (7zap.com)

The SK1 part has been superseded, but not until 2014, so couldn't apply to this unit made in early 2007: Buy 6Y2959802SK1 window regulator motor Skoda genuine OEM part (oemwolf.com)

 

 

Alright, as the core competence that I am bringing to this thread is stating the bleedin' obvious, and in spite of not knowing the first thing about Fabia numbering, I'll have a go at:

 

"The odd thing is that the parts listing (and the source - a member on here) say this is from drivers side front door of a 2007 Mk1 Fabia, so the suffix should be SK1, which doesn't correlate obviously to anything I'm looking at on those labels."

 

You shouldn't necessarily expect it to - some modules get carried over from one model a successor, though that's fairly rare, and, with VAG's platform development you'd expect a reasonable degree of commonality 'under the skin'. So, you shouldn't really expect a module to get a number that identifies it as being, say a Fabia module, but more a Small-ish pass car module, maybe even 'fwd, second size group', which could be well and truly incomprehensible, by the time it has been through a German mangle.

 

It does seem that you have 'Hardware 002' (aka HW002) and 'Software 03XX' (or 0319), all of which seems moderately consistent, even if if doesn't really seem to give away much of great import.

 

I don't follow, sorry. 

The question is, if this module is a 6y2959802 SK1 (which I have no reason to doubt), how can I know it is by looking at the info on it? Seems unlikely to me that the truth is "that's impossible "

 

For someone buying a secondhand part this may be important (or not, but I want to understand why).

 

The SK1 must have some significance, or it wouldn't be there in ETKA nor vary between models and brands. 

On 23/04/2021 at 16:53, KenONeill said:

@MikeTheThinker - Could you do one that reads "There's no place like localhost"? For the ultimate Unix geek joke.

 

 

 

For a while I had my work profile picture as a QR code which took you to a Rick Astley video on YouTube.

Rick Rolling for those too young to remember that as a thing.

And therapy is available for those of us old enough to remember Goatse.

 

Edited 26 April, 20215 yr by Aspman

@Aspman I don't suppose there's anything resembling "SK1" in either the QR or barcode in my photos above from Saturday? Pretty please.