What is a better J2534 passthru device for FDRS (or Forscan)?
Mongoose Plus
It takes $550 around. This may seem a little expensive to some.Works great with both FDRS and FORScan. With regards to the product itself, it worked beautifully with FDRS and I’ve had no issues updating modules and software. The installation was a breeze and it’s nice seeing the Mongoose as an option in Fords own software.
this one will work. There is a much cheaper option that has worked very well for us. It’s the vxdiag for ford. It’s about $100 on vxdiagshop.
I’ve been using it with FDRS and have had no issues with connectivity etc.
VXDIAG VCX Nano Compatible for Ford/Mazda 2 in 1 Diagnostic Tool with IDS Programming Tool
Note that the VCX Nano can cause issues. It wasn’t/isn’t compatible with Al modules and attempting to update one of them will soft-brick the module. It was also having issues of one performed a network scan in FDRS and reporting back invalid data. Both are recoverable, but something to be aware of.
Make sure you have a good battery charger/ maintainer in hand.
There are many vxdiag and Ford FDRS programming examples:
http://blog.vxdiagshop.com/2022/02/18/set-up-vxdiag-vcx-nano-ford-and-fdrs-for-f150/
http://blog.vxdiagshop.com/2022/02/21/ford-f150-2021-apim-update-with-vxdiag-and-fdrs/
http://blog.vxdiagshop.com/2022/02/22/ford-f150-gwm-update-with-vxdiag-vcx-nano-fdrs/
No matter what interface you use. Make sure you have a minimum 10amp AGM battery tender to leave on your truck the entire time. Make sure you have a 64GB flash drive freshly formatted to exFAT. Make sure you have enough time to get all the updates done using the 2-day FDRS license you will need to do it.