Fitting FIS-Control and coding the cluster
Which VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda clusters FIS-Control works with, the cluster coding it needs, the sensor pinout, firmware updates and start logos.
On this page
This is the short version of getting a FIS-Control running, written from the maker’s manual. The manual is the reference and is worth reading in full; this page is the order to do things in, and the numbers you will be asked for. Once it is running, set up its screens with the FIS-Control configurator.
Which cars, and which bus
FIS-Control draws on the cluster’s centre display, and how it gets there depends on the car’s age. There are two installs.
Three-wire bus — the older cars, where the radio and navigation talk to the cluster over a dedicated three-wire link: A3/S3 8L and A4/S4 B5 before 2000, A6/S6 C5 up to 2000, Golf Mk4 up to 2001, Passat 3B up to 2000, the T4, and Octavia 1U up to 1999. The cheaper FIS-Control Light does not work on these.
CAN — the newer ones, where the cluster listens on the CAN bus: A2, A3 8L from 2000, A4 B6 and B7, A6 C5 from 2001, TT 8N and 8J, A3/S3/RS3 8P, R8, the Golf Mk5 family, Passat 3BG, Seat Exeo and Alhambra, Octavia from 2000 and Superb.
Model years at the changeover vary. If a car sits on the boundary, check what the cluster has before buying the harness — the maker’s forum is the place to ask.
Coding the cluster
The cluster has to be told something is going to write to its display. This is two changes in the instrument cluster, address 17, with VCDS or WBH-Diag.
On a three-wire car, the cluster’s coding must be 16000 or more. If it is lower, add 16000 to whatever it is now — the rest of the number still means what it did. Set adaptation channel 62 to 0, since nothing on the CAN side is writing to the cluster.
On a CAN car, adaptation channel 62 says which modules may write to the display. It is a sum:
| Value | Module |
|---|---|
| 1 | Radio |
| 2 | Telephone |
| 4 | Navigation |
| 8 | Telematics |
FIS-Control has to use one of those slots. 15, all four, always works and is the safe answer if you are unsure.
In VCDS, channel 62 is under 17 – Instruments → Adaptation – 10, coding under Coding – 07; the free VCDS-Lite cannot change channel 62. In WBH-Diag, open 023 (17) – Instruments and use the Software Config and Channel Adaption tabs.
No cable? FIS-Control can be the cable. Hold the Up key while switching the ignition on to make it an RS-232 diagnostic interface, or Down for Bluetooth, PIN 1234. It then works with VCDS-Lite, WBH-Diag and a few others; the manual lists which versions.
First start
A new unit does not yet know how to talk to the car, so it tries each protocol in turn, one per ignition cycle. Turn the ignition off and on until the menu appears, then choose SETTINGS → SAVE SETTINGS so it keeps the one that worked.
It is driven from the wiper stalk. A long press on Up — about two seconds — opens the menu, Up and Down move through it and the Set key under the stalk selects. On the A3 8P and the A4 B6/B7 a long press of Up or Down selects instead.
Sensor inputs
FIS-Control has its own terminal block for sensors, so it can show things the car’s control units never measured. Its readings appear as control unit 00 in the configurator.
| Terminal | What it is |
|---|---|
| 5 V | Supply, for ratiometric sensors only |
| GND | Sensor ground |
| 1, 2 | 0–5 V, with a built-in 1.1 kΩ divider for resistive senders |
| 3, 4 | 0–5 V, with a built-in 220 Ω divider for resistive senders |
| 5, 6, 7 | 0–5 V, no divider |
| 8 | Digital input |
| EGT1 ±, EGT2 ± | Type K thermocouples |
The dividers on 1–4 are built in from hardware 2.1; a 2.0 unit needs them fitted outside. A resistive sender — the usual oil pressure or temperature sender — goes on 1–4, and which pair depends on its resistance. The configurator warns if a sender is on an input it cannot work on.
The four relay outputs switch up to 600 mA each: enough for a relay coil, a small pump or an LED bar, not a fan directly. A relay output shorted to ground can destroy the unit, so fuse and route them with care.
Firmware updates
Firmware is on the FIS-Control download page. The easiest route is the Android app over Bluetooth: put the unit in update mode by holding the Set (reset) key under the stalk while switching the ignition on and releasing after about five seconds, twice, then pair (PIN 1234) and pick the file. It takes about three minutes.
Without the app, hold Set while switching on and send the file by XModem
from a terminal program at 115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit,
no flow control — once it prints a C every second, it is ready. The manual
has the extra step the A4 B6/B7 needs.
Start logos
The unit holds up to nine logos to show when the ignition comes on. On a
monochrome cluster a logo is 64 × 88 pixels full screen, or 64 × 48
small, each pixel on or off. The configurator’s Start logos tab makes
them from any picture — a PNG or SVG logo, a photo, or a TIFF made for the
maker’s own Windows tool — lets you touch them up pixel by pixel, and saves
startlogo.dat, ready to send with SETTINGS → FLASH MEMORY → LOAD
STARTLOGO. It writes the same file the maker’s tool does: checked against
their own logo pack, pixel for pixel. The maker also keeps a collection of
ready-made logos, linked from the download page. Colour clusters use a
different format, which the tab does not make. Which logo shows, and how
long after ignition, is set in the Display tab.
Logging
With logging on, FIS-Control records every value it reads to its own memory, and a CR1220 coin cell keeps its clock running so the entries carry a time. Press Set while measuring to drop a marker. Fetch the log with SETTINGS → FLASH MEMORY → SEND LOGS over 1K-XModem with CRC, and turn it into a spreadsheet with the maker’s logfile converter.