🚩Appearance Differences of The K-Suite Kit:
We want to explain the differences between the real system and a Clone one and how you can recognize the difference very quickly. As a matter of fact, it used to be very easy to spot the clones. That is not the main problem. The main issue is, some of these clone systems look really good and it takes a bit of a trained eye to spot the difference. So, we are going to take you through the main differences.
The first thing you should notice is: The original tool is in a very nice big plastic case, but the clone version is in a cardboard box.
This is one of the most obvious difference between them. Moreover, if we remove the two tools out of their box's environment, we will see it's not quite so easy to tell which one is genuine. As you may already know, these clone systems used to be really obvious to recognize. The label was normally a bit purpley, it was really cheap quality and it wasn't quite right. And it was always out of focus and also their covers themselves physically looked quite different. Nowadays, the cloners have made a lot of effort to actually make them look a lot better. For instance: The original Kess covers have a rib, they've got a profile that's slightly rounded on the ends. But the clones were just a simple square black cover without those sort of profile details.
Now, we can see the clone’s labels certainly look a lot better, so that if this system was presented outside of a box, you could not recognize it as genuine or clone. But there are some crucial key differences which we want to spend a couple of minutes explaining to you in order to help you find out if ECU Programming tool you are going to purchase is genuine or not.
Some of the clones have literally a made in china sticker on their covers that could easily be peeled off. But if you see a tool with a label like that, you've got to be alarmed.
The other thing that you should be aware of is: The genuine one has an Alientech label on it. Alientech logo clearly displayed on the label but the clone does not. As I mentioned above, the cloners do their best in order to copy just like the original tool. We have seen these clone systems with the Alientech logo on it, but there is a difference: If you focus a little bit you'll see the original logo actually is outstanding, it's like a jelly label with the logo underneath. We've never seen a clone system that has the jelly label. So if you have bought a tool without these labels, it is probably fake. All the clones of the master version will not have that jelly label on it.
The other thing that you should be cautious about is the USB lights which are located at the side of the tool (They show when the tool is in operation). On the fake version of the Kess, you'll see they're sunken and recessed. But if you look at the real tool, you'll see they're not. On the original tool the lights are underneath the jelly label, no profile and that is what a genuine tool should look like.
Now, if we flip the tools over, you will see another obvious sign to look out for. In fact, every tool has a unique serial number and a barcode. The clone system does not. In some cases, it is possible that the label comes off, but if your tool does not have that label you can check by going to the info page of the tool. The information page will actually display that number too. So if you are suspicious, you can easily check it out.
There is another subtle sign that you can easily recognize the difference. If you look at the side of the tool, you will see a gasket that divides the two parts of the box. The original tool, this gasket is rubbery, it's soft and it's squidgy. But the fake version is actually plastic, it’s firm, solid and hard. It's quite subtle but it is a good point in order to find out if your tool is original or not. Moreover, the fake tool is very light. Not so easy to understand if you don't see both tools next to each other. But in fact, the genuine tool is quite a lot heavier and that's partly because the components on the original tool are much better quality while the clone version is a more simple device using cheaper components and it does actually affect the weight and most importantly the reliability. As you may already know, something else that will always make you aware of a clone tool is, a clone tool comes with a cd because you cannot connect them to the internet. So you must load the disk.
🚨Point: Most of the time the software on the Disk is several years out of date so the software. Combining that with the fact: the cheaper components in the tool and you're going to end up with something really unreliable and really unstable.
Something else you should be looking for is, if the tool is not presented in a box so you've just got the tool and a cable. The cable and the clone systems are nearly always blank, no part numbers and no logos. On the other hand, genuine tools will always have a part number on them and on the cable. And again they've got a Kess 3d jelly label. That shows that they are Alientech parts. So if you're looking at a bunch of blank cables in a cardboard box with no part numbers, chances are you're looking at a fake tool.
💬What Happens if We Buy a Clone Tool?
Let's be honest, fake tools are being sold at very cheap prices while the original Kess is a high price tool because this is a genuine tool as a master with cars and bikes.
So why wouldn't we spend our money on fake tools ?
The problem with these clone tools is, they're really unreliable and unstable. The software is always very out of date and the components inside them are cheap and cheerful and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.
💬Does it Matter That Sometimes it Doesn't Work?
It's not the end of the world!
The answer is, when you are reading a file of a vehicle, in fact you are not taking the file off the vehicle, you're taking a copy of it. So the original software is still on the vehicle and if something goes wrong with the Reading process, the car will still start. The main problem is, it is not the same story at Writing process. When you start writing a file back to a vehicle if something interrupts the writing process, the data is not complete on the ECU. So the car will not start.
If you are using a genuine tool, there is no problem. You can easily recover the ECU file. But if you are using a clone tool, you don't have any access to the recovery file.
🚨Point: Don't believe what they say. Some of them say they have a recovery function, but they do not.
💬What Happens if You've got Half a File On The ECU?
Your clone tool will be locked up and it will break the ECU. So you can not restart that process because you can't get communication going with the ECU. If you're lucky some vehicles can be recovered with a K-TAG bench tuning system, but not all the ECU's can be recovered in this way. In most cases, you'll get no communication. Because the communication with the ECU cannot be established since it's been partly programmed by the fake tool. That ECU is going to end up in the bin.
In conclusion, if you're a tuner, that's about to get really expensive for you. So what some of the not so professional guys will do is, quite literally rip the sim card out of the phone. It's really not fair. Don't use the clone systems for your own sake and your customers sake. they're unreliable, unstable and need to be avoided.
🏁KESS3:
Alientech recently has introduced KESS3. KESS3 is the successor of Alientech’s popular KESSv2 and K-tag tools. With the KESS3, Alientech has combined the KESSv2 and K-TAG tool in one tool, so you don’t have to purchase two separate tools to be able to use multiple read methods.
📍For more information on features, check out the KESS3 article.
📍For more information and probable problems feel free to contact us:support@caracaltech.com