DRB III Emulation

[serafins]

After I had a local viper shop tell me they had the only functional DRBIII left (yeah right), I went on a quest to find one and instead stumbled upon this:

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/updated-2025-drb-iii-emulator-in-a-virtual-machine.87510/

This post details setup of an allegedly fully functional DRB III emulator that runs in a windows 7 virtual machine - meaning it can run on any windows laptop or pre-M1 MacBook Pro.

I have not tested all the features yet but I can confirm that it works, and seems to be fully functional for reading codes from all modules on the Gen 2 viper. I got it to pull codes from my airbag module and used it to read a bunch of sensor data from the PCM (including IAC count and TPS voltage, which SCT and the scan tools do not get right - TPS usually reads .02-05v high, and IAC count is a total crap shoot and doesn't even work on SCT).

Couple tips if you are going to try this that will save you some time:

The witech clone ODBII reader is very finicky about power. It needs much more power than the OBD2 port or most MacBooks can provide. I had to hook my computer's power adapter into a usb extender, plug the witech pod into that, then plug into the computer.

The order in which you do things is very important.
1. Restart the computer.
2. close all programs.
3. launch the windows 7 virtual machine.
4. open witech.
5. connect the witech pod to the computer and car.
6. wait for it to pop up in witech, then check the box for "standalone mode" and click "next".
7. Check the box for "work offline" and click "finish".
8. Minimize, but do not exit out of witech.
9. Launch the DRB III emulator shortcut.
10. DO NOT TOUCH THE WITECH POD OR THE USB CABLE GOING TO IT. It is very sensitive to voltage disruptions and will kick you out and force you to restart the whole process if it is jiggled at all. Maybe it's just the pod I got and you will have better luck, I don't know. But it is incredibly annoying to have to restart this whole procedure because you bumped it getting into the car.

If anyone else tries this, I'd be interested to know what you used it for and how it worked.

 

[serafins]

Another tip - if you have a Mac, you will need VMware Fusion. I could not get the virtual machine to run correctly in parallels or a few other VM tools I tried.

You need to import it to VMWare using the "import" menu option. DO not drag and drop - it will not assemble correctly.

VMWare will prompt you to do various things to modify the virtual machine. Do not do this, and especially do not upgrade it or check any of the boxes to add features - leave it in sideload mode.

decompressing the emulator download is another story that I cannot be of much help with. If you dont know how, YouTube is your friend. Look up "extract .rar file on Mac"

 

[Goggles Pizano]

I saw the emulator a couple years ago and was one day going to try it.

Glad you got it up and reading.

 

[serafins]

Yep. It works quite well once you learn its quirks.

Here’s a pic from last night. Logging IAC and TPS.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Goggles Pizano]

Looks like I going to need to buy a used PC with Win7 on it.

Just looked at the link and downloading the rar file for the image and going to upload it to one of Google drives for others.

Later on I going to look for other software links.

 

[serafins]

You can run the virtual machine on any Intel Mac or windows machine. I just personally wouldn't run it on anything with sensitive information on it.

 

[4bangerviperjr]

As a dealer tech, I can attest that this emulator works very well. This is what I use at the dealership on vehicles that require a drb. I also own a functioning drb3 so there’s at least TWO of them in the world

 

[MoparMap]

Yep, I picked up a real deal DRB III years ago as well in my quest to collect as many of the dealer tools for my car as I can find (reasonably). I previously bought one of the WiTech VCI Pod clones that has the emulator as well. It "worked", but had its quirks/issues. I was told that the adaptive cells for tuning do not necessarily read correctly on the emulator (something like it reports the same value for both banks all the time, like it's only reading one memory location for either table). The other big issue is that it does not talk to the TPMS module from my understanding, so one of the big reasons to have a DRB III (programming new tire pressure sensors), still requires a real one. You can get clone sensors nowadays to alleviate that issue so you don't have to reprogram, but if you don't know your current codes, you're kind of out of luck without a real DRB III.