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In the beginning, there was the Jaguar JDS (Jaguar Diagnostic System), a big refrigeator sized machine, it was the diagnostic tool for the earliest "electronic" cars.
It went away sometime in the early 90's and was replaced by the Jaguar PDU (Portable Diagnostic Unit) which was a branded version of the Ford FDS2000
With various updates over the years the PDU covered all Jaguar vehicles from the Series III XJ up to the XK8, X308 XJ8, and the first of the S-Types, up to around 2001 or therabouts.
The PDU was replaced by the WDS (Genrad GDS3500) and there was actually a period of overlapping. The WDS was a brand new system nothing shared with the PDU at all. The WDS was "the future" and actually they left out the coverage of the pre-94 cars, Series III, XJ40 & XJS, even though the hardware (cables) were made, they never included it in the software.
There were different software versions for the WDS; Ford, Mazda, Jaguar and Aston Martin, though essentially the hardware was all the same. The GDS3500 was basically a custom-build touchscreen tablet computer, late 90's spec, with a multiplexer. It ran Windows.
The WDS was replaced by the IDS with VCM & VMM in 2006 or so. Instead of the custom-built computer now it was a regular laptop computer, and the multiplexer part was moved to external interfaces i.e. the VCM (for OBD2) and the VMM (for electricals).
However the first iteration of the IDS software was 99% identical to the last version of the software used on the WDS/Genrad GDS3500. Actually the first two versions of the "IDS" software to run on a laptop with a VCM/VMM was called WDS.
The IDS was progressively updated for a few years but when Ford sold off Jaguar (and Land Rover) then the diagnostic software was developed in a new direction, was revamped and called SDD (Symptom Driven Diagnostics) although the hardware remained the same (VCM & VMM) and the basic coding of the software was based on the older IDS, which was in fact the WDS software from the late 90's...
So SDD was initially same hardware as the IDS, just software, it only worked with the VCM. But then in 2011 or so further capability was added to use J2534-compatible interfaces, like the Mongoose, DA devices, Bosch i-View, and others. And this is when the cheap clone devices really came to be in the mainstream. Sure there were always clone VCM's but it wasn't on the same scale as these clone J2534 things...
The SDD software was only covering "newer" cars, meaning the older models like the XJS, X100 XK8/R, X300's, X308's, and the pre-2002 S-Types were only supported with IDS. So if you try to connect SDD to one of those older cars, it will automatically revert to the "Legacy" IDS software.
BUT
The IDS was not designed with these newer J2534 interfaces in mind, only the VCM, the software was "patched" to enable it to work but to be honest JLR didn't want to do this, they were kind of forced to, so the Legacy IDS doesn't always work perfectly with the newer J2534 interfaces, there can be bugs, which nobody wanted to pay to fix.
And now finally, since the contract between JLR and Ford is coming to a close, IDS & SDD will be replaced in 2017 with a new diagnostic system called Pathfinder, it will only be for newer cars 2014MY onward, for the older vehicles the SDD will remain but "frozen" with no more updates...
10-18-2016, 12:58 PM
