Use of ePER/openPER data

[Wiltshire Chris]

This is a continuation of @moyanos2023 question for the openPER launch thread. I've moved it to a new thread to keep the main announcement thread cleaner.

I forgot that the comma delimited file format is not read well by non-English versions of Excel. I will try to upload a file that you can more easily read later.

openPER should filter correctly on left and right hand side parts if the information from the VIN is correct. You can see on this page that this filtering is performed:

70521/10 - PASSENGER SIDE MATS

FIAT NUOVA PUNTO MY2012 (2012-2013)

eper.fiatforum.com

This page also shows some of the complexity of the filtering as many factors affect which parts are correct for a vehicle. GSX and GDX are the indicators for left and right hand drive.

Within v84 of ePER there are approximately 40 million different VINs and about 10 million of these have extra information regarding what options were added to the vehicle. This information is held in two, very large files that use a system of compressed blocks to save space. I can extract all of this data into two very large files for you. This should help your research

I do not know what programming and database skills you have but the database that runs ePER is quite complex, it has taken me many months to understand it. But, if you have those skills I could make the data available to you which would help your research.

 

[moyanos2023]

Thank you.

Yes i see the filtering is complexe du to many factors affecting oem parts caracteristics

I was a good programmer fix 25 years ago with win 3.11, ms dos 6.22, win95... But not yet, i'm loose today lol !

Well ok, anyway i search Eper copy since years but i have find nothing, i remember a CD version exist for some private mechanicals. Maybe i can read something editing the file with the text editor of Windows or it's ridiculous to think succeed to do this like that

To talk about some fun discoveries with this data:
-maybe the last Panda 141 make was steel ( ZFA141A0002090162 and ZFA141A0002090163 have exactly the same data and nobody see it ? )
-to go faster i think, factory workers wrote "12-2" for date or "999" for the serial engine number before stop that practice in january 1989
-sometimes you see the holidays date of factory
-spi Fire engine exist since 1987
-Eper software start to be use in june 1987 ( in MS-DOS ?!? )
-Lambrate or Desio factory activity berfore closure ( ZFA141A0006711021 in january 1989 to ZFA141A0007111824 in september 1992, ZFA141A0008000000 in february 1993 to ZFA141A0008074064 in december 1993 )
-factory workers mistakes or be inoperative cars ( ZFA141A0004260010 was make in january 1989 but ready in june )
-a lot of oem reference mistake or missing
-"polizia", "municipality", "carabineri" and others special version with some skills
etc etc

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

Well ok, anyway i search Eper copy since years but i have find nothing, i remember a CD version exist for some private mechanicals. Maybe i can read something editing the file with the text editor of Windows or it's ridiculous to think succeed to do this like that

I'll answer more fully later, but I bought a DVD from eBay, for example:

FIAT EPER V.84 - PRICE PARTS CATALOGUE FOR FIAT LANCIA ALFA ROMEO ABARTH | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for FIAT EPER V.84 - PRICE PARTS CATALOGUE FOR FIAT LANCIA ALFA ROMEO ABARTH at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

I then spend some time analysing the data files.

All the data is on the disk but you'll need to write or use programs to read it as it is not just in text files, much of it is compressed or in unique formats. There are some C# programs in my GitHub repositories that help with reading the data. There are some old and incomplete notes on the databse structure here https://github.com/OldBoyCoder/ePerPartsListGenerator/blob/master/Release84Structure.MD

Your examples are interesting. Certainly some of the ePer data on VINs is incorrect but that is what we have to work with. An example is given on this page I wrote about Barchetta facts and figures

Barchetta facts and figures

fiatbarchetta.uk

 

[moyanos2023]

Ok, informatical data will be complex to me for make something with, i haven't the level

For me, the more important mistakes are on oem parts, who whants to buy a parts whose don't work on your car ? I'm trying to debug that crossing the data oem from differents models or years

In strange things i see on Eper, Fiat use on the old Uno and the news Uno make in brazil the same vin number. I don't have an example because my computer crash last year and i lost this data and vin...
The Uno is a complex case, remaking the data loose of Uno could take me a week of work, too much factory, engine and models, including the Fiorino

When i start that project, i just want to found some data to make an 1400cc Fire engine from 1242 Punto engine using piston, connecting rods etc from others engine for my Fiat ( not just use cylinder head of Palio 75 ), and see whose 6 gear box i could modify or put on our Brava 182 with 1.6 Torque engine, I wasn't thinking go so far ^^!

 

[moyanos2023]

The Barchetta's link is perfect, it's what I want to do for all models.

Do you know how he do to have so many data ?