AndyWhittaker

Hi everyone,

As my opto-isolated interfaces were being snapped up by one particular group, I decided to come along and join in .

I've been following this thread for a number of months now and am I very impressed with the team spirit you all have. It is very similar to the days where I developed FreeScan to allow Lotus Esprit owners to monitor their engines. Hats off to you, Doug... well done !

Rod,

You will have two problems using your BlueTooth connection.

1. The ECU uses a non-standard communication baud rate. Most UARTs in these interfaces (be it USB or BlueTooth) only recognise standard bauds, they do not allow custom rates to be sent to the driver like the PC serial port does.
2. The interspace byte timing can be critical for continued communication with the ECU. Whenever there's a driver involved, be it USB or BlueTooth, the programmer can only send his data to the driver and hope that the driver then delivers the data to the device. If the PC is busy doing something else, the driver may not transmit nor receive until the operating system lets it.

The exotic way round these problems is to develop an intelligent interface that uses a PIC or other processor to do the raw communication with the ECU (like the ELM series interfaces). Then, all your BlueTooth device has to do is ask your interface to get the specific ECU data.

See you!

Andy.
Macclesfield, UK
http://www.andywhittaker.com/
http://www.ecufix.com/

Pesty

Excellent just ordered one.

cheers andy

Smokin

You can go

HERE

to read about the toner method of etching PCBs... The Staples paper is the best paper to use BTW....

I haven't had a chance to work on mine lately... My Desktop PC in my office blew the motherboard after 6 years so I am building a new one. It is the hub for all my printers so I am working fast and furious to get it finished.

frankvan

Curious if anyone with a C4 has had any luck connecting to the PDAS/ABS unit. I've tried a couple of different things (changing diodes, resistors, engine on/off) but the software doesn't want to talk to my unit (PDAS that is).

Frank

Mike_964

Where the software available for download anywhere, or will somebody here be so kind to send me the newest version?
Just got a confirmation from Andy, my interface should be on its way, so I'm rather excited to get connected
Thanks for the all the good work..

Best regards,
Michael

jjbunn

Hi Michael,

I believe the latest version is at: http://dedeharter.com/scantool/scantool4.zip

Mike_964

Thanks a lot..

Oracle

I have all the pieces but for some reason things don't work...

The interface is wired to the connector to the right pins (I checked from solder point to the pin in the connector).
Jumper is on the pins closer to the edge (just in the picture is wrong)
I borrowed an IBM laptop with a serial port.
I'm not using a cable, just a female to female adaptor that I checked and pin 1 is connected to pin 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, and on... (I have a cable but not using it to remove that variable)
In hyperterminal I created a test connection with 9600,8 data bits, Parity none, Stop bits 1 and flow control Hardware or Xon/Xoff and with the interface hooked to the laptop and car, and car with switch on, if I type a letter A I only get an A the only time I get AA is if in the File menu -> Property ->Settings tab-> Ascii setup the option "Echo typed characters locally"

Maybe my serial settings are not correct.
When I launch the scantool v4 I see it shows that is trying to connect... in the interface the LED on the left (D4) blinks almost in a sequence..like 1,1-2,1,123,1. etc...

The LED on the right (D3) blinks everytime I type something using Hyperterminal.

Would it be possible for someone to send me a .ht (File -> Save-As ) configuration file for Hyperterminal? to jspr911sc <at> hotmail <dot> com

I'm open for suggestions...

help...

Thanks
Jasper

Laurence Gibbs

You don't connect to the car or the interface when using hyperterminal . That check simply tests your cable and com port is working. You connect TX pin to RX pin and test for echo. You will have only what you type show up on the screen i.e. type a and a will show on the screen if things are working. If they are not then nothing shows. If that test works then it's likely you will want to cut the leds out or one leg of the leds . They can load the circuit especially with laptops. look back through the thread for more details on this.

LouZ

Jasper, First, I'm no electronics expert, BUT, reread the entire thread. It appears that you have NOT cut the connection to the one LED. The unit will blink and try to connect but it never will till the LED is disabled.

Oracle

Yeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaa!

Thank you Laurence and LouZ, you forced me to read this whole thread again for like 10th time.. but in my defence (and every other brave 964 owner out there trying it) this thread is not necessarily a very clear to-do list, all information is there, just in pieces. I suppose that is part of the fun to put the puzzle together...

I cut the inside leg of the D4 LED and everything worked!
It takes about 4 seconds to get the Motronics data back.

Here some suggestions for others after me:
+ I have just confirmed that USB-Serial adaptors can only read the Airbag and climate control, the Motronics screen does not connect. I used the Nexxtech brand from RadioShack and I downloaded the latest and greatest drivers from Prolific.com. (Motronic uses an odd baud rate)
+ Spend a little time and money and make it nice as well as protect the connections and interface. Last thing you want is to damage something.
+ Make sure you check your serial adaptors and cables, they must be connected straight through; Some of you may not know that next to each pin or pin hole there is a tiny (I mean really tiny) number, that is what you must use to test with a multimeter the kind of connection you got with that cable/adaptor.
+ If you bought John's connector kit make sure that you connect the right pin to the right wire cause I almost destroyed it by removing a pin (never thought of just rewiring, I guess I was too upset to think clearly)

I suppose the software by DougB (big thanks by the way) will only get better so this is a very good investment or savings cause every time you take the car in to get the CEL light cleared you have to pay at least 1/2 hour to an hour.


Now to understand what those numbers/values mean...

-J

JasonAndreas

I was wondering if someone could add

to their scantool.cfg file, check the values with their engine running and send the two numbers to me?

C4Russ

Jason, in the motronic area? I'll do this now and get right back to you.

Actual Value.Interrupt Time Low, 216
Actual Value.Interrupt Time High, 6

C4Russ

Actual Value.Interrupt Time Low, 216
Actual Value.Interrupt Time High, 6

JasonAndreas

Thank you!!!