dan212

Got a used SmartyCam and ECU/OBDII bridge for my girlfriend who is driving my 996/GT3. I can't get bridge and camera to work together.

Smarty works on its own. Link to bridge isn't working at all. (seller is reputable and said bridge was working when installed)

Smarty is flashed with the latest firmware: 1.03.10
OBDII bridge is flashed with latest version of dash/logger etc: AIM_Firmware_Updater_130611

I can see SMC from RC2 when powered via 12V source from car.

Tried two configurations. Neither works. In both cases, selected Smarty configuration option in RC2 menu to map channels and transmitted that to bridge in addition to ECU model choices.

** Suggested by seller: Configured as ECU=Bosche model Porsche(996). Transmit to SMC bridge. Map channels and transmit to bridge. Smarty isn't seeing RPM's when I look at the LCD dash menu. It seems to know that something is connected because the record strategy is grayed out and nothing can selected. Trying to record by pressing Smarty menu button gives an error saying that I need to update to a later firmware (its as up to date as I can make it). I think the Smarty is confused by what is connected.

** Tried alternate configuration per one of the AIM docs: Selected generic OBDII & ISO 9141_2. Transmit to SMC along with Smarty channel mapping.That does nothing at all for me. Still not RPM's on Smarty Dash menu and the record strategy is like bare camera and offers low/med/high G to start (but no RPM threshold as an option). So it doesn't appear that the Smarty is seeing anything.

I'm stumped. I re-flashed the bridge and the firmware just to be sure and the updater sees it and says that its up to date and nothing needs to be done. Its up to do. Silly that RC2 doesn't tell me what the bridge is seeing.

This is supposed to be plug and play. But its apparently not for me

Yes bridge is powered. Yes the bridge is plugged into the 996/GT3 OBDII port. GT3 is a 2005 so its not the very old original model.

Any suggestions are most welcome. We are off to the track Tuesday for a 5 day track orgy and I'd really like to get this working for her.

RickBetterley

Track orgy??
Why do you need data?
More seriously - when you have data problems I really start to worry. You're good at this stuff.
What does Aim say?

dan212

The AIM is for Ann because she is now driving my GT3 and I thought it would be useful tool for her..


I already have an MXL & Smarty in the GTB1.

This stuff should be easy to configure. Plug an Play.. HA!! But I just got it friday afternoon and by the time I realized it wasn't working it was too late to reach AIM by phone. I did leave a message. Hope to hear from them Monday. Meantime, was hoping someone here might have an idea.

Their software is annoying. I love their analytics. really great. But if I had built this stuff, I'd have an interface so that I could read the output of the bridge directly (and know that its working). I'd have an interface to the Smarty, logger or dash so that I could see exactly what was coming in (as an engineer probably a program to send spoof / dummy data for testing). Thats modular programming and modular engineering. You do that because it makes your life easier, it is hardly more work and saves you time in the long run. All I can do is configure everything and the only test I can do is.. It all works..

But it is the way it is... I just want this working for her before we go away on Tuesday.. I am sure its something stupid (on my part).

Track Orgy.. Ahhhhhhh. We are going to WGI for two days of open track with TrackMasters and then 3 days with RTR.. The five days was HER idea... "our vacation" .... How cool is that? Am I a lucky guy or what??

MSTACH

u r the lucky guy Dan - have fun!

dan212

OK - I figured it out. As a software and systems architect I tend to do things in very modular step by step process. That way you find issues in isolation instead of "the whole thing doesn't work, but don't know what part".. That was my problem. I was being careful

Here is the problem and solution:

Camera cannot already be on before the SMC gets power.

When the Smarty is powered up through the bridge (when IT gets power), the boot process checks and finds the interface and loads appropriate drivers etc , updates the UI (record strategy etc) and away we go. It does this during the camera BOOT PROCESS - won't do it later.

If the camera is already on, it won't detect a new interface presence even though it would take 15 minutes to write an event handler for this and probably make testing cameras in shops or at the factory easier.

Remotely possible that the SOURCE of the power up signal does this, but I doubt it as that makes even less sense to me from an engineering perspective.

And when SMC gets power and causes the camera to boot and the drivers are loaded, the record strategy automatically defaults to record-start at 2K RPM. Doesn't seem to be configurable.

I suspect this is true of for the Smarty when connected to any interface and not just SMC. I'll test it tomorrow with my other car that has MXL and CAN from ECU. But I am pretty sure the same thing will happen.

If I am right and the camera loads its interface drivers ONLY at boot time, a word of warning. This means that if you have manually turned the camera on for any reason (perhaps changing record type from AVI to MOV or correcting camera angle), you need to turn it off in order for it to properly boot, search and load the interface drivers - Only only at boot time. GRRRRR.

I could be wrong on this being universal. Might be just the SMC - Doubt it.


Jaysus.. What a lame way do code this. Anyway - I hope useful information for others.

dan

RickBetterley

gbuff

I'll be there with TM also; glad you sorted that out. I've been meaning to get into some rudimentary video for a couple years now, but being a techno lamebrain I read stuff like this and I just say bollocks.