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Posts: 9 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#31
Well, I finally got mine last night, and it's taking a bit of figuring.

The tablet (and Carman) recognize it as an OBD2 interface, and carman will connect to it for a few seconds before telling me "ODB2 disconnected"..

I've had very little time to poke at it, but it plugs in, transmits bluetooth, and carman (.7) at least sees it, but at this point, I've yet to get it doing what it's supposed to.

On an amusing note, it comes with the software from the car-pal (and the car-pal documentation) for windows, pocket pc, palm, etc..

*Update:
Well, I'm not much farther ahead - It still sees the unit (BTW, the pair code is "0000", if you get one), but disconnects after a few seconds. In the carman garage, it seems that the actual car-pal guys are having the same issue, so I posted my (looks useless to me) debug log to add to it. I'm hoping Matt has better luck than I, and that I've just got some out of date library file or the like. I can confirm that the DX unit is a bluetooth ODBII unit, but as far as working with carman 0.7.. Not yet for me..

Hey Matt; let me know how it goes for you...

To put it in debug mode, it's: carmand --log-level=debug > /my/card/my_log.txt (I used > /log.txt, but then you have to ssh into it to grab the file, instead of just plugging in the USB)
That starts the tray app in debug mode, and you've got to launch from there, but I didn't see any smoking guns around..

Last edited by Stuffguy; 2008-11-22 at 02:06.
 

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#32
I was able to try mine out today, and it works.

Here's what I did.
  • plugged the box into the odbII socket.
  • started my vehicle (Toyota - FJ Cruiser)
  • started carman
  • quit carman
  • went to settings in the apptray
  • paired the new device, and chose it for the odbII device selection.
  • launched carman from the apptray
  • went to the dials screen, and it was registering my RPM. I drove around the block and watched the dials move.
  • when I turned the vehicle off, it told me odbII disconnected.

I really hope that helps you diagnose your issue. It'd be nice if it worked well for everyone.
 

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#33
What's the refresh rate, and has it been stable for you? Also, have either of you tried any pc software?
 

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#34
Stuffguy, what vehicle are use testing with?
In this thread:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/engi...aptop-usb.html
an employee of scantool.net suggests that many elm327 clones may support only CAN and ISO protocols. (post 12, or look for the picture of the circuit board)

DX claims this interface supports "SAE J1850", but does not mention PWM or VPW. My car uses PWM so I am very wary of buying this interface.
 
Posts: 9 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#35
Originally Posted by MattZTexasu View Post
I was able to try mine out today, and it works.

Here's what I did.
  • plugged the box into the odbII socket.
  • started my vehicle (Toyota - FJ Cruiser)
  • started carman
  • quit carman
  • went to settings in the apptray
  • paired the new device, and chose it for the odbII device selection.
  • launched carman from the apptray
  • went to the dials screen, and it was registering my RPM. I drove around the block and watched the dials move.
  • when I turned the vehicle off, it told me odbII disconnected.

I really hope that helps you diagnose your issue. It'd be nice if it worked well for everyone.
Well, I'll give it another stab. Last night's snowstorm didn't make sitting the the parking lot that much fun. Thanks for the help. I'll try your procedure and see.. Thanks, eh?
 
Posts: 9 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#36
Originally Posted by sdrman View Post
Stuffguy, what vehicle are use testing with?
In this thread:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/engi...aptop-usb.html
an employee of scantool.net suggests that many elm327 clones may support only CAN and ISO protocols. (post 12, or look for the picture of the circuit board)

DX claims this interface supports "SAE J1850", but does not mention PWM or VPW. My car uses PWM so I am very wary of buying this interface.
I've been testing it on a 96 saturn (mainly because it's been stupidly snowy, and I can smoke in that one), but that's an interesting point. I'll go try it on the jeep, but as far as I know (in my limited knowledge), north american cars (and construction equipment, etc) use the canbus for all the intra computer communications. I don't remember if the SAE spec above is the right one or not. I'm thinking I have a different numbered one in my head, but it's been months since I had need to look at the canbus spec.

I'm afraid I'm not at all familiar with PWM or VPW.. Got linkage or a quick explanation of what those are and where used?
 
Posts: 129 | Thanked: 13 times | Joined on Oct 2005
#37
http://www.scantool.net/support/inde...icleid=3&nav=0
There's a link near the bottom of that page that may tell you without crawling under the dash.

I would expect a 96 Saturn to use VPW.

The table is confusing but I think
J1850-41.6 = PWM = "used mostly in Ford Corporation vehicles"
J1850-10.4 = VPW = "used mostly in General Motors vehicles"
based on scantool.net's descriptions of their single protocol products.
 
Posts: 9 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#38
Originally Posted by sdrman View Post
http://www.scantool.net/support/inde...icleid=3&nav=0
There's a link near the bottom of that page that may tell you without crawling under the dash.

I would expect a 96 Saturn to use VPW.

The table is confusing but I think
J1850-41.6 = PWM = "used mostly in Ford Corporation vehicles"
J1850-10.4 = VPW = "used mostly in General Motors vehicles"
based on scantool.net's descriptions of their single protocol products.
Ahh.. That makes more sense.. I've really only had anything to do with canbus protocols recently, so I wasn't aware that it was a relatively recent development...

Update: "I'll give it a try in the 04 Liberty, and let you know if I have the same problems..".. Doh! Nix that.. It seems to use the same protocol as the saturn (or is likely to).. I'm thinking that using the car-pal software that they included with it will be the easiest way to verify the unit, aside from my Carman difficulties.. I just need to find where I put the cd drive for the laptop..

Last edited by Stuffguy; 2008-11-22 at 23:55.
 
Posts: 9 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#39
Originally Posted by sdrman View Post
http://www.scantool.net/support/inde...icleid=3&nav=0
There's a link near the bottom of that page that may tell you without crawling under the dash.

I would expect a 96 Saturn to use VPW.

The table is confusing but I think
J1850-41.6 = PWM = "used mostly in Ford Corporation vehicles"
J1850-10.4 = VPW = "used mostly in General Motors vehicles"
based on scantool.net's descriptions of their single protocol products.
Well, good news for you, so-so news for me. Using the car-pal software, it will connect to a 96 saturn, monitor, check codes, etc, so the VPW issue isn't an issue. I don't have a ford handy, so I can't help you there.

That doesn't help me with my carman issues, but that at least answers that question.
 
Posts: 9 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#40
Originally Posted by doctorbri View Post
What's the refresh rate, and has it been stable for you? Also, have either of you tried any pc software?
Refresh Rate - Not near as fast as a Tech2 - If I were to guess, I'd say it polls all the sensors about once per second (or at least the car-pal software does, anyhow - raw sampling frequency? Dunno.)..

It didn't flake while I was playing with it, but I didn't have it on for hours - maybe 10minutes while watching the car warm up, and the spark advance change..

And to your second - Sadly, the included car-pal software is the only way I've been able to use it, so far. Now that I know it does do what it's supposed to (though, does take some time to properly connect), I'm back to working on why carman keeps disconnecting on me..

Last edited by Stuffguy; 2008-11-23 at 04:20.
 

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