New Diagnostic Software for MBE ECU

[EvoOlli]

Yes, the standard cable for a TVR has only 3 wires: TX,RX and GND. There's even a special 3 pin plug in the car or you can get the data from the OBD-Plug of the newer cars.
But I think for a 'standard' ECU you need some resistors to tell the ECU to go into communication mode. Here's an example from MBE:

[Ant.]

Feedback:

Just used it whilst setting up my newly fitted and modded throttle bodies.

Connected easily, the TVR software can sometimes be temperamental for some cars.
Nice easily read screen and simple functions.

Result !!!

Well done Oli

[EvoOlli]

Thanks for all the feedback. I made some small changes to the Tool, look in the first post with a list of them...

[Englishman]

Great stuff, I will give it a try later.

Update:

- loss of connection and reconnection issue fixed, thank you
- maximising screen now works great:



Only issue is that the bottom of some of the letters/numbers on a few lines are chopped off, but only when maximised. A close up here showing the problem on a '0' and 'p':



Tried using the logfile too and a couple of picky suggestions:

- Perhaps only allow logging if the engine is running?
- Would be good to be able select the folder for the logfiles rather than all going to the program folder

Great work though, keep it up!

Edited by Englishman on Saturday 4th January 14:31

[scotty_d]

Looks good will it work with the ajp?

[EvoOlli]

@Englishman

Regarding the broken font: Fix is uploaded, didn't calculate with such a high screen resolution :-)
Will think about the Directory idea. But first I want to realize a scope for some of the parameters, like the original software, but with less values and enabling/disabling of single ones.

@Scotty_D
Should work with an AJP V8, but I would like to change the screen according to the engine. Could someone try the program on an AJP and give me a feedback, maybe a Hardcopy of the screen or at least the ECU ID ?

[scotty_d]

Hi Olli

I gave it a try on my 99 4.2 ajp cerb. It was a little erratic and froze up on me, massive rpm readings, what ID do you mean and do you want a screen grab of the car at idle?

Cheers Scott

Edited by scotty_d on Sunday 5th January 19:23

[EvoOlli]

Hi Scott,

after connectig MBETool will give an ECU ID in the Status Bar in the lower part of the window.

A screen grab would be perfect...you can mail it direct to me: oliver at wiechens.de

[scotty_d]

E mail with screen dump sent Olli

cheers
Scott

[paul1962]

Just tried on my Tamora and works great

Would it be possible to download the adaptive maps like the original software allowed ?

Looks like I might have something not quite right on my car
Adaptives for 456 sit around 0% +/- a few % at idle and light reving. Adaptives for 123 vary between 0 and -18%.
Think I need to investigate this further.

[EvoOlli]

paul1962 said:

Just tried on my Tamora and works great

Would it be possible to download the adaptive maps like the original software allowed ?

First thanks a lot for trying and the positive response....Regarding downloading the adaptive maps: If I will find the time in the next month I will do it. At the moment I program a scope like the original one.
I will get a new ECU in April, so I have to finish all the work before that date :-)

[NCE 61]

Works ok on my Tuscan S :-



Nice clear display thanks Olli.

[EvoOlli]

Thanks :-) but you should clear your water temperature fault ;-) Hope it works with my tool...

[paul1962]

Forgot to mention I had a couple of errors in the log, I think battery and water temp, both of which were cleared by your program

I also created a couple of log files yesterday and just loaded them into excel.
Just wondering if there is a reason that the data is semicolon separated rather than comma ?
Not really used excel before but assume it can be made to import semicolon separated data instead of the more normal comma ?

Great program. Looking forward to any other goodies you add.

Thanks for sharing.

[EvoOlli]

Hi Paul,

thanks for the response....regarding the Semikolon:

Maybe it's a language/country related problem. If I open a CSV File in Excel here in Germany I need the Semikolon as a separator. I think it's because of the comma we use as a decimal separator.
I thought that Excel detects this automatically and import this CSV file with a Semikolon everywhere. But as it seems it ain't.

So I will program the export different for countrys with a Point as a decimal separator. Will do that for the next version.

Yesterday I could use the program the first time while driving the car and I noticed that sometimes, I think while the Engine ECU is very busy, it drops some bytes from the communication and the display shows erratic values. There's the same behaviour with an AJP V8 ECU. I will investigate this and hopefully bring out a corrected version in the next days.

[snowy]

paul1962 said:

Forgot to mention I had a couple of errors in the log, I think battery and water temp, both of which were cleared by your program

I also created a couple of log files yesterday and just loaded them into excel.
Just wondering if there is a reason that the data is semicolon separated rather than comma ?
Not really used excel before but assume it can be made to import semicolon separated data instead of the more normal comma ?

Great program. Looking forward to any other goodies you add.

Thanks for sharing.

have a look here

http://superuser.com/questions/291445/how-do-you-c...

[paul1962]

EvoOlli said:

Yesterday I could use the program the first time while driving the car and I noticed that sometimes, I think while the Engine ECU is very busy, it drops some bytes from the communication and the display shows erratic values. There's the same behaviour with an AJP V8 ECU. I will investigate this and hopefully bring out a corrected version in the next days.

I investigated the comms a few years ago with the intention of writing a proper windows program but never got round to it, so really pleased you did it.

I first thought the data corruption was down to the pc but I tried another logging method and that was the same so it seems the ecu makes controlling the engine a priority over output logging info, quite right too.
I ended up buffering the incoming stream until I'd got a complete valid sequence and then used that.
I never got to the bottom of why you sometimes need to reconnect, all a bit odd.

Edited by paul1962 on Thursday 9th January 18:39

[EvoOlli]

Hi Paul,

biggest problem is the missing flow control and that the ECU inserts zeros instead of dropping the whole sentence. I will have a look at it on the weekend and hopefully find a solution...have some ideas at the moment to get around it.

[EvoOlli]

New version 0.95 out, did a lot of changes internally to stop the erratic reading while the ECU is busy, hope it helps. Some more new features:

- Detection of AJP V8, changes for different settings, hope it works :-)

- Automatic discovery of local country settings regarding the creation of CSV Files

- Found a way to reset the Log History in the ECU (The values you can read with the Original Software unter 'Interrogate Logs'). Until now the only way I knew was to change the Dallas Clock Chip to a new one to reset these
values.

- Possibility to select the output folder for the Logfiles

- Simple Graphic Scope with the possibility to disable certain values and set the speed of the Logging

- Program remembers the Window Position, Size and Maximized-State

- Shortcut-Keys are now available:
F1 -> Help/Info
F2 -> Enable/Disable Logfile
F3 -> Enable/Disable Scope-Window
F5 -> Reset Fault Codes
F6 -> Reset Throttle

Have Fun !

[stlol]

Great work Olli, do you think it would be possible to have a way of running this in the car on a small tablet or phone?