FORScan forum

Andyfocus wrote: Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:12 am hi might be helpfull if you gave a total for all the parts needed together.

LOL Andyfocus take a look at HamOp's earlier post, (the 5th one in this thread) for parts costs.

Narly1 wrote: Thu Feb 28, 2019 12:30 pm

Andyfocus wrote: Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:12 am hi might be helpfull if you gave a total for all the parts needed together.

LOL Andyfocus take a look at HamOp's earlier post, (the 5th one in this thread) for parts costs.

yeah i read that , still dont see a total price for all the parts together
ie - £25 for all parts inc adaptor
i see a list of the parts and prices , but not a combine total , so someone can come have a read threw and say well for the £5- £10 more i can buy a fully working one and save the time and hassle of modifiying one .#hope it cleared up what i was trying to say , sorry if it wasnt very clear.

sorry if it wasnt very clear.

LOL It's all good. Knowing how you feel about people READING and do their own research first before asking questions (and rightly so, everyone's time is valuable) I thought I would have a little fun at your expense.

Narly1 wrote: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:31 pm

sorry if it wasnt very clear.

LOL It's all good. Knowing how you feel about people READING and do their own research first before asking questions (and rightly so, everyone's time is valuable) I thought I would have a little fun at your expense.

got ya
the people searching thing is really 2 or 3 fold though , stops loads of posts , so stop loads of threads = making searching easyier

@TractMec, AndyFocus, Victor, Narly1, et al,

@TractMec:
What a BuzzKill....well the PC/ED manual arrived today and...within those austere pages it is clearly stated that only certain 2003 Ford cars have the HS-CAN comm bus, and the 2003 Ford Escape aint one of'm ( You were dead nuts on!! I had to buy three Ford manuals to acquire that info.

@AndyFocus:

All the parts cost around $10. As for finding an interface that does the auto HS/MS CAN switching for $30, I was unaware of any that may be available. If you know of any vendor that offer an auto-relay switching version, please share that info. I do know of manual toggle switch vendor offerings. My point wasn't to make a super inexpensive auto-mode switching adapter, as I've already expended $150 for services manuals and $100 for a used laptop and $54 for an OBDLink-SX USB to OBD-II interface adapter. So $10 in my effort to remedy my car problem is well within my strategy scope. I'm attempting to save thousands of Dollars in dealer service fees. Not save $30 bucks. My car has been to the dealer service four times, they are quite willing to replace every sensor, actuator, solenoid in the car...guessing because they have no clues as to what is causing the malfunction. Ford, hah! Crappy diagnostics, else their service personnel would be able to diagnose and effect remedy. Myself being an engineer, I'd be embarassed to have people know that I designed crap like that. Everything I've ever engineered and I've made some really complicated gadgets, all were serviceable because I designed'm to be serviceable.

et al:
So without making any changes to the OBDLink-SX OBD-II bus interface adapter, I fired up my quad Intel CPU HP car LapTop, instantiated ForScan, plugged in the SX USB cable and plugged the SX OBD-II conn into the diag port and voilet, it fired right up. I ran all the tests, no codes and nothing is pending. However, upon setting up the live-stream configuration and running the 'oscilloscope'; the running traces, paint smoothly, then periodically jerks along and when driving, frequently, crashes the program, meaning that ForScan, apparently stops communicating with the SX adapter. The message that's emitted 'not connected to vehicle'. The anomaly behaves similarly to a buffer over-run. But I can't discern whether its the SX or the phukn Ford bus that's misbehaving? And to add to that, it only happens when driving!! To restart comm, the USB cable needs to be unplugged/replugged and then maybe it'll reconnect, while other times, I was forced to unplug/replug the USB AND deinstantiate/reinstantiate ForScan to restart comm.

But its a kewl program. A little twitchy but kewl. I really like the table view. Although I am confused about how the logging system works.

My plan is to enable live-stream data logging while driving and to continue logging until the engine is turned off. And then restart logging when the engine is cranked, so that I have the before and after engine states stored into the log file. However, it seems that logging only happens when the diskette icon is depressed. The question is, does ForScan start real-time logging when live-streaming is enabled or does ForScan only store previously RAM buffered data up until the icon is depressed? Another issue is that when the engine is turned off, the OBD-II interface stops communicating. Need I externally power the interface to keep the OBD-II data port alive?

An annoyance is the fact that the program ALWAYS puts the log files under the user directory. God I hate that. I put files where I want them for my convenience not McNazi$oft's. Too much fiddle diddle to get to files and often aren't moveable simply because of the M$ 'security' crap. So, please, ForScan, in the future allow users to put log files where we wanna put'm, and have the ForScan program remember where the files are placed, so that users aren't forced to vector all over to get to the logs!!

I'm gonna do some more testing. I have to discover whether or not the SX is malfunctioning. If it is, I need to RMA it. Maybe that's the reason ScanTools doesn't have a tech-support telephone number? However, I do feel that the SX is a good quality interface adapter. Gadgets fail, its the complexity of the components. So if it crapping out, I gotta fix it to move forward with my car diagnosis strategy.

Later...

ham_op

I've had good luck with the OBDLinkSX, albeit so far I've only ever used it to look at/clear DTC's, and do the usual module configuration changes (tire size, brake controller add) and service proceedures (PATS key programming).

One of the reasons I picked the OBDLinkSX was the fact that it was more of a "name brand" adapter, even if it was a bit more expensive...

forscan could be crashing depending on what info your trying to get in the graph , it may be trying to switch can networks ,but as it cant and the car doesnt support it its timing out ? , or is the adaptor timing out due to it shutting down ? , would have thought it had keep alive enabled to stop that .

Has anyone done this RTS mod with the newer revision of the OBDLINK SX board (the red one)? I don't have any of the parts I would need to do the RTS mod, but I was able to hack in a temporary HS/MS switch and communicate over MS-CAN with it. The package of the chip which handles the serial to USB interface has changed, but I looked up the datasheet and it still has the RTS pin. It's very hard to get to on the chip itself, but I traced it out, and it eventually goes to one of the unfilled header holes next to the OBD header (a programming/debug header perhaps?). It also goes to one of the pins on the PIC24 chip that runs the thing, but since RTS is something that any computer can send I doubt it would bother it if FORScan set it. Maybe they use RTS as part of the protocol to update the firmware on the SX?

I may try using a dual 2:1 analog switch/mux instead of a relay, since one of those chips would be much smaller form factor. However, just wanted to see if anyone has done this mod with the new revision board before trying to change the way it's done.

@ ham_op
hi , i paid £40 for my first adaptor i used and still do use it reads all cars ive ever used it on came with some software and since ive also found some other great software it works with ,it auto switchs can networks(also works with pre obd2 cars that have a compabable plug which was why i bought it , works with bmws had to pay £12 for an adaptor round plug under bonnet one for those )and would work on yours but as i bought it awhile ago (still available but have to really look for the good ones like i got now ) , it is a clone but a very good one ,how ever it doesnt seem to want to work with forscan .
So i had to look for another adaptor , i then paid £60 for an adaptor that auto switchs works well with forscan (plug and play ), and comes with the original ford software ,its still available but prices are rising fast now .i have linked one in a thread maybe 1 or 2 weeks ago so should be findable if looked for ,and i also named the software with it .i believe a few have since ordered them and should have them by now .

@SomeOne972

>>"try using a dual 2:1 analog switch/mux instead of a relay"

I thought about doing that myself, as electro-mechanical relays are significantly slower than switching aforded by FET 'switches', and because of that, switching would be much faster and smoother sans mechanical bounce 'chattering' and subsequent necessary delay. The software would become less 'bursty' as result.

Re; the Request-To-Send (RTS) signal matter, the question becomes is the current OBDlink SX embedded software actually using it? If not, then making the mod will serve no purpose. I have not yet investigated that, as I need to either track down a full schematic or create one by reverse-engineering my SX. I'm hoping to find a full schematic, but, I'll create one if necessary. Then I need to verify whether or data is passed when the RTS is enabled or not, if data is not gated then the modification is for naught. I suspect that it is, else a chip somewhere need incorporate a fairly large chunk of RAM for buffering for holding data until it can be processed.

As for the 'red' board, my OBDlink SX is that version, but I haven't gone forward with the modification as I learned that my 2003 Ford Excuse doesn't implement the CAN bus, MS or HS, so there is no reason for me to do so **AND** if I did implement the modification, I do not have a vehical to test the mod with??!