An ECU scan tool for turbo and NA owners

Headlights to tailights and everything in between.

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Legacy777
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Post by Legacy777 »

So one of the connectors for the stereo plugs is the same for select monitor?

cool!!!
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Post by DLC »

Yeah, it looks like the SM and stereo plug are the same. Both of those will have one connector that will be female, which is exactly what is necessary.

You can probably get these plugs for cheaper at a stereo install shop locally.
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Post by DLC »

I found this page on the Scosche site:

http://www.scosche.com/scosche/connectors/subaru.asp

Are the plugs for the 89-92 and 93+ different?

I'm not sure if the SU02 and SU03 have one of the same plug, or if the SU01 might work.
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Post by vrg3 »

You want SU02. I think Scosche is based outside the US, and out there maybe they switched connector types in 93.

I have no idea what SU01 is like, and I know SU03 won't fit.

$17?! That is a ripoff! Or maybe those also include some plastic stereo face mounting stuff? Audio Discounter sells the Metra piece online for $9.32: http://www.audio-discounters.com/70-1780.html

I think I paid about $10 each time I bought one of these from a local stereo shop.

[edit: Corrected incorrect use of "3" in place of "2"]
Last edited by vrg3 on Tue Apr 27, 2004 12:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by DLC »

Uh, you mean we want SU02?

What about these kits that supposedly fit all Subarus? Perhaps they only fit recent models?
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Post by vrg3 »

Uh, yeah. I'm stoopid. SU02 it is.
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Post by mikec »

Success!!! I had to connect it to my home computer using a long phone cord stretched through my window, but I have successfully used the vrg3 Select Monitor!!!

I didn't end up buying a connector, but instead just pulled 3 pins from an old stereo connector I had lying around. The pins themselves are the same size.

I was only able to get pictures with the car not running and at idle, but hopefully I'll be able get our old 486 laptop powered off the car so I can try it out while driving.

Edit: http://www.chreptak.com/vrg3ecu/
The pictures I grabbed. The first half are with the key in the On position but the car not running, and the 2nd half are the car at idle. The last one is the connectors I pulled out of an old car stereo plug and shoved into the appropriate holes. Sorry the quality isn't so good on some of them, its hard to take pictures of a CRT.
Last edited by mikec on Tue Apr 27, 2004 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
"That shouldn't be a problem, since I do regularly visit the realm of subatmospheric manifold pressures." -- vrg3
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Post by vrg3 »

Awesome, Mike.

I'm working right now on adding a couple extra parameters to it, and I'm almost ready to release a version that should work on most non-turbos.
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Post by mikec »

What extra parameters are you adding Vikash?

Oh, and before I forget, I love the EGA! :)
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Post by vrg3 »

Hey, it'll work on CGA too... :)

I'm adding the ability to read the duty cycles of both the IAC valve and wastegate control solenoid, and some flags like the neutral switch and whether the radiator fan are on. The Select Monitor does these too.
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Post by mikec »

Cool
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Post by DLC »

A future feature that would be nice would be something that could display all of these on one page, or log them to a file every 2 seconds.

I'm sure you have this kind of setup in mind for the future, i just can't wait :D

Do the timing issues eliminate the possibility of ever running in a non-DOS environment?
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Post by vrg3 »

The ECU can only send one parameter at a time, so displaying them all at once page would mean sequentially polling each of them (so they'll each be updated roughly a quarter as often, and they'll all be sampled at different times). In my experience, this can be done for up to four parameters, but beyond that the delays are annoying.

The timing issues do eliminate non-DOS access software with this hardware. The Select Monitor protocol is actually similar to RS-232 except that it uses TTL voltage levels. So, with a voltage level converter, you can use the serial port and not have to worry about timings at all. I do most of my experimentation with this stuff in plain ol' Linux.

The voltage level converter isn't particularly expensive or hard to build; I just wanted to keep this super simple.
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Post by QuickDrive »

Very cool.

As I mentioned in chat we should have some baselines set for idle and say 60mph or something...
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Post by BAC5.2 »

Vikash - Do you know how the HKS CAMP can get all of it's stuff at the same time and in realtime?
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Post by vrg3 »

I don't know how it works, but I'd imagine it probably connects directly to the relevant sensors. I started a datalogger that worked that way a long time ago but never finished the project.
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Post by BAC5.2 »

Do you have plans to finish it?

The VRG3-CAMP could be sweet...
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[quote="scottzg"]...I'm not a fan of the vagina...[/quote][quote="evolutionmovement"]This will all go much easier if people stop doubting me.[/quote]
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Post by vrg3 »

Maybe. It's fundamentally very simple.
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Post by BAC5.2 »

It seems like it. Just read the voltages coming from the sensors and have a program that interprets it. The CAMP is cool because it has all of them at the same time, and has a fishtank mode, which is cool and fun at the same time.
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2009 Impreza 2.5i Premium. Blue.

[quote="scottzg"]...I'm not a fan of the vagina...[/quote][quote="evolutionmovement"]This will all go much easier if people stop doubting me.[/quote]
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Post by DLC »

The AVC-R does the same thing, i'm sure.

/me hacks cables...
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Post by mikec »

Uh oh Vikash... My brother wants to know where he can get a version to read his 2000 RS's ECU. :D
"That shouldn't be a problem, since I do regularly visit the realm of subatmospheric manifold pressures." -- vrg3
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Post by vrg3 »

Hehe... Well, he's kind of lucky in that his ECU obeys the OBD-II standard so any OBD-II scantool would work.

He's also kind of unlucky in that there is no very simple hardware that can be built to interface with it (there are several simple circuits out there on the web but most of them don't conform to the standards and only work on VWs), and as far as I know there's no free software to interface with OBD-II that works well (freediag is close, but it doesn't work on my 97 Legacy GT so it probably won't work on your brother's car either).
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Post by mikec »

Do OBD-II scantools display realtime information like the Select Monitor? I thought they just dealt with error codes. I guess I never really learned about them, as I haven't had a need for the information.

He was looking at some of the Palm based OBD software / hardware combinations, but lost interest when he saw the price.

Anyhoo, looking forward to version 2 of your software! :)
"That shouldn't be a problem, since I do regularly visit the realm of subatmospheric manifold pressures." -- vrg3
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Post by vrg3 »

The cheapest ones don't, but OBD-II does include specifications for reading ECU parameters. Unfortunately on Subarus (at least JECS-ECU ones; I don't know about Denso-ECU ones) the sample rate is very low, like just a couple of samples per second.

Freediag is very promising (http://freediag.sf.net/) and a friend and I came up with a piece of hardware that would work with it and most Japanese and European cars. We haven't gotten around to writing it up yet though, and it seems not much work has been done on freediag for a while now.

Tell your brother to swap in an early EJ22 with its appropriate engine management, and then we can help him. :)
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Post by mikec »

I have been telling him that! :D

He keeps saying STi swap, and right now he doesn't even know if he's going to keep the car. So who knows what's going to happen. :roll:
"That shouldn't be a problem, since I do regularly visit the realm of subatmospheric manifold pressures." -- vrg3
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