Elanscan not working for me//Now is working

[andyhaworth]

Hello all

Got an interface from Geoff at Stoneleigh, quickly raced home to try it out

Seem to be having some problems though, wonder if someone can point me in the right direction.

First off, I installed ElanScan. Good start. Then I connected the USB interface both ends. The Found New Hardware Wizard popped up, I downloaded the driver, and it found the interface.

I then switched the power on in the car, but didnt start it. All lights on etc.

I hit Start Talking and I got a load of error messages, mainly about COM port being inactive. So I went into Setup and changed the COM port to 3 and then got the following errors:


Looking in Device Manager, I seem to have the drivers installed to COM 21, but changing the COM ports ability in Elanscan goes up to 20

Am I being special?

PS - checked that the cable was secure and properly connected 3 times!

PPS - rebooted laptop a couple of times too

[rip]

Keep looking at the driver in Device Manager. I remember there being an option there to change the COM Port. I set mine to COM 5.

& I always did get the bad echo message. I think I could change a time-out setting to stop this, but I don't care because mine talks to the ECU ok.

[andyhaworth]

OK, it was me being special.

I reinstalled both Elanscan and the drivers, this time I started the engine. I was still getting error messages in the logs, but it was reading and recognising things going on. Also got COM15 working as well (thats the important bit!)

Thanks for help Rip

[tweetdriver63]

I just installed mine. I had to set it to com8 to get it talking. I still get the no echo errors, but everything else seems to work. Now if I can just figure out what the hell I'm looking at!

What the hell does it mean when it says negative horsepower? I did a run, just for the hell of it, going full throttle (funny thing is, it's the only time I've ever seen a cop on that road! Good thing I saw him in time, or good thing he didn't have his radar on.). I see boost at 1.01 bar. I see throttle at 100.00 (that's good, right? It means I'm getting the throttle fully opened, right?). The wierd part is the horsepower readings. At full throttle, with full boost, I get consecutive readings varying from 213 to 275, and to negative 511! WTF does that mean?

[GeoffSmith]

What the hell does it mean when it says negative horsepower?

Flogging a dead horse?

[GeoffSmith]

Andy, glad to hear you got it sorted. In device manager, you can assign a lower COM port number to the interface, which should then stick with that pc. The start of the ESI Wiki write up is here. Still a way to go.

Chris, the power is a relatively crude estimate based on the acceleration (speed difference at each time step) using a fixed value for mass and assuming a level road. Consequently, driving uphill will report lower power, downhill will report higher power and slowing down will report negative horses. Negative 511 is probably when you slammed on the brakes! Forgive me if you've told us already, but it's been a long day, but what have you got to give you 1 bar boost without fuel cutoff?

Geoff

[andyhaworth]

Andy, glad to hear you got it sorted. In device manager, you can assign a lower COM port number to the interface, which should then stick with that pc. The start of the ESI Wiki write up is here. Still a way to go.

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, it was me not understanding it more than the hardware being the problem tbh. Good to meet you today as well. Incidentally, I think these were the drivers that got me going: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

[tweetdriver63]

Andy, glad to hear you got it sorted. In device manager, you can assign a lower COM port number to the interface, which should then stick with that pc. The start of the ESI Wiki write up is here. Still a way to go.

Chris, the power is a relatively crude estimate based on the acceleration (speed difference at each time step) using a fixed value for mass and assuming a level road. Consequently, driving uphill will report lower power, downhill will report higher power and slowing down will report negative horses. Negative 511 is probably when you slammed on the brakes! Forgive me if you've told us already, but it's been a long day, but what have you got to give you 1 bar boost without fuel cutoff?

Geoff

All that I know is on the car (stuff that was added by a previous owner), just from accidental discovery, is a MBC and a Superchips chip. If there's some kind of fuel control/cutoff on it that isn't stock, I don't know about it. I think everything else is stock, but there may be more I haven't discovered yet. I don't see a BOV anywhere, so that's my next mod.

[GeoffSmith]

All that I know is on the car (stuff that was added by a previous owner), just from accidental discovery, is a MBC and a Superchips chip. If there's some kind of fuel control/cutoff on it that isn't stock, I don't know about it.

That would explain it then. I had exactly the same setup when I bought mine and ESM worked out that the Superchip only had the fuel cutoff defeated (like a FCD), which didn't seem like a lot for £300.

[tweetdriver63]

All that I know is on the car (stuff that was added by a previous owner), just from accidental discovery, is a MBC and a Superchips chip. If there's some kind of fuel control/cutoff on it that isn't stock, I don't know about it.

That would explain it then. I had exactly the same setup when I bought mine and ESM worked out that the Superchip only had the fuel cutoff defeated (like a FCD), which didn't seem like a lot for £300.

Well, at least I didn't pay for the chip. I've heard they aren't a great deal for the money, but I suppose a free one is better than nothing?

[rip]

OK, it was me being special.

I reinstalled both Elanscan and the drivers, this time I started the engine. I was still getting error messages in the logs, but it was reading and recognising things going on. Also got COM15 working as well (thats the important bit!)

Thanks for help Rip

Glad I got it right.

[Ellie]

OK, so I seem to be having pretty much the same kind of problems but I'm not sure how to resolve them. ElanScan keeps telling me inactive Com port, bad echo etc and no data appears.

1st I'll assume I've got the basics right - laptop with WinXP; ElanScan (0.9.9.61) running and appears normal; there's only on f in Geof Smith's ALDL interface cable with USB; VCP driver files CDM 2.02.04 WHQL Certified from http://www.astb91.dsl.pipex.com/VCP.zip per notes from forum (http://www.lotuselancentral.com/forum/v ... &start=280)
and the ALDL interface cable socket attached to the plug removed from the firewall socket located behind the glovebox just above the ECU box; key in ignition switch, ignition fully on (immobiliser off) tried with engine running and not running.

Checked WinXP Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager>Ports (COM & LPT)>USB Serial Port (COM12)>Properties
this is what it says in the 'tabs'......

General - USB serial port (com12) Device type: ports (com & lpt)
manufacturer: FTDI Location: on USB Serial Converter

Device Status... This device is working properly.

If you are having problems with this device, click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter.

Device usage... use this device (enable)


Port Settings
Bits per second: 9600 Data bits: 8
Parity: none Stop bits: 1
flow control: none
+++Advanced settings Com port number com12
usb transfer sizes:
Receive (bytes): 4096 Transmit (bytes): 4096
BM Options Latency Timer (msec): 1
Timeouts
Min read timeout (msec): 0 Min write timeout (msec): 0

Miscellaneous options: serial enumerator [checkbox: ticked]


Driver
USB serial port (com12) FTDI Ltd ver 2.02.04 [2.2.4.0 27/06/2007]

Details: device instance id: FTDIBUS\VID_0403+PID_6001+ELANSCANA\0000
hardware ids: FTDIBUS\COMPORT&VID_0403&PID_6001


=======
Elanscan software set to read com12.
I think it's a 'timeout' / 'latency timer' kind of problem or maybe a baud rate thing, but then I'm just a dummy. Does anyone else have an idea?

[GeoffSmith]

Mike,

Don't worry about the port settings apart from the latency which is set correctly.

If you are getting the "Com port inactive" error, it means that ElanScan is not communicating with the USB IC in the interface. I did have a problem once when I was plugging a load of interfaces in and out, where it appeared to forget which port it was using but closing and opening ES, selecting the com port again seemed to cure it - I think it was an earlier version of ES so maybe you should download the latest (10.12.71).

If you get to the stage where you are getting bad echos, it means that the problem lies with the connection to the car - see the Wiki for some more information.

Let us know how you get on.

Geoff

[Ellie]

The computer selected com12 for the ALDL cable (when 'new hardware detected' setup/installation occurred at first plug in) and that has not changed for repeated connections, even in different USB sockets on the laptop. I checked the ES software setting and repeatedly selected com12. No joy.
Can I change the com port for the ALDL?

RE: Ports: I used USBview [http://www.ftdichip.com/Resources/Utilities.htm Microsoft USBView - USB Connection Viewer. USBView is a free utility from Microsoft that displays the USB connection tree and shows the USB devices that are connected to it together with their configuration data. This is very useful for debugging USB enumeration errors. USBView runs under Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP.] and got some info (see attached) which suggests that even though control panel says ALDL is on com12, USBview says its on com1. ????????

I did NOT try rebooting ES software so it might detect the port correctly at reboot. I will give that a go next time as its heading towards midnight now.

The wiki page data is useful and will compare error codes if I get them.

I did download ElanScan_Beta (0.10.12.71) but did not install as it says 'untested beata version' - but will give it a go to resolve problems.
Will keep you posted.

Question: checking threads here I saw reference to CEL light on the dashboard - is that the 'orange engine' style warning light in instrument cluster? (cos that's why I'm having a go with this caper!)
OK so I've since looked at wiki (http://wikilec.9600.org/index.php/Check ... t_Problems Check Engine Light / CEL) Some engine problems will cause the orange engine tell-tale to be illuminated by the ECU, there are several methods to determine what the problem is.)

[andyhaworth]

Try the driver from http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

I tried the one you mention above, and I couldnt get anything out of Elanscan (as per screengrabs above). Once I switched to the ones from ftdi and rebooted I still got the error messages but have readings on Elanscan

If you want to check the engine light, use a paperclip or spare piece of wire in the meantime. But make sure your paperclips are the metal ones, all the ones in my office were plastic, damn HSE

This is a good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2SjckSxjOk

[rip]

I did download ElanScan_Beta (0.10.12.71) but did not install as it says 'untested beata version' - but will give it a go to resolve problems.
Will keep you posted.

Elanscan is just an .exe file, not an installable program. Any problems with the beta version (I have had none) just means that the program itself may error or crash.

[GeoffSmith]

I've been using 0.10.12.71 a lot and had no problems.

[ESM]

Don't use the USB driver on my site unless you have one of my USB interface boards (now discontinued). My interfaces were based on an Active Robots board and the USB id is different from the FTDI one (it uses an FTDI chip but they changed the id) so I had to modify FTDI drivers to work with it.

With Geoff's interface use only unmodified FTDI drivers....

rip is right about ElanScan - it'll throw errors or crash if it goes wrong but fallout should be minimum. Its not invasive its just an exe file - it creates an ini file when run but that's it.

If the program is reporting a bad echo then the odds are that either the comm port isn't working or the program is looking at the wrong comm port. ElanScan relies on the user to point it at the right comm port - it doesn't do autodetect.

Expect to see some errors in the log, ES gets up to 10 readings a second so 1 error every few seconds is a relatively small loss rate. Several errors a second is a problem.

[Ellie]

Thanks for the very useful info here folks - I'll be trying out the setup again today and will report back ASAP. May I suggest this thread's info as a valuable addition to WikiLEC, especially about when to use FTDI USB drivers

[GeoffSmith]

Thanks for the very useful info here folks - I'll be trying out the setup again today and will report back ASAP. May I suggest this thread's info as a valuable addition to WikiLEC, especially about when to use FTDI USB drivers

Yes Mike. It's on my todo list (and has been for some time).