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Thread: HOWTO: Log from your ECU for less than £30

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    HOWTO: Log from your ECU for less than £30

    Knowing what is happening with your engine is critical to troubleshooting issues, ensuring healthy running, and chasing power.

    Our cars have a diagnostic port, which is located under the dashboard on the driver's side, above where your left knee would be.

    Whilst this port looks like a standard OBD2 (On-board Diagnostics 2) found in many other modern cars, the VR-4 was introduced before a global standard for both pin-out and communications protocol was agreed upon - so most available software and hardware which is marked 'OBD2' is not compatible with the VR-4 (namely popular mobile apps such as Torque, and the widely available bluetooth ELM327 adapters).


    If you want to just read fault codes, then you can stop here - all you need is a simple piece of wire or even a paperclip - and take a look at the diagnostic codes


    So - what can we do if you need more information? Well, although the protocol isn't the standardised one, it's close enough that a cheap (approximately ?10) cable designed for VAG group cars, with a minor modification, will allow communication!

    What you will be looking for is a ~?10 VAG-COM KKL USB cable - they are widely available on online auction sites such as eBay, and this style is nice and cheap:

    IMG_6495.jpg

    Beware: It will need to have an FTDI chip on board, not a CHG340

    Out of the box, this still won't work. We need to connect Pin 1 to ground - this just so happens to set the engine ECU into a mode where it can communicate.

    There are multiple ways of doing this - I will show below my preferred method, which makes no modifications to the car, and requires no ongoing maintenance.


    Firstly, open the connector up by undoing the 4 screws, and remove the cover:

    IMG_6496.jpg

    Next, remove the circuit board from the casing, and unplug:

    IMG_6498.jpg

    Now you have access to all of the pins - take a short length of wire, and solder it between pins 1 and 4. I used an uninsulated piece of wire because it's what I had to hand, but you could use insulated, as you do not want to touch any other pins:

    IMG_6501.jpgIMG_6502.jpg


    Once that is done, the modification is complete, and you can put it back together.


    Next, you want to head on over to http://www.evoscan.com/ and purchase EvoScan software - this will set you back just $25!

    The latest version (as of March 2017) is 2.9, but you will need to download version 2.7 if using this cable.

    Once downloaded and installed, and your cable plugged in, run EvoScan, and from the Logging menu, select your ELM cable from the menu option, and from the 'Device cable selection' option in the top left, put a tick in the box next to Mitsubishi MUTIII.

    Once you've done this, you should be able to click on 'Start Datalogger' and see some data showing in the list against the items you have checked.

    The more data types you check, the fewer samples per second you'll get, so it's a balance between logging enough options and getting a good amount of data.


    [I'll add some screenshots of EvoScan later!]

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    Awesome write up cheers

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    great thread garry i am surprised we have not done something like this before.

    it seems obvious when you now how but noobies will no be able to do this without having it explained in twenty different ways by twenty people.

    here is a link to a useful thread for ecuflash and evoscan.

    https://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showth...basic+ecuflash

    Bye for Now!

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    Is this the right one?

    http://www.trademe.co.nz/1271149107

    USB VAG 409.1 OBD2 KKL

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    Quote Originally Posted by low_vr4 View Post
    Is this the right one?

    http://www.trademe.co.nz/1271149107

    USB VAG 409.1 OBD2 KKL
    That looks about right to me

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    How can I get the older Evoscan (2.7)? When I try to buy, I get the latest (2.9)...

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    If you a license for 2.9 you should be able to use that on 2.7
    Is there an archive section on the website, I seem to remember there is.
    But if you can't find it then maybe someone with the 2.7 install files can send it to you. If you have paid for version 2.9 I can't see any reason why you can't have a copy of 2.7 off someone.

    Sent from my MI 5s using Tapatalk

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    Yes the licence for 2.9 allows you to install down as far as 2.7 - once you have purchased it, you can get the 2.7 version from the EvoScan website at http://www.evoscan.com/evoscan-updates#content

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    Okej, thanks!

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    Although I have still yet to add any images of EvoScan, I have added a link to retrieving the fault codes.

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    A warning to others:
    I got myself a cable appearing visually identical, but discovered after trying to connect it that the one you need *must* have an FTDI usb-serial chip on it. the one i got had a different pcb inside to what Confused shows, and will not work (unless anyone has any advice) the easiest clue i can see is that Confused's has a clear LED, mine was solid red.

    the hunt continues

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    Has anyone seen a circuit diagram for interfacing the car directly to a serial port? I can't see why everyone wants to use USB and then have to include a USB to serial converter with all its driver and chipset issues. A good old RS232 port will work regardless of those issues if the interfacing to the car is correct. When I had my E39A Galant all it needed was a D9 connector with one diode and one resistor in it although I didn't use Evoscan, I used another program which was widely available on the net but whose name has slipped my memory, however it worked well.
    That cable you got, Amonlym, may just need different drivers. I work in two-way radio and we find the same issues with various radio programming cables.

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    @Tony_T I agree with everything you say, but Evoscan appears to only support ftdi converter cables. there is a com option in the menu - which cannot be selected, it tells you to get an openport cable as it is faster.
    I cant use the FTDI drivers on the cable I got as it has not go the TFDI chip, I tried force installing the FTDI drivers for the device - no good. Can probably reverse engineer it from one of these cables (once confirmed working) and then its just developing an understanding of the protocol.

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    Can you identify the chip your cable actually has? If so you could search for driver software for it and try that; I can't see that there should be anything specific to that chip that Evoscan itself would be needing. I believe there is a problem with Windows 10 not accepting some USB drivers or simply not working with them, however I don't use (or like) Windows 10 as it tries to hide too much and not allow custom settings.

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    A second attempt, specifically searching for FTDI along with vagcom provided this:
    FTDI FT232RL VAG COM KKL 409.1 OBD2 KWP2000 ISO9141 USB FOR VW/AUDI
    seller jrprimetechllc
    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/dewAA...Pe/s-l1600.jpg
    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Y9YAA...rk/s-l1600.jpg

    This one, modded as above works fine with Evoscan, using the drivers included with Evoscan.

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    I have the same problem, have purchased a FTDI usb-device and modded it, but still can't choose ELM-device...! Help...!!

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    is the chip inside definitely an FTDI one? are you able to give a photograph?

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    Will this help clear srs fault codes?

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    Quote Originally Posted by mgtd98 View Post
    Will this help clear srs fault codes?
    Unfortunately not. Please have a look at this thread: Clearing SRS (Airbag) Fault Codes for a list of devices we have confirmed work to clear SRS codes.

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