fault code reader

zzr1200 said:

Theres possibly one stumbling block in RSW fault code reader for us European Diesel Range Rover owners.

I don't believe a diesel version of the P38 ever made it across the pond offically, so will Storey be able to enable/read fault codes for the BMW engines or even have access to the software used with them???

Unless someone knows different, if so spill the beans, please.

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everlatesparky said:

Good point m8 but i for 1 will still buy this box if it covers everything else like Hevac and gearbox etc.

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P38_Ireland said:

Ok I got a reply from RSW

Yes, the hardware will work on your vehicle and engine subtype.

That's from the horses mouth. Don't know bout yous but I think this could be problem solved for s lot of us and at a cheap price too

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SpudH said:

Of all the ECU's that could be missde by Storey, the EDC would be the one that is best covered outside of RR. At least you should be able to get the fault codes direct off the ECU. I think maybe this is where that other thread on developing a FCR for the P38 should have gone. If the European guys worked on this module to make it compatible with RSW's one then you're on to something.

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BBS Guy said:

Hiya All

There seems to be a lot of comment and hope about this RSW Rover All project, which was announced the day after i announced the FCR.

For what its worth, i would like to add my input, as food for thought, which some might wish to take with a pinch of salt or not.
It is, as i understand it, going to be hardware only, produced in the hope that it will then inspire others to then go on to produce "open source" software that will use it.

In essence therefore, Isn't that just the same as the existing ELM idea of creating low cost hardware (down to chip only) with a simplified publicly documented command set that allows anyone to write simplified control software under windows.

But the ELM has been out for many years now, everyone knows of it, it has all the required software features, it's really easy to understand and write software for it, it costs practically nothing, and electronically it connects correctly to every system on a P38 except the Airbag and the EAS, every single system on a Disco 2 and just by shorting two adjacent pins in the OBDII lead, also every single system on the L322.

So why therefore is there not already loads of free software around that uses an ELM interface to access anything other than OBDII compliant data.

The answer is quite simple, It's not being able to connect to an ECU and send stuff to it that's really difficult at all, it's the knowing what to send, when to send it and how to correctly interpret any response, that is the really tricky bit.

By analogy, you have a phone and you know how to use it, and therefore you can dial anyone you want on it right, Great, so get me the president of the united states, Gordon Brown, Lily Allen and the Dali Lama on the line. Then find out off the Dali Lama what he had for tea last night, get an apology of brown, a couple of launch codes off Obama and a date with Lily.
In fact scratch the rest, just get me the Date

Worse still, the manufacturers of these ECU's know how easy it is to connect to them and send them data, so they had a brief to make communications as awkward, non standard and off the wall as they possibly could, some even have rolling code anti access algorythms that have to be negotiated.

I am of course not saying that it is impossible, after all we did it and for sure there are loads of peple who may be smarter than us, but i very much doubt you will find anyone more dedicated and determined. It has after all taken us almost every working hour of often 7 day weeks for many many years to reach the stage that we are presently at, that's an absolutely huge investment in both time and cost. It's certainly not something that typically falls into the realm of hobbyists doing it just for the hell of it.
I am sorry if i sound negative and this is dissapointing anyone, but there does seem to be a lot of wishful thinking and I personally just don't see how another cheap hardware only solution like the ELM is going to make any difference in the world of Land Rover diagnostic equipment any time soon.

Regards FCR progress, sadly almost the entire month of January was spent working on refining the core code of the FCR, we have added multi vehicle licencing capability, as well as multi lingual (several different languages) and have done all the user interface software to allow it to be retro programmed and remotely re licenced in the field by the owner. However a good portion of the time spent was to make the units code far more modular, which makes it far easier and quicker for us to add all the new vehicle systems to it, which will now start to pay dividends in cutting down the time it will take to add the additional coverage.

We are not doing the P38 first though, because the 05 on L322's are Hybrids which contain part CAN bus (already Covered) and part Legacy BMW, and we have to honour our comitment to make that a full vehicle solution to the existing purchasers of the unit for those models. It also makes sense in following the historical line backwards. Fortunately for us we don't have to re invent the wheel, In fact just to read and clear fault codes is just a very small portion of what we have already figured out exactly how to do long ago with these all vehicle systems. So its just a case of using that knowledge and experience to write software in the FCR's language.

I am having a dedicated FCR web site put together, on which we will be announcing any developments as they happen etc and will post you all up the URL when that goes live.

Pat, i got your PM a few days back and wrote back, i also posted on your thread

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Datatek said:

As I understand it from Storey Wilson's earlier posts, he is doing the software AND the hardware interface. Unlike your no doubt excellent kit, as I read it, the software is going to be free with the hardware and open source to allow others to add to it.
No doubt if Storey Wilson succeeds, it will not be good news for BBS hence your negative comments.

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BBS Guy said:

Yea Datatek, i get that a lot from people who don't know me very well or who don't fully understand my situation. I walked away from the corporate tread mill life style some years ago now, when it finally clicked that there really is far more to life than money and i semi retired to Cyprus.

I apologize if my comments and points in my previous post seemed unfairly negative. Naturally i am biased, i do not deny that, and given that i have been very up front about who i am, i give all readers credit for being able to take that into account for themselves, and have enough common sense to see past such bias when it arises, to fairly consider the merits or mis merits of my still quite valid points and comments. Hence the, take it with a pinch of salt or not comment.

I don't think, i was unfair, rude or dis respectful of this chaps effort, which is
no more or less than what i have been doing myself for the last 10 years. And if i was, i apologize, it was certainly not my intent.

You may have read it different to me, but i know from experience just what it takes to develop this software and rightly or wrongly, i personally really just don't see one man going to all that effort and expense for free.

I understood that the idea was that Story creates some hardware that is presented as an open source project that others would hopefully then write open source (Free) software for.

If you somehow have information that confirms the Story is going to also write and provide free software to go with his hardware that covers all required systems, then i am obviously mistaken. Perhaps someone could get further clarification on that.
But as i stated, the fact still remains that this could have been done with the ELM hardware long ago.

On that note, surely, while i appreciate no one likes the devils advocate, but surely sometimes it's good to have an alternate point of view on board to provide some balance, realisticness and spark debate that hopefully clarifies things for all.

P38_Ireland
Sorry for the long posts, i type fast and think faster and its hard for me to be short, sweet and to the point with so much in there wanting to get out. I specifically did not specify a time frame for the introduction of the P38 capability on the FCR, simply because to do so, would represent a commitment that i cannot guarantee to meet. I would much rather honestly post where we are at.

If time frames are important enough, rather than wait until we have all 13 systems for all years and variants of P38 sorted, we could easily put out a FCR system a bit earlier with the most common items in, such as EAS, Hevac, Gems & EDC EMS and perhaps a few others to be added to shortly after.

My being here at all gives you all a chance to give me your input on such decisions which i promise i will value greatly.

Warmest regards to all

Colin

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