Novice with Efilive v4 - VS V6 Commodore

[al7999]

Hi there just got hold of an aldl cable and I am trying to get it working with efilive v4 on my VS V6 holden commodore. I just want to check for errors and see how the car is running. Not into tuning or anything like that.

Got hold of cable from tech savy mate who build it with a FT232RL FTDI USB to TTL Serial Converter Adapter Module for Arduino. It is configured on my laptop running windows 7 in Com port 2. It appears to be working as the green LED is constantly running when ignition on. But I am getting the following when I try and get it reading. I have read many of the new posts with people asking for help and so have tried to include as much info as possible.

I have got the com port correct on efilive, i have checked the max232 echo and unchecked the chatter in the vehicle section. I have left the T values default. I have selected the correct xml file.

The cable has a 1k resister and diode (RXD and TX) before being spliced and got to pin 9, and ground to pin 5 on the car. RXD and TX have been inverted on the chip using FT prot program which I think I read on here you have to do to make the chip work.

LOGGING WITH IGNITION OFF:

01:57.210: Initialising...
01:57.619: Opening COM2 8228,8,N,1
01:58.308: Ready.
02:16.482: Check vehicle interface...
02:16.491: Waiting for Aldl bus silence of at least 50ms...
02:16.539: Requesting Max232 interface to acknowlege: $FF,$55,$AC...
02:16.540: Start writing frame
02:16.540: Send: $FF,$55,$AC
02:16.541: Finished writing frame
02:16.541: Wait 10 ms after writing, before reading...
02:16.551: Start reading frame
02:16.557: Aldl frame header byte: $FF
02:16.557: Aldl frame length byte: $ 0
02:16.557: Recv: $FF,$55,$AC
02:16.557: Finished reading frame
02:16.557: Max232 interface detected OK

02:16.562: Scanning for heartbeat and chatter frames...
02:16.562: Waiting for Aldl bus silence of at least 50ms...
02:16.617: Start reading frame
02:16.726: Com timeout: Expecting frame header byte
02:16.762: No chatter found

02:25.250: Scan for chatter...
02:25.250: Waiting for Aldl bus silence of at least 50ms...
02:25.306: Start reading frame
02:25.415: Com timeout: Expecting frame header byte
02:25.426: No chatter found
02:25.429: Start reading frame
02:25.524: Com timeout: Expecting frame header byte
02:25.530: No chatter found
02:25.533: Start reading frame
02:25.634: Com timeout: Expecting frame header byte
02:25.639: No chatter found
02:25.642: Start reading frame
02:25.743: Com timeout: Expecting frame header byte
02:25.749: No chatter found
02:25.751: Start reading frame

LOGGING WITH IGNITION ON:

02:40.874: Check vehicle interface...
02:40.884: Waiting for Aldl bus silence of at least 50ms...
02:40.937: Requesting Max232 interface to acknowlege: $FF,$55,$AC...
02:40.937: Start writing frame
02:40.937: Send: $FF,$55,$AC
02:40.938: Finished writing frame
02:40.938: Wait 10 ms after writing, before reading...
02:40.948: Start reading frame
02:40.948: Aldl frame header byte: $ 0
02:40.948: Aldl frame length byte: $ 7
02:40.948: Recv: $00,$55,$6A
02:40.948: Error: Reply frame checksum failure
02:41.005: Finished reading frame
02:41.005: No response from Max232
02:41.005: Retrying Max232 detection...

02:41.005: Waiting for Aldl bus silence of at least 50ms...
02:41.109: Requesting Max232 interface to acknowlege: $FF,$55,$AC...
02:41.109: Start writing frame
02:41.109: Send: $FF,$55,$AC
02:41.110: Finished writing frame
02:41.110: Wait 10 ms after writing, before reading...
02:41.120: Start reading frame
02:41.120: Aldl frame header byte: $FF
02:41.120: Aldl frame length byte: $ 7
02:41.120: Recv: $FF,$55,$AC
02:41.120: Finished reading frame
02:41.120: Max232 interface detected OK

02:41.122: Scanning for heartbeat and chatter frames...
02:41.122: Waiting for Aldl bus silence of at least 50ms...
02:41.202: Start reading frame
02:41.245: Aldl frame header byte: $ 0
02:41.245: Aldl frame length byte: $ 7
02:41.245: Recv: $00,$55,$6A
02:41.245: Error: Reply frame checksum failure
02:41.317: Finished reading frame
02:41.317: No chatter found

02:48.747: Scan for chatter...
02:48.747: Waiting for Aldl bus silence of at least 50ms...
02:48.815: Start reading frame
02:48.845: Aldl frame header byte: $ 0
02:48.845: Aldl frame length byte: $ 7
02:48.861: Recv: $00,$55,$6A
02:48.861: Error: Reply frame checksum failure
02:48.894: Finished reading frame
02:48.894: No chatter found
02:48.899: Start reading frame
02:48.899: Aldl frame header byte: $2B
02:48.899: Aldl frame length byte: $B5
02:49.002: Com timeout: Data frame truncated: $2B,$B5,$5D,$FC,$00,$07,$6A,$2B,$B5,$5D,$FC,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00, $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00, $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00, $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00
02:49.032: No chatter found
02:49.039: Start reading frame
02:49.053: Aldl frame header byte: $ 0
02:49.053: Aldl frame length byte: $ 7
02:49.053: Recv: $00,$55,$6A
02:49.053: Error: Reply frame checksum failure
02:49.081: Finished reading frame
02:49.081: No chatter found
02:49.092: Start reading frame
02:49.092: Aldl frame header byte: $2B
02:49.092: Aldl frame length byte: $B5
02:49.189: Com timeout: Data frame truncated: $2B,$B5,$5D,$FC,$00,$07,$6A,$2B,$B5,$5D,$FC,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00, $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00, $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00, $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$0 0,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00
02:49.213: No chatter found

It keeps repeating.

Can anyone help where the problem may be?

Thanks in advance.

[Blacky]

Can you set the menu option: View->Serial I/O, then scan for chatter again. The View->Serial I/O option will cause a lot of diagnostic information to be displayed. Can you please copy/paste that extra info into this thread?

Regards
Paul

[al7999]

Thanks for the quick reply Paul. That cut and paste I did was with the Serial I/O set with the above repeating. I will try it again. Thanks Anthony.

[Blacky]

Hmm, I should have realized Serial->I/O was on, sorry.

The data that is being read by the V4 software appears to not be at the correct baud rate or is being corrupted in some other way.
The send->recv echo is being read ok. That is the data transmitted by the V4 software gets refelcted back and received again because the TX/RX pins are joined together. That is to be expected.
However, when this data is recevied : $2B,$B5,$5D,$FC,$00,$07,$6A,$2B,$B5,$5D,$FC,... it does not match any valid data that could be expected from the ECM.

Is it possible that the interface cable you are using is not working properly.

Or are you attempting to use the interface cable with a USB->Serial converter? Most USB->Serial converters do not support the non-standard 8192 baud rate required by the ALDL interface.

Regards
Paul