MastaShake

*sorry mods, I accidently posted this in the review forum
hey guys.

so here I am ranting. a couple of month ago in August to be precise, i finally finished my carPC installation. Everything was working fine, I decided to splurge on the ElmScan 5 Wireless setup for my StreetDeck. Once I received it, I installed the wireless adapters and followed the instructions and everything was working according to plan. When the ElmScan tool and Bluetooth finally pair you get a COM port number to use to get the readings. I got my connection and my COM port number and everything was working just as it was suppose to.

So I loaded up the Scanning tool that came with ElmScan..not the StreetDeck version and I set it to the correct COM port number (which in my case was COM7) and followed the instructions to set up the connection only to receive a "No Interface Found" message. I looked back at the instructions which mind you are only 1 page and it did not have any troubleshooting information. I went online on their forums and aside from having like 2 threads which weren't even on topic there was nothing there no help. At this point I

Fast forward to today and I decided to give it another shot, I followed the instructions as usual and I reached the same point I did last time..the "No Interface Found" message. I decided to connect to the COM7 port through a HyperTerminal (it is suggested on their website) and again nothing..I was able to connect but I did not get any output.

The way ElmScan works is you connect a wireless bluetooth adapter to it this is a Serial-to-Wireless Bluetooth adapter that they supply you with. They also include a Serial wire so you can go hardwire and connect straight to the PC's serial port. That is what I decided to do. I connected it to my PC's serial port and turned the car on, Windows loaded fine..but after 5 seconds the screen went black and it told me it was hibernating . I turn the ignition off and turn it back on to start my PC and it starts but doesn't even load the BIOS welcome screen and just shuts down, I repeated and it did it again. I disconnected the Serial Port from PC and started it again and it now doesnt even turn on, I get no red light from the PSU even.

In other words

MastaShake

update!

alright, one day later I get in my car and my PC turned on !!! wtf is going on?? anyway, the ElmScan still refuses to work for me. giving me "No Interface Found" error..

GRRR, anyone run into this??

cmon 90 views and nothing?

michbound

What vehicle are you running this on?

When you connect via serial cable you should be connecting to COM1. COM7 is what the bluetooth software driver installed but over the serial cable it should be com1 or the first hardware com port....

Paul
www.obdpros.com

MastaShake

Michbound, thank you for your kind reply.

I am running this on a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix an OBD II compliant vehicle. The protocol is SAE J1850 VPW, which is supported by the multi-protocl ElmScan 5 as you probably know.

In terms of the COM ports.
On my car PC i was never able to get far, since my PC just shut down and didnt turn back on as soon as I connected ElmScan to the serial port. While on bluetooth I used COM7.

I did bring out my laptop and tried to use the serial connection there, I got further than on my car PC. I still got the "No Interface Found" message in the ScanTool.net FreeWare App. However I was able to get some sort of response out of it from the HyperTerminal.

If i put in "ATZ" I got a response of "OK" back. I forgot the other commands, so I was trying to put random stuff in, which it ignored. I noticed however if I put in something like "ATGDGERWEG" I get an "ERROR" back. It looks like its reading the first 2 bytes as the command and then the rest as an input. I need to go back out and with the right commands and try it again.

I am a software engineer, if there is a documentation for all of the "commands" that the ElmScan interface takes, I will write my own scan tool for all I care. Essentially all I want is to be able to communicate with my OBDII port.

The problem is I wanted to integrated it with my StreetDeck, and obviously it is not finding an interface on the correct port. If my custom scan tool works then I will have to then write a custom AddIn for StreetDeck..but I am getting ahead of myself.

Let me go out there with my laptop and with the proper commands and see what it tells me, I will report back here with the results..if you guys still care or not.

Stan.

wolrah

It's been a while since I looked at the ELM protocol info, but I don't believe it uses AT commands. I think when you got a response to AT commands you were talking to your modem.

edit: I was wrong, it uses AT commands for setup

FWIW I've used my wired ELMscan5 (which I think is identical to the wireless one up to the serial port) with quite a few laptops and some desktops without problems.

__________________
I don't know what I'm doing anymore.

MastaShake

wolrah, i am sure ElmScan5 works. Its just like with any software and hardware, tinkering around is always required. You cant make a product that will work flawlessly on every system out there and I don't blame them for my ElmScan troubles.

However what I do blame them for, is the lack of troubleshooting information and resources they provide on their web site, for problems such as this. I mean the instruction said something to the lines of "if you dont see an output, visit our website" and the website has 0 information. I usually don't like calling support lines, I like to figure out my problem with the resources available to me(helps me understand the software/hardware, saves me time on hold on the phone and is plain old curiosity).

I am sure ElmScan is a fine product, but the lack of resources is definitely getting to me.

nyquist_ty

Have you checked the Baud Rate setting in ScanTool? It should be set to 9600 instead of the default 38400. I got the same message "No Interface Found" until I changed the setting in the "Options" screen.