Does anyone know if this flashing tool will be any use
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EOBD2-1250-EC...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

yes it will work with your car, but it is only an interface so you still need software such as uniscan to make it do anything.

you can make this type of interface very cheaply and easily (see ELM323 build guide)

you can buy them on ebay for a lot less than your link. £10-15 is normal, for example http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ELM323-USB-OBD2-EOBD-Scantool-Scanner-Interface-elm-323_W0QQitemZ220298278469QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220298278469&_trkparms=72%3A1299%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

the "free" software they provide you wish wont work on your car because it uses a strange fiat specific protocol. uniscan can use this protocol and you can get cracked versions online for free.

jug said:

yes it will work with your car, but it is only an interface so you still need software such as uniscan to make it do anything.

you can make this type of interface very cheaply and easily (see ELM323 build guide)

you can buy them on ebay for a lot less than your link. £10-15 is normal, for example http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ELM323-USB-OBD2-EOBD-Scantool-Scanner-Interface-elm-323_W0QQitemZ220298278469QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220298278469&_trkparms=72%3A1299%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

the "free" software they provide you wish wont work on your car because it uses a strange fiat specific protocol. uniscan can use this protocol and you can get cracked versions online for free.

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Jug I would be grateful if you could point me in the right direction for the uniscan software I take it you mean uniscan 3 whenever I click on it to download something else shows up

thats a flasher or "chiptuning" interface, and a poor quality rip off of a galletto at that. No good for scanning fault codes, and most likely useless for flashing.. more ebay ****e unfortunately.

stylers said:

thats a flasher or "chiptuning" interface, and a poor quality rip off of a galletto at that. No good for scanning fault codes, and most likely useless for flashing.. more ebay ****e unfortunately.

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You dont slate the one Jug has mentioned so I assume that one must be alright. With my limited knowledge it looks as though they are just a connection between the car and the computer so it must be down to how good the software is thats the impression I am getting.

johnson550 said:

I would be grateful if you could point me in the right direction for the uniscan software

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i know uniscan visa 1.83 will work on the older petrol bravo/brava/marea models. not sure about newer or older versions of uniscan, but i would assume anything newer will work.

finding a reliable download can take time. eventually you'll find a torrent that isnt child porn or a bad copy of a movie.

stylers said:

thats a flasher or "chiptuning" interface, and a poor quality rip off of a galletto at that. No good for scanning fault codes, and most likely useless for flashing.. more ebay ****e unfortunately.

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it can scan fault codes and flash the ecu, it can do anything that the software you use is able to do via OBD. it is an RS232-OBD interface.

plus, the galletto "eobdiiflash" tool is just an ELM interface with a different sticker on. there are dozens of brands but they are all the same thing. an RS232-OBD interface is a very simple thing to build. it does the same thing no matter which sticker you put on it or if you pay £10 or £250 for it. they all use the same microcontroller with the same routines.

Jug I have dowloaded Uniscan visa 1.83(I think) but it is MS-DOS so I assume this is no use anyhow I have shown the link where I got it from maybe you or someone can have a look and see if Im onto the right thing. Can you tell this is all new ground for me thanks for any help anyone can give.
http://www.minsk555.narod.ru/software.htm

johnson550 said:

Jug I have dowloaded Uniscan visa 1.83(I think) but it is MS-DOS so I assume this is no use anyhow I have shown the link where I got it from maybe you or someone can have a look and see if Im onto the right thing. Can you tell this is all new ground for me thanks for any help anyone can give.

http://www.minsk555.narod.ru/software.htm

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Unfortunately Im sure that uniscan doesnt work with interfaces that use the ELM microcontrollers, it uses its own interface which contains its own custom microcontroller. Also it requires a PC with two com ports (pretty rare on laptops - if at all). It does apparantly work with older cars though.

You can get them on ebay from china (£60ish + P&P)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Uniscan-1-83-...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Cant really vouch for them. A while ago I was looking for a solution to talk to my old Punto HGT. Out of curiosity I downloaded Uniscan along with the schematics, flash etc to make the cable yourself - nowhere near as easy as knocking up an ELM323 cable though.

As for "flashing" uniscan cant do that, it just reads parameters, dtcs, some sensor data.

Dan

uniscan uses its own custom interface (with custom programmed microcontroller), with two serial connections, so no generic ELM based interface will work. due to requiring two serial ports, difficult to use with any newer laptop/pc. USB/serial adapters no good, needs to be a proper UART. also DOS only, will not work in windows. It did work alright, but basic enough..

danhans115 said:

Unfortunately Im sure that uniscan doesnt work with interfaces that use the ELM microcontrollers, it uses its own interface which contains its own custom microcontroller. Also it requires a PC with two com ports (pretty rare on laptops - if at all). It does apparantly work with older cars though.

You can get them on ebay from china (£60ish + P&P)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Uniscan-1-83-...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Cant really vouch for them. A while ago I was looking for a solution to talk to my old Punto HGT. Out of curiosity I downloaded Uniscan along with the schematics, flash etc to make the cable yourself - nowhere near as easy as knocking up an ELM323 cable though.

As for "flashing" uniscan cant do that, it just reads parameters, dtcs, some sensor data.

Dan

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"Will it work on my car? Yes if it is manufactured before 2000" that is what is in the description on that link so I take that is the wrong one as well

"manufactured before 2000" applies to petrol cars which all had to be obdii compatible by 2001. for diesels it is 2004 so when you see "manufactured before 2000" think "suitable for deisel cars 2003 or earlier".


danhans/stylers: you're right uniscan does need 2 com ports, but port 2 is only for the L line. K line is all you need on the marea, it handles traffic both ways. there is no L line on the marea so even if you had a uniscan interface the second port would not be used for anything and the L line LED light would not even flash during ecu wakeup because uniscan knows it cant use the L line. in uniscan when you select the make and model it knows that your car only uses k line.

ever noticed the fiat connector only has 3 wires? k line / chassis ground / signal ground (but no L line!)

they were supposed to be compatible, but many european manufacturers avoided / barely implemented it. On the 3 pin connector, some have three wires, some have two. Earlier cars tend to also have an L-line, but in some cases it may not be needed, as the ECU can do fast init on the K-line. but its all down to the particular ECU and firmware. You any good at programming jug ? you could get straight into the difficult stuff if you gave some diagnostics a shot

stylers said:

You any good at programming jug ? you could get straight into the difficult stuff if you gave some diagnostics a shot

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i'm a graduate of computing so programming is not a problem.

Yeah, my old 16v coupe had the L line present, im sure its present on a lot of pre 97 fiats.

The difficult part getting this working is getting the exact timing with Windows.

You have to either make the COM port run at 5 baud and then change to 10,400 without losing any of the recieved data in between or run the COM port at 10,400 but pull the RTS line high/low in the right sequence to create the 0x10 slowinit sequence. The best way apparantly is to use the QueryPerformanceCounter to calculate the best timing.

There is source and documentation about that is helpful for writing software, the opendiag group on yahoo is an excellent resource. Most of the stuff ive done has been in VB6 as I have found it easier because the comm controls in .net are next to useless.

How about it then guys? an opensource fiatforum scantool?

Dan

danhans115 said:

How about it then guys? an opensource fiatforum scantool?

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If only someone who had the know how to do it. Also had the time to do it.

as Dan says, there is plenty of documentation, and example code. It just requires a fair input of time..

So really Im no further forward cause there dosent seem to be anything that will work atleast thats the way I read the discussion thats been going on.