Technical Multiecuscan

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I trawled through the MES user guide, MES forum and on here to try and find an answer. The drivers I tried seemed to be assigning the COM ports OK, I checked they matched, tried all the bit rates & buffer settings available, uninstalled & reinstalled new drivers & repeated a few times.


The only setting mentioned in the user guide I couldn't find to adjust was the Latency Timer. I'm starting to feel like I've missed something somewhere during set-up. My computer seemed to recognise the interface, but the software would not connect to the ECU.

You've given me hope that with perseverance I'll get there. I'll see if I can dig up some of your relevant posts on here for some inspiration!

Once I got my com port sorted out I just randomly tried the speeds in the box under where it recognizes the interface in the settings screen and when I hit the right one it just started working! I'm afraid I'm absolutely pig ignorant about com ports, buffer settings latency and all the rest of it. I just kept "fiddling" until suddenly it worked. So if I can get it to work I'll bet you can too. It's very frustrating though isn't it.

 

[rmjbn1]

Once I got my com port sorted out I just randomly tried the speeds in the box under where it recognizes the interface in the settings screen and when I hit the right one it just started working! I'm afraid I'm absolutely pig ignorant about com ports, buffer settings latency and all the rest of it. I just kept "fiddling" until suddenly it worked. So if I can get it to work I'll bet you can too. It's very frustrating though isn't it.

Electronics are great when they work, but when they don't...
...yes, frustrating is the word

At least with mechanical objects you can apply some logic to fault-finding. Logic seems to have been mislaid in our, ahem, progress towards this delightful techtopia.

A family friend has recently got himself a new e-bike with, would you believe it, electronically-controlled automatic gears. On a bicycle! I think I prefer the old friction shifters. It's impossible for them to go wrong. And they're compatible with everything. Less is more (more or less).

 

[rmjbn1]

Try attaching a screenshot of your settings page prehaps it will help somebody find out what up

What a good idea. I summoned all my courage and tried again. Now all I can get is the error message 'semaphore timeout period has expired'.
I did originally get a different error 'could not establish connection to ECU' (or something like that), but I could not replicate it.

I thought it might be easier if I annotated the pictures rather than go into a long description of my steps.
If anyone can offer any advice or suggestions, I'd be very grateful

 

[g8rpi]

Hi,
Hve you tried selecting Com6 in MES setup?

Robert G8RPI.

 

[rmjbn1]

Hve you tried selecting Com6 in MES setup?

Thank you Robert. I thought I had, but just braved the drizzle clutching laptop, ELM 327, torch and screwdriver to try again, and got error 'The write timed out'. Which rings a bell from my previous efforts.


I tried every bit rate option up to the maximum baud rate of 115200, making sure they matched each time in MES & COM6 port settings.

The only thing mentioned in the MES User Guide that I haven't been able to try yet is adjusting the Latency Timer. I can't find this under port advanced settings in device manager in Win10.

 

[chris3234]

Thank you Robert. I thought I had, but just braved the drizzle clutching laptop, ELM 327, torch and screwdriver to try again, and got error 'The write timed out'. Which rings a bell from my previous efforts.

View attachment 220185
I tried every bit rate option up to the maximum baud rate of 115200, making sure they matched each time in MES & COM6 port settings.

The only thing mentioned in the MES User Guide that I haven't been able to try yet is adjusting the Latency Timer. I can't find this under port advanced settings in device manager in Win10.
View attachment 220186

It's the device Bluetooth ? Does it show up on device manager or as a Bluetooth device on Windows

 

[rmjbn1]

Hi Chris, yes it is a bluetooth ELM 327. It was cheap, it was the only one I could get at short notice and I don't have much faith in it.

It connects via bluetooth no problem to my Win10 laptop and android phone.

I've removed it as a bt device & reconnected a few times now:
Windows finds it quickly and recognises it as bt device OBDII (in the second of my images above).
It asks for a PIN, 1234 works and it's paired.
Once it's paired, the serial port drivers are automatically installed, ports COM5 & COM6 show up in Windows Device Manager.
When trying to connect MES to the interface, it shows in Windows bluetooth settings as 'connected', the rest of the time it shows as 'paired'.

 

[rmjbn1]

The bluetooth unit is unlikely to use a FTDI chip.
What device are you using it with?

Sorry, just noticed this post, missed it earlier. Thanks for the reply.

I only tried FTDI as an alternative when the driver installed by the bluetooth ELM 327 wasn't connecting in MES.

I appreciate FTDI is advised for KL/VagCom 409 interfaces in the MES User Guide, not for ELM 327, but I thought it might be worth trying other drivers.

I've uninstalled all serial port drivers & the driver provided with the interface is now installed again.

I'm trying to connect the interface to the free, latest version of MES 4.7R3 which I installed on 30th August on my Windows 10 x64 laptop, intel Core i5

I've also tried to connect using a couple of apps on my android phone, just to check if it was possible to establish any sort of connection, but no joy.

Do you have the bluetooth switched on on the computer or phone?
You need to go into the computer settings and pair the bluetooth device.

Yes, bluetooth is on, ELM 327 connects as bluetooth device OBDII and shows up as paired in bluetooth settings on both my laptop & phone.

 

[g8rpi]

It does sound like a dodgy interface. One last thing you could try is using direct AT commands to the interface using a serial teminal emulator progam (hyperterminal mite etc).
Th commans are here:
https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Widgets/ELM327_AT_Commands.pdf

 

[chris3234]

For reference this is what my wired elm interface looks like on the settings page and is fully working

 

[rmjbn1]

Well, thank you all for your input trying to help me get my Bluetooth ELM327 talking to MultiECUscan, but I think I've reached the end of the road with my cheapo interface, and just blame it instead of user error for now

It does sound like a dodgy interface.

I quite agree!

One last thing you could try is using direct AT commands to the interface using a serial teminal emulator progam

Thank you, Robert. I'll get myself a more reputable interface, but will bear this in mind if I get stuck again.

Jock, I've read up on your experience of getting MES working, and your learning process regarding COM ports and baud rates is very relatable!

I've been through the steps just as you describe them, but MES is just not able to communicate with my interface.

I'd recommend Jock's thread to anyone getting started with MultiECUscan: https://www.fiatforum.com/tech-talk...ecuscan-working-last.html?459797=#post4337732

I'll update if/when I have success, but it might not be for some time.

Thanks again all.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I quite agree! Thank you, Robert. I'll get myself a more reputable interface, but will bear this in mind if I get stuck again.

Jock, I've read up on your experience of getting MES working, and your learning process regarding COM ports and baud rates is very relatable!

I've been through the steps just as you describe them, but MES is just not able to communicate with my interface.

I'd recommend Jock's thread to anyone getting started with MultiECUscan: https://www.fiatforum.com/tech-talk...ecuscan-working-last.html?459797=#post4337732

I'll update if/when I have success, but it might not be for some time.

Thanks again all.

I think you'll just have to "bite the bullet" and join the "illustrious" list of people on here who've regretted buying a "cheap" interface? My heart bleeds for you!

I have to admit I got really pretty fed up trying to make mine connect. I had several goes at it over a period of several weeks and got so frustrated on several occasions I just gave up. My ignorance of how computers work and so not really knowing what I was doing was not a great help. My eventual success was due to considering all that the people on here and Grant at Gendan had advised me together with rereading the instructions that came with it and then just playing around until I got there. The procedure I detailed was just the end result which achieved success, I'd tried many other combinations before that.

 

[rmjbn1]

Ello again, time for an update as I now have a working OBDII interface, with a USB cable this time instead of Bluetooth, it's this one:

Fits Fiat Alfa ELM 327 v1.4 Green Red Yellow cables for use with MULTIECUSCAN | eBay

All four coloured cables + modified ELM cable. Modified ELM 327 cable. Cable Set + Modified ELM. YELLOW adaptor lead diagnostics (Fiat 500 etc). PURPLE adaptor lead.

www.ebay.co.uk

In Device Manager on Win11 I manually changed the COM Port Number from COM5 to COM6 and Bits per second to 38400 to match the settings in MES 5.0 and it worked straight away! *phew*
So I think I can now put all the blame on to my previous cheapo eBay special and stop feeling quite so stupid (for now).

 

[rmjbn1]

Thought a piccy might be useful. My OBDII interfaces didn't come with any instructions on set-up, I didn't find much of use on multiecuscan.net.
I'm not a complete computer novice, but messing around with COM Port settings & baud rate was new to me, and it took me a fair bit of trawling through this forum to find out what I needed to do to get MES to talk to my interface.
Probably different for others, but these are the settings I needed (Win11) in order to get MultiECUScan 5.0 working: