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Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:07 am
by talkingcars
The best info I can find suggests that the RV8 uses a Lucus system but TBH they seem quite crude using a coil and distrubutor on each bank.

Did you get the 2 ECUs I sent up on Sunday?

James

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:11 am
by pscan.eu
talkingcars wrote:Did you get the 2 ECUs I sent up on Sunday?

James
Yes I did. I'm currently trying to crack the cryptographic login protocol that the KV6 ECU uses. Is it from a 75 ?

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:42 am
by Rob Bell
I believe James' KV6 ECU came from a ZR180 Philip.

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:04 am
by Rob Bell
Regarding the RV8, I had imagined that it would have used the Motorola-based MKC101390 as found in contemporaneous Land Rover V8's, but I suspect that this is not actually the case - from what I can see, it appears to be an earlier Lucas-based system (14CUX Fuel Injection system - and there is more information about this ECU on this very comprehensive set of pages: http://alum.wpi.edu/~colinb/14cux.html).

See also http://www.v8register.net/subpages/RV8N ... pdated.htm

It is a system shared with early Range Rovers and TVRs, but bears little resemblance to later systems. The V8 register and one Roger Parker would be a good point of liaison I think.

Even the data link cable/ diagnostic connector looks to be from a different age:
Image
Image

Given that the connector plugs are unavailable, and there appears to have been more than one type of plug used on these cars, owners are likely to have to make their own link harnesses - perhaps to a standard OBD D-socket Richard?

Actually, it looks as though these systems are already covered by a separate ECU reader Rich - http://ecumate.com/ - although I am sure that some owners would appreciate having one tool that fits all. :)

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 1:00 pm
by talkingcars
Rob Bell wrote:I believe James' KV6 ECU came from a ZR180 Philip.
I post a reply to this several hours ago!

The ECU came out of a 2001 MGZS180 KV6 manual saloon - GV51 UHM.

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 1:38 pm
by mowog73
One question about the code reader that Philip is developing, can it test sensors? Say you have an error code concerning coolant temperature, can this reader than "test" the brown coolant sensor? The ability to test sensors would make this code reader invaluable.

And as Mike has mentioned, with over 40 MGFs in Canada and counting, there is most certainly a market of this device here as well.

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 1:54 pm
by pscan.eu
No it doesn't do that. To be honest you can do that with a digital voltmeter by testing the resistance of the sensor at various temperatures.

In fact I would not advise anyone to pull and change a sensor purely based on an error code.
A good procedure would possibly go like this:-
1. Read the error codes and write them down.
2. Reset the error codes.
3. Drive the vehicle a bit.
4. Read the error code again.
5. With the engine running look at the live data and see if any of the parameters look funny.
6. Start examining wiring and sensors associated with that "funny" parameter.

Error codes are not a silver bullet as there is a logic flow in the ECU firmware that lead to that error code begin triggered. The logic comes from the human that developed it. The specific scenario of your failure (or maybe multiple failures) might be one that the developer had not anticipated.

For example a "failed sensor" could actually be that a fuse has blown and that sensor is not longer powered.

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 2:16 pm
by Rob Bell
Actually, in a sense the kit does test sensors - as Philip says, it provides the interpreted value of that sensor in the live output feed. If your sensor is providing an ambient air temperature of 1000 degrees celcius, then either you are closer to the sun than the rest of us, or the sensor (or its loom connection) is at fault. :)

Re: OBD Socket (and details of MGF technical day - June 15th

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 2:50 pm
by pscan.eu
Which is step 5 in my instructions.

To be exact though it is testing the ECU's view of the sensor and not the sensor itself.