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Megasquirt PC Spec?
MakeEverything - 30/5/12 at 12:21 PM

Afternoon All,

I have successfully inputted a base map into my ECU using a Panasonic CF-29 toughbook, which to be honest, is only good for its indestructibleness and practicality in the garage.

I now seem to have a problem, whereby the Megatune software seems to update every couple of seconds, which in turn freezes the gauges. I tried another two laptops that i have, the highest spec being;

P9400 2 Duo CPU
2.4GHz / 2.39GHz
2GB RAM
Loads of storage space (>17GB)

I cant seem to stop it from doing this, so im starting to wonder if its a problem with the ECU or even the serial cable. Im going to try a different serial cable, but just wondered if anyone else experienced this?

ETA: Ive tried changing the communication settings / data rate settings, and that works ok, but has no effect on the problem i have.

[Edited on 30-5-12 by MakeEverything]

ed1801 - 30/5/12 at 12:48 PM

I was megasquirting off my netbook, which is a very low spec and will struggle with low res youtube vids for example. That would update the gauges in almost real time with no freezing, so I suspect it is something other than your computer spec.

Slimy38 - 30/5/12 at 12:48 PM

No modern PC should have any issue displaying real time data coming through a serial cable, the data rates possible are far too low to worry anything from the last ten years. My first thought would be the serial port drivers, I know that it can mess up VAGCOM (VW group car diagnostics).

Alternatively, when the gauges freeze, can you see what the computer is doing? Can you have task manager running at the same time to see if there is a big jump in CPU or memory usage.

MakeEverything - 30/5/12 at 01:15 PM

It doesnt seem to do anything, so im now wondering if its a tunerstudio problem since applying the update to 1.006.

Ive just been out and got a new serial cable, and its not that. Next check will be solder joints in the MS2 ECU.

MakeEverything - 30/5/12 at 02:15 PM

Hmmmm, Gremlins....

I took the ECU out and checked for solder joints, and it all seems ok.

Put it back together, and the software wouldnt talk to it. Opened PortChecker and the baud rate is 115200, instead of 9600...

I changed this in the software and it works fine now. Odd.

Thanks for the replies chaps.

wilkingj - 30/5/12 at 02:47 PM

Check its nothing silly like antivirus s/w scanning the hard disk.

dlatch - 30/5/12 at 08:25 PM

the ancient laptop i have to tune mine works fine i have it installed with the bare min of programs and no anti virus ect (its only used for tuning)

coyoteboy - 31/5/12 at 09:49 AM

quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
Hmmmm, Gremlins....

I took the ECU out and checked for solder joints, and it all seems ok.

Put it back together, and the software wouldnt talk to it. Opened PortChecker and the baud rate is 115200, instead of 9600...

I changed this in the software and it works fine now. Odd.

Thanks for the replies chaps.


Wrong baud shouldn't really have been the cause of it (it either will or won't connect, not partly) but dodgy cable/DB9 connector soldering does do this.

AntonUK - 6/6/12 at 04:29 PM

I use a very old toughbook (pentium 300mhz) and a bit of a wait for the screens to render but the guage displays are realtime.

mtechmatt - 8/6/12 at 06:46 PM

The software will run on any 'old rubbish' really. We tend not to invest too heavily in new laptops as using them day in day out for tuning means even the toughest don't last long. USB converters are a problem we often see.

Strange that it communicated at all at 115200 when the unit is 9600... Guess even if a few frames of data randomly synced up it still would corrupt, but still, odd!

Ah, just thought, it could be software FIFO buffering, check that is turned off incontrol panel, just a general tip, as I see yours is now working..