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elbekko

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Posts posted by elbekko

    The EBay Christ I fancy that 4x4 + its cheap thread

    in International Forum

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, Ed Poore said:

    All that was made up for the looks from people when you pulled up next to them at lights and they saw there was no one in the front.

    Always reminds me of driving home from Seven Sisters with a mate, he was half asleep in the passenger seat. He looks over at the car next to us, and suddenly panics "WHY IS THAT DRIVER PLAYING ON A GAMEBOY?!" until he realises we're in the UK, and that was in fact the passenger :D

    • Haha 4

    Britpart Lynx software using different VCI?

    in Tools and Fabrication

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Escape said:

    We should check which wires are used in the Tactrix OBD. LR uses dedicated wires for things like EAS that might not be included in the standard OBD. But if you can talk to engine and gearbox, that would already be a major win! Needless to say you're welcome to play around with our Lynx VCI.

    Only the EAS is on different pins, the ECM/ABS/... is all multiplexed on the standard OBD pins (otherwise things like the Biltema tool and ELM327 adapters wouldn't be able to do anything).

    I think it's purely a software issue that'll take some figuring out :)

    Britpart Lynx software using different VCI?

    in Tools and Fabrication

    Posted

    I'm currently in the process of being able to talk to my Mercedes using Xentry/Vediamo so I can hopefully code out some annoying "features". For this I've bought a Tactrix Openport 2.0 VCI.

    But of course I'm thinking about Land Rovers as well, and it struck me that the Britpart Lynx hardware is basically just a VCI - and it talks to my P38. So now I'm wondering if I can't just get its software (which is freely available) to talk to my hardware :)

    I gave it a quick go, but of course it wasn't as simple as just plugging things in, so I'm going to have to dig into the software a bit. Luckily it's all .NET (my wheelhouse), and easily decompilable (even though they've obfuscated it a bit).

    Anyone that has attempted this before that can give some tips? Otherwise this thread shall serve as a reminder that I want to do this, and a log of my attempts :P

    • Like 1

    Projects for 2024

    in International Forum

    Posted

    22 minutes ago, JeffR said:

    4x3mm spiky kidney stones

    I've only had the displeasure of one 3mm kidney stone, and I'm not jumping at the chance to get another one, I'll tell you that.

    The look of the A&E nurse when I told her I hadn't taken any painkillers was priceless though...

    Universal electrics for old cars

    in Modified Vehicle Builds & Special Projects

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

    First hand experience is that an LM1117 or similar will struggle with automotive voltage as normal charging voltage (14.4v ish) is VERY close to its operating limit (so any spikes or other wobbles will exceed it) and it's dissipating a lot of heat do drop 9-11v across itself (classic linear regulator problem), you don't have to be using it very hard to hit the thermal limit pretty quickly.

    There's nice little switch-mode modules all over eBay for peanuts that will be more efficient, you can always chain one into the linear regulator so the switcher does the heavy lifting and the LDO just does the last little bit to make it properly smooth but without having to dissipate all the power.

    That's probably wise for a final install, indeed, good advice that I've read before (stacking a switch-mode and linear regulator).

    Projects for 2024

    in International Forum

    Posted

    10 minutes ago, Daan said:

    Telling John it makes sense is probably the reason he won’t do it; how does owning not one, but two 4.6 v8s ever makes sense to, well, anyone?

    True, it should be at least four :SVAgoaway:

    • Like 1

    Universal electrics for old cars

    in Modified Vehicle Builds & Special Projects

    Posted

    The board I grabbed has a 7-15V input with regulator, I hope that'll be good enough. It can also take power off USB-C, so that's another easy way to get cleanish power in there.

    https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/4/5/f/c/2/SparkFun_IoT_RedBoard-ESP32_Schematic_v10.pdf

    Screenshot_20240107_171625_Firefox.jpg.a8452a05e3cd222e0406e60af18a8ac0.jpg

    As for the GPIO part... CAN seems fairly resilient, and the ESP32/nanoFramework has filtering and debounce built in. We'll see if it's good enough with 8 sparky things.

    Seven Sisters closed for good

    in Getting out and about

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

    Also ultimately 7 Sisters is a bit too big to have marshals sat on every track or to tape off every cut-through - hell, we've been going there 18 years now and there's always tracks that none of us have driven before that we'd never have known to tape off in the first place... the land owners would have to do it themselves or issue a very detailed map to stand any chance of catching all the potential problems.

    Could it work to turn it around? Designate a few areas that are OK, with clear entry an exit routes, a bit like a P&P site but within the arena.

    The issue remains that it needs to be mapped out and policed, though, which is pretty much impossible.

    Either way nothing is going to happen without the people at Walter's Arena being willing to entertain the idea again. So probably better to focus our efforts into finding other sites instead of pointing fingers at each other.

    The tyre size/pattern discussion is pretty much akin to the "anyone faster than me is a maniac" mindset IMO.

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

    Universal electrics for old cars

    in Modified Vehicle Builds & Special Projects

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Sigi_H said:

    I saw, there is a JTAG. Do I need the JTAG Interface for programming it?

    I think the way to proram it should be very easy. For the Arduino everybody already has all the stuff.

     

    Nope, I just programmed it over USB.

    In about an hour of fiddling around I had it connected to my WiFi and communicating with an API (just playing around).

    12 minutes ago, Bowie69 said:

    As far as CAN goes, I really don't think it ever complex, any more than serial, an interface either end and a loop to read the data and then you just make decisions on what to do with it. 

    Agreed. I read up a bit on CAN recently, and it's beautifully simple really. No need for a clock signal, built in concurrency handling, ...

    The ESP32 will natively do the CAN protocol, but needs a bit of extra hardware to actually connect to the CAN lines.

    One of the main upsides of the ESP32 that I've found is that all the GPIO pins can do anything. PWM, I2C, CAN, ... just enable it on the pin and it'll do it. And a bunch of concurrent threads as well, apparently.

    My goal for the CAN is a bit different, as I want to integrate with existing systems that speak CAN.

    Seven Sisters closed for good

    in Getting out and about

    Posted

    15 minutes ago, Bowie69 said:

    This combined with Binegar for a weekend would give a properly different set of challenges for people, mud and rocks and massive hills, vs a stone quarry with plenty 'oooh' moments. There's some 'relaxed' camp sites up near Priddy (a few miles from each) that would happily cater for a large group of people descending on them for a weekend. Probably no further for the likes of Stephen than 7S.

    That does sound fun. And for us no harder to get to the Seven Sisters :)

    Seven Sisters closed for good

    in Getting out and about

    Posted

    43 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

    It doesn't sound like the environment agency were involved - what they have gotten fed up with is people cutting across the main tracks which erodes the edges or cuts/blocks the drainage ditches, and of course the cost of getting machines up there and reinstating the main tracks vastly outweighs the money they make even from fairly well-attended 4x4 events.

    So ultimately it's people not following the site rules and f***ing it up for everyone. :angry2:

    Absolutely too bad. Honestly, I just wrote a whole text here about not being aware of such a rule - but obviously it's clearly written on the site map, so that's just my memory. I can only hope we did follow that rule.

    A big issue with that site, though, is that you can enter a track, not knowing where it will lead. So at some point you might inadvertently end up on the side of a main track, just because there's already a track there.

    Realistically the only fix for that is to explicitly mark which tracks are ok to use - and that's a ludicrously large job.

    I hope we can find a different, similar site. It's very much worth coming over for, and in a beautiful area to boot.

    P38 BECM headache

    in Range Rover Forum

    Posted

    5 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

    I'll shout @TSD @elbekko as I'm sure it was one of them who mentioned it...

    having not looked inside a BECM my 1st port of call would be to work out where the "faulty" circuits come into the unit (which plug(s) / pin(s)) and trace through from there, to mis-report a blown fuse suggests it's measuring voltage on a pin and not seeing what it expects to see, could be a bad solder joint or a failed component on the sensing circuit.

    Can't recall anything other than the BeCM SID document: http://rave.stringsandints.com/BECM SID CONSOL.doc

    Overall that BeCM looks very clean. Mine looked a damn sight worse after that Welsh creek :D Contact cleaner and a paintbrush and toothbrush are your friends for cleaning.

    I think one of the main things the recon companies do is replacing old capacitors. Might be worth a try as well, shouldn't be that hard to DIY.

    As for swapping only the power board, I think that's definitely worth a try!

    • Like 1

    Rebuilt 200tdi won't turn off

    in Defender Forum (1983 - 2016)

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Wowa said:

    Will look at that monkie.

    Issue with charge light disconnected is now alternator not charging. Can't figure it out as nothing has changed between disassemble and rebuilt/reinstallation. Can backfeed 'just develop'? My loom is basically untouched from previous. Engine side starter/alternator, thermostat, oil pressure and solenoid loom perfect too. Agghhhh!

    You need the charge light to get yoyr alternator excited.

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