A few of you might have noticed a couple ports (which look like this) http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y214/ezzab69/dataconnections.jpg
beneath the left hand side of your steering column and wondered what they were for. If you did and thought they’re diagnostic ports, then you’d be right! :) (It looks like a ODBII compliant port, but it isnt because it uses an entirely different protocol, i think its called the MUT protocol, and its what mitsubishi uses in thier factory and service centres)

I got my hands on this cable which connects to these ports to my laptop via a USB port.:D
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y214/ezzab69/carusbcable.jpg
It offeres realtime readouts of heaps of things like Throttle Position, Engine RPM, Speed, Battery Level, Airflow per engine revolution, Intake Air Temp, Timing Advance, Barometer readout, Oxygen Senser readouts, Fuel Trim (Low, Mid and High), Fuel consumption, and heaps more. It can also be used to view and/or clear DTC's (Diagnostic Trouble Codes). Also the diagnostics can be shown on graphs or on graphical guages which you can build youself, and logged diagnostics can be played back as recorded telemetry on the table, graphs or graphical guages.

I thought it would be interesting to be able to monitor some of these readouts, but then after playing with it for a while i started getting over confident and started tweaking settings which i really didnt know what they did.
I didnt seem able to change anything performance wise, but i did manage to cause 2 diagnostic trouble codes to be displayed on my car's dashboard (blinking engine light and blinking antilock breaks light). The car even got to the point to where it wouldn't start, it would start then die after 1 second of being on :rant: ! so i started freaking and put all the settings back to how they were, and now the car is back to normal, except i think the idle is slightly rougher than what it used to be, i might just be over analysing how the car runs though. Now i'm sort of scared to use the cable and its now sitting in my room!

A couple other things, it says it should be able to moniter the abs computer but i didnt try it, though it could be interesting. AND it has an ON THE FLY dyno feature which i haven't tried either because i'm not into superfast illegal driving atm! (I dont have any demerit points left and i'm on a 12 month no points agreement)

Here's a short video of what i did tonight, sorry about the quality, i used my phone camera and its at night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMHO0m2kSw

Just thought this might spark some interest in some people.

interesting so can you get the computer to tell the car what to do yet? :D :Plol

interesting so can you get the computer to tell the car what to do yet? :D :Plol

hehe maybe you can lol, but all i've managed to do is get the computer to make it to break down!

and sorry about that video again, it became even worse quality when i uploaded it.

hehe maybe you can lol, but all i've managed to do is get the computer to make it to break down!

and sorry about that video again, it became even worse quality when i uploaded it.
ah thats alright! Maybe you could end up with the first 007 style mod FTW! :P Maybe even get your car to drive itself as the bond does! :D

I built my own OBD II cable a few years back for my 96 TE.

From what I learnt in that exercise, and have since read on the net and in a service manual, all of the 3rd gens from the TH onwards are OBD II compliant. (NOT the TE and TF I think they use MUT, but I'm not sure)

This compliance is required by law.

Just remember there are 3 different types of OBD II comunication protocols:
ISO 9141, SAE J1850 VPW (Variable Pulse Width Modulation), SAE J1850 PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).

I forget which one the Mangas use, but you can tell by looking at which pins are present in the connector under the dash.

-Dan

This would be a cool little mod for anyone with a carputer! :D

I built my own OBD II cable a few years back for my 96 TE.

From what I learnt in that exercise, and have since read on the net and in a service manual, all of the 3rd gens from the TH onwards are OBD II compliant. (NOT the TE and TF I think they use MUT, but I'm not sure)

This compliance is required by law.

Just remember there are 3 different types of OBD II comunication protocols:
ISO 9141, SAE J1850 VPW (Variable Pulse Width Modulation), SAE J1850 PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).

I forget which one the Mangas use, but you can tell by looking at which pins are present in the connector under the dash.

-Dan

Yeah thats right, but there has been issues with magna's, even TH and TJ's built for the australian market not being compliant, only the ones which were exported overseas. And also OBD began as an american standard, not an international one.

I am almost certian that my TJ is NOT OBDII compliant regardless of it having the OBDII port.

This would be a cool little mod for anyone with a carputer! :D
what i was thinking!

Do you need some type of program to run this

mmm, I'm very interested in this. Would be a nice addition to the carpc :D

Are the cables freely available?

I am almost certian that my TJ is NOT OBDII compliant regardless of it having the OBDII port.
Correct. I have confirmed this on my KJ using a ScanGaugeII...it's not OBDII compliant.

I am in the process of building a carputer right now, thats why i bought this cable. The cable and its software was initally built for Mitsubishi EVO owners who were interested in tuning their cars. As it improved, and popularity increased it grew to now support any Mitsubishi engine management system.

For whoever is interested, the software is called EvoScan and it and the interface cable (which understands the MUT protocol) can be ordered from http://www.limitless.co.nz/, a NZ based organisation. The website is a giant advertisement for their EvoScan product, but it is also a good summary of its functionality.

The cable and software cost me $104 all up. The software was available instantly for download but the cable took 5 days to arrive

That is so freaking cool I may just have to put an LCD screen in the dash permanently :)

Love it! Great diagnostic tool - how much information is available for the magnas though?

That is so freaking cool I may just have to put an LCD screen in the dash permanently :)

Love it! Great diagnostic tool - how much information is available for the magnas though?

Almost everything except for engine load, which is annoying because it is required to plot diagnostics in a map tracer grid. Otherwise, heaps!

im very interested in getting one of these!
what cable do you think a 2nd gen 1995 TS would take?
im a little confused with all these technical words, should i go count how many pins my connector has in my car?

VERY interesting....can it adjust timing.

Yea there's a little bit of talk about using this in a CarPC in this thread http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56026&page=2 starting at post #66

If it works well i'll be integrating it into my PC when I eventually get around to it!

im very interested in getting one of these!
what cable do you think a 2nd gen 1995 TS would take?
im a little confused with all these technical words, should i go count how many pins my connector has in my car?

Your 2nd Gen should work with no hassle with the same cable i got (which is the top one on the list on http://www.limitless.co.nz/cables/). Thats because they claim it will work on magna's from 1994, So i should have picked a different name to the the thread.

Though, maybe you might not get as many items showing a reading as i do in my 3rd gen.

EDIT:

VERY interesting....can it adjust timing.


No, i dont think so, its more of a diagnostics tool. The magna ecu doesnt seem to be as versatile as evolution ecu's when it comes to being configured. Only very minor changes can be made to the ecu with the diagnostics cable such as clearing trouble codes.

Hey mate, how did you go about disconnecting pin 1?

(just in case you don't see the question in the other thread)

No, i dont think so, its more of a diagnostics tool. The magna ecu doesnt seem to be as versatile as evolution ecu's when it comes to being configured. Only very minor changes can be made to the ecu with the diagnostics cable such as clearing trouble codes.



Bugger, Have you tried the ECUunlocker programme they list near the bottom of their page??