Tech 2 spares

[carrera]

I have made a couple of investments in Tech 2 spares in the past couple of weeks

Firstly, one of the Tech2 > OBD connector adapters lost its earth connection. The adapter also did not want to slide all the way in so I decided to get a new one, rather than potentially cause harm to either the main cable or CANDI cable. It's coming from China

Then, having sucessfully used the Tech 2 for key coding, I wanted to get SPS programming access. When I tried in car I received an error message as follows > Address Error: Processor Fault

That's not good, especially as I probably need it to code the replacement pump to the 2.2. TiD

Having referred to this thread https://www.trionictuning.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2985 I have ordered another Tech 2 card. I do have the ability to write to the PCMCIA cards, but it's as cheap to buy a programmed card. I could have rewritten the existing 148.000 card, but didn't want to, as I was concerned that the rewrite process might kill it & don't want to lose all functionality until I have the spare

Having tried to use the Tech 2 recently with external power supply in attempt to survive an engine start (it didn't work) I have concluded that my Tech 2, a generous donation from Jeff The Chef, is a clone. A good one though.

It's possible that the rewrite will work fine, or that the fault is not with the card, so I will post an update when it arrives

[sgould]

Where did you connect the external power? On a clone it may only work if connected the point where the cable connects to the CANDI, and not directly to the Tech2 head unit.

[carrera]

I connected the power straight into the head unit, when CANDI was attached. 

I just looked at the CANDI unit & can't see any other place that power could be applied ?

[sgould]

It's in the Tech2/Candi connector on the Tech2 side.

[Audax]

It's possible that the rewrite will work fine, or that the fault is not with the card, so I will post an update when it arrives

I used to have to rewrite the cards every 6-12 months when tech2 was in use daily in the workshop. It used to just get more and more unreliable and then things would fail. We did get a few cards as some versions have bugs that mean certain things don't work on certain years. For example I think the later releases meant you couldn't do various things on ng900's with sensonic which were rare but you did see very occaisionally but I guess that Saab never tested the new releases with obscure cars.

[carrera]

Well I have quite a few varieties of bin files to write to the cards, obviously the latest 148.000 and the 10mb 44.000 that does the 9000 cars.

Useful to know that the cards do tend to suffer from "bit-rot" and re-writing is generally successful

I took the view that I could always but the Vauxhall software on the third card, not that I have a use for that at the moment 

[carrera]

It's in the Tech2/Candi connector on the Tech2 side.

My CANDI doesn't have any plugs for a 12v feed, just the input / output pre wired cables and a hole for the yellow operating light to shine through.

The connector that goes from the CANDI to the main Tech 2 cable doesn't have any facility either

[sgould]

This is where my power connector is...

Picture shows the connector on the end of the lead directly from the Tech2.

[carrera]

Well, there it is

I shall have to experiment at a later date & see if the behaviour is different, thanks

[sgould]