Tech 2 spares

[carrera]

So I found a link to a more extensive version of the Tech2 user guide, 301 pages

http://www.auto-diagnostics.info/pdf/tech2_users_guide.pdf

I used that to go through the Tech2 tests, it failed first time because I had not inserted the loopback adapter into the RS232 socket

I also noted that on boot up there was a fail on the RTC time, but that once I went in to change the time & date, they were both correct

Looking in page 24 of the above manual, which links to an image on page 150, I see that I should be using the 3000098 adapter

Tried that, made no difference, so then I tried SPS programming regardless. That was interesting. The chassis number was from a 2004 B235R car..... I reckon that was Jeff's car. Proceeded with the reprogramming of the Aircon module that was what was loaded and it was very unreliable, successfully writing to completion twice out of about 8 attempts. That's not good.

So I started to suspect either a comms fault, or a card fault & opted for the latter, so pulled a card out and went to reprogram it. Now I "have" done this before, but neither of the machines I had access to have MCE 3.15 / 3.16 to write to the card, and the physical XP machine didn't have a driver either. Lots of time spent on internet searches for old software, unproductively.

So then I decided to reprogram through the Tech 2. My version of TIS2000 does not have 148.000 as an available option so I was then into using CardWriter direct onto the RS232 COM port.

Booted the Tech2 up and it said version 44.000. I thought this was the original 148.000 card, long story short, the PCMCIA card I removed was 32GB, so I assumed it was 148.000, thinking that 44.000 would be in the other slot on a 10MB card. Turns out 44.000 is also on a 32MB card

So I removed all cards, put the new one in and went to the 2.2 diesel to try SPS programming

Whaddya know







So, I had been using the Tech2 with two 148.000 cards in, and it was the old one that had boot priority. New card all OK, which means I definitely need to reprogram the old 148.000 card

I started it using CardWriter, but then it complained that there was a comms fault. So I rebooted the Tech 2, which is now in download mode and waiting for data. Nothing was happening so I rebooted the XP machine, started again and initiated the reprogramming, which started, as evidenced by the progress of flashing pixels. After about 20 seconds the flashing stopped and I have just one bar on the cardwriter

I think it has hung, but I will leave it for another 20 minutes or so before trying again

Wish I had the ability to write directly to the PCMCIA card in the laptop, but I have a driver & software gap

 

[carrera]

After numerous failed attempts with the virtual machine, trying different baud rates as well, I decided to give it a go on the laptop with a physical machine.

It started to work first time. The card was erased, I think, and then it started writing v44.000, which I selected because it was smaller in file size.

I left it writing away, I suspect it is on a very slow baud rate having taken about 45 minutes so far when the expected is 15-20.

In the morning I should have more news and then I'll check the serial port settings and give it a go with 148.000

I'll start trawling through old laptops to find the one that I used to write to the PCMCIA card directly

[carrera]

We have a success, well, multiple ones actually 

Firstly, using the serial port on the laptop to write to the card in the Tech 2 worked. The baud rate was 115,200 so little opportunity to speed that up. Allow an hour for the process

My searching last night did not find a laptop with the software on it, but I did find a source for the software, so this thread can be a little bit of a pointer for anyone who wants to try this a couple of decades after everyone else, when most of the links are dead

Firstly the software... it's certainly tested now

https://www.saabcentral.com/threads/elan-memory-card-explorer-untested.753894/?

I'm using a Toshiba Tecra M5, physical XP, just used default / generic drivers for the PCMCIA card slot and card

Used the instructions here to customise a shortcut to run MCE with the correct memory address for the card.

https://tech2wiki.com/content/tech2_pcmcia/writing_pcmcia_cards/writing_pcmcia_using_mce.html#starting-the-memory-card-explorer

Then I had to tell MCE to use the voltage that the card is requesting, rather than the later, default 5v setting (actually 12v I believe): Setup/VCC Power Levels

Then I simply clicked on the file box, selected the 148 bin and wrote the card. The software validates the writing as the final operation, probably took around 10 minutes

The card was ejected and placed in the Tech 2, in what I believe is called slot 1, the one that is easiest to access. I then took it over to the 2.2 TiD and after clicking on the SPS item it immediately took me into the menu to allow the reading of the current car configuration   

There's a useful overview here: https://www.autonumen.com/blog/readwrite-bin-to-tech-2-pcmcia-flash-memory-card-explorer-vs-card-writer/

So the conclusion is that the previous failure was due to corruption on the Tech 2 card, not the device itself. Exactly in line with the earlier comment from Audax