DIY scan tool for early ej22's

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:29 pm

so this might help alot of people here that do EJ conversions. this is not my idea/product, i just tryed it and it worked and i think you guys will enjoy it as much as me

so to build this you will need;

that is a 25 pin printer cable, you cut one end off (the female end).
you then using a multimeter (set it so it beeps is best for this) trace all the wires back to the plug, you will only need 3.

looking at these 2 diagrams you can see what wires are needed from the cable and also the wires they conect to on the diagnostic plug (colours on the car diag-plug dont seam to differ)

now you can wire this in after the diagnostic plug on your subaru, leaving the cable in there permanent (if you only have the one subaru)

or i have (just now) made mine plug and play by using another female plug found in the drivers side kick panel.
found behind here but on a liberty not a vortex

of this plug only 3 wires are needed and one of those needs to be moved. easy with something pointy.

wire it in such a way as stated above, solder/tape and look pretty.
at the end you should be looking at something like this

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:41 pm

now the second part requires a old laptop, or your in luck if you current one has the old printer port like the one below

the cable you made before plugs there.
now the only complex part of this is making a bootable usb from a image (iso image.the program wont run in windows, i have tryed) if you know how to do this great, you will find the iso file here;

http://www.surrealmirage.com/vrg3/b10scan/b10scan.img

google making "bootable usb" and you will find free programs to make the usb with.

now in order to use this you need to hook up the cable and usb, on start up go to your boot menu (normally f12 on start up) select the usb to boot from.
it will give you a hello screen and diagrams, hit enter and select the parrallel port connected to the car.
start your car and watch all of your cars info in real time by hitting space to cycle through views. read error codes past and present.... and even better, clear them with the press of a key!!!!!!

spike · Post by **spike** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:12 pm

hmmm interesting 99

ive been looking at getting some of the other diagnostic gear from china

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:14 pm

Cool, This would be handy specially for Dave 'subarino'

I'll try it:)
Only thing i don't have an old laptop!!

spike · Post by **spike** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:34 pm

ebay? junk sales?

im the same never using one, but i spose a desktop would work too? right

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:50 pm

yeah a desktop would work, but you could never drive it while hooked up. which might be needed some times.

i took it to a car i was looking at tonight, 3 stored codes!(crank/cam sensor and purge) cleared them and only one came back up "PURGE".

spike · Post by **spike** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:51 pm

ahh touche, good way to work out the issues your buying

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:57 pm

friends and family.... someones got to have one, my BORROWED one will live next to my tool box from now on!

everyone upgrades.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:07 pm

Someone needs to work out how to do this via a USB port.

I'm keen to have one, but as others have said, the old laptop is the issue! I've got so many old printer cables around it's not funny!

Great DIY though!

Cheers

Bennie

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:13 pm

I sold a heap of cables like this in the past. I still have parts here actually if anyone wants one.

If you want to go USB use a FTDI FT232R based USB serial adapter. Pretty much every other brand will give you trouble.

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:57 pm

Old laptops are only about $50 on gumtree if that, doesn't even need a hard drive because your booting from a USB.
There is a better interface that works with a USB cable, gives all gauges on a single screen at one time. But that was more work than 3 wires with some solder.

In this case;
Cable : free
Plug : free
Laptop : free

I can't complain, other than I wish I did it sooner!

nncoolg · Post by **nncoolg** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:10 pm

That OBD plug is used on L series too yeah? I wonder do they work with this software...

I think the subaru stereo plug fits into the OBD socket too;)

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:51 pm

you guys might find some useful info in this old thread.

http://www.rslibertyclub.org/forums/sho ... ata+cables

spike · Post by **spike** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:55 pm

i think i found a source of OBD to USb things in china, for 9 bucks US. Gets rid of the old laptop and use a more modern one

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 9:50 pm

The main thing is the cable is cheap/free for most people, and this program is free. More to the point it wasn't designed to work with USB.
You could get other software to work via USB, but you might need to pay for it.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:11 pm

This is a screen shot of the evoscan program that can be accessed by a USB cable. The trick is to get a USB to serial converter that will support TTL. FDTI is one that has proven to work. Trick is that the memory location of the ECU changed a bit over the years and between models, so it takes a bit of trial and error to get it to work

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:36 am

Just what we need for L Series EA82 mpfi. Um, Nev, OBD may only have been a Californian dream when our stuff came out. L mpfi have those diagnostic plugs I, II, II IV, V and VI that are scattered about. Me has one connected to the Volt gauge monitoring the knock sensor output - still need to test it with a hammer blow to the block. Normal readout is supposed to be 1.7V , my multimeter is reading 1.69 so gauge sees a lot of 1.6

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 9:00 am

Yeah but is evoscan free? If it is I'll build a cable and use my newer laptop

And can it clear codes? Or does it just give real time info?

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 8:45 am

it doesnt matter that the software wasn't designed to work with USB. It is designed to work with a serial port. So get a USB serial port..

shuffbag wrote:The main thing is the cable is cheap/free for most people, and this program is free. More to the point it wasn't designed to work with USB.
You could get other software to work via USB, but you might need to pay for it.

Wagonman · Post by **Wagonman** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 7:14 pm

Im liking the way this is sounding.. has anyone continued their progress? im keen to look into it although my experience with computers is limited..