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Announcing the release of a new tool for the Discovery LR3 vehicle platform. The LR3 Activate tool will read and clear the fault codes on the Discovery LR3 Air Suspension computer. The tool will also read and record the live sensor heights from the air suspension height sensors. The tool should be a necessary and useful troubleshooting step when working with the LR3 Air Suspension computer.

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A new version of the EAS Activate tool has been released. This new version is a large software upgrade. The software upgrade adds the ability to read and clear fault codes on the L322 ABS computer in addition to the previous ability to interact with the EAS computer. The device can now read and clear fault codes on both the Air Suspension computer andt he Anti-Lock Brake system computer simultaneously.

Buyers Beware. There are several Chinese websites that claim to sell my tools. All of these sites are false and in violation of several copyrights and trademarks. Any product purchased from these chinese sites will not work properly and will not be supported by RSWsolutions. When in doubt, send me an email and I can help verify. All of the All Comms hardware tools are coded to the software and vice versa. A product manufactured by another source will certainly not meet the coded hardware requirements, will not operate with the All Comms software properly and could damage vehicle and or PC hardware.

I have completed the L322 Air Suspension Calibration module. Whew! It was a strange calibration procedure. Very different from the old P38a Air Suspension calibration. A video has been added to the MKIII Repair videos section on how to recalibrate the L322 Air Suspension.

I have also added an instructions section to the All Comms software. I will be adding many instructional modules on how different systems work. This will then grow into an atlas of best repair pathways for different vehicle modules.

Several different angles on the project over the last weeek.

P38a: I am continuing to work on the key and seed encryption protocol that exists on almost all of the vehicle computer subsystems. The protocol appears to be a relatively simple XOR encryption or perhaps some sort of straight forward bit shift. I have absolutely no experience with key and seed methods. So it is a huge learning curve. I am hoping that because of the age of the equipment, circa 1996, that the security seed and key method is very simple.

Discovery 2: I am working on adding all of the different programatic control of the ABS modulator solenoid valves. The methods will allow the user to control the valves for bleeding procedures and testing procedures.

L322 Range Rover: I have been able to complete the Air Suspension calibration procedure from start to finish on my vehicle. The procedure still has some little unknowns that have to be worked out before end users can begin playing with the module. But I now have a vehicle that is 2 inches higher than standard. I also added the ability to enter and exit into Air Suspension Transport mode.

In general I have also added the ability for vehicle settings to be stored in a default configuration file for long term record keeping purposes. This also keeps a record of all the cahnges that have been performed on a vehicle and helps undo accidental changes and settings that may have been lost. Along the same lines, the user can also perform a capture of the vehicle diagnostic communications traffic and send it through email to RSW solutions for help with certain systems. This will help not only diagnose problems with the end user vehicle but will help me further develop for the software with different user vehicles out in the world.

I have also ordered a spare second hand 2005 L322 Range Rover Body Control Module. I will then be able to play with the different Body Control module configuration strings that exits on the later L322 Body control module units. As I do not have access to a 2005 L322 vehicle, this is the next best thing to use as a test platform. I know a large number of people want the Body Control module configuration module back up and running on the All Comms Software. This will bring me one step closer to getting the BCM module activated again.

Summer is just about over. This means that I now have time to resume work on the All Comms Project. I have the next 2 months or so to committ some serious time to the project and hopefully get some of the P38a and Discovery 2 modules working. In two months time give or take a couple weeks, my wife will deliver our new baby boy. At that time, I will not be able to spend as much time on the project for awhile once the new baby arrives.

This morning, I am hard at work on a new module for the L322, Steering Angle sensor ECU coding procedure. Britton is helping and letting me get some work in.

The Work Continues. No, you are not seeing double. There are indeed two FFRRs sitting in the garage at my beckon call for diagnostic troubleshooting. Oh joy, twice the pain.

What is life without a few diversions. No, this is not yet another example of my problem with accumulating British vehicles. While this beautiful 1958 Austin FX-3 is not mine, it is in the family. I was just helping to get it going again. It is someone elses problem. :)

Well the day has finally arrived. The All Comms tool is officially on sale, today, April 25th. So please go over to the page and order one. For God’s sake please order the tool. Otherwise I wasted my time in the basement for the past year.

The All Comms tool is officially on sale but that does not mean it is complete. The tool will continue to grow over the next year and more modules for more vehicles will be added. So please check back soon if your vehicle does not have the specific function that you really needed. Or better yet, please email me and let me know which module and or function you want.

Thanks,
Storey Wilson
RSW Solutions

Beta testing is going well amongst the 15 test units. I have been constantly updating and twesking certain systems. I am fairly confident in the L322 systems and will quickly be moving onto the P38a and the Disco2 systems. The release date will initially only encompass the L322 systems. The release date is April 25th.

This little one just had to come out and see what her daddy was doing every night.

Future Rover Owner...? What a difference a Year makes... Scroll Down...

The All Comms project is reaching the first major release point. The hardware manufacturing is days away from being completed. The software has reached the first release version. The software will be complete for the L322 Range Rover first. Other vehicle models are still under construction and will be complete soon.

Ok... so an update is what you all are requesting. I cannot put everything into words just this second, so I promise another video update in the next 48 hours or so. I can tell you that currently I have about 6 subsystems working fully in the L322, 2 subsytems in the P38a and another 2 subsystems in the Discovery 2 vehicle. Things are moving along nicely but not as fast as I would like. I will elaborate more in the upcomming blog video. So keep checking back.

Thanks,

Storey

Sorry for the lapse in my progress reports. I have been very focused on other aspects of life. Additionally, I went to the Solihull Society Land Rover National Rally again. This year we were in Moab. See the Offroading section of the website for videos.

I am still programminga away. I hope to have a prerelease copy of the software for people to play with early in the month of December. I am furiously programming away and trying to determine the best overal program structure to accomodate the different threading requirements of the communicaiton engine and the user interface. For this to work properly, the windows threading must be implemented correctly. Still not sure if I understand it all, but when I do, everything will fall into place very quickly.

A few more hundred lines of code have been written. I still have not absolutely verified the lower level communications protocols to my satisfaction, but I hope to get that done before the end of September. I am satisfied with the hardware design though, and have submitted the gerber files to my manufacturer for cost estimates. I should know more in a few weeks.

Real progress today...The second round of boards was received in the mail. I quickly ran down to the basement and mounted all of the tiny SMD components. The first impressions are excellent. The USB device appears in Windows correctly. All of the initial testing is going well. The next level of testing, will be to make sure that the physical protocol layers on the devices different channels are all working properly with the Rovers. This is a major milestone in the project!!!

 I am on a 2 week vacation coming up, so you will not hear back from me for awhile.

Update: I have completed the testing of all of the lower level physical layer protocols. Everything is perfect and working properly. The EAS line protocol is working great and I can get responses from the EAS ECU. The ISO9141-2 line protocol is functions perfectly and I can also get a response back into the software. The last minute addition of the seperate slow initialization K and L line hardware also works as designed. All of the LED signaling works as designed as well. Although I am a bit concerned about the power consumption of the LEDs. I need to investigate that further. The USB bridge chip gets a bit warm, I think I chose the wrong LEDs. They may be a bit inefficient. Overall, this is wonderful news. I only have a few minor changes to the board and then the hardware is done.

The first round of boards have bee received. Good News, the boards fit the enclosures. When the second round of boards is received next week, I will actually complete the first prototype board.

The corrected boards have now been ordered. I was able to add the L Line using the RTS line of the Serial Data Bus Interface. I also was able to add a duplicate K Line using the DTR Line. I added the duplicate K Line because it will be impossible to get the normal Tx Serial UART to go down to the 5 baud wake up necessary for initialization of the ISO protocol. So the second K line will be used to pragmatically perform the 5 baud wake up sequence and then go quiet when the normal 10400 communications commence with the standard Tx UART.

Although..., if memory serves me, it is possible to emulate the slow 5 baud wake up using a higher more obtainable UART speed, like 9600 or 10400, using a manual bit-bang method. But I am not sure if I have access to this type of control with the UART chip that I am using. I will have to go digging through my notes. But now at least I have a secondary K Line in case I can not get the slow init to operate as designed through the normal Tx line. More flexibility through redundancy is usually never a bad thing.

I am diving deeply into the programming of the insane ammounts of fault codes that this project requires sifting through. The different model years across the models does not help either. As always, this will take longer than usual. 

I also realized that in my rush to get the circuit boards out to the manufacturer, I completely forgot to add the L Line in the ISO 9141-2. The L Line is a throw back to the very early ISO 9141-2 protocol implementations. This usually would not be a problem with newer cars. But the P38a Range Rover needs the L line on several vehicle computers. This embarasing omission will of course have to be fixed. It will not slow down the development, it will simply cost me more money for the second board revision.

Gives me time to get the programming well underway.

It is official, the circuit boards have been ordered. This step will allow me to construct the first handfull of working tools. Assuming that the boards work and everything was constructed correctly, then I can submit these designs to the manufacturer for full production and assembly. The boards take 10 business days to manufacturer and about 3 days for shipping. So I will not be getting the boards for awhile.

Ok folks, it is back on.

I dug back up the schematics, prototype boards, and the completed board designs. I have some changes to make, as one of the components that I utilized has been announced as End of Life. So I must replace this component. This will take a bit more development and I am forced to change my board designs. Fingers crossed, I will get the boards completed and submitted this week for manufacturing.

Several people have been asking what the status of the Rover All Comms Project is currently at. I honestly have not been spending as much time as I would like on the project and thus have significantly slowed the progress. I am hoping that I will be able to submit the PCB boards in the very near future and get the first handfull of hardware prototypes constructed. Rest assured, that in the unlikely event I do not have the ability to finish this project or bring it to completion, the progress and contents of my development will be released to the public. I would not let the progress simply become lost.

The real cause for the delay can be summed up in a picture or two;

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Continued progress on all fronts. The enclosure that I have choosen is of excellent quality and function. The hardware design and schematics have been completed. I am currently waiting on boards to be manufactured for the first 100 units. Once these boards are complete and the prototypes are tested, I can submit my design to my manufacturer for higher production numbers.

The software development continues. I as always underestimated the scope of the project and am slogging it out with the software. I am trying my best to keep the design modular enough so that people can write theis own modules to interface with the lower level protocol layers.

I know that there are probably several people out there watching these progress reports for good news. I had originally estimated that the hardware and software would be completed after a period of 45 days, ending sometime in the middle of February. Good news is that I am still working on the project, bad news is that I will certainly not be complete by the middle of February.

I am in discussions with an Enclosure manufacturer. I am placing a special order for the enclosures. This will take a substantial up front cost for me, but should result in a much better product enclosure. The enclosures are partially translucent and will encorporate a USB cable with strain relief.

The hardware board design is almost complete but has been held up on the final enclosure decision. I am making progress every day, but it is a slow road. Please be patient and we will all get throguh this to the end and have an awesome tool for working with the Rovers.

Tremendous progress to report today. I decided to pursue the route of using dedicated IC chips to handle all of the analog multiplexing, signal inversions and voltage shifting. The result was a much more straight forward signal pathway and very very stable circuit design. This is definately the way to proceed. The previous method of designing my own transistor circuits to accomplish this was a waste of time. Now that the primary circuits have been proven, I am ready to proceed to the actual board design in full using smaller form factor chips.

Slow progress and several dead ends over the past few days. I have attempted to accomplish several hardware circuit designs but they are not working as I expected. I am backing up and pursuing a different hardware design. I am going to find off the shelf ICs that will hopefully accomplish the same goal. Voltage shifting, voltage inverters and digital multiplexing will be accomplished through fabricated ICs rather than seperate transistor circuits. This will unfortunately raise the price by a few USD. The upside is that the end product will be of better and more durable quality.

Progress over the past week has been slow but steady. It does not help that everyone in the house has the Flu. Aside from all of that, I have made developments in the hardware design. I am not an electronics engineer, so when a design requirement arises that would call on me to design something from scratch, it takes considerable time. Hand built through hole hardware prototypes should be constructed by this weekend. I am simultaneously developing the SMD circuit board designs for manufacturing. More soon hopefully...

I have made considerable progress with the Rover All Comms project. First and foremost, I have decided upon the hardware platform. The hardware platform has been constructed and is working properly. The hardware platform will enable any windows PC to simply connect the USB device and then connect with the Rover of their choice. The hardware has a USB bridge chip and the ability to, through software, select one of three different physical communications protocol circuits.

I have also made considerable progress on the software development. The software tool is almost complete in establishing communications to all three different vehicles. Once I have established communications, I will then begin the tedious process of programming all of the different vehicle subsystems.

It is still the goal of this project to establish the software platform and make the software platform an open source project. If all goes well, the project will have a momentum oif its own in a few months.

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Announcing the development of a new product called the Rover All Comms. The intent of this product is to provide a multi vehicle communications protocol transciever. The device will enable any Windows PC with a USB port, to communicate with the different vehicle subsystems across three different Rover vehicles. This will be accomplished through a piece of software, in which the vehicle owner can send commands to different systems like the HEVAC or the EAS. Aditionally, this will also be possible across three different vehicles.

It is my hope that this will be the last and final piece of hardware that I develop for the Rover community. The hardware will enable very simple Windows software to trigger the time sensitive and complex message framing that must be accomplished for most of the vehicle computer subsystem communications. Initially, the software developed for the system may be a bit rough and could be missing some vehicle subsystem modules. The long term goal, is that this hardware will encourage persons independent of myself to carry the diagnostic software development.

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Announcing the release of the EAS Activate MKIII. After a month of juggling a new born baby, a full time day job and my daily email, manufacturing and shipping responsibilities with this job, I have finished development on the EAS Activate MKIII. It was easy really Once you are resigned to not having any sleep because of a new born in the house. :)

The EAS Activate MKIII is similar to my previous diagnostic tools. The device will read and clear the EAS Fault codes on the MKIII Range Rover. Once the EAS Faults are cleared, the device can be plugged into the USB port on any windows based PC. When plugged into a USB port, the EAS Activate MKIII turns into a USB flash drive. Contained within this USB flash drive is a text file which contains all the fault codes that were stored on the MKIII EAS computer. Sales of the EAS Activate MKIII will begin in approximately one weeks time. If you would like to pre-order, I can be contacted through email.

After a very full weekend of sitting at my computer and occasionally cursing loudly, I have finished the entire EAS communications protocol.  There was however, one casuality in the process. It turns out, that a fully charged battery can not power a laptop for more than a few hours. I completely discharged my battery. So it is now on the charger.

Awesome, I am thrilled. Looks like I may have to fork up the cash for a new battery.

I have completed the process of integrating the MKIII EAS communications protocol into a hand held microprocessor device. The functionality of the new MKIII EAS Activate Tool will be almost identical to the EAS Buddy and the ABS Amigo. The new tool, EAS Activate (Name Pending), will read and clear the stored MKIII EAS Faults.

The incorporation of the MKIII EAS protocol into the portable microprocessor is going slower than expected. As with everything, the process is slow in the beginning and then speeds up significantly towards the end. The primary problem is lack of avaliable used EAS ECUs on Ebay or through other part supplier sources. This means that I must literally set up all of my testing environment and several Laptops all plugged into my MKIII Rover OBDII port. This is much more difficult than just sitting down at a desk and testing. Working at the vehicle is cramped uncomfortable and each night is getting colder working in the garage. I will get there soon enough. I still expect a working prototype by this weekend.

Difficulties encoutered revolved around the differences with the input and output buffers between a PC development environment and the specific microprocessor environment.

Happy to announce that the Communications protocol discovery process for the MKII Range Rover EAS disgnostic subsystem is complete. I have a 99% complete understanding of the fault code reporting structure and am now ready to begin incorporation of the communications protocol into a microprocessor driven device.

The timeline for release of this new EAS device for the Range Rover MKIII has been moved up. I expect a device to be ready within the month. Any interested parties who wish to perform actual beta testing, please contact me through email. Please, only interested parties who know what the hell they are doing with the EAS. If you have never had an EAS fault DO not bother requesting a beta product.

I have been hard at work for the past few weeks at development on a series of Tools for the MKIII Range Rover. Progress has been surprisingly quick. I have been able to establish communications with every possible ECU contained in the MKIII. I have even been talking to some modules that are completely unknown to me. I hope to have a product for the MKIII EAS subsystem by the end of 2009.

Currently I am in the process of systematically triggering as many of the EAS faults as possible. When a fault condition is know, then I can compare the responses from the EAS computer. Over time, I will be able to piece together all of the EAS faults and the respective response from the EAS computer. It is a tedious process but the pace of discovery speeds up as I move along. Once the protocol is understood, I will build the system into a microprocessor.

Amazing! Over the last Four years, RSWsolutions.com has shipped over 3000 shipments. Over 99% of these shipments were sent out within 24 hours of order placement. Additionally, almost 40% of all shipments were international. Shipments have been successfully delivered all over the world to both large and small countries. Order today with confidence!