saeb wrote:It may be an issue reading voltage through some devices. Need to find out if Forscan is reading the device voltage or OBD voltage.
Which ever way a bypass button will resolve it.
The main reason why I connect the battery charger is for reading or re programming modules, less chance of data corruption with full voltage to a module than low voltage.
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I have had a good discussion with Forscan about this, this is not necessarily a new problem.
Brief outline of one of the emails down the bottom.
I have proposed;
1. Reading the voltage from PID 01 42 which is a standard PID for the PCM voltage instead of relying on the adaptors value from pin 16 on the OBD port.
or
2. Displaying the current adaptor voltage in the settings areas where a user can select a voltage offset so it match the battery voltage.
As I thought Forscan like IDS reads the adaptor voltage.
I'm sure we will see a resolutions shortly.
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First of all, we are afraid that adding "Continue anyway" button may cause problems for many people. Programming with low voltage may brick the module. Ford IDS and other professional equipment do not allow programming under low voltage. Also, Ford strongly recommends to connect a battery charger during the programming and we agree with them. We have a lot of users that do not really understand what they do (just care to enable some feature in their car) and too tired from different warnings displayed by FORScan so just don't read it. Adding such a button provides a choice between "right but long way" (connect a battery charger) and "wrong but easy way" (press "Continue anyway" button).
On the other hand, the dialog box is confusing. It doesn't offer to connect a charger but just charge the battery. Although newest cars may have perfect and fully charged battery, but when they turn the ignition ON, the voltage will drop below the 11.5V just because too many electronic blocks are on the board. So the only safe option here is to connect a charger.
What options do we see (not talking about adding a mentioned about the charger, that has to be done anyway)?
1. Reduce the threshold from 11.6V to ex. 11.2 V and/or add a smarter control (for example, provide different recommendations depending on what voltage is actually displayed).
2. Make an option in FORScan settings like "Allow programming under low voltage". This setting will enable "Continue anyway" button.
Battery charger, modules do NOT like low voltage. How hard is it to connect a charger!!!!.Less chance of data corruption. Every battery will drop voltage with key "ON", glow plugs draw a lot of current before timing out.
2017 XLT, nGauge, Canopy, Solar Panel, Dobinson Bullbar, Long Range Fuel Tank, Redarc DC2DC & Pro Elite Brake Controller, HID Globes & Driving Lights, Lightbar.
Kerry, keep in mind some use expensive adaptors and some use budget adaptors. Not all of the budget adaptors can either read the voltage from pin 16 or it can read low. Components from different manufactures also have different tolerances.
OBDlink is pretty good in this respect and so are a couple of the bigger dollar tools I tend to use.
I have had certain days where I have programmed, pretty much the entire day on a budget adaptor without a read or write error even when the battery voltage was down to 11v. No problems and no issues, I do not recommend it but it seems asbuilt writing is pretty robust and can generally just be rewritten if it fails.
What Forscan have done is add some additional features due to the fact they have added firmware programming on specific beta builds (for the last 12 months anyway), so the voltage check was mainly for those reasons.
The key point is "What I'm doing is getting Forscan to have the option to basically tune your specific adaptor so the adaptor reads the same voltage as true battery voltage due to different tolerance in different adaptor components."
Ideally everyone would spend $300 to $1000 on adaptors but that is not going to happen.
Good point, being a retired Auto Elec, if I want to read battery voltage, I get out my voltmeter. Old habits die hard I suppose. Always been concerned about battery supply to modules though, your mate can agree with that I reckon. I bet he shakes his head sometimes with some of the things people try to do.[emoji1][emoji106] Been there done that.
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The developers have agreed to get the voltage from the PCM PID rather than the adaptor. If the PID is not available it will fallback to the adaptor.
We still expect a minimum voltage of 11.6v though which is fair but at least this change takes into account the different voltage readings across all types and brands of dongles.
I have now received an updated version to work how I wanted. I will test in the coming days and if it works then the only reason a low voltage will occur is if there is low voltage.
Reading of the voltage PID from the PCM has been added and will only use the adaptor voltage as a fallback. It is working as expected and all adaptors will not have this voltage issue unless the PCM voltage is below 11.6 volts.
2017 XLT, nGauge, Canopy, Solar Panel, Dobinson Bullbar, Long Range Fuel Tank, Redarc DC2DC & Pro Elite Brake Controller, HID Globes & Driving Lights, Lightbar.
