Faultmate or Hawkeye

[hgbosch]

Good evening

this is my first post in this forum. Has anyone got some advise re: Faultmate and Hawkeye.

With the Hawkeye I can read out and cancel ABS faults on my Disco1 ES. I have a Disco1 ES and a Disco3 TDV6 "S" 2005 model.

I would appreciate some good advise.

Greetings from sunny South Africa

George

[PAT303]

I'm in the same boat.I have a puma on order and L322 RR and want a reader for both which the hawkeye will do but I've read on other forums that it is quite basic and not as good as the other types. pat

[RR P38]

The Hawkeye seems to be able to do most things that the DIY crowd want to reset and explore on their vehicles and from what i have seen for half the cost.
I dont own either but im leaning towards a Hawkeye me thinks.

[hgbosch]

Thanks guys for the information.

I am undecided between the Faultmate and the Hawkeye. But in the end it will probably be the Hawkeye, as it offers support for the Disco1 as well.

[PaulP38a]

Faultmate also supports Disco 1 ECU's (SRS, ABS/TC, 10AS Alarm, Hotwire V8 EMS) but is licenced for multi-vehicle only. BBS do not sell a single-VIN licence for the Disco 1 (or RRC) like they do for other/newer Landies.

Cheers, Paul.

[BBS Guy]

Hiya all

Blackbox Solutions equipment (AKA Faultmate) is and never has been the cheapest. But there are two very good reasons for this

1) We are a first generation equipment developer. This means we do not wait for someone else to develop equipment or vehicle coverage we then try to copy as best we can.

Our equipments hardware and software is developed ourselves, totally in house, and on real vehicles, there are no shortcuts, just genuine hands on experience of many years and a very deep understanding of what we are doing and what we produce as a result. Therefore BBS systems are always absolutely dependable and works as it should every time.

2) We produce only full on professional class capability. This means we provided equipment to only the fullest possible capability the vehicle system supports, which most often surpasses the capability even dealer equipment provides.

The reality is that Blackbox Solutions is and has been for near 15 years, the only company in existence that is dedicated soley and entirely to producing Land Rover diagnostic equipment with perhaps the exception of Nanocom, which we now also own and are doing our best to improve.

There are now some second generation equipment providers coming into play for earlier vehicles, and i accept that these may well be more cost effective / viable alternates for such earlier and more basic vehicles like the Disco 1, especially if you do not need extensive professional class capability.

However i can categorically state that for later vehicles like the L322 and the Discovery 3, there is absolutely nothing that comes anywhere near close to the capability and coverage that the Faultmate provides.

[PAT303]

Does it do the L322 and Puma?. Pat

[BBS Guy]

Yes Pat, it has the capability to cover every single model produced by Land Rover and every single vehicle system, including odd optional ones and NAS spec only ones in every model. In fact we are already working on the new Evoque.

I note that most other equipment suppliers provide only a rudimentary table of coverage and capability with a list of vehicle models / system on the left and going across a list of the basic feature groups, such as Fault Codes, Settings, Live Data, Outputs and so on.

However a tick in the settings column for a given system for example does not tell you if there is 10 or 100 parameters provided. This is because they know that even if you bought their system, hopefully inspired by it's slightly cheaper price, you would have no way other than direct side by side comparison that you were missing the other 90 possible parameters.

However because we are certain that our system provides the absolute maximum possible, we actually freely provide detailed information on what is provided for each and every system covered and what it does. In fact it is the actual help page we provide in our system

To see this, you need to visit our web site and go to the downloads section.
here amongst a lot of other interesting stuff like tutorial and demonstration videos, you will find an option called coverage lists.
In this you will find a clickable link to a PDF document for every model.

Here is the one for the L322.
http://www.blackbox-solutions.com/downloads/vehicle_coverage/List_of_applicable_Software_Modules_for_Range_Rove r_L322.pdf
It is two pages long, so don't forget to scroll down ;)
There is also a lot of information for determining fitment qualification in these documents.

Under the name of each system there is a clickable hyperlink that takes you to the help page for each system.

For example here is one for the one of the two Body Controls.
GM3 BCU V10 (SM042V10) (http://www.blackbox-solutions.com/shop/help/SM042V10.html)
I say two, because our expertise means we know there are two subtly different ones and of course we cover both.

And the instrument pack.
IPAC TYPE 2 (NGRR) (SM047) (http://www.blackbox-solutions.com/shop/help/SM047.html)

Even a system as basic as Park distance is covered to its ultimate capability.
PARK DISTANCE CONTROL (SM056) (http://www.blackbox-solutions.com/shop/help/SM056.html)

I hope you will be suitably impressed at seeing the depth of capability and access to the parameters of each vehicle system our system provides, however this really is the start, as it is just as important to us to provide easy menuing and functionality that allows you to fully handle and benefit from the access we provide to such data. We therefore also provide the ability to save and restore setting pages as Plain HTML, Record live data sessions as standard windows Video files, and save captured data in a raw CSV format that can be imported into spread sheet programs like Excel for later manipulation.

You will find more detail on this here
http://www.blackbox-solutions.com/downloads/Product_literature/vehicle_explorer.pdf

I apologize if my input here comes over all salesy sounding, I guess, given who i am and my passion for what we do, any comment i make it is bound to be biased and i hope most can see past that. ;)

But in a thread where comparisons are being drawn between our and other equipment, mostly on the basis of cost, i feel it is useful, for everyone's benefit, to explain why the BBS equipment is more expensive, and why i think it is worth the little extra, and i hope most would welcome having the main man of at least one of the companies directly available to answer any questions etc.

[PAT303]

Like you've said,you get what you pay for.Thanks for that. Pat

[BBS Guy]

You are welcome, sadly it's not easy to find out how good or bad a system is until you get it.

I dunno if you or George read this thread

RangeRovers.net • View topic - HawkEye Diagnostic Tool Review (http://www.rangerovers.net/forum/viewtopic.php't=35344)

Anyway, best of luck no matter what you decide :)

Colin

[RR P38]

I must say i am pretty impressed that the BBS guys are viewing the posts this way.
Product back up is a big thing when people buy equipment of this nature.
for most consumers price is a real concern with most purchases, but as has been pointed out if it doesnt do what you expected then you will feel cheated.
You have one me over.

I dont see any comments here from the opposition supporting their products.

[BBS Guy]

Why thank you RR P38

Sadly, it is indeed pretty unusual for the actual owner of a company that supplies equipment of this nature to make themselves so accessible and open as much to praise as criticism as i do. But when you have nothing to hide, and are genuinely doing the best you can to provide a product you truly believe is good value for money, then why not?

I am truly glad to be here to help point anyone to any relevant information or answer even the most pointy of pre purchase questions.

[PAT303]

Yep,next month when my puma arrives I'll be looking up Blackbox me thinks. Pat

[Mully]

Hi Colin... thinking about getting the Faultmate for the D3 and was wondering if it is usable also on the '98 Disco 300TDi? I've found this thread from a search so apologise if you've answered this before.

I'm not sure if I have read correctly, but would I really need to spend another $900AU or so to use the Faultmate on two of my vehicles?

Thanks for any help.

[BBS Guy]

No worries Mully
Glad to be of help in straightening out any confusion and answering any questions :D

The MSV-2 can certainly be used on both the D3 and 98 Disco but what you have to appreciate is that connectivity wise these two are worlds apart, and to cover both requires you to purchase all the right hardware.

Before CAN BUS based vehicles like the D3 were introduced in about 2005, Land Rovers vehicle systems were connected to quite a variety of pins on the the OBDII connector and even earlier vehicles had their own odd connectors. In order to route connectivity to the right pins ect, we created an external (to our vehicle server and fitted in line) Vehicle Communications interface we called VCI1.

You would plug this into our vehicle server and than add the relevant lead to it's output connector.

Later on, after 2005, in order to add CAN BUS connectivity we created a lead that could be added to the VCI1 with an OBDII plug that housed conversion electronics we called the VCI2. We made this lead so it could also be directly plugged into a server without a VCI1.

With the later MSV-2 server the VCI1 was moved into the server as an option.

So if you want to cover the 98 disco, you will need to get an MSV-2 server with a built in VCI1 and any relevant leads.
The optional VCI1 and relevant leads are however not very expensive.

Nor is the software licenses to also cover these earlier vehicle systems.

[PaulP38a]

Faulmate MSV-2 Extreme (with VCI1) and licences/leads for Disco 3 and Freelander 1 are on their way to Mully... plus the Hard Range "value adds" - VS extension cable, AC adapter, USB-Serial adapter, and the obligatory "Harden Up" sticker :D

After speaking with Mully, I don't think he has any ECU's in the 300tdi Disco 1... no alarm, no cruise, no ABS/TC. If he finds an ECU later, easy enough to add a licence then.

Cheers, Paul.

[Mully]

Gotta say that Paul was a gun with his help. If you are thinking about one of these things, talk to Paul.. if you live in Oz, do not pass Go! Thanks a bunch again Paul.

The support from Colin here also cannot be overlooked. Very good support.

Being so impressed with the support for this product... now I just have to learn how to press the right buttons to get the info I want. :)

It's early days but it would be great to see some more video tutes on YouTube etc and feedback about what is normal to see etc because there is a lot of codes reported and the more I do homework, the more I find that lost comms (for example) are quite normal on some of the busses... no wonder there are so many faults. :p

Another thing to watch out for was the flat battery after nearly an hour of 'playing' around with the motor off and the diagnostics all up and running.

To stay on topic, I can recommend the Faultmate if you are after every bit of diagnostic info from your ride. IT is quite comprehensive and there is clearly a lot of work gone into it.

Thanks Paul & Colin.

[PaulP38a]

Many thanks for the kind words Mully.

If you haven't checked it out already, BBS have a very good support forum that you can access through your logon to their site, using the username and password you set up when you registered your MSV-2.

The support forum is my usual first port of call when trying to find more info about my own MSV-2 and on behalf of customers.

Cheers
Paul.

[Hippo]

Can the faultmate talk with a 2001 Freelander v6? I currently have a hawkeye.

[RangieBit]

Yep, Sure can (with the appropriate software suite of course)

[BBS Guy]

Hiya Hippo
Yes of course.
The Faultmate is renowned for being the most capable system there is, so it can cover everything on a Freelander 1, including any of the six possible engine managements.

There are actually two V6 types, one for US spec vehicles and one for rest of world.

Here is a link to a coverage document listing all applicable software modules for the Freelander 1

http://www.blackbox-solutions.com/downloads/vehicle_coverage/List_of_applicable_Software_Modules_for_Freelander _I.pdf

You should note that we don't provide just a basic tick list, showing only that our system has some settings, live data (Inputs), fault codes and actuation's (outputs) which do not reveal the actual extent to which these are covered, but publish our help pages for each system, which includes an exact list with details for each. :eek:

To get to these pages, you can click the embedded links in the coverage document.

For Example, here is a link to the one for the Rest of world spec V6 Engine management.

https://www.blackbox-solutions.com/shop/help/SM037.html

hope this helps :)

[Hippo]

Thanks for the reply. Thats a lot of interesting reading. I understand about the tick sheet. Thats whats frustrating me at the moment. Their product manual doesn't come any where near yours, with regards to content and explanations.

[wanglemoose]

just like to add for those still looking for diagnostic equipment, i have a hawkeye and the only vehicle that it is any good for is the d2 as it will let you program different systems. its also unlocked for my p38 and is rubbish on it all you can do is read and clear codes in some systems, you cant access security and hevac or becm so if you are just after something for code clearing its the way to go but if you want a proper diagnostic tool then go for the faultmate, i wish i did.
hope this helps.
mick

[BBS Guy]

Hiya Hippo
I am so glad you got my subliminal message. And i thank wanglemooose for confirming it.

I really do not like debunking any competitor. But this world seems to be full of companies who are a bit too frugal with the true facts of what they actully provide for my liking. It's worse with Generic OBDII equipment that promises coverage of all LR models but does not mention thats only a very limited part of the Engine management ECU's only

You can tick a settings or output box on promo literature if you have 1, 10, 50 or 100 settings or outputs. Sadly too many are driven by ticks and price and really do not end up with the best value and functionality for money that there is.

Only a company who knows for sure they probide everything possible on given models and systems would dare fully list what they provide for open comparison.

The MSV-2 is not the cheapest system, but it is absolutely the best value for money and functionality there is. Not one investor in our system has ever declared they wish they had bought anything else.

Mick, i note and admire your absolute honesty, most would find it hard to accept and acknowledge they made a bad choice and post up as such.
Please drop me a PM with your e-mail address. You seem able to quickly an knowledgably tell good from bad and i could do with your input.

Warmest Regards

Colin

[CWhamond]

Ive just purchased a EAS kicker. I wanted to buy the Faultmate MSV-2 for my Range rover Classic EAS but Ive had no response from my emails, my questions is, can it clear fault codes and re calibrate heights for the EAS on RRC?

Plus, I have been looking at the Lynx Diagnostic interface Lynx Diagnostics (http://www.lynx-diagnostics.com/land-rover-coverage/rr-classic/) but couldn't find anyone who could give me the pro's and cons of the Faultmate vs Lynx; can you help (understand you're opinion may be bias to the BlackBox solution)

Christian.
South Australia

[BBS Guy]

Just to properly wrap this seemingly open and un responded to thread up

Ive had no response from my emails,

As the banner we put up on on our web sites home page etc stated, BBS was officially closed for our Christmas and New Year Break until Jan 7th when this threads last post was made. Although me and some of the staff did provide some assistance and emergency type coverage to owners of our equipment over the holiday period.

It did take us a couple of days to get through the backlog of e-mails and respond to everyone including Christians E-Mails, directly answering his questions and directing him appropriately to a satisfactory conclusion :)