Anyone running EAS Unlock Suite on a Classic?

Next step.

Cable modified with the surplus connectors removed and checking signals.

I have -5v (yes, negative) from the com port to the base on the transistor.
This transistor needs to switch +12v from the collector to the base.
It isn't.

I don't know enough about NPN transistors to know if they'll switch on a negative or whether I need the serial port to supply positive voltage. Can anyone help?

If it does require postive voltage, how can I switch this and why isn't EAS unlock switching it?
This is using the internal COM port.

Well that's game over for today. I've broken a leg off the transistor while trying to get multimeter probes in.:(

But I've learnt a lot about serial ports. Mine needs the flow control set to "Xon/Xoff" for the RTS (pin 7) to be set at +5v and switch the transistor. Otherwise it sits there at around -6V which won't help at all.

I recently sold my '94 soft-dash, and the EASUnlock software went with it along with the cable I made. I used it successfully but it was far from reliable.
I made the cable as per the diagram (for those seeking a suitable plug, there is one on each of the electric door mirrors on late-eighties range rovers) and had the cable connected to the plug in place of the existing plug, which if I recall correctly just has a bridging wire or similar. Unplug it and plug your cable in it's place. Sometimes my software would take several minutes to establish comms with the EAS ECU, other times it would start chatting happily straight away. Totally unpredictable. On one occasion I was playing with the system for about an hour, then it simply dropped out and would not re-connect at all, I never established why, came back another day and all fine again. This system is strong white-man magic and does as it pleases. I found I just had to persist with it until it decided to make a connection, after which it worked a treat.
One thing I did find, it gave me misleading information about which comms port to select; the program would appear to accept 3 of the comm port options on the drop-down menu, but in fact only one of these was active. If I selected one of the others, it would appear to be working, but would not give me the FF series- I discovered this after a frustrating hour or two trying to use the program which I thought was connected, then found that disconnecting the cable made no difference! Once I had determined which comms port actually worked, I made a note attached to the cable for future reference so i wouldn't waste time again trying via the wrong port.
When the thing finally starts talking to the ECU, it is very good to use. It's a good feeling when you hear a click, see the FF sequence, and suddenly find that you can make the car go up and down at will, you really can reset heights as you choose, clear faults, whatever.
I read things about having the engine running to keep the voltage up, doors closed, etc- what I found was that when it works, it works with the engine on or off, doors open or closed, doesn't seem to matter- but when it doesn't want to talk, nothing helps but trying again and again.

All sorted.:cool:

Firstly, the cable.
My first cable was showing ~100ohms across the transistor and hence the two pins that signal the power solenoid that unlocks the EAS. I was checking all the soldered joints when the first transistor broke.
This ~100ohms was causing enough voltage drop that the solenoid would not activate.

My new transistors arrived today, soldered in and same deal. I measure ~100 ohms across the powered transistor in one direction and ~50 ohms in the other (obviously voltage supplied by meter to measure ohms is impacting these measurements).
Short story. Transistors are not working. I just fitted a jumper to power the cable.

The communication issue with F7's and 80's instead of FF's. The only way to get it working on my RRC is to start up EAS Unlock Suite and then start the ECU and engine.

At this point it was all working nicely. My RRC had a severe lean to the left at all heights. This is now sorted.
To measure the heights at anything other than standard height, you need to lock the EAS to prevent it activating the solenoids as it goes to measure. P38 owners can apparently open the drivers door, but this doesn't work on classics. I was using the lock switch under the drivers seat.

To level the vehicle you use the rear air-bags. The front height measurements are not used in level. Once I had it level I then checked the front height sensors and corrected those. I set the vehicle up with a ~5mm list to the drivers side at all heights. To compensate for the camber in the road.

Once I had the heights using the lock switch, I generally had to reconnect (engine off and on again) as it lost sync with the PC.

So now I'm very happy. The vehicle is sitting nice and level at all heights and down on the bump-stops at access height. I still have some demons to address and also to check the actual heights as well as levels.

Test drive done. It's taking bumps a lot better now it's level. Before the ~20mm lower left hand side was getting a significant thump through first.

Ironically, I tried to buy the software update for my EAS kicker on April 28th to do the same job. On April 29th I got an auto-reply saying they'd be shut until May 8th.
May 7th, it's all sorted.

For completeness, James has the standard heights from RAVE in this post here: http://www.aulro.com/afvb/classic-ra...ml#post1875637
79cm from ground to underside of wheel arch at standard height.
I'll check those at some point.

Dougal, well done on the sort. I reckon the ride heights are in the owners manual (I'm probably wrong), but they are certainly in the RAVE docus for RRC.

I don't recall access heights being on the bump stops - I would have thought the bags would be low, but not deflated - it probably good to maintain the bag shape and contact with a little air in them.

Like POD and others, an ancient laptop (slow and 32 bit) with Win 98 did the job. But the ecu took its tempermental time!

Cheers

Pete

Thanks Pierre.
I wasn't worried about the actual heights (but James has provided those, see 2 posts up), rather than front/back level. I wasn't sure if the wheel arches were meant to be the same height from the ground front/back, but apparently they are.

Access height on the stops suits me fine. It won't be used often, but when you need low, you often need really low.

Is there a manual way to trip "extended" height when the vehicle thinks it's bellied? I do have access to forklifts and such, but I'd like to see it get there on it's own.

My previous work laptop is a Dell Precision M4300. Not ancient at all, but Dell knows engineers like serial ports. It's my diagnostics computer with ECUTalk (Nissan), VCDS (VAG), MPPS (pulling ECU files) and now EAS unlock suite on it.
I've got older laptops too, but they are nowhere near as nice to use and have all sorts of annoying features like not enough USB ports.

I found on mine I had to touch the jumper to get it alive and then all the comms worked. but I had to do it in a specific order which was to turn it on then restart the program on the PC I think.

Right, cable is now sorted and I have communication even without the engine running.

I asked some questions about the transistor used and it was suggested by one helpful soul that the 15k resistor was too high and going down to even 3kohm would increase current without endangering anything.

I couldn't find any 3-5k resistors in my stash, so I tripled up 3x 15k ones to make 5k.

The result is excellent. Plug it in, lights go out (as they should) and communication happens instantly without having to start the engine. Perhaps as it was all intended. Far better than using the jumper.

So there you have it. Build the cable with a 5kohm resistor instead of 15k and you should be sorted. Don't forget to change the hardware flow control in your serial port to Xon/Xoff or it won't power up that transistor in the cable.
:cool:

I sent a donation off to Storey Wilson with a note that the 5k resistor worked and the 15k didn't. Got an email back that he'll update the schematic.

Hopeuflly this will help others.:cool: