Testbook Red Plug Pinouts

Hiya Ron
I am so sorry to read of your on going struggle to get even basic info on this Red Testbook, later to become the T4, Lead.

As you may well appreciate, by modern standards the T4 is now quite old and when things moved over to the WDS, IDS, now SDD we here at BBS canned at least three Testbook / T4 projects we had in the works and archived a serious amount of Data, Software and Hardware.

Given your struggle and difficulty in just getting a bit of info on just this lead, and even although you may well already appreciate our technical abilities etc, now you are involved with this equipment and it's leads, I thought I would share some info as to just how deep and involved we got But you might find some of it a bit mind blowing ;)

One project we had was to manufacture and offer better and longer than origional Testbook / T4 leads. For this we managed to source and aquire large quantities of the original male and female connector bodies along with Gold plated pins.
The problem is that the Origional connectors have a strange and now even outlawed PG type thread, so we had a large number of the same adaptors to exactly the same sizes as the original leads used to convert to metric strain reliefs, that we had to have taps made for and that we also had produced in quantities.
We even had the ability to create labels in the same color and style as original leads had.

We produced a few and even sold some before this all got canned.

Another project was even more ambitious and exciting. It was called Leadmate and was a box based upon the Faultmate FCR but a bit longer.

On one end you had the connector to plug it into a Testbook / T4

On the other end was a 15 way D connector you plug in the same leads the Rovacom Lite, etc., uses to give you the correct physical vehicle connection. You then simply use the LCD display and buttons to select the lead number this emulates to the Testbook / T4 just as if an original lead was connected.
I have the only fully production ready one of these that we produced before we canned this project.

However, as amazing as both of these may seem, this last abandoned project required no hardware other than one of our vehicle servers, e.g., a Rovacom Lite, etc.

There were many elements involved and a lot of time and effort put into it.
We even recreated overlay screens that looked like original Testbook / T4 screens for lead selections where even the Help buttons worked, etc.

This one got so close and ready before being canned that I even made and uploaded a Demo video on our web site that is still there and you will surely find very interesting to watch especially as an L322 and Rovacom Lite owner.

Created by Blackbox Solutions Ltd.

Regards your Red lead info requirement, you actually need two things.
The first is the Pin out information, which from memory i can tell you that it only differs from the regular Blue lead by having the ISO 9141 Pin 7 also connected to Pin 8 which BMW uniquely use for what they call a DS2 Bus.
The other is the Lead identification resistance value of the Red lead which is a bit beyond memory for me.

I am however pretty sure I can easily lay my hands on that information and give it to you when I am next in the office and am happy to help ;)

ATB

Colin

Wow! I can only imagine the amount of time and expense put into all of that!

Also, I didn't realise the PG thread was now verboten (pun intended).

The linked video was really quite interesting. I didn't know about clicking on the connector number in the top RH corner would bring up a list of connectors. I'll have to go out and try that with T4.

In a lot of ways T4 isn't as convenient to use as my Faultmate MSV. The Faultmate's software is more user-friendly and not needing to change leads is, for the average user, better, too.

Thanks very much for the red lead info which I have now printed out and will make up. I have sufficient Burndy connectors on various spare T4/Testbook cables so I can scavenge one.

I really do appreciate all your help, Colin.

Cheers

Ron

Yea,It is quite surprizing how often a project grows more difficult as you get into it, Eg the PG thread aspect and so takes so long that by the time it is almost finished the requirement and market for it is has changed enough to make it unviable to mass produce.

However while it is largely a huge waste of time and expense, it does give us a unique understanding and first hand degree of knowledge that we are able to use in other ways and sets us apart.

This is probably the first time I have ever revealed some of the behind the scenes work that goes on Here at BBS, and some of the many cancelled Projects we started.

I knew you and probably others would find that video super interesting and quite surprizing as to what we did.

In fact as an example, you mention

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I didn't know about clicking on the connector number in the top RH corner would bring up a list of connectors.

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On the Testbook / T4 sortware there is no connector number in the top RH corner and that lead selection screen does not exist.
This is because it is actually added by us over the TestBook, T4's normal screen display by a piece of software we wrote. You will note that this Testbook emulation capability was designed to be a part of our Vehicle explorer software, which is why it all starts there in the Video.

When you click the button in the Vehicle Explorer software it first starts quite a bit of custom software on the PC. There is one that that loads up a virtual image of the CD you want, that can be pre selected, because as you now know, each vehicle requires different CD's to be used and that is a Panasonic CF27 that does not even have a CD drive, Then one that sets up a communication layer between the Testbook / T4 software and the BBS vehicle server that actually emulates the usual connection that the Tesbook / T4 software has with its origional Hardware, and one that adds a connected lead handling interface over the Testbook / T4 screen, all before calling and running the emulator software on the Vehicle server and then the Testbook / T4 software itself.

Re Faultmate V T4:
Welcome to my world ;)
As much as we try to tell anyone that we make a better diagnostic system than Land Rovers own Dealer level equipment, unless they experience both no one believes it possible for a small third party company to produce something better than Land Rover do for their dealers.
Even after all these years, can you imagine how few of our customers have ever come to appreciate our one lead does it all, instead of constant Lead and CD changing and portability aspect, never mind our super freindly user interface with built in help and the capability and functionality our equipment has that Testbook / T4 does not.

So as a BBS equipment owner for more years than I can remember, I am pretty chuffed that you are now getting to see and experiance what i have always known for yourself and validate your belief in us.

I am of course glad to help you with the Red Lead info you have been seeking for far too long, but I have to tell you that although it does dispense with the multiple lead requirement for the L322 on a Testbook / T4, if you check out the capability and settings our software provides on the help pages we supply on our web site for the 20 Plus ECU's on an L322.
EG
https://www.blackbox-solutions.com/s.../SM042V10.html
or
https://www.blackbox-solutions.com/shop/help/SM047.html
you will really start to appreciate the aspect of our unique capabilities and superiority, and of course just how much we provide for the cost :)

My goodness there is a lot of stuff to be monitored by the L322 diagnostic software!

Something that impressed me with Faultmate was being able to set/release individual items that LR locked away in their country selections, e.g., one of the first things I did on the P38A was to change all the windows and sunroof to one-touch operation. LR only allowed the driver's window to have one-touch operation. Later, I turned off the sunroof altogether (hmm, I wonder if I told the new owner that). You can't do that with Testbook!

The thing about the OBD Scanners/Readers that many espouse is that that's pretty much all they do. Sure they can clear some engine management faults but any LR owner will know there's a lot more than that to worry about! :D I don't think I ever had an engine management fault that needed clearing on my P38A in 13 years of ownership. Now EAS and HEVAC........ :(

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Originally Posted by sierrafery

Would that red one be the adaptor referred as DTC0057A here? http://www.allbrit.de/downloads/TestBook/DTC0027.pdf , if not which red cable would that be cos there's no reference about a red cable in T4's accessories

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Re your earlier post, I just found I have a DTC0027A switch box and did wonder what it was for. Sadly, it doesn't emulate the DTC0065A.

I have a spare J1962 plug I bought some years ago when I made up a serial lead to run Storey Wilson's EAS software from my old O2 XDA WinCE smartphone. It had a serial port. I'll use it to make up the red connector. I may have to cut up a 4007B cable to get a Burndy connector but I'd rather not. I did have a faulty VCSI Brick but I gave it away. That would have provided a Burndy. I'm sure I'll find something.

An update to this - I finally made up a lead to emulate the DTC0065A red connector. Although Colin did supply me with a diagram (thank you Colin) made by one of his blokes years ago, I really couldn't follow it.

A couple of days ago, having seen DTC0065A pinouts mentioned during a Google search, I asked on the Rover 75/MG ZT forum and marinabrian responded with a diagram. I made the cable up last night and it seems to work well. [thumbsupbig]

Oddly enough, marinabrian is a member of this forum having joined in 2010 but hasn't posted. [bigsmile]

Thank you Brian.