Serial logger
 

All,

Been putting together a serial logger so that I can do away with having to lug around a laptop with me and to augment the TECgt's OBD'ing.

I opted for the 'forced power option' OEM version of this serial logger, it is small, automatically starts a new logging session each time the engine is started and uses an SD card of up to 4gb so logging is almost unlimited.

However, having put it together and got it logging OK, I have hit a problem I wasn't expecting. It turns out, like most ECUs, that the TECgt outputs raw data which needs to be converted (by wintec4 in this case) to the readable data seen in datalogs. Tomorrow I am going to try 're-playing' in real time the recorded serial output to see if I can get winTEC4 to convert the raw data into a readable datalog - if this doesn't work (and I can think of at least two reasons why it might not) does anyone here have any other ideas of how to convert the recorded logs? Any readily available software out there to do this? Would be a right PITA if I can't get this working after all this......

Well I'm not having any luck with this at the moment - so if anyone out there is a wiz with raw byte data or can suggest a way forward I'd appreciate it. I'm sure others would find a logger like this very useful if it can be made to work. This afternoon I've tried to get it to play back the data it records at real time to wintec4 so that wintec4 can then do the conversion of the raw data into a readable format as it normally does. So far I have not had any luck doing this, to my mind there may be a couple of reasons why this may be:
1) I am using a Null modem cable as per antilog instructions (so that the antilog looks like a data source) and the TECgt ECU usually connects to the laptop via a normal serial cable. I only have serial cables with one male and one female connection - so I will need to buy a female to male converter.
2) Wintec4 will be 'polling' what it thinks is the TECgt ECU at 20 times per second to trigger the TECgt to send a packed of data - this polling will not be in phase with the data being sent by the antilog.

For information I have setup the antilog to 'poll' the TECgt at the same rate when it is in record mode.

What's the raw data look like?

Hieroglyphics to me.... in reality it is raw byte data.

Why not use ascii enstead of raw binary?

From what I gather all ECUs that output serial (TECgt also outputs CANbus) output raw data files, due to band width restrictions, which are then post processed to a readable format by software.

From my limited knowledge I assume this means that I have no choice in format output and can not use ascii?

Do you have a place you can upload the file to?

I could upload a file to a space on my website. I'll need to retrieve one from the antilog first though - that is not to hand right now, would be able to do that on Friday.