E30 S54 Swap AC signal input to DME

[MarkD]

I'm in downtown Toronto. I just got a message from the guy who said he would lend me his canbus unit two days ago. He's planning to sell his car so I doubt that I'll get a chance to borrow the canbus interface but I'll ask him one last time in a day or two.

[Andrew325is]

My thought is that it could be a problem in the power supply or in the I/O circuitry not being designed robustly to handle surges and spikes that are common in automotive operation. I haven't made any progress on this at all because someone in the Toronto area told me that he would lend me his gpetersen CAN bus device but he still hasn't made it available even with me asking multiple times. I only want it to sniff the packets it's working with and work with exactly the same data. After that, I'll make sure that the I/O is properly designed.

So it all depends when I get a box to study!

Where are you located? I have one here in Oregon, but I'm not sure that I want to send it out because it's the last one.

[MarkD]

Someone told me they thought it had to do with the 5 volt power supply, but I don't know.

My thought is that it could be a problem in the power supply or in the I/O circuitry not being designed robustly to handle surges and spikes that are common in automotive operation. I haven't made any progress on this at all because someone in the Toronto area told me that he would lend me his gpetersen CAN bus device but he still hasn't made it available even with me asking multiple times. I only want it to sniff the packets it's working with and work with exactly the same data. After that, I'll make sure that the I/O is properly designed.

So it all depends when I get a box to study!

[Andrew325is]

Andrew325is - do you know exactly what was going wrong with the gpeterson CANBUS unit? I'm wondering why nobody else has decided to make one. I'm ready to give it a shot but definitely don't want to make something that has the same failure modes.

I've already bought some hardware to make prototypes and want to have a functional prototype ready in September or October.

Someone told me they thought it had to do with the 5 volt power supply, but I don't know.

[sweet3]

Andrew325is - do you know exactly what was going wrong with the gpeterson CANBUS unit? I'm wondering why nobody else has decided to make one. I'm ready to give it a shot but definitely don't want to make something that has the same failure modes.

I've already bought some hardware to make prototypes and want to have a functional prototype ready in September or October.

Keep us posted on the progress.
I believe they just weren’t reliable enough. Sometimes they would work and then just drop out. That’s pretty much the feedback that I received.

Which engines do you have in mind for now? M52TU/M54/S54? Or the whole package (M52TU,M54,S54,N52,N54,S62,etc)?

[MarkD]

Those were discontinued by gpeterson. Several of them had issues (all?). I know of one other product (I can't find the link right now), but someone emailed me that it had issues also. There are a handful of people who know how to make a CANbus interface, but they just make smart comments about how it's easy or "not as special as you think" without sharing the info with the rest of us.

Andrew325is - do you know exactly what was going wrong with the gpeterson CANBUS unit? I'm wondering why nobody else has decided to make one. I'm ready to give it a shot but definitely don't want to make something that has the same failure modes.

I've already bought some hardware to make prototypes and want to have a functional prototype ready in September or October.

[MarkD]

I had the GPeterson Canbus and it never worked right. I had two versions of them and I still could not get the AC working consistently, then he skipped town and didn't respond to emails. I pulled the entire canbus system out and installed this from Race German. https://racegerman.com/collections/e...-ac-module-kit

SOOOO worth it. My AC works without a hitch now and since I removed the Canbus I am controlling the aux fan just like it would have been controlled as OEM. Much cleaner solution, will it light the check engine light for me, no, but I don't care.

I'm wondering exactly what was wrong with the CANBUS unit. I'm asking as I'm interested to make a replacement for it but don't want to end up with the same issues as this other unit had

[Staszek]

Ah right. Does the Race German have a CEL output?

No

[moatilliatta]

Ah right. Does the Race German have a CEL output?

[Staszek]

Should be able to have the CEL Coded out.

No I don't have a CEL on, the original Canbus was able to light a CEL if the engine had an issue. Lost that ability once I removed the Canbus since this new part only worries about the AC.

[moatilliatta]

Should be able to have the CEL Coded out.

[Staszek]

I had the GPeterson Canbus and it never worked right. I had two versions of them and I still could not get the AC working consistently, then he skipped town and didn't respond to emails. I pulled the entire canbus system out and installed this from Race German. https://racegerman.com/collections/e...-ac-module-kit

SOOOO worth it. My AC works without a hitch now and since I removed the Canbus I am controlling the aux fan just like it would have been controlled as OEM. Much cleaner solution, will it light the check engine light for me, no, but I don't care.

[Andrew325is]

Any way to get one of these controllers, or is there another alternative out there?

Those were discontinued by gpeterson. Several of them had issues (all?). I know of one other product (I can't find the link right now), but someone emailed me that it had issues also. There are a handful of people who know how to make a CANbus interface, but they just make smart comments about how it's easy or "not as special as you think" without sharing the info with the rest of us.

[bubbajan21]

Any way to get one of these controllers, or is there another alternative out there?

[R3Z3N]

I would PM him or Andrew325is.