[randerson0248]

Got my kit assembled last night, but I either need help troubleshooting a problem
or instruction on how to operate the gauge.

I get nothing on the LCD display. The display is blank. The backlight works and I can adjust the backlight intensity with joystick switch.

The green led also works when in lean burn.

Right now I have an expensive lean burn indicator. Help please.

 

[AClewell]

I had the same problem. Adjust the pot on the board for the contrast. It is too light.

 

[retepsnikrep]

The lcd contrast pot will require initial adjustment in 99% of cases when the gauge is self built.
It's an easy step to overlook.

I strongly discourage pushing/fiddling with the button if the gauge is powered and whilst there is nothing on the display, as it is easy to set a mode you didn't want like + 32% current for instance.

 

[randerson0248]

The lcd contrast pot will require initial adjustment in 99% of cases when the gauge is self built.
It's an easy step to overlook.

I strongly discourage pushing/fiddling with the button if the gauge is powered and whilst there is nothing on the display, as it is easy to set a mode you didn't want like + 32% current for instance.

Now you tell me!

I did some serious button pushing last night.

Assuming that I have messed up a few modes, how do I reset to default?

 

[retepsnikrep]

Set all the config bits to 1, however you prob want F not C for temp so change that one to 0.

 

[Eli]

I should have put a note about the contrast pot in the notes thread. It will need to be adjusted. Make sure you're looking at the LCD as you adjust it.

 

[racer26]

If fiddling with your contrast dial doesnt get your display working, double check all of your solder joints on the LCD header, both sides.

I had an issue with a bad solder joint on at least one pin, resulting in nothing on my screen.

 

[randerson0248]

Pot adjustment fixed the lcd display.

And!!!! Several mode settings will need adjustment.
I do have +32%, plus other non-intended changes.

I will need to read through the OBDIIC&C thread to see how
to change modes and in general how to operate the gauge.

I'm working at the moment (well I should be working) and will
spend tonight and/or tomorrow reading the OBDIIC&C thread.

 

[Eli]

Just change all the bits back to 1. That will get you back to default.

Information in the thread is spotty at best. If nobody else steps up to make a crude manual, I will do it.

 

[randerson0248]

Just change all the bits back to 1. That will get you back to default.

I don't know how to do that, so hopefully, I can find it in the thread or maybe the video link in the thread will help.

 

[5631]

OBDIIC&C gauge is discharging my 12v. battery

Last Saturday, my Insight wouldn't start due to a low 12 v. battery (~8.5 v.) after having been parked for a week. I have parked my car for a week or more plenty of times without its 12 v. battery discharging so far. The battery is an Odyssey PC680 AGM battery that's less than 2 years old, 6 months of which were spent in our warm apartment last winter. When I measured its voltage before installing it in April, it was near its 100% charge voltage of 12.8, so it hadn't self-discharged much at all over 6 months which is a feature of Odyssey batteries. Nevertheless, I topped it up at the Odyssey-recommended 14.7 v. with my CTEK Multi XS 3600 battery charger. So I think my battery should be OK, but I should probably run a load test to be sure.

The only change I've made recently is installing an OBDIIC&C gauge and replacing its PIC with a 18F2620. Peter has confirmed that the gauge draws a little current continuously, but probably less than 10 ma. This load shouldn't discharge the 12 v. battery so fast. I don't have the ability to directly measure the OBDIIC&C gauge current draw when the ignition is off. If you can make this measurement, what is it?

I've tried an indirect measurement. I fully recharged my battery last Saturday while it was installed in my car. My car has been parked since last Saturday. I started taking voltage measurements on Sunday about 19 hours after I had charged my battery to ensure that its voltage had stabilized. I was surprised that its voltage had already dropped to 12.27. I repeated the measurement twice every 24 hours: 12.13 and 12.05. So my battery has been discharging pretty rapidly over 3 days. The ambient temperature when I charged my battery was 23º C but it has been 12º C every day since (welcome to spring in Sweden

After measuring the voltage yesterday, I unplugged my OBDIIC&C gauge. The battery voltage 24 hours later had actually risen to 12.16. It seems to me that this test is pretty conclusive evidence that my OBDIIC&C gauge is drawing far more than 10 ma. when the ignition is off and is the reason that my battery has been discharging so fast.

Could the 18F2620 PIC installation have increased my gauge's current draw significantly? Have you noticed your gauge drawing more current that you expected? Can anyone suggest any other test that I could perform to verify that my gauge is discharging my battery too rapidly? If there is nothing wrong with my gauge, I will need to install an on-off switch on the gauge to avoid the hassle of grubbing around on the floor to disconnect/connect my gauge when I park the car or prepare to drive.

I would appreciate your help and suggestions.

 

[AClewell]

Art,

If you have a multimeter you could measure current draw at the battery with the gauge connected and then again with the gauge disconnected. The difference would be current used by the ODBIIC&C.

 

[retepsnikrep]

You need to measure the actual current being drawn by the gauge using a multimeter.
Put the multimeter into the 12V+ feed at the pcb pin1 on connector J1

If the pcb was drawing a very significant current > 200ma when off it would get pretty hot and almost certainly have failed by now.

Feel the temp of the 5V regulator U1 on the pcb and the lcd backlight power resistor R20 on the pcb when the gauge is off. They should both be cool when gauge is off. Ditto the main pic it should be cool.

I am not aware of any other issues nor have there been any other reports from the 50+ users of significant discharge.

 

[5631]

Unfortunately, my multimeter is in Honolulu. I have only a simple VOM here in Uppsala, so I cannot measure the current being drawn by my gauge. I guess it's time to buy a multimeter here.

 

[retepsnikrep]

Use the touchy feely method to see if anything is getting hot.

It could be something in the 18F2620 code :? so you could revert back to your old pic and code until the next release.

 

[AbCaRed00]

After installing the 18F2620 chip I've seen no 12V battery issues so far to report. fwiw: My car's PbA battery's rated capacity is 420cca iirc and a few years old.
I haven't monitored the 12V system yet but will have a look for anything out of the ordinary on startups and shutdown.
The IMA is at this time cropping up with the three bar bug more on startups; not sure if a depleted 12V battery requiring charge would induce that or not. I attributed the more frequent 3-bar bug's appearance to be due to: more exuberant use of the IMA recently; warmer weather possibly; older original battery, and/or perhaps opportunistically changing the SOC more often now via the OBDIIC&C for hills etc.

In one instance unplugging and reconnecting from the OBDII port was necessary when the screen stuck in a config mode at key-off with the new chip, but I have not noted the device staying on such like in a prior software version with the original chip.

fwiw: I've found screen errors only with the system in the OBD parameters.

 

[5631]

As Peter suggested, I plugged in my OBDIIC&C gauge ("gauge") with the case back off for a couple of hours with the ignition off. I then touched all the components in the gauge and could feel nothing warm.

The resistance between the +12 v. and ground pins at the OBD plug was in the 10 MΩ range, so no partial short-circuit exists, at least at the ~3 v. used to measure resistance.

When my gauge isn't connected, the load is a steady 8 ma. at ~12.5 v. when measured between the negative battery terminal and chassis ground with the negative cable disconnected. When I plugged in my gauge with a 18F8280 PIC installed, the current cycled between 30 and 55 ma. With the 16F886 PIC, the current dropped to between 15 and 45 ma. Subtracting the base 8 ma. unrelated to the gauge, the average load of my gauge is between 22 and 35 ma. depending on which PIC is installed.

Is this normal? I would appreciate your help in determining whether the load of my gauge is similar to yours.

The OBD spec calls for both a signal and chassis ground, and both are present in Honda's OBD data connector. The ground pin in my gauge is connected to signal, not chassis ground. Is this correct? Does it matter?

I suspect that part of the problem I'm having with my 12 v. battery being overly discharged is that I don't drive daily, the trips I take tend to be very short, and my small Odyssey PC680 AGM battery is rated at only 17 aH. So my DC-DC converter doesn't have much time to charge my 12 v. battery, and the capacity of my 12 v. battery is lower than many Insight batteries.

Several of us have noticed that the DC-DC converter seems to maintain the 12 v. battery at quite a low charge level (~60%, or 12.3 v. in my experience). Meanwhile, my 12 v. battery is being continually discharged while my car is parked by my car radio (original), my keyless entry radio receiver, my Honda security system (negligible load), and now my gauge whose load seems to be 3 or 4 times greater than all remaining loads when the ignition is off. With the 18F8280 PIC in my gauge, the average load is about 40 ma., or ~1 aH per day or ~7 aH for the week that my car was parked recently. If my 17 aH battery was the usual 60% charged when I parked my car, this would explain why the voltage of my battery was only ~8.5 after a week.

If my gauge is working correctly, what can I do to avoid having to charge 12 v. battery weekly? I could add an on-off switch to my gauge, but I'd probably forget to turn it off occasionally.

It would be nice if the gauge were powered only when the ignition is on. Is there any reason why the +12 v. OBD line must be powered when the ignition is off? Is there some OBDII data available when the ignition is off?

The +12 v. OBD line is connected to always-hot 7.5 a. fuse 18 in the under-the-dash fuse box. Would connecting it to a 7.5 a. fuse that is not always hot cause any problem? That would seem to solve the problem of the gauge power consumption.

 

[retepsnikrep]

The +12 v. OBD line is connected to always-hot 7.5 a. fuse 18 in the under-the-dash fuse box. Would connecting it to a 7.5 a. fuse that is not always hot cause any problem? That would seem to solve the problem of the gauge power consumption.

That's a good idea please try it and report back.

 

[5631]

I decided to avoid using the +12 v. lead in the OBD port because it's always hot. This causes the PCB in the OBDIIC&C gauge to always be powered, so the power supply is always on and the PIC code is always executing despite no data being available and the LCD display being off. This was enough of an electrical load to discharge my small 12 v. battery in a week.

I initially considered connecting the +12 v. lead in the OBD port to a fuse that's powered only when the ignition is on. But I found some tests in the Service Manual that were performed with the Honda diagnostic tool connected to the OBD port with the ignition off. So rewiring the OBD port would likely make these tests fail which I'd like to avoid.

The option I chose was to provide +12 v. power to the OBDIIC&C gauge from a source other than the OBD port. I carefully made a longitudinal cut through the insulation and shielding at a location on the gauge data cable that would be under the dash when the gauge was installed. I fished out enough of the +12 v. conductor (red in my cable) to be able to cut it and pulled about an inch of it on the gauge side out of the cable leaving the +12 v. lead disconnected from the OBD plug. I repaired the incision on the cable by wrapping it with electrical tape leaving enough of the +12 v. conductor outside the cable to be able to solder a longer wire to it. I wrapped the soldered section in electrical tape and then wrapped a couple of inches of the soldered +12 v. lead to the cable with more electrical tape. I soldered to the end of the lengthened +12 v. lead a spade connector designed to be plugged in with an automotive fuse to the fuse holder. I plugged the spade connector into fuse 17 under the dash which is the 7.5 a. fuse for the daytime running light controller in Canadian Insights but is unused in American Insights. This spade connector didn't provide a very secure connection when I tried to use it with my Rostra cruise control, so I'll probably replace it with something like this after I'm satisfied with my modifications.

I think that this is a modification that all OBDIIC&C gauge owners should consider. There's no reason to waste electricity running your gauge constantly.

However, I'm still whether my OBDIIC&C gauge is using more current than others. If you have an OBDIIC&C gauge and could take a few minutes to measure the current at your 12 v. battery terminal when your ignition is off, I would appreciate knowing what you find.

 

[AbCaRed00]

I had a go at the testing the 'gauge today with a VOM, not totally successfully. [failed to get amp readings properly.]

With the negative 12V battery cable removed, and the volt/ohm meter connecting to ground:
without gauge: 12.72V;
connected was 12.47V
Battery post to post was 12.98V just following a series of short trips.
THE PCB connector at J1, pin 1 to pin5 read 12.78V on the VOM.
Battery is rated 420 CCA
____________________________
fwiw: I typically see 12.3V or 12.4V on the OBDIIC&C& 'gauge in mornings just prior to turning over the engine. That would be perhaps 14hrs after driving the day before, for normally about an hour.

It was difficult to locate R20 as mentioned prior above to test for heat; possibly it's located underneath the black plastic material that keeps the cable secured; none-the-less, nothing felt 'hot' to the touch on the board.

Not sure if I was doing it right when attempting checking Amps with the VOM, but I couldn't detect amps at J1, pin1 to pin5 no matter what setting on the VOM dial while able to read dc V ok.
________________
After measuring the voltages with the newest chip in place, [which was repeated a few times in succession involving a series of quick removals and replacements of the negative battery cable], the parameter display error at the 'gauges third OBD position cropped up yet again.
This time some hex program code on the chip appears likely had become corrupted at a guess, as the elimination of the 3rd right side line following all the intermittent power interruptions on-off seemed to be permanent. The rest of the parameters were alright.
Whatever the case, refreshing the default 'def' selection in the config screen was to no avail. Looked at the Code ## and all was in order. ie. INJ=09.
Unplugged and replugged the device at the OBD; turned off ignition several times again, same result with the third OBD position parameter apparently gone.
______________
I next took the 'gauges case apart next and swapped out the new 18F' chip back to the earlier 16F' chip again.

Somewhat surprisingly, though it had happened previously, similar errors in the name section of the third OBD parameter were present with the first two letters missing. Keying off and on in this case rectified the default display.
__________________
I'll try returning the newer chip back again in the board later after noting some voltages in the mornings with the earlier chip in place and measure the battery voltages with the VOM and try for some more measurements

I'll also grab an appropriately sized wire or paperclip to probe the OBD connection for better comparison. [And try and figure out if the amp meter is working on my VOM!]