Fine Tuning HLT GP, Automatic G2 & 05 BMW M3

jmciver · Post by **jmciver** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 7:44 am

I am trying to fine tune my setup and could use some help/advice to make sure I did not miss anything. I read several of the threads that have discussed this but they could not answer all of my questions. The Automatic seems to connect fine and has the most up to date hardware and firmware. In the Expert OBD Settings I have BT1 ON and Multi CAN off as I know my car is not a CAN vehicle (and I also recognize that my car is one of those "problem" BMWs). I am running the most current version of HLT GP on an IPad 3 (IOS 8.1.2).

I am only able to get a 2-3 Hz rate, which would be ok, but it is not consistent. It can dip as low as 0 and sometimes disconnect but I can't figure out why. I think there may be some communication issues as some of the PIDs have a "#" next to the time parameter, but I am not familiar enough with the software to know what that really means. I did attempt to ignore some PIDs, but I could not tell how effective it was since the refresh rate was still not consistent. In some cases, right after I load HLT and it connects to the car, I would see a refresh rate up to 10 Hz for a few seconds, but then it would drop back down again.

So are there any other settings I can tweak or is this the best I will be able to get? I can send you a log file for further troubleshooting but figured there might be a few settings I could adjust first, however, I don't want to just change things in the blind.

Post by **Harry** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:03 am

The numbers introduced with the # sign document the number of ECUs responding to a PID request. From my understanding the Automatic adapter will always come back with one reply-but I'm not sure. Anyway, this cannot be used to improve the update rate. As you said already, 2 or 3 Hz is already good for a non CAN bus and nothing that can be improved by tweaking any settings.

Rate dropping to 0 means communication is not stable. This can be either due to some invalid replies from the adapter making LapTimer to disconnect / reconnect (#1), or some low level communication issues (#2). The later can occur e.g. if you have an active BT audio unit installed in your car. To check the first item, please monitor the connection status in LapTimer. In case it is switching from Connected to Not Available and back to Connected in Sensor List, we have some issue of type #1.

- Harry

jmciver · Post by **jmciver** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 1:32 pm

Thanks for the reply!

Regarding connection status, I will take a more dedicated look and get back to you. However, I remember that once the Automatic turned green, it stayed green. The few times the Automatic would disconnect seemed to only occur if the rate went down to zero and stayed there for more than a few seconds. But it would re-connect automatically without any operator action by me.

Regarding BT in the car, I thought about that after reading about it on the forum here as my car has a BT module. I physically disconnected the module (since there is no other way to turn it off in the car) and turned off BT on my cell phone which was with me (remember I am using my iPad for HLT, not my cell phone) but did not see any change in performance, good or bad.

I have not actually driven with this setup yet. Everything I have done has been with the car idling in the driveway. I have a track day this weekend where I should be able to do some better fine tuning if necessary (and I will drive on the street at least once before the track event hopefully).

A few other thoughts/questions in the meantime....

1. Is there any benefit to changing the Default Protocol to the actual protocol of the vehicle instead of keeping it in Automatic? Does HLT tell you what protocol it is using?

2. When experimenting with ignoring PIDs, is there any benefit to ignoring those PIDs that HLT does not use (i.e. the ones without the times in front of them)?

3. When I tested ignoring the "MAF" PID, I noticed that in the "Engine" view, HP and TQ were still being calculated. When I called up the Sensor Status screen to verify the MAF PID was ignored, it was verified not on the list. Did I miss something or is it supposed to be this way?

Post by **Harry** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 2:08 pm

On the disconnect pattern: in case LapTimer doesn't receive a response from a adapter for a certain time (few seconds), it will disconnect and reconnect.

On 1) This is used in case the adapter is not able to negotiate the protocol with the car. It is a hint LapTimer will send. As your connection is working in general, stick with Automatic please.
On 2) PIDs not available will not be requested. Ignore PIDs is actually to trouble shoot wrong answers. In terms of speed, ignoring PIDs will hardly ever add any benefit, LapTimer has a pretty sophisticated strategy to use bandwidth optimal.
On 3) I assume LapTimer had an old value cached. It is probably best to disconnect / reconnect or restart the app when changing values here.

- Harry

jmciver · Post by **jmciver** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:29 am

So I motored the OBD 2 connection in the Sensor List window as you recommended with decent albeit inconclusive results. Rate most of the time stayed between 1 to 2.5 Hz, occasionally getting up to 3 Hz and sometimes dropping to .2 Hz. It only disconnected (i.e. went to yellow) a few times in a 3-4 minute period while I was watching it, but it quickly reconnected. With the smoothing functionality you have built in the software I doubt I would notice a "glitch" in any videos I would make. Unless there is anything else you can think of to tweak/refine with my setup, it is what it is I guess, which should still be more than adequate for me.

On a somewhat related note, this will be the first time I have used HLT since you updated to the current video overlay design. The previous version I used had gear displayed in the overlay. Now, horsepower is displayed. Is displaying gear an option or is that gone now?

Post by **Harry** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:43 am

The OBD overlay is coming with 2 gauges instead of 1 now, so there are additions only (gear still available).

On the disconnects: you will see this in the overlay, so we are not done. You may create a log as described in the Debugging OBD Connections (FAQ forum). Please make sure you cover the scenarios described (.2 to 3 plus disconnect).

Harry

jmciver · Post by **jmciver** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:52 am

Ok I will get the log file for you to take a look at. I don't know how long it will take to get the disconnect condition though as it seemed to happen very rarely and randomly (and very quickly re-connected) during my testing with the car idling in the driveway.

jmciver · Post by **jmciver** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 5:00 am

Ok, I just sent you a trace file. Of course, I did not see the same type of performance that I previously reported (and I made several files). In all cases, rate went between .2 - 2.7 Hz, but did not actually disconnect. I am not sure how much help this file will be, but let me know if there is anything else I can do.

I am going to the track this weekend so I will see how things go there as well. If I get this rate performance, I think I should have some more than acceptable results at the track.