Associated Equipment GM L67, GM LS1, GM L36 User Manual

LS1M

User’s Guide

PDA OBD2 Scanner

Version 1.7e

Optimized for GM LS1 and L67/L36 Engine

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Introduction

Thank you for your purchase of the LS1M Scanner.

The LS1M Scanner is a scan tool that can retrieve engine parameters and trouble codes from GM vehicle using the VPW OBD-2 protocol. That includes most GM cars & trucks from 1996 to 2006. To verify compatibility of your vehicle to the LS1M scanner, look for the diagnostic connector under the dash, on the driver’s side. It’s a 16-pin connector with pins 1-8 across the top & pins 9-16 across the bottom. The VPW protocol uses pins 2, 4, 5 & 16, so these positions should have a metal insert present.

LS1M has been optimized for use in GM’s LS1 and L67 series engines. Enhanced data parameters for these engine types are supported; there’s a list of them in the appendix. Some of these enhanced parameters will also work on other GM vehicles.

The basic LS1M scanner comes with an OBD2 interface cable, software CD and this User’s Guide:

User’s Guide Software CD

OB2 Cable

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Also available is a custom PDA for use with the LS1M scanner. It comes with a PDA, USB hotsync cable, serial

hotsync cable, home charger, car charger, Getting Started guide and a PDA software CD.

Serial Cable USB CableHome Charge

Car Charge

Getting Started PDA Software CDPDA

The PDA software CD has some extra programs on it and some more online documentation, but everything you need is contained on the LS1M CD. When the term “CD” is used in this User’s Guide, it’s referring to the LS1M CD.

The serial cable also has a charge connector on it, which connects to the car charger so the PDA can be charged up in the vehicle.

To connect to the car, the PDA plugs into the serial cable and the serial cable plugs into the LS1M cable. The serial cable’s charge connector plugs into the car charger, which plugs into the cigarette lighter. Make sure the car’s ignition key is in the “RUN” position, or start the engine before scanning.

There are a pair of internal DIP switches in the little black box of the OBD2 cable. Turning these switches “ON” will provide enough power to the PDA for scanning, but not for charging. If you use the car charger, you can leave these DIP switches “OFF” (facory default). Turn these switches “ON” if you don’t want to use the car charger, or if you are using your own Handspring PDA. If you have a Palm PDA, leave the switches “OFF”.

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Both switches ON

Turn on the PDA with the power button, located on the top of the PDA. Find the LS1M icon: the stylus. The stylus is tucked away near the back of the PDA. To return to the application screen later, click the blue button on the keyboard, and then the Home button (picture of a blue house on it, lower right of the PDA keyboard).

Before your first scan, be sure to check the engine type on the Config screen. Once you start the LS1M program, click Config and then select the appropriate engine type. You can also change the units to metric by selecting the Units button.

Engine Type

Click on Save to save your settings, then click on Scan from the Main Menu to start scanning. If you get the message “Can’t Find OBD2 Cable”, that means the PDA can’t communicate with the LS1M cable. Double-check your cables are pushed in all the way and the ignition key is “ON”. If it still won’t work, your car’s OBD2 connector may have blown a fuse. Check for 12 volts between pins 16 and 4 with a voltmeter, or open up the LS1M cable’s little box and see if the LED is on. If there is no voltage, check your cigarette or accessory fuse, which is usually the one that powers the OBD2 port.

Units

and tap it with

Warning

Operation of the LS1M scanner while driving can pose a danger to you, your passengers and other drivers. Please always keep your eyes on the road. If necessary, have someone else operate the scanner while you drive, or use the logging functions to record data for later playback.

PDA Basics

No software installation is required before using LS1M, if you purchased the PDA with your scanner. (If you purchased just the cable & software, see sections “Hotsynching” and “Installing LS1M” below.) The program has been pre-loaded on the PDA. However, if you are not familiar with PDA’s, the following basic information should give you enough skill to use the program. For a full introduction to your new PDA, see the “Getting Started with your PDA” booklet or the “PDA Docs” folder on the LS1M CD. PDA docs are in Adobe Acrobat format. If you don’t have Acrobat Reader installed yet (it’s a widely used, free program for viewing .pdf files), you can install it off the LS1M CD from the “Acroread” folder, or download it from http://www.adobe.com/reader

The PDA included with your scanner is intended to be used primarily for scanning with the LS1M. However, it is a fully functional PDA with address book, date book and many other standard programs. Other third-party programs can be loaded if desired, using Palm Desktop. Refer to the PDA Docs folder for more information.

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Powe

(

)

Mute

Stylus

LS1M Icon

Shift

Battery Indicato

Home/ Menu

Page

/down

Hotsync connector

on bottom

Charging the PDA

Your PDA has been fully charged before shipping, so it shouldn’t require any charging before first use. To recharge it, plug the USB cable into the bottom connection on the PDA, and plug the other end into any USB port or to the PDA home charger. The light on the top, next to the power button, will turn orange indicating charge mode. When charging is complete, the light will turn green. You can also charge it in the car, using the car charger and the serial cable with charge connector. The Battery Indicator on the applications (home) screen will also show the charge status.

Muting the Sound

The PDA will make sounds during certain operations. The most noticeable is the alarm sound that occurs when you reach your upper speed limit on the Accel Test. The sounds can be defeated by sliding the sound defeat button to the right. It’s located on the top of the PDA, next to the power button.

Turning the PDA On

To turn the PDA on, press the power button, located on the top of the PDA. To turn off the PDA, simply press the power button again. To adjust for daylight or nighttime viewing, “double-click” the power button (press it twice real fast). Don’t hold the power button down for more than 2 seconds, though. That will cause an error and may require the PDA to be reset.

PDAs are designed to be used for brief periods many times during the day. As such, they don’t require long boot-up times or shutdown procedures like a PC does. The PDA remembers exactly what screen is being displayed when you turn it off, and when you turn it on again it will be at the same place. Also, PDAs will typically turn themselves off after a couple of minutes if no key is pressed to save batteries. However, since this can be quite annoying when you’re scanning a car, LS1M has an option on the Config screen for changing the “sleep” time while scanning. If the PDA is left on for a considerable amount of time, the PDA’s internal rechargeable batteries will go dead.

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Using the Stylus

For clicking buttons on a PDA, you use a stylus, which is just a plastic pointer. The stylus should be in its holder on the back of the PDA. To use it, pull it out & tap the display where you want to “click”. If you don’t have the sounds silenced, you should hear a little ticking noise when you click, and whatever icon you click on will cause its associated program to run.

When you first start your PDA, you should see a screen full of program icons. To start a particular program, tap the stylus on that program’s icon. To return to the main menu (set of icons), you need to press the Home button (see Keyboard section below).

Other pointing devices can be used (like a fingernail if you lose the stylus), but may damage the touch screen.

Calibrating the Touch Screen

The screen on the PDA must be calibrated so the PDA knows where you’re “clicking”. Calibration has already been done before your scanner was shipped, but to redo the calibration, click the Welcome icon. On the main screen of icons (as shown above), there is a scroll bar on the right, since all of the icons won’t fit on one page. Drag the scroll bar down or press the page-down button until the Welcome icon shows up. Then just follow the directions to recalibrate the touch screen.

Setting the Contrast

To set the contrast, press the blue Shift button, then the letter Q on the keyboard. Use the on-screen slider to set the contrast lighter or darker.

Using the Keyboard

Users of other Palm devices will notice the “graffiti” area is missing. To enter text with this PDA, you use the ASCII keyboard. To enter text, just click on the letters with your finger just like you would use a standard keyboard. On the right side of the keyboard, you will see the backspace key and arrow key, and the space bar is the big wide one at the bottom of the keyboard. Next to the space bar is an up-arrow for capital letters. To use it, click it once and the following letter will be capitalized. To the far right of the space bar is a key with a dot and line on it. This is the “menu” button. Click it to drop-down the menu’s on certain programs. (Drop-down menu’s are not used in the LS1M program.)

Notice that the keys have white letters but also some blue characters to the upper right. Those are the shift-mode keys. You use them by pressing the blue shift button (lower left) and then press the key. So, for instance, if you want to enter a number 5, press the blue shift key and then the J button. On the Menu button, notice the picture of a little blue house. That’s the Home button. To get back to the Home screen (list of program icons), press the blue shift button and then the Home key.

Using the Page-Up and Page-Down Buttons

Under the ASCII keyboard are some silver keys. The two buttons in the middle are the page-up and page-down buttons. They are programmed to do certain things in the LS1M program, such as start/stop scanning on the Scan screen. The other four silver buttons are shortcuts to various built-in programs on the PDA.

Installing Palm Desktop

Your PDA is shipped ready to use immediately, but if you would like to save data from the PDA to your computer, you must install Palm Desktop and the LS1M Synchronizer. Palm Desktop software for Windows or Macintosh is available as a free download from the Palm website:

http://www.palm.com/us/software/desktop/

The Windows version 4.1 is also available on the LS1M CD. To install it, navigate to the CD drive in the “Palm Desktop Software” directory and run the install program “PDADesktop41ENG”. Follow the on-screen instructions to install Palm Desktop on your computer.

When prompted, select “Complete Installation”

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Create a new user named “LS1M”

Select “USB”

Click Next, and the Install. It may be necessary to reboot your computer after the installation is complete.

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Installing LS1M Synchronizer

To enable you to save logs to text files on the PC, you must install LS1M Synchronizer. First install Palm Desktop as described above. If you already have Palm Desktop installed, verify it’s version 4.1 or better (select to Help>About Palm Desktop). Be sure you are logged into the computer with administrator rights to avoid errors.

Insert the LS1M CD and find the file “Setup.exe” in the “LS1M Synchronizer” folder. Double-click on this file to start the installation routine. You should see a window like this:

Click the Next button, then wait. On a slower PC, it may take up to a minute to install. Then click the Finish button. You can verify the install is complete from Palm Desktop, by selecting menu item Hotsynch, Custom. In the dialog box titled “Custom”, you should see “LS1M Synch” in the list. Before attempting your first hotsynch with the Synchronizer, be sure to reboot the computer after installation is complete.

On the LS1M CD, there is a procedure to manually install the synchronizer instead of using the setup routine. See the file “ManualInstall.txt” in the “LS1M Sychronizer” folder. Use this procedure if there is an error during the setup routine.

Conduit registration error

If you’re getting an error “Failed to register conduit” or something similar when trying to install the LS1M Synchronizer, be sure you’re following the steps below. Usually, this is caused by failing to reboot between steps.

1. Install Palm Desktop 4.1 or newer (file PDADesktop41ENG.exe from the CD).

2. Install the LS1MSynchronizer (file setup.exe from the LS1M Synchronizer folder on the CD).

3. Reboot the PC.

Hot-Synching

Hot-Synching is term applied to connecting the PDA to the computer, through the USB port, and synchronizing data between the two. First, insert the USB hotsynch cable into the PDA, then plug the other end into an available USB port on your computer.

To hot-synch, first make sure Hotsync Manager is running. If it is, you’ll see the hotsync icon tray. If not, select it under Start, All Programs, Palm Desktop, Hotsync Manager. Right-click the icon in the system tray, and make sure Local USB is selected. To initiate the hotsynch, you must find the Hosync icon on the PDA. Press the Home button (don’t forget to press the blue shift button first) to get back to the list of program icons. The Hotsync icon will look just like the one on your computer’s system tray (red and blue with arrows). Click on it with the stylus, then click the big button in the middle of the screen to start the hotsync operation. The first time you do this, you will see “Found New Hardware” displayed around the system tray area. It will take a couple of minutes while Windows installs the USB drivers for the PDA, then you will have to repeat the hotsync by pressing the icon on the PDA again. Then you should see a dialog box pop up on your computer indicating a hotsync is in progress,

in the system

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and another dialog box “LS1M Sycnchronizer” will pop up, which is what you use to save logged data from the PDA to the computer. See “Exporting Logs to the PC” on page 18.

Resetting the PDA

PDA’s are little computers, and like computers hang up sometimes, every once in a while the PDA can get “stuck”. There’s usually an error message on the screen, or the screen simply freezes. If this happens, you need to do a reset. Unscrew the tip of the stylus to reveal a thin little pointer. On the back of the PDA, locate the “reset” hole to the right of the serial number sticker. Press the thin pointer into this hole until you feel a “click”. That will “reboot” the PDA.

If it’s really stuck and a regular reset doesn’t fix it, then you need to do a “hard reset”. This will wipe out the PDA memory and put it back to how it was when you bought it. To do a hard reset, hold the power button down, press the reset button (hole), wait for the “Palm Powered” screen to show up, then let go of the power button. Press the page-up button to confirm, and the Palm will reset itself. It will prompt you to recalibrate the touch screen. Just follow the directions and when you’ve completed the calibration, your PDA will be ready to use again. Any lost programs can be restored by doing a hotsync, which will put it back to the same condition it was when the last hotsync was performed.

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