ScanGauge: solicited gauges, hot-pugging, warnings, etc.

[cwerdna]

Updated list of Gen II XGauges (ScanGauge) was the first time I ever saw this warning:

WARNING Those gauges that start with an uppercase field in the "NAM" column are SOLICITED gages. Solicited gages can and will throw a DTC (communication DTC) if you code them wrong. Never hot-plug or hot-remove a ScanGauge with Solicited gauges programmed into it, and always clear solicited gauges before moving a scangauge to another make/model/year vehicle.

(I don't pay close attention to SG threads here or on cleanmpg.)

The above thread and old one I came across long ago at ScanGauge almost killed my traction battery had me wondering...

Is the above warning really correct? I so far haven't moved my SG II to another car yet, but had thought about trying it on my 350Z. Of course, until I'd seen the warning, I'd never thought twice about clearing solicited gauges or even bothered to use different notation (e.g. using an initial capital letter to distinguish them). For the moment, I think I'm using at least two solicited values: Bta and Soc. Need to double check.

Regarding "hot plugging", if one disconnects a ScanGauge from a Prius and does NOT connect it to another vehicle then reconnects it, should one power up first and then plug it in or plug in and then power up? The former sounds like hot-plugging to me.

[2009Prius]

Originally Posted by cwerdna

Updated list of Gen II XGauges (ScanGauge) was the first time I ever saw this warning:
(I don't pay close attention to SG threads here or on cleanmpg.)

Same here. Is it really true?

Originally Posted by cwerdna

...

Regarding "hot plugging", if one disconnects a ScanGauge from a Prius and does NOT connect it to another vehicle then reconnects it, should one power up first and then plug it in or plug in and then power up? The former sounds like hot-plugging to me.

Yes the former sounds like hot-plugging but on the other hand when we installed the ScanGauge for the first time we were told to power up first and then connect. Go figure.

[hotbrass]

Anyone?

[nerfer]

Never heard of this. I guess solicited means active (I had heard of passive and active codes). Note that you can name an XGauge anything you want, so this is a convention that Dan. is using (if you look at the other thread). You might want to ask him directly for more information.

A little more information - passive codes read data off the CAN bus in the car that's being sent around anway. Active codes means the Scangauge sends a request for data and then gets the information back (that's my assumption anyway), so it's possible if you disconnect the scangauge while a request is being sent, then the message could be garbled or the data doesn't have anywhere to come back to (not sure if that's a problem, but I assume that's what's the warning about).

[hobbit]

Sometimes a scangauge trying to run solicited-query gauges [custom
or generic, I'm not sure it matters] causes a communication oops
of some sort on the CANbus. It's very brief, but long enough
to throw the car into that "I've lost all communication" error
state. It's easy enough to power off and then back on and recover
from, and if the Scangauge stays plugged in over that reboot
then everything's fine. You might have to do the four-reboots
trick [to IG-ON is sufficient, don't need to come to READY]
to clear the triangle and the CEL afterward.
.
But there's no point in getting all worried about it; the same
risk exists with any scantool, too. It's just that the Scangauge
is probably a little less careful about how it squirts gibberish
onto the bus than some other products.
.
_H*