Who's got it? Turbo-Link v3.0.1 That Is.

[motorhead]

I got mine a little over a week ago, and I must say that:

I love it!

It is so much nicer visually, having the program functioning thru Windoze is a nice touch (more mouse), and the strip charts make understanding relationships between sensors and readings a breeze!

Ken, There are a few things that need some attention:
1) Letting the recorded run reach the final frame causes the program to throw an error and shut the program down.
2) I'd love to be able to make my own display themes.
3) I'd kill to be able to keep the theme I chose set as a preference each time I ran the program.
4) In the "Automobile" theme, after jumping between windows, I lose the "dark green" unlit bars in the "dashboard screen".

Other than these trivial little items, it flat out rocks!

Any other user opinions?

 

[tjthorson]

I got mine the other day and was really excited to install it. I was using a mini Hitachi 133 Pentium laptop for 2.13, and I know Ken recommends a 166 or better, but I hoped for the best.

Well, the 133 was a joke - even with 72 Mb RAM. So, I found a Thinkpad 240 which is a 366 Celeron with 128Mb RAM. I had XP on it, so i tried that first. It was better then the 133, but still seemed 3-4 seconds between frames. So, i went back to 98SE. its much better, but it still seems slower then 2.13 was. Seems like the "update" bar that moves between frames is kinda jerky about halfway through. The other thing I noticed (might be a new problem with my car) that all of a sudden the MAT goes to 0 and the volts go to 0. Then the volts read 24, then goes back to 13.1. Its wierd - seems to do that every 30 seconds or so.

I am going to put the 133 back to DOS and reload 2.13 just to put them side by side to compare.

 

[turbojimmy]

I tried with a 133 and 40 MB RAM. Same deal - won't work. When they say 166 is the minimum, they're not kidding. I have a 166 with 80MB ram and it's acceptable.

Jim

 

[b231v6]

I'm new to the turbo link scene. Still learning! I'm using a ibm thinkpad 166- - 128 ram. I hooked mine up and went for a half hr drive. Utilizing the trigger set to record at 2000 rpm. Everything worked fine,however 1 fram showed voltage at 29 volts,then back to 12.9. Did this 1 time only.

Nice product,thinking about getting the boost setup but that's later. Need more time to get comfortable with it.

I like it better than my scanmaster,but you still can't beat the scanmaster for regular driving.

My recommendation is buy both!

 

[V6POWER]

Does the new version still only record 1.25 frames per second or was it sped up somehow?

 

[tjthorson]

Ken can elaborate much better then me on this, but the limitation isn't with Turbolink, its with the datastream rate of the ALDL port. The reason that Scanmaster (and the new Turbolink) can give a faster update rate is that it skips certain parameters in favor of others to effectively spped up the rate of things like knock and O2s, and cut the rate of others like TPS and such. That's the way I understand it at least.

I am going to fire up 2.13 again tonight. That was plenty fast for me and my car - just seems like the new one is slower. Not very scientific, but seems like 2 seconds between frames.

 

[kenmosher]

Thanks for the discussion guys!

Ok, good feedback!

I just need you guys to post to the support forum on turbo-link.com so I don't miss this type of valuable discussion!

- The color problem seems to be more of an issue with some configurations (we're looking at it).

There will be a v3.0.2 released early next week that adds a couple more goodies:
- Fast Update support for ScanMaster Fast Update... including Extender and Boost harness

- Some better noise filtering for the occaisonal "glitch" ... seems that sometimes the grounds can float a bit on these cars, due to age and it can drop a bit every once in a great while. We've got some software that should catch that.

- The speed issue is perception. The bar along the bottom is jerky because it updates with every parameter received out of the buffer. Basically, it updates as things are passed to the GUI (not when they are received from the car). That's why it looks slower ... it's buffering data so it has time to update all fancy dials and gauges. In actuality, it's the same rate, but the display updates based on CPU available (it's smoother on faster machines, from what I've seen... darn Windows!)

- The fancy gauges and such (and the way Windows processes update events) is why the P166 is absolute minimum. Windows really adds "bloat" to anything realtime, especially with all these features. I hated to put that type of restriction on things, but the <200MHz machines are dropping off the market. We bought a Dell "lab rat" for $300 with a PII300 64Mb memory and 6Gb of harddisk and it's like new!

- I thought we saved the theme preference in the config file, but we might have waxed it somehow. I'll look into it...

- Making your own themes is definitely something that will take some thought on our part. The problem is those darn custom controls ... they're pretty persnickety about some of that. We are looking at some pretty neat stuff regarding custom control placement for the next major version jump.

- Todd did a good job of describing the fast update scheme! Thanks! I'll be really interested in your testing Todd ... please drop us some email at mailto:support@turbo-link.com when you get a chance to take a look. If there is a difference, we must be missing synch somewhere and I'd like to troubleshoot that thoroughly.

A couple side notes:
- We've notice that some machines (mainly Thinkpads, big surprise ) that we have intermittent or failed connections on the serial port. There seems to be some hanky panky in what it does with the COM port for the docking stations. We've been able to get around it with the USB adapter (pretty slick!)

- A few people with certain machines and the UPGRADE (the old cable) need to perform the modification you can find on http://www.turbo-link.com/discus . It tells how to snip the ORANGE wire in the old cable, since it locks into the ALDL mode (causing wierd readings of the boost/MAT/volts/retard). Seems to be a combination of laptop, hardware, and old cable since most folks have no problem.

- Check back at http://www.turbo-link.com/discus in the UPGRADES section late this week, early next week for the v3.0.2 update.

You guys are the best! With your help, we'll continue to make it better ... also, we'll have a survey up sometime tomorrow/next day that everyone is invited to add to. We want to know about feature for a PDA companion product! Thanks!

 

[JFH]

Ken
Were is a good place online to by used laptop. I have a Dell Lat. 150 works ok but not good enough for 3.0. The ones you buy at the local computer shows, seem to go to hell right after the 30 warrenty is up. Usally the battery goes and that coasts almost half the cost of the laptop.

John

 

[Kevin Turch]

You can get a cheap laptop from ubid, goto theyre off lease section, lots of cheap and good stuff in there.
HTH
Kevin

 

[kenmosher]

I never quite understood how the battery thing works ... the BATTERY was supposed to be the disposable part (I thought). Because they cost so much, the LAPTOP is now the disposable part!

Anyway, we had really good luck with a company called "DPV, Inc.". We bought a Dell PII300 for $300 and it was perfect. The battery is better in it than the one in my "good" laptop!

Contact information is at work and if you drop me some email I can dig it up. I'll also try to post it on the support forum on http://www.turbo-link.com

 

[turbojimmy]

- We've notice that some machines (mainly Thinkpads, big surprise ) that we have intermittent or failed connections on the serial port. There seems to be some hanky panky in what it does with the COM port for the docking stations. We've been able to get around it with the USB adapter (pretty slick!)

Both my Thinkpads had the serial ports disabled as a default. Instead, it has the infrared serial and parallel drivers installed. I tried to enable the "real" com and LPT ports using the device manager in Windows, but it got all f'd up. Instead, I downloaded the Windows-based Thinkpad configuration utility from IBM's site (available for all models) and the software made the necessary changes. Both Thinkpads now work fine

- A few people with certain machines and the UPGRADE (the old cable) need to perform the modification you can find on http://www.turbo-link.com/discus . It tells how to snip the ORANGE wire in the old cable, since it locks into the ALDL mode (causing wierd readings of the boost/MAT/volts/retard). Seems to be a combination of laptop, hardware, and old cable since most folks have no problem.

I had this problem. I sort of wish there was a more obvious warning about this. Being new to the software, I didn't know I was running in ALDL mode until one of your support guys pointed it out. I hadn't gotten any advice as to how to disable it (disabling it in the software doesn't work). Even if I did hang out in the support groups, I don't think I'd have known to look for that.

EDIT: Scratch the above - looks like it's a recent discovery.

So how will the fast update work? Will there be extra cabling (Scanmaster hooks to the ECM? or not?)?

Jim

 

[JFH]

Thanks Ken,
I'll send you E-mail and also look on the forum.
That's the price I paid for the Dell Lat 150. Still works good. Out of six laptops I bought at the show for me and friends, four of the batteries went bad after a month or so. So I really don't want to go that route again

John

 

[turbojimmy]

Also, if you don't want to go through the hassle of an auction-type thing, www.usedlaptops.com has stuff priced at what you'd ultimately pay at auction (on some stuff, other stuff might be a little high). Guaranteed for 30 days (except battery, of course). Their customer service is top-notch, too.

Jim

 

[tom h]

Those of you running older, slower laptops, here's some suggestions that MIGHT help.

-- Windows loads a BUNCH of programs in the background, that consume resources (and slow bootup time). Particularly if the PC had been in general use, Realplayer, Winamp, AIM, etc are lurking & loading crap-ware & spy-ware in the background .
Run the MSCONFIG utility (in the "Run" command line) to see what may be happening. Then disable as many of the startup items as possible by unchecking boxes in MSCONFIG. Do a google search for more info, it's too much to cover here, and there are some good non-Microsoft sites describing all this.

-- temporarily turn off any virus checkers while running turbolink. My old 200 Mhz desktop slowed down horribly when antivirus was on.

-- defragment the hard drive

 

[MSDGN]

I believe disabling the spreadsheet functionality will also help on slower machines...it's a nice feature but does eat up resources...

 

[kenmosher]

Thanks a million Turbojimmy!

That will definitely help us with folks having the same problem (any chance I can get you to repost this over on the TurboLink Support Forum?)

As far as the ALDL problem, this one is really new to us (in the last couple days we've started seeing it and diagnosing it).

In all our testing with Dells and Beta tester (and a few other laptops we have), it never occurred, so this is one of those things that is coming up as more people/configurations start using TurboLink v3.0. That's why I posted it here (and the Support Forum) as soon as we could to warn folks.

We're looking to see if we can't isolate WHY this is happening (and still haven't got a good answer yet...).

Thanks again for all the feedback!

 

[tjhgn85]

Is it worth it to buy v3.0? I have not started using TL yet and am just wondering should I not waste my time on buying a used v2.1.....and spend the extra $100 and go with v3.0???

 

[tjthorson]

I am thinking this post should be moved to "Scan-tool tech_ but I digress.....

Ken, I tried to register in your feedback forum. It must be slow sending out the activation email, so I can't post over there. I will copy my post here and maybe when I get home I can cut and paste it back over there...

As I posted on TurboBuick - and as requested here I will relay my experience so far with the migration from 2.13 to 3.01. I initially tried my trusted 133 Hitachi sub notebook running win 98 and loaded 3.01 and it was pitiful, even with 72Mb RAM. I then found a Thinkpad 240 with 128Mb RAM running win XP Pro and loaded 3.01 and it still seemed slower then 2.13. By rough estimate it was easily 2 seconds between frames. Since that day, the 240 died So, I rehooked up my Hitachi running 2.13 in DOS and it ran like it always did, confirming 3.01 was slower on the TP240. (A 366 Celeron, BTW). I am now going to try 3.01 on a Fujitsu 4510 Lifebook tonight. Its a 400 PII/128Mb RAM running WIn 98SE. I'll post findings here tomorrow.

 

[motorhead]

Originally posted by tjhgn85
Is it worth it to buy v3.0? I have not started using TL yet and am just wondering should I not waste my time on buying a used v2.1.....and spend the extra $100 and go with v3.0???

Dude, I bought v2.13... used it for a few days... and then when I had the chance to pre-order the v3.0 upgrade... Ken had my order a few days after that...

v2.13 is a good program and does what is intended.
v3.0.1 offers all of the same and much more... I am dying to get the OBDII patches to start using this on my GFs '02 Z28. It is well worth the money if the only thing you own is GM cars.

My 2 cents.

 

[tjhgn85]

Not sure just were to post this. I posted it in the Scantool tech and no one responeded. I am going to be running a T23 PIII 800, 512 RAM....so I don't think I will have a problem with the speed of my laptop. Just wondering which is better v3.0, or the DOS version. From what I am reading everyone is switching back to v2.x DOS cause its faster, but is that cause their running slow laptops or cause v3.0 is the cause of it.