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Firstly, THANK YOU Motorvate!!!!! This is absolutely amazing! I think i speak for everyone when i say that your content is top notch.
I just got back from my little "see how much pressure changes with temperature" drive, so I thought i would share my experience with getting access to the live tire pressure data.
I had a fairly modern i7 windows laptop so i initially tried using a usb- c male to a male cord that i have from other devices. After trying 3 distinct cords and never having the com port populate in device manager, I grabbed a usb- a male to a male cord that my local ace hardware had in stock because im too lazy to wait for amazon (I know) and this let me see the com port, which was being used, 5 in my case. From there, setup the few items addressed in the video and open the software. Interestingly enough, my puTTY program behaved slightly differently than Motorvate's did in the video after I got to the black screen, but when entering the commands, everything was identical. Obviously, spelling is not my strong suit so i was very careful when typing in the system software as to avoid any mistakes, but this was a very simple procedure and strongly encourage anyone to try it, albeit at your own risk.
Happy motoring!! 15 minute drive on an 80 degree night, started at 31 and 32.
How far do you have to drive before the readings start displaying? Is it time, or distance?
*EDIT*
Never mind. It reads and displays the TPMS values in a matter of moments (or maybe 50 yards). Either way, it's almost instantaneous.
Also, word to the wise when using this console program, Putty. The backspace looks like you're backspacing in your command window, but the command line is still recording the backspace character. In other words, type your commands in perfectly. At least, that's what I experienced, unless I'm misinterpreting things.
Anyway... Success! And here's the proof. Sorry for the glare. I need to add some pressure. Or do I? What is the recommended cold pressure, and warm pressure?
And I'm going to Sticky this thread. Way to go, Frank!
I'm having issues with the COM port populating as well but our family laptop is outdated and somewhat a POS. Having seen that using different types of USB cords is promising. I can get the COM ports to populate on my work computer, but I don't have admin controls so downloading Putty is a no-go for me.
All this fiddling with the old POS has lead me to convince the Mrs to get a new family computer that I can setup for sim racing as well, so I guess in a weird way I have to thank Motorvate for that. Hopefully I can the tire pressures set up before winter hits
The tire pressure sensor has a built in g-sensor.
Once it notices the wheel is spinning it broadcasts the tire pressure ID and tire pressure.
This is received by the BCM and sent out on the CAN bus to the navigation unit.
Sooo, depending on how quick the sensors wake up, this determines when the tire pressure is displayed.
The BCM is programmed to wait for about 2-3 minutes to receive the signal from the sensor and if it doesn't then it flashes the TPMS light.
It assumes the sensor is dead and warns us.
For a future episode, I'm currently testing $17 Canadian each ($13 US) delivered to my door from AliExpress
So far, they are working exactly as they should. Time will tell and then I'll tell you
In about a week, I'll show you how you can change your own TPMS sensors with out a tire machine and using a few 2x4s.
I also had shot and edited an episode on an "affordable" $90 US TPMS programmer that worked fantastic on my car.
Unfortunately, the unit I have is no longer sold by the company. They replaced it with one that is $200+ US more.
Sooo that episode is dead
I'm having issues with the COM port populating as well but our family laptop is outdated and somewhat a POS. Having seen that using different types of USB cords is promising. I can get the COM ports to populate on my work computer, but I don't have admin controls so downloading Putty is a no-go for me.
All this fiddling with the old POS has lead me to convince the Mrs to get a new family computer that I can setup for sim racing as well, so I guess in a weird way I have to thank Motorvate for that. Hopefully I can the tire pressures set up before winter hits
Are you using Windows 10 or 11?
If you have access to a Mac, I can walk you through that process.
Also I had 3 com ports, and had to trial and error to discover the correct one. ( it was 6)
Also also, the first time I successfully established a command line connection, it immediately freaked out with all kinds of error messages, with no input from me. I shut it down, took a deep breath and started over. It worked the second time around.
Also waiting on Amazon for the cable... that'll take a few days at minimum unless I can do this with a MacBook Pro?
@ILM-NC G37S Were you able to get this working on a Macbook Pro? Unfortunatley, the only Windows laptop in the house is my work laptop, and the USB ports on it are locked down. As such, I am using my son's Macbook Pro (Ventura 13.5.1) with the SerialTools program Frank recommended, but the terminal program will not recognize the port when the USB-C (laptop side, tried both as those are the only IO on this laptop) to USB-A (car side) connection is made (only sees the two Bluetooth ports). I also tried the OSX Terminal utility: ls /dev/tty.* and the port is not there either (just the two BT ports).
USB thumb drive works as I was able to play an audio file
I checked the config filename (UsbDebugStart.ivanaX) and the extensions properties are set to view - no .txt (used a desktop PC to do this just in case the Mac adds crap to the file), and those look great
I thought newer Macs use an FTDI USB to Serial driver, but I'm thinking that maybe a VXWorks driver also needs to be installed on the Macbook as that's the RTOS running on the car's HU Display.
Unfortunately, no. It would not work with my new MBP M1 on Ventura nor my old MBP running El Cap. I think my issue may be with the 16gb thumb drive I have on hand as it just hangs up on "Reading USB data." I know the thumb is good as once I load it up with MP3's and 4's it works fine... So, either the debug file is not getting read or there is some issue with my Mac's. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I would try on my Toshiba laptop (Win10) but Amazon will take forever and a day to ship the A-to-A cable and 4gb thumb so I gave up for now as I have other things going on. Besides, my TPMS sensors are as old as the car and beyond dead. So, even if I unlocked the menu, I would not get anywhere with this mod nor would it get rid of that damn idiot light until I get new sensors and they definitely are not on the agenda.
Still, MANY thanks goes to Frank, and Gareth, for their work on this and other future projects coming down the pipe...
Last edited by ILM-NC G37S; 09-30-2023 at 04:34 PM.
Unfortunately, no. It would not work with my new MBP M1 on Ventura nor my old MBP running El Cap. I think my issue may be with the 16gb thumb drive I have on hand as it just hangs up on "Reading USB data." I know the thumb is good as once I load it up with MP3's and 4's it works fine... So, either the debug file is not getting read or there is some issue with my Mac's. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I would try on my Toshiba laptop (Win10) but Amazon will take forever and a day to ship the A-toA cable and 4gb thumb so I gave up for now as I have other things going on. Besides, my TPMS sensors are as old as the car and beyond dead. So, even if I unlocked the menu, I would not get anywhere with this mod nor would it get rid of that damn idiot light until I get new sensors and they definitely are not on the agenda.
Good point. Since those TPMS sensors sleep most of the time, I wonder if the menu was disabled by default to conserve tpms battery. I just had to replace all of the TPMS sensors on my daughters 2010 (two were dead, the other two died while Discount Tire ran the scan tool checking them), so I suspect that the 2013 is only going to buy me a little more time. Regarding the 4-8Gb limitation, this is likely on the RTOS side as I'm guessing that's the max amount of memory accessible by the VXworks implementation and that there isn't a handler built in for when the max memory is exceeded.
Regarding the 4-8Gb limitation, this is likely on the RTOS side as I'm guessing that's the max amount of memory accessible by the VXworks implementation and that there isn't a handler built in for when the max memory is exceeded.
To clarify, I use a 128gb microSD card (via adapter) for media files (don't ask) as I rarely listen to radio and that setup works flawlessly. Like you said, for software, there probably is a limitation somewhere but the 16gb thumb is all I have for the time being. I switched over to microSD's long ago.
Oh well, win some/ lose some.
Last edited by ILM-NC G37S; 09-30-2023 at 04:31 PM.
This is so cool. Man, I've been wanting real-time TPMS readings ever since I realized it's a thing on most newer cars. But mostly a few years ago, when I had this slow leak in one of my valve stems.
According to the newly hacked Nav system, I'm at 30 to 31 PSI when cold, and 33 to 34 after driving. That's about right, isn't it?
I've yet to check the TPMS readings against my Joe's Racing tire gauge.
According to the newly hacked Nav system, I'm at 30 to 31 PSI when cold, and 33 to 34 after driving. That's about right, isn't it?
Gain roughly 1 PSI for every 10 degree change in internal air temp, so that sounds about right. The recommended PSI inside the door is 33 PSI cold, but that's too high for my taste and I tend to run 31.5 PSI. This will jump to 35 PSI in the summer.
@ILM-NC G37S Were you able to get this working on a Macbook Pro? Unfortunatley, the only Windows laptop in the house is my work laptop, and the USB ports on it are locked down. As such, I am using my son's Macbook Pro (Ventura 13.5.1) with the SerialTools program Frank recommended, but the terminal program will not recognize the port when the USB-C (laptop side, tried both as those are the only IO on this laptop) to USB-A (car side) connection is made (only sees the two Bluetooth ports). I also tried the OSX Terminal utility: ls /dev/tty.* and the port is not there either (just the two BT ports).
USB thumb drive works as I was able to play an audio file
I checked the config filename (UsbDebugStart.ivanaX) and the extensions properties are set to view - no .txt (used a desktop PC to do this just in case the Mac adds crap to the file), and those look great
I thought newer Macs use an FTDI USB to Serial driver, but I'm thinking that maybe a VXWorks driver also needs to be installed on the Macbook as that's the RTOS running on the car's HU Display.
I've been able to connect to my nav unit using my MacBook Pro (2013), MacBook Pro (2015), Mac Pro (2013) and on a Mac Studio M1 without any problems using Monterey and Ventura.
On the Mac, there is no need to install any drivers. They are built into the OS.
As I see it, if it isn't showing up as a USB device, for some reason the nav unit isn't getting into host mode.
I would use the sdcarg.org formatter on your 4-32 GB memory stick, create the the proper filename and try again.
09-30-2023, 01:02 AM
Or do I? What is the recommended cold pressure, and warm pressure?
