DTAForum.com - a forum for the DTA ECU

Before I talk about the app, I want to say a massive thank you to Trevor Page (Trev16von ClubGTi) who has saved me months of work by helping out with this. He's effectively handed over MSDroid to enable me to build an Android app that works with DTA ECUs. You'll even see it some of MSDroid logos in the video below still, as I haven't worked on making it pretty yet.
Once I have the part of the app that is specific to DTA stabilised and working, I'll be contributing to MSDroid as well. Large parts of the two apps will be the same, so I'll be responsible for the DTA specific part, but we'll be working on the shared bit together.

A bit more information now.

What is it?
DTADroid is an app that is dedicated to the DTA S Series ECUs that will incorporate a dash board, and the ability to log data.
It's at a very early stage of development at the moment, but, with Trev's help today, we hacked together enough code to get the app talking to my DTA ECU. See the brief video below.

What ECUs are supported?
Currently, any DTA S Series ECUs will be supported.
E48 and P8 ECUs may be supported in the future.

What connections are supported?
Connection to the ECU will be via Bluetooth and USB.
These will support the DTA RS232 stream to start with. CAN support will also be added at a future stage.

What hardware is required?
You will require a 15 pin to 9 pin serial cable as DTA use a 15 pin connection, but serial ports only have 9 pins.
You will also either require a Bluetooth dongle, or a USB to RS232 cable.
BT is recommended, as it's not possible to charge an Android phone when using a USB to RS232 cable.

EFI-Parts sell the 15 pin to 9 pin adapter cables here:
http://www.efi-parts.co.uk/index.php?productID=184

MEF Motorsports sell the above adapter and the USB to RS232 cable here:
http://www.mefmotorsport.com/shop/en/dt ... -port.html

For the BT dongle, search "BTLink Bluetooth Serial RS232 Adapter" on ebay.

A brief video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt15z2xE-YI

What's Next
Next steps are to fix the Rev counter and system voltage data streams, as they're being read incorrectly.
Fix USB comms, as that currently doesn't support the DTA baud rate.
Massive code tidy up. Change hacks into production ready code.

The first release will simply be a dashboard that will be pre-configured. This will be a general release that shows a couple of gauges, and will be used to test the code on as many devices as possible to get the code as stable as possible. This stage is still a couple of months away.

So stay tuned, and I'll keep this thread up to date with any info. :thumbup:

From a logging perspective alone, this is a great thing if it can long all ecu data, and log it fast.

If data can be saved in a fairly standard .csv format, all the better, as most generic log viewers like MLV will work with that format, as well as Excel etc

Great for E48 and S40 users that have no logging at all...and if it removes the hideously slow log downloads with the other ecu's it would be another massive bonus. Plus having to shut the engine off to save those logs.

Plus it's a display too. All good really.

I'm expecting logging to be at the same speed as what's displayed on the dash, i.e. at 10Hz. This will need testing with different devices as it will be dependant on the devices being powerful enough.
Logging is started and stopped from the device, it's not dependant on the engine in any way. Logs will obviously be written to the device, so can be accessed at any time.

I've not looked at the log formats yet, I've got a way to go before I get there, but the logs are currently produced in MS formats.
I'll confirm what's available when I get to it.

This is great and exactly what I wanted to see! I have been putting off going with an AIM dash, etc. because I have to commit to it. This would be great as I have a couple spare Motorola phones and could even pick up a tablet to use as the display. Anxious to see more!

Great to see all the interest, thanks guys.

So USB is now working properly.
I think I've fixed the RPM problem, will test that tomorrow hopefully.

Then it's on to the interface tidy up. Sleep, who needs it?

Great job Sparrow (and to Trevor for allowing you to have the code as well), really looking forward to seeing the full thing working

Question: Could you use an external 5V supply and charge the phone and power the USB/serial converter with that? Obviously with a hybrid cable you may have to make in order to do so. I would rather do that personally if able, I prefer wired connections.

And awesome work, I'm really liking the look of this!

Apparently it is possible, but you may need a custom ROM.

I haven't looked at the details yet, although that's on my to do list. Pretty low priority though, as BT works really well.