VMSpc - Engine Monitoring Update

MONITORING THE DIESEL PUSHER
Silverleaf Electronics VMSpc

(read my tip on installation at the bottom of this article)

The technology built into modern diesel engines these days can provide a wealth of information for the Class A  Motorhomes that were built since the late 1990's.  I became familiar with diesel engines a few years ago when we owned a 47' Mainship Motor Yacht.  A diesel engine is very reliable if you take good care of them, do the scheduled maintenance and exercise them on a regular basis.

When we traded up to a diesel powered Class A, I was already familiar with what makes diesels tick and when I ran across this software: VMSpc that Silverleaf Electronics, I knew how important it was to monitor it's health, especially as we are going down the road.  I downloaded the free software to see what could be displayed and was amazed at how much information was available and how it could be customized.  My delimma was to show the vital information on a laptop screen so I could read it at a glance while driving down the road and not distract my eyes from the road.

I designed my screen on a 15" Gateway laptop that's been sitting in my closet for years collecting dust.  Since I had moved up to Apple OS a few years ago, this laptop was never updated and is still running on MS Windows XP Media Edition (now extinct).  To my surprise, VMSpc installed and ran without a hitch and my evaluation began.  I worked through varoius screen designs, placing gauges and graphs into groupings that were large enough to see from the driver's seat and the laptop sitting on the dash up near the windshield.  That placement seemd optimal with the screen within my view of the road ahead.  At this point I didn't have the required hardware and cables to actually monitor any live data, but I just wanted to see what it looked like out on the road.  I found out one thing immediately, my selection of screen colors was very hard to read against the contrast of the bright view out through the windshield.

When we returned from our short weekend trip, I knew I had to modify the color scheme with a dark background and bright text to compensate for this contrast.  I ended up with a background that's dark grey with bright green labels and engine values, similar to the old CRT displays from the past.


After finding a good combination of background colors and text, I started tweeking my gauges and lining them up into several categories and spaces on the screen with priorties:  Speed, Cruise Set and Gear Selection is what I wanted to stand out.

I created a grouping of engine readings that are critical like: Coolant Temp, Oil Pressure, Manifold Temp, Transmission Temp and Battery/Alternator Voltage. The gauges show actual data digitally, but I wanted to have a quick visual prompt of the status of each gauge, so I added a large idiot light next to each gauge that displays as Green, Yellow or Red depending on what parameters are set for each color.  This is a really quick visual check about the status of the engine while going down the road.

I also defined several gauges in the upper center part of the screen to show Instant and Average MPG's that I could read underway that allows me to adjust my speed for optimum fuel mileage.  One of the gauges allows me to monitor the engine brake retarder to make sure it's functioning.  I normally always have it on in case I have a panic stop situation.

On the far right, I added several Trip and Fuel Tank Status windows for monitoring daily mileage, Average MPG's and Fuel used. I sized them with smaller text and values knowing this information would not need monitoring continuously, but providing reference information to look at when not driving down the road.

After testing this software and designing the screen to my liking, I ordered the required interface box (the JIB), and had it hooked up to the diagnostics port under the dash and everything worked as advertised.  I took it for a short trip out on the highway to make sure everything was functional and made a few adjustments to the layout.  I was itching to try this system out on a real trip, and the opportunity came when Hurricane Mathew threatened South Florida.  Our hurricane preparedness plan was always to drive our RV out of town if we were threatened with hurricane warnings. We have good friends who live in Central Florida, so we loaded up the RV and headed out of town, with the new VMSpc system up and running for a 100 mile trip out of the warning area.  I had to reset the Odometer and Trip windows to get them to record the data properly and I ran a separate odometer app on my iPhone to check the accuracy of the data being generated by the Caterpillar computer.  After the 100 mile run, the RV's odometer compared to the iPhone app's GPS mileage was off by 0.8 miles.  I made the adjustment in the software's Engine Corrections panel, adding a multiplier to adjust the VMSpc Odometer reading.  We were able to return home and were relieved that everything in our area was spared of any damage or flooding that was predicted, but it was sure nice to have the RV in case our home had been damaged without electricity, we would of had the luxury of staying in our motorhome with all the comforts of home.  Since running the 200 mile round trip with live VMSpc data, I tweaked a few more gauges and added a Histogram window do display a graph of each engine gauge displayed in the lower center of the screen.  I haven't had a chance to try out my final screen layout yet, but here's what it looks like with no input.  I hope to do another short highway trip to make sure I have all gauges setup properly.  I'll update with a live screen display later.

Installation Tip:

Instead of powering the VMSpc JIB (interface box) with the 12v power that's provided through the J1939 recepticle and wiring harness that comes with this product, I highly recommend running a separate 12v power wire from another source that's switched with the ignition key.  Otherwise, in most cases, the J1939 plug will provide continuous power to the JIB and it will discharge your main battery over a period of extended storage, even if your motorhome's battery switch is off. 

Tail Light Wiring for the HHR in Tow Update

Well, after several troubleshooting sessions at the back of our RV, scratching my head, researching and reading about trailer wiring, towed vehicle wiring, I finally found the solution to the brake light issue on the magnatic tail lights for our HHR when it's being towed behind our Discovery.

It appears that previous owners had different tow vehicles that needed different brake controllers because there are two separate brake controllers mounted on either side of the steering wheel at the driver's console.  Here's what I found and the solution I came up with to get the brake lights to illuminate properly on the magnetic tow lights for the HHR.

1. There are two receptacles mounted under the back bumper, a 6-pin round and a 7-blade round plug style connector.  Since I don't need 7 wires to

Update - Monitoring the Diesel Engine

After several little short trips with the ScanGauge Diesel Engine Monitoring Display installed on the dash, I have decided to upgrade to a hardware/software solution that most diesel pusher RV's are using these days.  Silverleaf Electronics created an interface to the standard J-1939 J-1708 diagnostics port that outputs digital information from most modern diesel engines manufactured since the late 1990's.  Combined with their PC software called VMSpc (Vehicle Management System), anyone can easily design their own instrument panel with a variety of gauges and displays.  To interface the engine/coach information with the software you have to buy a little black box and cabling they call the JIB.  This little magic box interprets the digital information being output by the engine and channels it through a standard USB cable to a Windows laptop or tablet running their software.  Here's a sample screen that's provided with the software:

Here's how I want to display the same info on my laptop.  I saw this layout provided by another RV owner using VMSpc and I liked how he utilized many of the optional features available for each gauge.  Notice that the VMSpc window is shared on the laptop display with mapping/routing software running simultaneously.  I like that idea, but I will probably stick to my iPad running Google Maps for our moving map display and routing instructions.

As soon as I receive the JIB and cabling I will provide an update here and post a screen shot of my final display.

Towing Our Chevy HHR

After considering several options for transportation when we travel in our RV, we finaly decided to tow our 2009 Chevy HHR on all four wheels with a tow bar.  We did consider renting a car once we arrived at our destination but that can get expensive and it's not very convenient. Then I took a look at dolly towing and that's a lot of work driving the car up ramps and strapping the front wheels down on the dolly.  I also thought it would be a royal pain in the arse to rig the car with a tow bar baseplate and hooking everything up, rig tail lights and install a braking system in the HHR.  

After a lot of YouTube research, talking to those whoe tow a vehicle, I finally decided to look for some used equipment and try it out before we head out on our big Trip Across America next year.  I found a used Blue Ox Avanta Tow Bar on Craig's List locally and I was lucky enough to find a baseplate for my HHR out in Nebraska on Craig's List.  I had our local RV dealer install the baseplate last week and we hooked everything up and went out for a test drive.  It was a very simple hookup, quick and easy.  The only thing I'm still looking at is what to do for tail lights and an auxillary brake system.

Here is a photo of our rig all hooked up and ready to go:

Knot At Sea and Dinghy Connected

I decided to try out a wireless tail light system I found at Pep Boys and so far they aren't working properly.  I'm not sure if its the existing plug on the back of my RV or the lights are faulty.  I plan on checking the pins on the plug to make sure I'm getting the right signals to the correct pin-outs.  If I get these things working properly, it's real easy to attach on the back roof of the HHR with the built-in magnets and the LED's run for days on 6 AAA batteries.

• UPDATE:  It seems that this product is very susceptible to interference.  These wireless lights never functioned with any reliability.  I noticed that when I activate the brake lights, the left one flashes instead of being on steady, and the other one flashes really bright.  There seems to be some kind of interference with the signal reaching from the 7 blade plug/antenna to the back of my towed car.  I returned these lights back to Pep Boys and I plan on installing a permanent wiring harness from the front of the car and connect to the tail lights of my HHR with a diode kit.

The next thing I researched was what kind of auxillary braking system to use.  There are quite a few out there with most of them requiring installation of permanent equipment inside the car.  I didn't really want anything permanent which brought me to the Brake Buddy or the RViBrake that's a completely self contained unit that sits on the floor of the driver's seat with an arm connected to the brake pedal.  The advantage of this is nothing to install and both systems are proportional braking for the towed vehicle.  These systems use high tech inertia modules that sense when you're slowing down and applys the brakes through the arm connected to the pedal with an air cylinder in the unit.  The pressure is maintained by a small compressor that runs on the 12v cigarette lighter.

My RV dealer was kind enough to loan me an older Brake Buddy to try out.  More on this later after I get it hooked up when we leave for our next trip.

RV Battery Maintenance and Restoration Techniques - Part 2

So I finally got around to removing the two 12v chassis batteries out of the battery bay and took them home to see how the Epsom Salts treatment might improve their performance.  This whole thing came about because I was having several issues that I didn't know were battery voltage/current related.  After many discussions on several RV Owners Forums online about intermittent A/C shutdowns and slideout malfunctions, I figured I should do a little maintenance on all the battery banks, chassis and house.  I had been seeing several advertisements online about "...never buy another battery again...." and that's when I started a Google and YouTube search for BATTERY RESTORATION. Here is what I have accomplished so far with the two 12v chassis batteries by treating them with Epsom Salts:

In order to see the actual results, I purchased a Digital Battery Analyzer from Harbor Freight that a friend of mine recommended and it just happened to be on sale for $49.95.  The initial test results on both batteries weren't that bad based on the parameters that were in the instruction manual.

The two batteries were manufactured by Duracell and rated at CA(Cranking Amps)=1140 and CCA (Cold Cranking Amps)=950. The date of manufacture is unknown.  Here is the test data before and after treatment:

        Voltage Resistance CCA %Charged
---------------------------------------
Before    12.3    4.5      720     80

After     12.8    3.2      890    100

These results definitely show good improvement after following the treatment process that most YouTube videos recommend, here is a good playlist of videos I used as a guide.

Lead Acid Battery De-Sulfation

I heated a cup of distilled water and disolved 12 teaspoons of Epsom Salts.  I removed  enough electrolyte from each cell so that I had enough room to add about an ounce of the water/salt solution into each cell, the excess was divided up to top off each cell.  This was repeated for the other battery.  I left the caps loose to allow for venting and hooked up a small battery charger that I also bought from Harbor Freight and set it to 12v/2amp and started the charge on the first battery.  The YouTube videos I watched recommended they be left on charge for at least 24 hours, but the charger showed full charge after a few hours.  The instructions for this charger did indicate that after full charge is reached, the charger still continues to charge the battery and the battery should be monitored for heat buildup.

Both batteries were left on the charger for more than a 24 hour period and left for at least 12 hours before retesting to allow the batteries to normalize after charging.  There is a definite improvement seen and I will be re-installing them back in the coach to see how they perform now.  I will follow up in another six months and report on the performance.