Maintenance mode on B.U.D.S. Softwar

I don’t have my BUDS computer with me at the moment so this is from memory and it may not be exact.

The version of software I have does not have a maintenance tab either. Maintenance mode refers to the state of the ECU, not the software.  If you go to the log extraction tab and follow the process to extract the logs, in the process you will get a message that says you are required to be in maintenance mode to complete the process. You should also be directed to “Cycle ECU Power Now”.  Cycling the ECU (lanes) at this time switches the ECU to maintenance mode.  If it all works, the lane lights will NOT illuminate momentarily as they normally do as they come back up. This indicates you have entered maintenance mode and the log extraction will be enabled. You don’t have to wait for this message, you can cycle the ECU when viewing the log extraction page and the ECU should enter maintenance mode.  

Also, the logs are extracted by default to a directory that is a bit buried in the computer, and it’s tempting to change the download directory to something more accessible. There is an option in the software (somewhere) to change this directory but DO NOT DO IT or you can’t review the logs in the BUDS software. The review page of the software only looks for the logs in the default directory. Instead, just look at the path to the the default directory and note it in case you need to find the logs later (to share them).  I put a shortcut to the default download directory on my desktop.  The most annoying thing that happens to me is about 30% of the time the log extraction process fails right at the end and you have to start all over.  I have never figured out why, but it typically works the next time.  Good Luck.  

Thanks—I saw the mysterious message—a simple declarative sentence on that pop up screen would have worked wonders for repressing my aggravation level—can’t wait to give this a try.

Robert, I feel your pain.  The learning curve is frustrating, but BUDS will become your friend. 

Thanks to Jeff B I was able to get the logs pulled. Since the BUDS viewer appears not readily available, I checked things out via a spreadsheet, with some bewildering results:

1.  The Lane A data log displays all four EGTs,  but cylinders 1 and three show low (25) values while Lanes 2 and 4 show vale’s in the multiple thousands  

2. Lane A datalog has an “engine speed” column with very low numbers, while the Lane B datalog “Engine Speed” column shows more expected values

3. For our longer run (~400 seconds), we did bot have an SD card in the Garmin G3X, so we had nothing to compare with the ECU BUDS log.  For a shorter (~12 second run several days later, which ran extremely slow (~900 RPM); short because it ran EXTREMELY rough, all four EGTs were warming up as shown in the Garmin Log, but the ECU EGTs still had the bogus data described above.

4. I could not find the coolant temperature on any label in the ECU/BUDS data.

5.  On the Lane A catalog, there a large number of unlabeled columns with data in the columns

6.  Im checking myself into the Texas State Home for the Bewildered.

Any words of wisdom from you experienced BUDSies?

1. Does what I described as abnormal as I perceive?
2.  Is there any other way of looking at the log files?  Does anyone have the BUDS viewer, and if so, is it any good?

Rob

 I'm attaching a portion of the log files for the 400 second engine run

Robert,

I have never tried to make sense of the BUDS download in the form of a CSV file.   You are correct that the review software is hard to get a hold of but you can review the fault logs in the BUDS software you have.  It may be a bit less detailed than using the dedicated review software, but it's all you typically need.  Like I said, the fault log review function of BUDS looks for the logs in default directly so don't change the download directory.  Since you have already downloaded the logs you can just go back into the BUDS software and review them.  The log viewer that is built into BUDS lets you organize the faults in several way, including by fault level and by the time stamp.