My Docking Station will not perform the battery conditioning. I tried it several times and I just gave up and ignored it!! That was about 10 years ago.

You can just hit the 'tick' on the touch screen, the message will disappear and then carry on using the PTU normally. (ignore the message)

You could let the battery run down with a small 12 volt light bulb across the power terminals and then charge it back up on the docking station. Maybe the GENRAD designer was afraid of NiMH 'memory-effect' so the batteries are run down and recharged????

The circuit board might be defective??

I never get the 2217 message on any of my 3 battery packs.

You could try a substitute battery pack IF you can find someone with a 'known-good' pack.

bob

 

i let them load for about 12 hours in the docking station without the ptu switched on, only the docking station was powered on....
after that i started the ptu and it loaded completely to the wds screen without any faults and the touchscreen was suddenly working again, i calibrated it , and now everything seems to work
took me almost 4 days to have that machine running, but for the moment i am happy!!!
thanks for all advice and help


regards Thorsten

 

hello,
when trying to read fault codes on a 95.25 xjs i cannot communicate with the engine ecm , i can only read abs ecu and transmission ecu...the wds always reports interrupted communication with engine ecm
i think because i can read abs and trans , wds is working...
could it be that the ecm is defective or could it be a problem of wds, with a cheap standard obd reader i can read ecm fault codes...there were none but i have high idle and i wanted to reset tps with wds,

regards

 

hello,

i m still having issues with my wds, i am not able to do a tps setup or o2 orientation on a 95/96 xjs...i alwasys get a 12-56 error while reprogramming module...everything else is working with the wds
i use a b-280 obd cable, is this different to the b-204 cable?

when i start the self diagnostics on the wds it reports:
measuring card could not be started

and quits self testing

is this measuring card the card responsible for digital multi meter function of the wds or could it be that it has something to do with the problems in reprogramming tps

i can see all live data from the ecu and can read and clear all dtcs, but i am not able to reprogram something in setup and configuration menu???

does anyone something about differences in cable b280 +b204?
i think they both are 16 pin obd2?

 

I have never tried any other cable but the B203 with the early cars. The other cables can be used with the X200, X400 and X350 et cetera. The B280 might not even communicate with the early cars. I don't know the differences but there are differences.

bob

 

ok, then i ll buy a b-203 cable
with the b-280 you can do at least the following on xjs aj16, tested is :
read and clear dtc´s
display live data from ecm
read and clear brake abs dtc
read and clear transmission tcm dtc

but no way to reprogram anything, meanwhile tested on 4 different xjs
and no access to climate control module and seat modules, although i don´t know if this is possible anyway...but the options are available to read them

regards Thorsten

 

If you manage to find a source of cables for the wds I would appreciate if you could send me the details as I am having problems trying to obtain them myself
regards
rrosscoe

 

The cables (used) used to advertised on eBay years ago but I have not seen any good ones lately. I see the Ford spark plug wire 'clamp-on' sets but that seems to be about it.

bob

 

PM me. I still have many cables available. Not sure which WDS cables your looking for but I probably have it.

Thanks

 

seems to be difficult to find cables
i bought another wds ptu just to get the b203 cable, seller didn´t want to split them up
now i have 2 working ptus and 1 wds station

in the meantime i could solve my tps setting problem using a china mongoose set, this works on xjs (94-96) although i didn´t thought it would

 

Hi Bob,

I went through my WDS cables and wouldn't you know it. I have one B-203 cable left and it's new (just dusty...)

 

PM sent thank you

 

Guys, cable is sold. Thanks

 

I am in Austin, Texas and have a WDS with the Laptop and Docking Station.
I sold my Jaguar XK8 and do not need this any longer.
It powers up to the point where it complains about the Battery Pack so I have never used it. I was going to fix up a the Battery for it but didn't get to it.
It may be set for Ford or Jaguar (not sure) but I have a set of Jaguar Disks to go with it.
IIRC it cost me a couple of hundred dollars plus ~$150 shipping from where ever it came from as it is big and heavy to ship, and which I really do not want to mess with.

PM if interested or email (preferred) to john_sullivan (at) BMC (dot) com.
Thanks.

 

Hi Forum,
Awesome thread here with a lot of given information.


I received my first PTU last week from the US from an Ebay auction.
Untested, "as-is" and as dead as Julis Cesar.
Took about 2 weeks to ship it, but tax and customs was included in the Price.






As I received it without any additional items, first thing to do was set it on
power.





So I looked for the A-port and some suitable connetors for + and -




I found this drawing in the thread and at least knew how to connect the AC-adapter.
Adapter was set to 12v and 4 amps max.







At last I got a green light.




Booting it the BIOS was passed but it stopped on initiating the System







I took out the hard disk and put it into an old DELL Optiplex 260, that still runs with a 2,5" IDE disk, to carry out a surface check on the hard disk.





That was ok and I realized that I had a 3 GB disk inside.
Then I put in the CD02 (Norton Ghost Disk) and booted the system from the CD-ROM.





I put it back into the PTU and started.
System was running fine, calibration was carried out and I received the error #2217 which comes from the dead battery. Actually I recived that error only once since then.










Then it beacame more tricky.
Thanks to XJRguy and Thorsten for the missing CD42a and I could start the installation.
Without a docking station there are several possibilities.
First I wanted to take an IDE-cable and connect both, hard disk and external CD-ROM.

But then I dig out my old PCMCIA-adapter that could carry a CF-card.




So I put on this card the CD42a-folder as well as the CD43-folder.
With an external PS2-keyboard I started the explorer with STRG+ESC, Run... and
explorer.exe + ENTER.





With the arrow-keys and TAB I could manouver through the explorer (like in old times) and start the setup.exe(s).







It all went through until the last disc when it stopped at 92% stating the disc was full.

I then tried a couple of hard drives (20GB and 40GB), resized the 3GB to get more space from D: to C:. In each way I failed. Bigger disks are not being recognized by the BIOS (although I tried to Auto-Detect Hard-Disks)




So I had to clean-up disk C: to get mor space.


I deleted/emptied
C:\Temp
C:\Setup
C:\Windows\Help
C:\Windows\Temp


You have to empty the dust bin "Recycled" afterwards.


This gave me about 134MB more space.
With these additional resources everything worked fine and I succeded to finsh the installation.
WDS started and worked fine. Measurement of the applied AC-adapter showed the correct voltage.






Best regards
André

 

Hello forum,


yesterday I received my extension RAM.
According to the specifications given here in this thread it was easy to look for.





But then I had to open the case.
After all there are 7 screws that have to be removed.

The first three from the battery/hard disk case with a T10 Torx











Then dismantle the protective "knee-pads" from the lower side.
These two screws demand a T15 Torx.





Last the two upper again with the T10 Torx.

Now disconnect the two halves very very slowly and homogenously, or you might break the bridge connector that goes from mainboard to the instrument board.
I lifted it up a bit at the PCMCIA ports and then lifted the other side on
parallel.




Now you can completely lift it up.





The RAM socket is situated between the PCMCIA slots and the CPU card.



Insert the RAM until all pins disappear and then press it down until the holders click.




I then assembled it in the opposite order. Here you have to be very careful to match the two parts right away in order to put the pins of the bridge correctly into the socket. Otherwise they would break.
I am thinking of a solution to take two 30pin gender changer (male-male) and a 30pin IDE cable to connect everything before assembly of the two halves.


System started then with the right amount of memory.




Now I have a few questions to those that are far more experienced with the system.


I did not find any USB preparation or port or whatever though the BIOS states that USB is supported.
I looked at this part of the mainboard on the left, and it seemed to me that this could be the location to solder a USB port on. But still there would be the missing resistors L29 and L30. Any suggestions ?





Then on the same picture to right there is another pin array. I just wonder if this could be the secondary IDE port to possibly attach another drive or CF-card.

I would like to attach a power socket to the side and provide the PTU with permanent power either with an AC-adapter or a cable from the cigarette lighter.





Are these contacts on the left just for board diagnosis or could one possibly solder contacts for power supply to the 12V contact ?

Questions but questions.


I might have some more when the first cables arrive and the cat comes back in March next year.



Best regards
André

 

I tried a USB PCMCIA in the PTU but it would not recognize the card.
Maybe upgrade to Windows 98 SE or ME and see if it does work??

bob

 

Hi Bob,


thanks for your suggestion. I actually thought in the same way and ordered a PCMCIA2USB Card yesterday. It was just 6€ from China and will arrive after Christmas.
Upgrading will be a Problem for the 3GB disk. But I received another 4 GB disk yesterday and set it up without deleting anything, and it went through without comments.


But the higher operating system will go, the more resources I will need.
I don't think WinME will be very fast on the Pentium at 240MHz.


Best regards
André

 

Great pics. Interesting, too.

 

I try to buy HDDs in the 6.4 to 8 gb range so there will be enough room for a few extra programs. I can keep some DTC Guides on the HDD so I can look up info on the same computer and print pages.

I have had luck with 8GB Compact Flash Drives. I just use the 44 pin IDE adapter.
The Pentium I will not recognize HDDs larger than 8GB. Maybe partition????

bob