Getting Started

First Steps

Select your DashCAN product and your ECU below to see the matching step by step setup guide.

Select your product
Select your ECU

Not listed? Any ECU that broadcasts on CAN can be mapped by hand, see the note at the bottom of this page.

This combination will not work.

The Syvecs broadcast runs at 1 Mbit/s, and the CAN bit rate is only adjustable on the DashCAN Apex. The OBD and Wire-in interfaces are fixed at 500 kbit/s. Choose DashCAN Apex above, or contact us if you are unsure.

1

Wiring Setup

Connect the CAN bus wires from the ECU to the OBD connector. To connect them you will need 2 pins which are missing from the OBD connector. The easiest way is to get an OBD connector from a scrap dealer and reuse the legs in it.

In the OBD connector, connect the CANH wire to pin 6 and the CANL wire to pin 14. It is important that this pair of wires has to be a twisted pair, as this will ensure signal integrity, and the total length of the wires should not exceed 1.5 meters. The pins the wires come from on the ECU side are in the ECU section below.

Note: Some cars (e.g. Skoda Octavia RS) may have a CAN bus in the OBD connector, but it is not connected to the engine control unit, so you have to wire it in this case too!

For further help on wiring, please visit the Technical Help page.

CAN bus connection on the Syvecs

Connect to CAN1, the bus that carries the fixed Syvecs datastream. On an S7 the second bus (CAN2) is available on pin B2 (CAN2 Low) and pin B3 (CAN2 High) on units built from September 2020, but the fixed datastream this guide relies on is broadcast on CAN1.

The Syvecs broadcast runs at 1 Mbit/s.

The CAN bit rate is only adjustable on the DashCAN Apex, so this ECU needs an Apex interface.

CAN1 is also the bus the plug and play kits use for the expander modules. Tapping it is fine, DashCAN only reads the broadcast and never requests anything from the ECU. Leave the 120 Ohm termination switch in the app turned off, the kit is already terminated.

2

ECU Configuration

The CAN1 datastream of an S6, S6+, S7 or S7 Plus is fixed: the ECU always broadcasts it and it cannot be edited, which means there is usually nothing to configure.

Open SCal and confirm that CAN1 is enabled at 1 Mbit/s. That is the factory setting on every plug and play kit.

If your car uses the generic CAN transmit tables on CAN2 for another device, leave them alone. DashCAN reads the fixed CAN1 stream, not the generic one.

Channels you get
RPMTPSMAPVbatECTIATOil Temp.LambdaFuel Press.AdvanceInj. DutyBoost TargetOil Press.VSSGearWheel SlipEGTKnock Ampl.Fuel TrimEthanol

These are the channels DashCAN can decode from this ECU. Channels your engine does not measure or your ECU does not transmit simply stay empty.

3

Download the App

Download the "DashCAN - Ignitron ECU" app to your iOS or Android phone/tablet. You can do this by simply scanning the QR code below, or click the following links.

The store listing still carries the original name, but the app works with every ECU on this page.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play
QR code for app download
4

Permissions Setup

After installing the app, launch it and then approve all the permission requests and turn on Bluetooth, otherwise the app will not work properly!

5

App Setup

Open the app, go to Settings and then the CAN bus page.

  • Protocol: CAN
  • ECU: Syvecs
  • CAN Bus baud rate: 1000000 (1 Mbit/s)

The baud rate has to match the bit rate your ECU broadcasts at. On the DashCAN OBD and Wire-in interfaces it is fixed at 500 kbit/s and the selector stays greyed out, on the DashCAN Apex you can pick it.

120 Ohm termination: leave it off when you tap into a bus that already works (a factory bus, a Haltech CAN hub, a Syvecs plug and play kit). Turn it on only when DashCAN and the ECU are the only two devices on the bus and nothing else terminates it. The switch needs hardware version 1.07 or newer.

6

Connect & Go!

If everything is done correctly the app connects to the DashCAN interface automatically. Start the engine and watch the RPM gauge: as soon as it follows the engine, the CAN side is working and you are ready to log.

If every gauge stays at zero, work through this list:

  1. Bit rate. The CAN Bus baud rate in the app has to match the speed your ECU broadcasts at. This is the most common cause.
  2. ECU choice. The ECU selected in Settings decides how the frames are decoded. Two ECUs can use the same message IDs with completely different content.
  3. CAN High and CAN Low swapped. Swap the two wires and try again.
  4. Broadcast not enabled. Go back to the ECU Configuration step and confirm the setting was saved to the ECU, not just changed on screen.
  5. Termination. Try the 120 Ohm switch in the other position.

Still nothing? Contact us with your car, your ECU and its firmware version, and which DashCAN product you have.

Your ECU is not in the list?

DashCAN reads plain CAN broadcasts, so any ECU that can transmit one can be made to work. Pick the closest ECU in the list, then open the settings of each gauge in the app and set the CAN ID, start bit, length and byte order to match your ECU's broadcast, exactly as its documentation describes it.

Contact us and we will help you map it, and if the ECU is common enough we will add it to the app.

First Steps | DashCAN