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      09-23-2018, 07:14 PM   #1
dvas
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Aim Solo 2 DL help

Anyone have any luck using an Aim solo 2 DL through the OBD 2?

I recently purchased an AIM Solo DL to replace Harry's Lap Timer and help capture some driving data. I tried using it for the first time this weekend at the FCA national event at Watkins Glen. My issue is that it does not seem to have recorded my driving data over the two days. During the event, I powered up the AIM Solo and connected to my car's ECU. It seemed to realise that it was at Watkins Glen and the few times I glanced at it, it seemed to be capturing and displaying lap times. However, I have not been able to recall that information. I cannot see it on the device, nor does it appear available for download through RaceStudio3. The device has firmware 02.22.81.
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      09-24-2018, 02:24 PM   #2
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Contact AIM customer service in CA, they are great to work with. It sounds like you may have a defective unit.
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      09-24-2018, 03:30 PM   #3
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Thats odd... Mine works well(although limited data with OBDII connection). And I got mine pretty much the first week they released. As stated above, probably got a defective unit?
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      09-24-2018, 10:58 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by emdeuce View Post
Thats odd... Mine works well(although limited data with OBDII connection). And I got mine pretty much the first week they released. As stated above, probably got a defective unit?
Thanks, have been talking to AIM Solo to figure it out.

What type of data do you get from the OBDII? Do you get throttle/brake input, rpm, oil/water temps, etc? Just trying to get a baseline of what data should be available. Thanks.
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      09-06-2021, 08:54 PM   #5
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Do most folks do OBDII or CANBus? Can you even do the latter easily?
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      09-07-2021, 11:48 AM   #6
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I don't know what most people do, but I tapped the CAN lines at the FEMBODY module using EAS' Awron install as a guide. I bought the appropriate pins and everything needed so that my CAN wiring is 100% reversible.

I wouldn't say it's complicated and took me about 2 hours to do which included soldering/heat shrinking the AIM harness with the appropriate connectors and buttoning everything up. The wiring to the Solo is nicely routed through a small hole in the trim near the bottom of the glovebox and I use a velcro wire wrap to tuck it up in the footwell when not in use.

TL;DR
  • It's not that difficult if you're comfortable with simple wiring.
  • It can be done in a 100% reversible manner.
  • The CAN data sampling rates are higher.
  • The additional data (brake pressure trace alone) is well worth it.
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      09-07-2021, 12:12 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M1500Z View Post
I don't know what most people do, but I tapped the CAN lines at the FEMBODY module using EAS' Awron install as a guide. I bought the appropriate pins and everything needed so that my CAN wiring is 100% reversible.

I wouldn't say it's complicated and took me about 2 hours to do which included soldering/heat shrinking the AIM harness with the appropriate connectors and buttoning everything up. The wiring to the Solo is nicely routed through a small hole in the trim near the bottom of the glovebox and I use a velcro wire wrap to tuck it up in the footwell when not in use.

TL;DR
  • It's not that difficult if you're comfortable with simple wiring.
  • It can be done in a 100% reversible manner.
  • The CAN data sampling rates are higher.
  • The additional data (brake pressure trace alone) is well worth it.
This is an awesome overview, thank you!

Where did you get the pins and plugs from? Very interested in making it reversible.

Where do you mount the solo and where do you run the cable (similar to the vent gauge, then out the vent)? Suction cup to the windshield? In the center or off to the left (is there even enough cable to get to the driver's left, or is this mostly what OBD folks do)? Any pictures of how you wired it would be super helpful!
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      09-07-2021, 03:42 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by asciimike View Post
This is an awesome overview, thank you!

Where did you get the pins and plugs from? Very interested in making it reversible.
I had a friend order them through the dealer. I believe the items were 61132360043 & 61138373583 but I still didn't get the male pins which my friend provided me. You need 2x of each part number.

Quote:
Originally Posted by asciimike View Post
Where do you mount the solo and where do you run the cable (similar to the vent gauge, then out the vent)? Suction cup to the windshield? In the center or off to the left (is there even enough cable to get to the driver's left, or is this mostly what OBD folks do)? Any pictures of how you wired it would be super helpful!
The cable has a good amount of length and I've chose to mount the Solo in front of the center-left vent using a Proclip base (that's for LCI dash) and some adhesive velcro that's quite strong. Credit to dvas for this setup.
Note that this only works well with a Solo 2 as the original Solo doesn't pickup a strong enough signal from this point so you'd have to use the suction cup windshield mount.

You can see the Solo in in this screen grab.





I don't have any photos of the wiring itself, but here's how the cable sits as of this moment. I may take some time at some point to route it a little better as there's several options that could be a little cleaner, but this works well for now.

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      12-30-2021, 06:39 PM   #9
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My Solo2 showed up yesterday so I'm finally getting around to the wiring piece.

AFAICT, the short answer is, the Awron harness is just a big Y connector that the BMW female pin plugs into one side of, the Awron gauge plugs into the other, and then there's a female pin on the base of the Y (that needs a male pin to fit into the plug) that then plugs into the original BMW plug strip.

We need to replicate this, which means on the Solo2 side we need to solder together a Y (or use a tap on the Solo2 wire, e.g. https://amzn.to/3EImv3Z*) for each wire, with (in the tap case) the Solo 2 wires getting the aforementioned "no part number" pin to go into 61138373583, and the tap getting one of the pins from 61132360043, which replicates the BMW pin and gets plugged into the original plug strip.

I'll gather some parts and test things out and write up a Solo2 specific install guide based on the knowledge from here.

* If we wanted to be fancy, a two wire tap like https://amzn.to/3FHfdOZ might work even better, though I think the Solo2 uses 16 gauge wire so it might not fit :/
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      12-30-2021, 08:03 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M1500Z View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by asciimike View Post
This is an awesome overview, thank you!

Where did you get the pins and plugs from? Very interested in making it reversible.
I had a friend order them through the dealer. I believe the items were 61132360043 & 61138373583 but I still didn't get the male pins which my friend provided me. You need 2x of each part number.

Quote:
Originally Posted by asciimike View Post
Where do you mount the solo and where do you run the cable (similar to the vent gauge, then out the vent)? Suction cup to the windshield? In the center or off to the left (is there even enough cable to get to the driver's left, or is this mostly what OBD folks do)? Any pictures of how you wired it would be super helpful!
The cable has a good amount of length and I've chose to mount the Solo in front of the center-left vent using a Proclip base (that's for LCI dash) and some adhesive velcro that's quite strong. Credit to dvas for this setup.
Note that this only works well with a Solo 2 as the original Solo doesn't pickup a strong enough signal from this point so you'd have to use the suction cup windshield mount.

You can see the Solo in in this screen grab.





I don't have any photos of the wiring itself, but here's how the cable sits as of this moment. I may take some time at some point to route it a little better as there's several options that could be a little cleaner, but this works well for now.

Mine is setup the exact same way. Used a proclip base and a ram ball mount screwed into it. Works great.

I even went as far as mounting a surface mount avionics jack under the passenger footwell so I can just plug the solo unit it when I got to the track, and don't have a bunch of wires dangling around. I did have a drill a hole into the underside of the panel, but it's a cheap part if I ever return the car to stock.
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