Category Archives: Smartphone

EFI Analytics’ Shadow Logger MS

Posted on by
Reply

Shadow Logger MS Screen Capture

As the weather warms up, I’ve been starting to drive the ’85 Turbo E30 more. In the “old” days, it was necessary to drag a laptop around to log the MegaSquirt ECU, but thanks to Phil Tobin’s Shadow Logger MS app for Android, it is now possible to connect to the MegaSquirt with your phone! Not only does it log every variable available on the MS, it also adds GPS integration. There is a catch though – your MS must have a bluetooth dongle added to it. I purchased mine on ebay for less than $20 and programmed it to work with the MS. Phil also sells a ready to roll dongle on his site.

Shadow Tuner

 

After you’re done logging, Shadow Logger can upload the log to EFI Analytics’ website so that you can review the log on your desktop computer. Did I mention this is all FREE? Shadow Logger uses a new, compressed log format so it cannot directly be read by MegaLogViewer, but the website does all the necessary processing for you. Upload your current TunerStudio tune and Shadow Tuner will convert the log to a MegaLogViewer MSL file automatically.

shadow_tuner2

 

Just press the green download icon and open the file in MegaLogViewer to see the log! Please support Phil and register MegaLogViewer – it’s a great product. Registering also unlocks calculated fields, scatter plots, and a fully functional very of VE Analyze.

MegaLogViewer Scatter Plot

 

This is a demo of the scatter plot functionality. Here I have the left side set to GPS X & Y coordinates with it color coded by vehicle speed. On the right, I plotted Spark Advance vs Engine Speed, color coded by Air/Fuel Ratio. Scatter plots are an easy way to visualize data and find trends that might otherwise be hard to see.

HTC Thunderbolt battery update

Posted on by
Reply

I ordered this replacement battery from Amazon advertised to fit the MyTouch 4G, which is basically the same phone as the Thunderbolt. It was advertised as an OEM battery, but it was so cheap I suspected it to be a clone; boy was I surprised when it arrived the next day (Amazon Prime is the bomb!). The battery was, in fact, a genuine HTC battery. It popped right into my Thunderbolt with one minor difference – the logo faces in, towards the screen of the phone, vs out, towards the battery cover. It is functionally perfect and the battery life is outstanding – I forgot my battery life was actually good at one time! The random resets have also vanished. All in all, this was a great buy and I might buy another for a backup; you should too!

Flashed Liquid ICS v1.5 MR3 and new OTA radios

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been running Liquid ICS v1.5 MR2.7 beta since my return from Japan in early September, mostly because it was the first semi-polished Ice Cream Sandwich rom for the Thunderbolt. I like the rom a lot but the constant data drops and lack of a working camera held it back. MR3 dropped shortly after I flashed back then, but I’ve been too lazy to update. Well, I updated today and also installed the OTA radios from the official HTC ICS rom. So far the camera works (yay!!!) and it seems like the data connection is more stable. Unfortunately, trying to switch to the front camera permanently breaks the built-in camera app. I have also learned that my factory battery is dying. Lately I’ve been getting random resets (no surprise there) but the phone has been powering back on with a nearly dead battery. I thought it was a fluke, but no, the battery really is going south so I ordered another from Amazon.