Subaru FreeSSM v1.2.5 USB OBD Cable Customer Feedback

FreeSSM USB OBD cable arrived today. (delivered by UOBD2 for exactly seven days later — far better than I expected.)

My experience so far . . .

I hooked up the USB cable to the laptop running Windows 7 system — it recognized the cable. Then turned on FreeSSM, and went to preferences. It had already been set to Serial Port COM3.

I then connected the Subaru OBD cable, turned the ignition on, and selected “Test Diagnostic Interface”. It failed. I tried again, and it failed again. I shut off the ignition and closed FreeSSM (which apparently got hung up and stopped responding. It took some time for it to close down).

The next time, I opened FreeSSM v1.2.5 software, clicked on Test Diagnostic Interface, and a window popped up asking to connect the OBD connector and turn the ignition to On, which I did. Then I clicked “Start” in the little window, and the test was completed successfully.

FreeSSM logged into the ECM and TCM without a hitch, and found no codes. (It also listed the Cruise Control, and Inhibitor, with a green check mark, at the left side.)

“Adjustments” and “System Tests” etc. all came up… However, when I went to ECM “Measuring Blocks”, I got the main screen (grid where Blocks are to be listed) but no list of blocks to select. Took a few moments of thought and I clicked on the green + sign at the buttom — up popped the list. Same for the TCM.

So far so good. I didn’t start the engine but selected a few TCM Measuring Blocks, such as “Pedal Position%”, Line and AWD duty cycle, wheel speed etc. (When more than one is selected, the up/down buttons at the bottom come on, and a selected block can be moved up and down the list.)

With the gear in P or N, the AWD duty cycle was fixed at 5%, but in D or R was at 30%. This did not change when varying the Pedal Position %, although the Line duty cycle reading did respond. Not sure why the AWD % didn’t change, perhaps because the engine was off.

The Measuring Blocks grid can be set to show a combination of min value, current value and max value. The min and max columns are selected by toggling the left two (of three) buttons at the center bottom. I didn’t figure out what the third button does — looks like max and min, but it didn’t seem to do anything when I clicked on it — anyone can confirm what it does?

To get the Measuring Blocks to read, the “Start” button at the lower left is used (same to stop). Till then, there’s just blanks in the grid.

The refresh rate seems to be quite fast — I found the Pedal Position % reading changing even when I thought I was holding the pedal steady, and it changed almost “instanteously” when I purposely moved the pedal.

I’ll get back to it in a short while, when I can take the car out on the road. In the meantime I wanted to report on the cable’s arrival and the setup.

Once again, thanks to http://www.subaruoutback.org/ for the thread and support.