Fiat Coupe Club UK

Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU?

Posted By: respace

Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU? - 15/04/2021 13:19

I had a weird selection of warning lights appear after pairing my hands free, thankfully 3 of the 4 disappeared shortly after but the engine management light stayed on. Having driven to the garage and filled up the engine light went out and has stayed out,. Is the Bluetooth thing affecting it, just coincidence or dodgy Italian electrics?
Posted By: barnacle

Re: Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU? - 15/04/2021 18:22

Here's the thing: electronics are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. In the nineties, there wasn't a great deal of it around, and the required testing for certification wasn't all that hard. Since then, there's a *lot* more RF around, and a lot of it is at 2.4GHz. The rules now are a lot tougher.

In theory, the faraday cage - the metal cage that the ECU is in - is sufficient to block everything - but every wire going into it is an aerial. RF interference has effects ranging from minor noise on a sensor measurement - which usually sorts itself out in the next measurement - to complete crashing of the processor. Though to be fair that latter is very rare.

I'd *guess* that you may have an earth being a bit dodgy on a sensor somewhere. That's making it easier to get an interference in, and perhaps your ECU tried to measure something just as a big signal was induced.

But if it doesn't do it again I'd not worry.

Neil
Posted By: respace

Re: Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU? - 15/04/2021 21:34

Thanks Neil, of all the people on the forum I'd hoped you might respond to this. This applies to the Brera not the coupe so the electrics are a bit more modern but it does seem that the phone pairing triggered this, the 3 warning lights were inter related and went off shortly after, the engine management some days later and only after filling with petrol! Can't see any connection there but the car has run perfectly throughout and it hasn't happened again. a braver version of me might try pairing another phone to see what happens but I'll leave that to the next owner!
Posted By: barnacle

Re: Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU? - 16/04/2021 05:23

I spent too long resolving EMI issues on a cat feeder, of all things...
Posted By: respace

Re: Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU? - 16/04/2021 21:43

I have to say my electronics involvement goes back a very long time, my careers advice was join the navy or go into the dockyard, as a long haired heavy metal fan there was no contest. I ended up building and testing guidance systems on missiles and torpedoes alas the very same we sold to Argentina prior to the Falklands. If only I had a Bluetooth back then that might of changed the course of their Exocets.
Posted By: barnacle

Re: Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU? - 18/04/2021 05:46

I did over thirty years as a BBC broadcast engineer, five years developing deep oil drill robots - hit a six inch target with a six inch drill three miles underground! - and most recently the world's best automated cat feeder. And a little bit of development for chair lifts, and of course widgets...

Leaving school with A-levels, after annoying the headmaster and being bollocked because I didn't choose to go to university, I did entrance exams/tests for the BBC, Yorkshire Electricity, National Air Traffic Control, and Bletchley Park all in the same couple of weeks and was offered all of them. The BBC paid best, so the rest is history. Since then I've acquired graduate and post graduate certificates, diplomas, and degrees. To what end I don't know, but they were fun smile

Neil
Posted By: respace

Re: Can Bluetooth interact with an ECU? - 18/04/2021 15:17

I should have said my electronics involvement goes back a long way and stopped a long while ago! I recall being ushered into see the latest HP computer circa 1974, the size of a small bungalow with huge tape spools which just went in one direction for a while then seemingly going back the other way whilst the torpedo sat on the test bed and whirred a bit or occasionally moved a fin. This supposedly simulated a test firing but was dead boring.The most exciting thing that I recall was when the top brass came down to be present at a firing of the latest American torpedo, it had a 98% success record. I think 4 were fired and dropped to the seabed, it later transpired that a sailor onboard had spotted a 'hole' in the torpedo and thought he should stop the water getting so he blocked them all up thus stopping the salt water getting in and activating the internal batteries! I think they were around £250K each.
My father in law was a pipeline manager for BP some of the stories he tells about trying to lay them in the North Sea and the things that get in the way miles out to sea, everything from airplanes (which could be war graves thus you have to go round them) to telephone boxes!
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