Tech 2 Purchase

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

wsteele

Full Access Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2020
Posts
1,731
Reaction score
2,351
At first they would not respond. Don’t know what I did to change that.

I’m ready to throw this ******* thing in a trash compactor. Damn thing will not read candi no matter what. It did at first.

On mine, I had issues with the CANdi unit not talking. Mine was related to the quality of the connectors in the cable from the ODB to the CANdi and the Tech 2 to the CANdi. The connectors are very low quality and the pins very soft.

Once I had mine working, I have never disconnected the cables, they stay connected at all times. I also read that for stability, it is always best to use the 12v cigarette lighter power cord, plugged into the cable port, not the units port. I assume it must have something to do with ground planes between the units. That too, always stayed connected.

Since doing the above, my Tech 2 works flawlessly. Good luck.
 

George B

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Posts
7,769
Reaction score
18,599
Location
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin 53066
On mine, I had issues with the CANdi unit not talking. Mine was related to the quality of the connectors in the cable from the ODB to the CANdi and the Tech 2 to the CANdi. The connectors are very low quality and the pins very soft.

Once I had mine working, I have never disconnected the cables, they stay connected at all times. I also read that for stability, it is always best to use the 12v cigarette lighter power cord, plugged into the cable port, not the units port. I assume it must have something to do with ground planes between the units. That too, always stayed connected.

Since doing the above, my Tech 2 works flawlessly. Good luck.

Originally I assumed it was a poor connection on mine as well. My Candi stays attached unless I don't need it. It's odd that wiggling the connector from the main cable to the Candi results in it working but the same issue persisted with a different cable from a different supplier. Same without the Candi.
Maybe it's the Candi cable.
Maybe it's the OBDII Adapter
Maybe it's both...
 

wsteele

Full Access Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2020
Posts
1,731
Reaction score
2,351
Originally I assumed it was a poor connection on mine as well. My Candi stays attached unless I don't need it. It's odd that wiggling the connector from the main cable to the Candi results in it working but the same issue persisted with a different cable from a different supplier. Same without the Candi.
Maybe it's the Candi cable.
Maybe it's the OBDII Adapter
Maybe it's both...

I believe the most vulnerable part of these clone units are the cables and specifically the connectors. The pins on the RS232 connector on the bottom of the Tech 2 unit are extremely soft, not what that connector should be like, those pins should be pretty stiff so the alignment into the female side stays proper. The connectors on the cables have a ton of flashing and the engagement is really spotty. It is ironic because they were originally designed for industrial applications to be very reliable in harsh conditions (I think AMP was the inventor). The clone units suck.
 

Sparksalot

Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Posts
6,460
Reaction score
19,433
Location
Bastrop County, Texas
On mine, I had issues with the CANdi unit not talking. Mine was related to the quality of the connectors in the cable from the ODB to the CANdi and the Tech 2 to the CANdi. The connectors are very low quality and the pins very soft.

Once I had mine working, I have never disconnected the cables, they stay connected at all times. I also read that for stability, it is always best to use the 12v cigarette lighter power cord, plugged into the cable port, not the units port. I assume it must have something to do with ground planes between the units. That too, always stayed connected.

Since doing the above, my Tech 2 works flawlessly. Good luck.
Mine did talk at first. Heeding advice from others I didn’t unplug it at all. I used the AC power supply with the pigtail plugged into the inline jack. The only two things which got unplugged were the power supply from the extension cord and the candi from the OBD. Then it stopped talking to candi one time. And hasn’t since.

live looked for bent pins and flash in the connections. I even bought another cable from the tech 2 to candi. No joy.

I’m thinking I may chop the end off a cable and hardwire the damn thing to candi, to eliminate that point. Which would still leave the VCI port, the OBD port and candi itself and possible failures.
 
Joined
Apr 11, 2018
Posts
7,124
Reaction score
14,364
Location
St. Louis
Have all these units that are having problems been purchased recently? Maybe there was a batch of faulty parts used, or production QC problems due to covid or something.

I bought mine about 2 years ago and keep it with all cables unplugged and plug them in whenever I use it and have had no real problems.

Only thing I've noticed on mine is the connectors are super tight and I can't get them to actually "latch" together. That little metal latch gets about a mm from actually clipping into its slot. When I first got it and noticed this I used dielectric grease on all the connectors/pins to help make it easier to assemble the cables

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

George B

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Posts
7,769
Reaction score
18,599
Location
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin 53066
Mine did talk at first. Heeding advice from others I didn’t unplug it at all. I used the AC power supply with the pigtail plugged into the inline jack. The only two things which got unplugged were the power supply from the extension cord and the candi from the OBD. Then it stopped talking to candi one time. And hasn’t since.

live looked for bent pins and flash in the connections. I even bought another cable from the tech 2 to candi. No joy.

I’m thinking I may chop the end off a cable and hardwire the damn thing to candi, to eliminate that point. Which would still leave the VCI port, the OBD port and candi itself and possible failures.
Do you have any friends that you could test to see if it communicates with a Non-Candi system?
 

smokymtn65

Full Access Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2018
Posts
109
Reaction score
46
Location
East TN
I got mine about 2 years ago as wel,l and like @Sparksalot it worked with candi at first and then didn't. I use it on '95 & 98 but have to use candi on 07 when I went back to it it hasn't worked on that since. bought a new candi and that didn't help, I haven't done anything to try to get it work for a while had to many other things going on.
 

George B

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Posts
7,769
Reaction score
18,599
Location
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin 53066
Have all these units that are having problems been purchased recently? Maybe there was a batch of faulty parts used, or production QC problems due to covid or something.

I bought mine about 2 years ago and keep it with all cables unplugged and plug them in whenever I use it and have had no real problems.

Only thing I've noticed on mine is the connectors are super tight and I can't get them to actually "latch" together. That little metal latch gets about a mm from actually clipping into its slot. When I first got it and noticed this I used dielectric grease on all the connectors/pins to help make it easier to assemble the cables

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Mine was purchased on June 2 2020.
 

Geotrash

Dave
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2018
Posts
6,428
Reaction score
15,933
Location
Richmond, VA
I tried to use mine yesterday to read data from the BCM and got the message that it can't communicate with it. $@&^!! Time to start troubleshooting the connectors. I like the idea of using dielectric grease. Will start with electrical contacts cleaner.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
132,329
Posts
1,866,129
Members
96,943
Latest member
dda1

Latest posts

Top