# Orion BMS CAN bus Troubleshooting



## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

You need to get your laptop talking to the Orion, and you need the candapter to do that. If you have previously been able to connect your laptop to the Orion with your wiring, but can't connect now, it is possible that the driver for the candapter is not working right. I would download another driver, and get that right until you have established proper communication between the Orion and your laptop. Once you get that straight, you should be able to view your canbus data. Ewert is very responsive, but I can probably get you through a lot of this while you are waiting. I have installed a lot of Orions, so I can probably help you out in the mean time.


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## Axon (Jan 8, 2014)

Hi evmetro,

I have downloaded & installed the latest drivers from Ewert Energy. 
To the best of my knowledge my CAN bus wiring appear to be correct. 
Should I install the drivers again do you think?
Also, does the fact that the adapter doesn't show up as COM port indicate that the issue is stemming form the CANADAPTER drivers? In other words if I had a bad CAN bus wiring, would I still be able to see the CANADAPTER show up as a COM port?

Thanks for the help,

-Axon


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

Axon said:


> Hi evmetro,
> 
> I have downloaded & installed the latest drivers from Ewert Energy.
> To the best of my knowledge my CAN bus wiring appear to be correct.
> ...


If I remember right, you need to see the green light on the candapter when the Orion is communicating with your lap top. I have had problems with the driver before, even after re downloading it. I am not really good with computers, so I have taken hours to figure out how to uncompress a zip file and make my lap top actually use the driver. I have one laptop that works great, so I have it dedicated to all of my Orion equipped EVs. I am not sure what a COM port is, my candapter plugs into my laptop via a USB port. When I plug it in, I can hear my laptop make a little ding sound when the candapter and driver are working right.


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## Axon (Jan 8, 2014)

I manually re-downloaded and installed the drivers last night. Everything appear to be working well so far. I haven't had any luck yet using the provided .exe file to install the drivers on any other laptops. I think I'm going stick to doing a manual install using the .zip file. 

If you don't mind my asking, do you install Orion equipment for work or do you have a DIY experience with them. I'm just asking because I have some experience with Ewert Energy equipment but I don't know a lot about the company or where their equipment is used. I'm curious to learn more about what they do. 

Thanks again for the help.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

Axon said:


> I manually re-downloaded and installed the drivers last night. Everything appear to be working well so far. I haven't had any luck yet using the provided .exe file to install the drivers on any other laptops. I think I'm going stick to doing a manual install using the .zip file.
> 
> If you don't mind my asking, do you install Orion equipment for work or do you have a DIY experience with them. I'm just asking because I have some experience with Ewert Energy equipment but I don't know a lot about the company or where their equipment is used. I'm curious to learn more about what they do.
> 
> Thanks again for the help.


I only have experience with the Orion, as far as Ewert goes. You have selected a fantastic piece of equipment that most EV folks don't really understand. Most people think of it simply as a device that top balances your lithium, and they still associate it with the earlier "BMS" units. What you have is a very advanced EV management system.


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## zapyourrideguy (Oct 25, 2012)

I like you had a lot of trouble getting communication with computer to the Orion. Ewert Energy has, in my case, been fantastic with customer support.
I had a bad USB cable and also didn't know how to configure my computer.
It works really well now, keep the faith Axon


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## EVElvis (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi Axon
Was this sorted ok?
I have some experience using CANbus coms/problems with IXXAT kit and diesel engine ECUs:

Configure port on PC/laptop - I will need to remind myself on what I did, but think it was port settings under control panel on windows pc. Bits per second changed?
Correct USB port needs using from then on, so have you tried every USB port on your machine?
Baud rate settings - 125 kbps often the case in my experience.
Canbus wiring - 120 Ohm resistor at each end , so I used to check by measuring 60 Ohms across CAN High and CAN Low.
Cables are shielded - worth checking the shielding is ok.

Interested in this in particular as I am looking to buy an Orion BMS system. Hope its sorted anyway. 

Tim


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## JimE (Sep 3, 2020)

Hoping someone is still around on this this thread. I'm having BIG problems getting my Win10 based computer to even recocognize that the CANAdapter exists.

I'm wondering about terminations of the shielded CANBus lines, but at 60ohms Hi>lo, that looks correct.


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## JimE (Sep 3, 2020)

Solved - or at least making progress. Swapped out my Win10 machine for an old XP had on hand. CANAdapter S/W seems to run ok on the XP. 

Got continuous diagnostic "elevation required" when trying to load the driver, but it loaded correctly on the XP. More research required


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