VAG-Scope --  FAQ

Q: What are those numbers on the left of the graph?

A: They are the scaling numbers. They define the min and max values that will be graphed in the window. For instance, a temperature could be graphed between -10 and 130*C.

Q: Great, but I don't like the current ones.

A:  Don't worry, everything is fully customizable. You have two different ways of choosing your scaling factors:

• In the preferences screen, you can either modify the values for existing units, or add a new unit with its values. Make sure the unit is spelled exactly (including the case) as it appears in the measuring blocks/graphing data.

• In the main screen, click on a field (or use the blue horizontal arrow) to display its scaling values. The field you're working on is surrounded by a frame. You can then change the min and max scaling factors for this particular field

Both settings are saved, so that next time you won't have to do it all over again!

Q: So what's the difference between these two different ways?

A:  First, you need to understand how the values are stored/retrieved. When Vag-Scope graphs data from a controller it doesn't know, it applies the values in the preferences screen, for the units that are defined. If a unit is "unknown", the min will be 0 and the max will be 100.

Setting the values in the main screen allows you to override these defaults. For instance, let's say you set the rpm (/min) value in the preferences screen at 7000. This is fine for gasoline engines. But a friend visits you with his TDI. What you do is you set the /min fields in the main screen at 4500, to keep a good resolution in your graph.

At that point, as soon as you stop graphing, the values are stored in the "scaling" directory, in a file named by the controller part number. And next time you connect to the same controller, Vag-Scope will automatically remember your settings.

Q: What's the deal with the horizontal scaling?

A: This enables you to tell Vag-Scope the value of the horizontal shift (in pixels) each time a new sample is delivered by VAG-Com. This is customizable because of the range of sample rates you can experiment with vag-com: you can go from 10 samples per second on a '02 A4 3.0Q (engine, 1 measuring block at a time) to 0.4 on a Eurovan (transmission, 3 measuring blocks). The default is 3, but you may want to increase it if your sample rate is low to make your graphs will be more readable.

This value is also saved automatically for each control module.

Q: Why do I have a big blank after I hit "pause" in live mode?

A: This is intentional. It shows the graph has been paused and avoids having a big discontinuity in the curves (for instance going from 800 to 7500 rpm in 0.2 second...).

The "pause" button can be handy to make screenshots of a particular situation, like a boost spike for example.

Q: VAG-Scope says "unexpected end of values". What's wrong?

A: At this time, Vag-Scope does not support appended log files. More precisely, it will only read the first part of them. The solution is to give your files a more specific name than "LOG-001-003-xxx-xxx" :-)

Q: "This is not an original VAG-COM log file"

A: Guess what, you altered the file in some way. For instance, just reading and saving the file in Excel adds comas to it, and this is what VAG-Scope relies on to parse the file. Solution: make a copy of the file before you edit it with a program that modifies the comas.

Q: I'd like to write my own VAG-Scope. Is this possible?

A: Yes, that's one of the reasons why VAG-Scope is open source (the other being we don't want to be bothered by 10 different feature requests a day). VAG-Scope was written using MS Visual C++ 6 and you will find the source code here. Feel free to improve/write your own VAG-Scope and publish it. Obviously your file has to be called VagScope.exe so that VAG-Com can "spawn" it.

Q: But I can't program/all I know is VB!

A: Then stop complaining or learn! ;-)

Q: Does VAG-Scope work with the Shareware version of VAG-COM?

A: Yes, but only the first field in each measuring group is displayed.

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