I got a Testbook T1 - questions to experts

6368 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by roryj, Dec 21, 2013

996TURBO

Discussion Starter · Oct 16, 2009

Hi guys,

I got a Testbook T1 last week.

Ok i know it's a bit old but got it at a fair price : 800 euros and it was the full garage package : dock, tons of cables to do MG-ROVER and MINI too, printer, tons of CD's ....

I even have a heavy duty factory converter by Hewlett Packard to connect directly to the car battery.

That thing has good points like :

-black and white touch screen : perfect for greasy mechanics hands
-old school rugged PC 486 dedicated to Testbook : that way i'm sure it will always work without viruses or XP faults.

I do have some questions :

- on the Testbook i can see 2 pictograms with leds : one for 220V, the other with the battery pictogram. First i thought it was for the case i fed the testbook with the car battery, until i discovered a 12V 600 mah battery near the CD-ROM.

- the 220V-18V 3 amp converter is hard mounted on the garage dock.
I'm looking to transform it into a mobile solution but do not want to use customers batteries, can i use another converter that meets requirements ?

I found a ebay converter that says

Imput : AC 230V 50 Hz 108W
Output : DC 18V 3Amp or AC 18V 3 amp.
I only need to find laptop plug.

- that 486 PC is a bit low to start, can it be memory upgraded or could i upgrade to a Pentium or something?

Cheers

Flo

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BBS SPY

· #2 · Oct 16, 2009

Hiya Flo

Congrats on your purchase.

I actually have a few of these as well as the big old power block that is designed to allow you to power it from a car cigar lighter.
It does take power from the diagnostic socket but that is only to power the brick and not the Testbook itself

The small battery pack you mention is designed only to allow the user to switch the power supply from one socket to another or from mains to battery without having to re start the unit, hence its only good for a few minutes and any pack is by now likely to be duff anyway.

As a second off trolley mains power supply anything with the right voltage and ampage should do.

I have repaired and upgraded / modded a few of these in my time.

There was already a memory upgrade put out for this and so all the units i have encountered have had no free slots.
The mother board is custom so cannot be updated to a pentium one and the CPU, while socketed was one of the fastest 486's, if i recall correctly it is a DX4/100.
However one of the best modifications is to replace the old SCSI CDROM unit which is only single speed for something much faster, which also gets rid of the need for the cartridges.
It's easier if you can get a SCSI drive to replace it with, but you can go to IDE and piggy back on the Hard Drive if you need.

Hope this helps :thumb:

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996TURBO

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 17, 2009

Thank you very much Colin.
Very good to know to possible mods.
Do you know if it's possible to get a brand new battery from HP or if the battery capacity can be upgraded. Let's say a 1 hour (3000 mAh) battery instead of this OEM 600mAh.

I already resetted my adaptive values and now my V8 is very punchy on fuel.
I' m very satisfied with it. A bit low but since i won't be working 365 days a year on it, it's fine.

Now i need to learn how to set up Australian market on it to disable immobilizer.

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Rich998a

· #4 · Oct 17, 2009

Isn't it supposed to be on a trolley?

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996TURBO

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 17, 2009

Yes it is but you can use it as a mobile unit too and it's more comfortable this way since you can sit in your rangie leather seat while testbooking

Do it Rangie's way !

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Rich998a

· #6 · Oct 17, 2009

996TURBO said:
Yes it is but you can use it as a mobile unit too and it's more comfortable this way since you can sit in your rangie leather seat while testbooking Do it Rangie's way !

:lol:

I've got my T4/UCM on one of those Sealey trolleys. I know Allyv8 uses it without as well, but I find I need another hand for writing notes and scratching my head etc...

The thing is, T4 doesn't need to work that fast. It's pretty nippy anyway as it is such simple software and it communicates as fast as it can interogate an ECU anyway. That's a good buy really at Euro800 considering it is multi-vehicle. IIRC, I paid 4,000 for T4 and a further 1,250 for the UCM. I'm also considering getting IDS at another 3,000 as I'm getting in quite a few L322/320/319's in which the UCM can't always cover as Omitec are a bit slow (understatement) getting the software dealer level. The UCM is a lovely bit of kit, quick as well, but shame about the software. Having just under 10K worth of diagnostic kit (including the PicoScope) in one place is a bit of a worry as the insurance is so high. :shock:

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996TURBO

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 18, 2009

BBS SPY said:
Hiya Flo

Congrats on your purchase.

I actually have a few of these as well as the big old power block that is designed to allow you to power it from a car cigar lighter.
It does take power from the diagnostic socket but that is only to power the brick and not the Testbook itself

The small battery pack you mention is designed only to allow the user to switch the power supply from one socket to another or from mains to battery without having to re start the unit, hence its only good for a few minutes and any pack is by now likely to be duff anyway.

As a second off trolley mains power supply anything with the right voltage and ampage should do.

I have repaired and upgraded / modded a few of these in my time.

There was already a memory upgrade put out for this and so all the units i have encountered have had no free slots.
The mother board is custom so cannot be updated to a pentium one and the CPU, while socketed was one of the fastest 486's, if i recall correctly it is a DX4/100.
However one of the best modifications is to replace the old SCSI CDROM unit which is only single speed for something much faster, which also gets rid of the need for the cartridges.
It's easier if you can get a SCSI drive to replace it with, but you can go to IDE and piggy back on the Hard Drive if you need.

Hope this helps :thumb:

Colin,

Would you say it is safe enough to use the TestbookT1 with the HP official Testbook 12v/18V Converter ?

Thanks

Florent

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david200

· #8 · Oct 23, 2012

i have a t1 testbook and the hard drive is faulty plus the cd rom drive needs to be changed can you advize on what i can do

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roryj

· #9 · Dec 21, 2013

HI have recently purchased a similar system to the T1 or it maybe! runs the worldwide diagnostics system /WDS and was use for land rover Jaguars ect

Product Machine Technology Electronic device Gadget

What i am wondering does this look familiar to anyone and if so do you know where the land rover cds can be got for it. it runs off win 98 which i will upgrade and improve the memory too the pic posted is the actual unit.

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