gryphon did not come up when i started my truck
 

ok ive had my gryphon for a month or so and its been working like a charm.

today i started my truck and as im driving up the street i notice my screen nvr came on...:shocked: so im driving and making sure the obdII is plugged all the way in, nothing....

when i get to the front of my neighboorhood i pulled over and shut off the truck. removed the gryph from the pod. unplugged the cable on the back of the programmer, plugged it back in and it instantly came on and gave me the 'pcm not responding turn key on, and press enter' screen

its working like normal now but what the hell?

i dont wanna be removing it from the pod all the time because the pod will come loose...

You COULD be seeing the first signs of a weak battery - a load test might be a good idea.

In the future though, to reset the Gryphon, just leave the ignition key ON and then unplug the Gryphon at the OBDII port. Wait about 5 seconds and plug it back in.

Remember, the ignition needs to be in the ON position any time you plug in the Gryphon, and, low battery voltage (possibly during vehicle starting due to a weak battery) will kill the "keep alive" memory supply to the Gryphon.

- Jack

thankx jack...yea im gonna switch one of the pids to batt voltage ltr today...my battery is from like 06 so yeah.

how would i perform a load test?

A lot of auto parts stores do load testing for free.
Call around.

Peace!:)

You probably can't do a "load test" - it takes special equipment. A store like Autozone will generally do one for you for free though. (You don't HAVE to buy a battery from them if your battery fails). My guess is, your battery IS weak.

Monitoring the voltage on the Gryphon will tell you a lot about your charging system, but not much about the battery. If you see readings of 13.9-14.1V when driving, the charging system is fine. I monitor my battery voltage all the time for this reason. A big electrical load will drive the charging voltage lower. When I tow with two additional batteries in my trailer to keep charged and an electric refrigerator, I regularly see 13.6-13.8V.

- Jack

ok ill do that. probably just gonna get a battery too cause in a month or so ill be seeing 100degree temps daily.

the roads are filled w dead cars down here in the summer months.

a load test would test voltage or charge w a given load(accesories running) right?

when i disconnect my battery...do i need to do anything w the gryphon, keep it installed or unplug it, anything like that?

I'm VERY glad you asked that question!

PLEASE, disconnect your Gryphon before you disconnect the battery! Leave the Gryphon disconnected as the new battery is being installed. Voltage transients that occur when a battery is reconnected (or when a vehicle is jump-started) can fry the electronics in a pre-04 Gryphon's OBDII cord and, they don't do the post 04 Gryphon's internal electronics any good either. Finally, when everything is hooked up, turn the ignition to ON without starting the engine, and then reconnect your Gryphon to the OBDII port.

I wouldn't have the Gryphon connected during any load test on the battery either.

In other words, anything that can put big fluctuations on the DC voltage in the vehicle can harm electronics like the Gryphon, probably sound equipment, and maybe some other things.

This information needs to be included in the FAQs on PHP's website and we need to make it pretty obvious here too. I'll see what I can do to make that happen.

A load test essentially measures the battery's voltage with a high load (like starting an engine) applied. It really needs to be applied to a battery that has "rested" for a while after any recent charge, so that the "surface charge" has had time to bleed off.

- Jack

OK, I've just added a new "sticky" in the FAQ section of this forum that warns people about leaving the Gryphon connected when large power surges can occur on the vehicle's circuits.

Because of the keep alive memory feed, the only way to isolate the Gryphon is to physically unplug it (or pull the circuit breaker that powers the cigarette lighter and OBDII port).

- Jack

Here's the link Jack is talking about:
http://forum.gopowerhungry.com/faqs-...w-battery.html

glad i decided to wait on that one. and yeah it does need to be added to the faq page, i looked there the other day but didnt find it.

thankx for making that clear.

i watched my bat voltage over the weekend and i had a min reading of 13.6 at like 50-55mph, and a high of 14.2 at 60-70mph. most of the time it was between 13.9/14.2.

for what its worth i turned my key on before starting the trk the other day and the voltage was at 12.2.....this morning i noticed it while cranking, it was like 9-9.2.
thankx agn for the info.

The 13.6 at 50-55 mph sounds a bit low to me, unless you are running some fairly high draw devices, possibly a high-powered sound system? The 13.9-14.2 though is certainly a normal reading.

Again, 12.2 seems a bit low to me right after turning the key. I have around 12.4V then (but I'm kind of "nit-picking" here). Again, it depends on what accessories you already have on. I don't think I've ever noticed the voltage while cranking though. I guess I'm always looking at the dash gauges. So, I just went out and watched the Gryphon's voltage reading while cranking. Mine dropped to 10.1V (and my truck started very quickly), so, your battery MAY be getting weak.

- Jack

Load testing is the way to go.
It tests the battery itself instead of guesstimating with the charging system voltage output reading.
JMHO
Peace!:)

thankx 88, i do have some small battery issues to adress.
im gonna replace a lead, put the felt protectors on and get my battery pro-rated for a new one at wal-mart.

i have a 52x4watt sony head unit but thats it, im pretty sure my charging sys. is ok

now that i know to unplug the gryph im good to go...

I was a little woried the other day about why my Gryphon was not on I checked the fuse and it was allright,then I got really scared about what might be wrong. I unpluged the obd cord and plugged it back in everything worked again:woot:(I didn't care for going back to stock settings either)I will keep an eye on the battery.

You MAY have a weak battery too. If this "failure" occurred after starting, you most likely had a low voltage condition while cranking, enough to make the Gryphon think it was unplugged. Then, when the voltage came back up due to the alternator, the Gryphon was already plugged in, so it couldn't initialize properly.

Unplugging it and plugging it back in with healthy voltage at the OBD port allows it to reboot properly. I'd have my battery load tested if I were you.

- Jack