MT2500 ?

[hatzie]

I was cleaning off my workbench in the lab yesterday evening and I found the plastic bag with the old furry batteries that were inside that power pak. Cadmium is really toxic stuff so I don't want to just pitch em in the trash. It'll end up in the groundwater. We already have roadsalt and pharmeceuticals in the groundwater. There's no need to make my own little mini Love Canal.
I wear rubber gloves when I'm handling stuff like this leaking power cell pak and I wash my hands before eating or touching my face. This is an MSDS for NiCd batteries. https://www.sbsbattery.com/PDFs/SDS-nickel-cadmium-packs-custom.pdf
I need to remember to bring em with me next time I go to Manchester.

YUK

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[hatzie]

I found a MODIS EEMS300 with manuals Bundle 12.4 Domestic, Asian, and Heavy Truck and an OK battery at a pawn broker. No European is no big loss to me. I don't work on Euro stuff and I have a current Autel Maxsys for most OBD II stuff.
The screen lens suffered from the case rubbing against it. I'm not a fan of the Snap On cases for this tool. It beat up the tool rather than protected it.
I beat the guy up on the price cause the lower 1" of the screen was basically unreadable through the scratches, the case was broken, the comm cable was beat up, and he had hawked the personality keys by the onesies on eBay.
800, 1000, 2000, & 3000 grit wet sandpaper then Novus 3 step plastic polish cleaned it up but that takes time and experience. Usually I start with 1000 grit, but the deeper scratches weren't having it.
I discovered the lens is removable, so masking off the front cover is unnecessary.
Here's the unit at the pawn shop and an after picture. Notice you can actually read the clock in the lower right corner after I disassembled the unit and polished the lens. There's one deep pit that didn't come out on the lower left of the screen.

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The MODIS was dirty so I disassembled it and cleaned it.
The COMM board and Scope board are removable modules. The card edge connectors needed to be cleaned up but not like the MT2500 cartridges.
The clock battery on the mainboard is the same common coin cell as my GMT800 K2500 pickup so I replaced it.
The rubber push buttons, LH rubber protector, and empty case parts can be cleaned with a brush and mild liquid soap like Dr Bronners.
I cleaned the rubber pushbutton contact area of the rubber switch PC boards with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol just like TV remotes.
The ribbon cable for the LCD display is between the mainboard and the LCD. Be very careful removing and installing. You can and will damage it if you're ham-handed with it.
You'll need to remove the CCFL backlight connector that you can see on the upper Left edge of the mainboard. Push and pull gently straight out from the edge of the board. It'll be easy to damage the board and the connector if you lift it up and down.
I folded the two switch boards on top of the mainboard.
The LCD is held into the case with the standoffs for the mainboard. BE VERY VERY VERY VERY careful of the LCD panel. I put mine in a drawer on a soft microfiber towel. If you break it you'll need a parts scanner. The part number is on the display and New displays are available from eBay and Ali-Express for just shy of $700.

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It came with the inductive ignition pickup, power supply, OK battery, some keys, OBDII adapter, manuals, and a beat up comm cable that I pitched in the bin at the pawnshop.
I ordered the "Test Drive" 4 channel MODIS probe set from AES Wave and I already had a NEW comm cable.

Test Drive Test Leads for Pico 4-Channel Scope

Premium test leads for your PicoScope!

www.aeswave.com

I picked up a donated Swissgear Patriot rolling briefcase for $8 at the local thrift shop. It needed to be vacuumed and washed but it's at least as decent now as the one I carry my newest laptop in and it didn't cost me $180.
It'll hold the tool, AC Power Supply, cables, probes and pickups for the scope, and the printed manuals without taking up major space in the closet.
The soft nylon interior of the laptop pocket doesn't beat heck out of the lens either.

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This tool is no longer supported by Snap On so if the OS gets corrupted you're SOL. MAKE A BACKUP and DON'T USE YOUR GOLDEN ASSET ORIGINAL CF card in the tool.
Before I re-installed the battery and fired the tool back up I made a RAW binary .IMG of the entire Operating System compact flash card and wrote it out to a 512mb Sandisk Type I flash card that I am using in the tool.
The original compact flash is in my safe and I also have the .IMG file to burn another if I need one.
Yes you read that correctly. You can make a backup of the MODIS EEMS300 and the Solus EESC310 OS flash drive that will ONLY work on that tool.
DO NOT REMOVE FLASH CARDS WITH THE BATTERY OR DC POWER CORD CONNECTED!!

I used Win32 Disk Imager and a compact flash card to USB adapter. Make sure "Read Only Allocated Partitions" is NOT ticked.

There's a fellow on Youtube that made a backup copy with AOMEI Backupper. https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-backupper.html
There's no doubt other software that will work, but those two will definitely do the job.

 

[Schurkey]

That is fabulous information on so many levels. I have a Solus Pro screen with scratches, so I guess I'll be sanding/polishing.

I have no comprehension of how to make backup software for my Solus; so I guess I'll study your post some more until it starts making sense.

 

[studigggs]

I found a MODIS EEMS300 with manuals Bundle 12.4 Domestic, Asian, and Heavy Truck and an OK battery at a pawn broker. No European is no big loss to me. I don't work on Euro stuff and I have a current Autel Maxsys for most OBD II stuff.
The screen lens suffered from the case rubbing against it. I'm not a fan of the Snap On cases for this tool. It beat up the tool rather than protected it.
I beat the guy up on the price cause the lower 1" of the screen was basically unreadable through the scratches, the case was broken, the comm cable was beat up, and he had hawked the personality keys by the onesies on eBay.
800, 1000, 2000, & 3000 grit wet sandpaper then Novus 3 step plastic polish cleaned it up but that takes time and experience. Usually I start with 1000 grit, but the deeper scratches weren't having it.
I discovered the lens is removable, so masking off the front cover is unnecessary.
Here's the unit at the pawn shop and an after picture. Notice you can actually read the clock in the lower right corner after I disassembled the unit and polished the lens. There's one deep pit that didn't come out on the lower left of the screen.

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The MODIS was dirty so I disassembled it and cleaned it.
The COMM board and Scope board are removable modules. The card edge connectors needed to be cleaned up but not like the MT2500 cartridges.
The clock battery on the mainboard is the same common coin cell as my GMT800 K2500 pickup so I replaced it.
The rubber push buttons, LH rubber protector, and empty case parts can be cleaned with a brush and mild liquid soap like Dr Bronners.
I cleaned the rubber pushbutton contact area of the rubber switch PC boards with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol just like TV remotes.
The ribbon cable for the LCD display is between the mainboard and the LCD. Be very careful removing and installing. You can and will damage it if you're ham-handed with it.
You'll need to remove the CCFL backlight connector that you can see on the upper Left edge of the mainboard. Push and pull gently straight out from the edge of the board. It'll be easy to damage the board and the connector if you lift it up and down.
I folded the two switch boards on top of the mainboard.
The LCD is held into the case with the standoffs for the mainboard. BE VERY VERY VERY VERY careful of the LCD panel. I put mine in a drawer on a soft microfiber towel. If you break it you'll need a parts scanner. The part number is on the display and New displays are available from eBay and Ali-Express for just shy of $700.

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It came with the inductive ignition pickup, power supply, OK battery, some keys, OBDII adapter, manuals, and a beat up comm cable that I pitched in the bin at the pawnshop.
I ordered the "Test Drive" 4 channel MODIS probe set from AES Wave and I already had a NEW comm cable.

Test Drive Test Leads for Pico 4-Channel Scope

Premium test leads for your PicoScope!

www.aeswave.com

I picked up a donated Swissgear Patriot rolling briefcase for $8 at the local thrift shop. It needed to be vacuumed and washed but it's at least as decent now as the one I carry my newest laptop in and it didn't cost me $180.
It'll hold the tool, AC Power Supply, cables, probes and pickups for the scope, and the printed manuals without taking up major space in the closet.
The soft nylon interior of the laptop pocket doesn't beat heck out of the lens either.

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This tool is no longer supported by Snap On so if the OS gets corrupted you're SOL. MAKE A BACKUP and DON'T USE YOUR GOLDEN ASSET ORIGINAL CF card in the tool.
Before I re-installed the battery and fired the tool back up I made a RAW binary .IMG of the entire Operating System compact flash card and wrote it out to a 512mb Sandisk Type I flash card that I am using in the tool.
The original compact flash is in my safe and I also have the .IMG file to burn another if I need one.
Yes you read that correctly. You can make a backup of the MODIS EEMS300 and the Solus EESC310 OS flash drive that will ONLY work on that tool.

I used Win32 Disk Imager and a compact flash card to USB adapter. Make sure "Read Only Allocated Partitions" is NOT ticked.

There's a fellow on Youtube that made a backup copy with AOMEI Backupper. https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-backupper.html
There's no doubt other software that will work, but those two will definitely do the job.

Very good info. I need to backup my cards. I keep my Modis in a pelican case, but I just picked up the diagnostic cart made for the scanner so will be making the transfer soon.

Another cool feature of the Modis is that there is a VGA port hidden under the left grip at the bottom. If your screen ever dies, or if you are like me and squint at everything while mumbling about not needing glasses, you can easily hook up an external monitor.

 

[Schurkey]

Another cool feature of the Modis is that there is a VGA port hidden under the left grip at the bottom. If your screen ever dies, or if you are like me and squint at everything while mumbling about not needing glasses, you can easily hook up an external monitor.

I was just thinking about that with regard to my Counselor II and Solus Pro.

The '2500 will interface with the bigger screen of the Counselor II; the Counselor II has an RGB output for a big external monitor--although RGB inputs are pretty scarce on monitors.

I don't know if the Solus series has a video output. Never thought to look.

An inexpensive monitor of ~32 inches would be a nice asset if you're in a garage where there's no direct sunlight.

 

[hatzie]

That is fabulous information on so many levels. I have a Solus Pro screen with scratches, so I guess I'll be sanding/polishing.

I have no comprehension of how to make backup software for my Solus; so I guess I'll study your post some more until it starts making sense.

From my research the Solus Pro installs the OS and software on flash chips soldered on the mainboard like all of the newer tools.
It's end of life and I can't backup the OS and software package so if something got corrupted I'd be SOL.
As nice as it is, that's one of the reasons I crossed it off my list.
Supposedly there is a compact flash card somewhere in the Solus Pro and the card probably has the updates for that tool on it so you probably want to back that up.

Snap On CF 512mb cards - Snap-on Diagnostics Product Forums

Tips, tricks, questions and suggestions... If you want to talk codes, data, functional tests and troubleshooter, this is the place!

productforum.autorepairdata.com

The MODIS EEMS300 OS CF card is under the removable LH rubber handle next to a mini USB B port.
The Solus EESC310 OS is in CF slot 1 on top.

I noticed that VGA port on my MODIS when I had it apart. You can see the VGA connector on the RH lower corner of the picture of the open scanner. It should plug into my 17" garage monitor. I keep saying I don't need reading glasses too LOL.
You can supposedly also plug a USB keyboard and mouse into the USB A port on top.

Pelicans are a great choice for storing these in the garage. No moisture at all inside.

 

[hatzie]

That is fabulous information on so many levels. I have a Solus Pro screen with scratches, so I guess I'll be sanding/polishing.

I have no comprehension of how to make backup software for my Solus; so I guess I'll study your post some more until it starts making sense.

You want to be careful. If the scratches aren't bad try just polishing with Novus #3 clean with water & 91% Isopropyl alcohol, then #2 then clean again with 91% IPA & water, then Novus #1. Go down the rabbithole to 3000 grit wet paper if you can't remove the scratches with just polish. It takes more polishing to remove the sanding scratches, so I only go there if I have to.
I wouldn't polish an assembled tool. Water and electronics don't work well together. I removed all the electronics before I discovered I could remove the lens from mine. I was intent on thoroughly cleaning the case anyway, so it had to come apart, but I didn't have to mask the red case front.
If your lens isn't removable, I'd mask the front of the case with a couple layers of blue painters tape.

Backup to CF image file is fairly easy.

Disclaimer, This is how I do this. If you blow up your computer or cause some other mayhem I'm not responsible.

Win 32 disk imager is free and very basic. The interface is really spartan. It was written to do one thing and it does that.

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You need the compact flash plugged into an adapter before you open the software. If you do not plug in the card before opening the application the "Device" radio box will not list your flash drive letter.
The easiest thing to do is make a "CF Images" directory in the root directory, so the directory will be C:\CF Images\ ... but do as you wish.
Make sure your compact flash drive letter is selected in the "Device" radio box.
The Compact flash slot in my adapter shows up as drive I:\

Click on the blue file folder next to the Image File radio box and navigate to your CF Images directory, type the file name for your Compact Flash image in the File Name box at the bottom of the window, then click OPEN.
NOTE ***
This software will not append a file extension. I use .IMG to tell me it's a binary flash or floppy image.
I get fairly descriptive with the filename. Tool name SW rev and serial number with .IMG extension.

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You'll get something similar to this window with your path & filename in the Image File box.

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MAKE SURE the radio box next to "Read Only Allocated Partitions" is NOT ticked. You want the software to make a complete RAW image of all the 1s & 0s on the whole flash card.

From here, Click "Read" and wait for the green progress bar to crawl across.
If all goes well, you'll get a popup that says "Read Successful" with an OK button.

If you are successful you'll also see an image with your selected filename in your CF Images directory. The file size will be the same as the entire used and unused capacity of the compact flash card you just imaged.
My card image is 500,472 KB. I can write it on a 512mb or larger flash card. I have a stack of SanDisk Type I & Type II 512mb compact flash cards I used to use in data collection hardware I maintained. You can still buy them online.
If I write this image to an 800mb CF card it'll answer the OS as an exact copy of the 512mb card I imaged with only 512mb of space. Same goes for 1g or 2g cards.

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"Verify Only" will be ungrayed now, so click that. It'll read the flash and compare it to the image just written to your hard drive.
If all goes well, you'll get another popup that says "Verify Successful" with an OK button. This means the flash card matches the binary image file.
Click on the "Safely Remove" in your system tray and unmount the compact flash then remove it from your card reader and put it in a safe place.

You can now burn cards using that image file while the original CF card is in some safe location and the scan tool will not be able to tell the difference.

The Windows CE OS and Snap On software bundle is keyed to the hardware in your tool just like a Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11 ... OS is keyed to your PC. You can't just burn a card from a MODIS or Solus Bundle 16.2 and stick it in your tool It'll get upset. This is why I put the tool Serial # in the image file name.

 

[jdjonesdr]

The RJ12 jack you circled on the back is an RS232 serial port. You can send data to a VT100 terminal or RS232 serial printer.

The MT2500 doesn't have an external power supply. The vehicle diagnostic port provides power and ground on Terminals 1 & 15 to run the tool.
The 9V battery will power up the unit as long as you hold the red button down. I don't bother with the 9v battery. It'll be upset with you during bootstrap but it won't affect operation.

You can get an MT2500-600A Super Power Pak if you can stomach the prices I'm seeing.
It's a clever little widget that passes the comms ground and power through while making the tool separate from the vehicle battery.
The evilbay sellers are super duper proud of these, judging from their prices, and they'll likely come with very very very dead batteries inside.
My tool came with one that had a leaking battery and no charger. I decided since I had the pak I might as well make it work. I've used it once on my brothers' truck cause the tool was shutting down when we cranked it.
The original battery pak inside the widget is 7 500mah flat top NiCd AA cells welded in series. I re-loaded mine with 7 1100mah flat top AA NiCd cells glued together with hot snot and with nickel tabs welded in series. The bare cells were $28 but I bet they cost more now.
The batteries have red and black 18 0r 20ga copper wires that were mostly jackets filled with green goo and battery juice. The terminals in the Molex KK156 plug were white and furry and the plug on the PC board was furry. According to my 2018 Mouser order Molex 08-58-0122 is the Molex KK156 terminal part number. I replaced the SPDT ON-ON switch too. I forgot about that.
The original Snap On charger for the super power pakis 24vDC 100ma 5.5mm x 2.5mm centre positive barrel plug. 24vDC 800ma or 1A with 5.5mm x 2.5mm centre positive barrel plug are easy to find and nearly free. My local thrift store always has all kinds of power supplies for cordless landline phones, adding machines, toys, laptops, speakers, game consoles, ...

I found several Super Power Paks on evilbay. These guys are really super proud of these things. They range in price from just a little too much to way way way too much to good lord what are they smoking. Guaranteed they have leaking dead power cells inside. I wouldn't pay more than $20 for one since you'll be cleaning up the leaked battery juice and the battery cells ain't cheap.

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The Vetronix Mastertech Bosch MTS is essentially a Tech1 with a big screen. You will not get a better handheld to talk to the OBD1 GM stuff. These were better than the Tech1 & Tech 1A. I had one several years ago and sold it along with a bunch of other stuff to pay for a divorce.
The MTS uses the Tech1 program cartridges and data cable adapters, but finding program cartridges may be an interesting scavenger hunt.

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Thanks for a great response. I read somewhere else here that I should use a Lithium 9V battery if I'm going to use the MT2500 on the Cherokee.

Thinking out loud... I have a Bosch 1300 scanner which I use as an OBDI scanner on my '94 K5 Blazer. I wonder what the chances are that I could use it on the Renix Cherokee?

 

[hatzie]

Thanks for a great response. I read somewhere else here that I should use a Lithium 9V battery if I'm going to use the MT2500 on the Cherokee.

Thinking out loud... I have a Bosch 1300 scanner which I use as an OBDI scanner on my '94 K5 Blazer. I wonder what the chances are that I could use it on the Renix Cherokee?

Probably, if you can find the software cartridge(s). The Tech1 & Mastertech parts are getting a little thin on the ground.

If you have a 96 97 98 or 99 domestic primary cartridge or the Black programmable primary cartridge with US Domestic unlocked, you have one of the better tools for the RENIX Jeeps.
The Solus EESC310, Solus Pro EESC316, and MODIS EEMS300 have the same software capabilities on OBDI stuff with a bigger screen. The MODIS EEMS300 has a 7" 640x480 backlit VGA panel, The two Solus scanners are smaller but still have bigger backlit screens than the 4 line LCD in the MT2500 that doesn't have a backlight. All of your cables will work with any of those.
Not all tools do well on all vehicles. Keeping the older stuff doesn't cost much. Never hurts to have another in your arsenal.

 

[hatzie]

I found the MT2500 & the US Domestic & Asian software manuals on the Snap On web site and I've copied them to Mediafire JIC they decide to completely stop serving them up.
These seem to have most of the same information the 2002 printed manuals in my MT2500 have with the exception of MT2500 printer & serial terminal communication and the battery pak page.

Snap On MT2500 & Software Manuals;

• MT2500 Scan Tool Operator Manual P/N:0692E9315-76, Rev:C, PCN:02E009
• 2013 US Domestic Vehicle Communication Software Manual EAZ0025B01J Rev. A
• February 2011 Asian Import Vehicle Communication Software Manual EAZ0025B02H Rev. B

My MT2500 2002 printed US Domestic manual has details on Chrysler, Ford, GM, & Jeep along with information on plugging the MT2500 into the Counselor II for a larger display.