My power FC commander is frozen. It shows the Apexi start up screen/logo, but does nothing else. Anyone else encountered this problem? I have the commander pro software on the way and was planning on sending the commander back to Apexi for trouble shooting but though I would check here to see if anyone has an easy solution. I have already checked the connection.

 

That is almost always the connection to the PFC....

 

I know, that is what I first thought, but I checked and double checked this.

 

Like rynberg said it is ushually the connector being loose at the PFC but it could also be the wiring inside the commander....pop the comander apart and check where the wires are soldered onto the board...also check to make sure that none of the connector pins have been pushed back.

 

It happend on my friends GT-R..

turned out to be a Fuse...

 

I love how people elaborate on here.

It's actually most likely one of the wires IN the commander itself as seren suggested. I can't remember exactly which one, but you'll have to pop the cover off and take a look. It's relatively easy to re-solder the wire, but it is very small, so you have to have the right iron for it. This is the best pic I have at the moment, but you get the idea...

 

has it ever worked before?
if so then probably a solder join or cable problem

if never worked before then its wrong commander version to suit whatever PFC you have.
if you have the wrong hand controller version it will freeze at the apexi logo.
ie using a skyline GTR33 hand controller on a RX7 PFC or GTST33 PFC will freeze

 

It will? Isn't the commander a universal part? All it does is display whatever data from the unit itself and input commands.

 

no there are specific hand controllers to specific PFCs
all of the logic and control is done via the hand controller
ie: the value ceilings, min, max, and logic from the menus comes from the hand controller
you cant use a skyline hand controller on a rx7 PFc and you cant use a skyline GTR hand controller on a GTST PFC and vice versa. this is because the GTR verison has some extra crap so therefore it doesnt match. it also depends on the FCC board version as well inside the FC. early version PFCS are board FCC 2.x or 3.x

ie: the menus for VVT etc are not present all on hand controllers, only !jZ versions etc
the rx7 hand controller has lots of crap the skyline version doesnt have etc.

with datalogit you bypass all the hand controller protection and can set whatever values you want, even ones that are out of bounds, ie: 20,000rpm rev limit etc

 

Thanks Railgun, it was the soldered connection inside the commander. I found the problem after seeing your post. This was the same day the Commander Pro software arrived. I actually prefer using the software.

 

From what I understand... the Commanders USED to be application specific

but later they became universal...


when my FD is up and running I'll test this theory with my buddy's D-jetro PFC on his R33

 

it wont work, the djetro has a specific hand controller