Actia?

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Actia?

Post by MikeT »

I know little about the lexia other than what I read on here and also seeing JIm's in action but someone has mentioned having a "pre-lexia" tool that he thinks is called an Actia.

Does anyone know about these and is it worth pursuing if cheap enough?
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Post by CitroJim »

Actia is the French manufacturer of the diagnostic tools Mike.

I guess you're thinking of the ELIT as the pre-cursor to the Lexia. It's a good tool that has the huge benefit of being self-powered from the diagnostic socket and it takes seconds to boot compared to the several days the Lexia takes to boot.

I'm not well up on the ELIT but I believe it is important to ensure it is sufficiently up-to-date to read a later Xantia. DickieG will be in a better position to advise on this aspect. I also believe that most are PROM-based which makes updating them less than straightforward.

The ELIT has a two-line LCD readout and although not as pretty as the Lexia, it does much the same job.

EDIT: there is another tool, similar to the Lexia called the Proxia. Same I believe but made by a different company.
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Post by davetherave »

Id like to know exaclty what the lexia does, ive been considering one, but could anyone give me an overview of what its functions are?
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Post by CitroJim »

Hi Dave,

The Lexia is basically a ruggedised laptop running Embedded XP and looking something like a Speak'n'Spell toy (with its big red buttons) that will access all Citroen ECUs and display what is going on in them.

Generally it displays ECU identification (software revision etc), stored faults and the ability to erase them, live display of paramaters and in come cases, depending on the function of the ECU, actuator tests. For instance you can make it cycle fuel injectors and exercise diesel timing servos to check they work over their range.

It also offers a facility to update flash-programmed ECUs with new software, an ability to initialise an ECU (recently very useful on my V6 autobox ECU) and some value-addeds like the ability to program keys etc.

It also incorporates a very good digital two-channel oscilloscope and a fully featured multi-meter. With the right disks it'll also display wiring diagrams.

The thing with Citroen ECUs prior to the mandatory introduction of OBDII in 2001 (for petrol cars, 2004 for diesel) the Lexia, Proxia and ELIT are the only tools, along with a few very expensive 3rd party tools, that will properly access a Citroen (or Peugeot) ECU.

Personally, I find the Lexia absolutely indispensible and wonder how I ever managed without one. For some tasks, they're essential (again, my V6 gearbox) and there is no work-around. They take a lot of guesswork out of the job.

One thing the Lexia does not do is tell you what is wrong in words of one syllable. It tells you in some detail what is going on but you still need to interpret what that information is telling you. This is particularly true of the Lucas EPIC diesel pump diagnostic information :twisted:
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Post by davetherave »

Thanks Jim, so what diagnostic port would my 1998 Mk 2 xantia have? As some cars had odb2 before the requirement i believe?
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Post by DickieG »

davetherave wrote:Thanks Jim, so what diagnostic port would my 1998 Mk 2 xantia have? As some cars had odb2 before the requirement i believe?
It will have the 16 pin EOBD style socket, take a look in the fuse box to confirm it.

Jim has summed up the difference between the two systems pretty well, I'll be taking my ELIT to the DSM rally this weekend if anyone wants to have a look at one.
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Post by MikeT »

CitroJim wrote:I guess you're thinking of the ELIT as the pre-cursor to the Lexia.
I'm just repeating what the owner told me, he said he hasn't seen it for years (presumably it had failed) but he did say it's nowhere near the size of the lexia.

Talking of which, have you tried running the Lexia software on XP? If a laptop could take the place of a lexia (with the right leads)...
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Post by wheeler »

CitroJim wrote: I'm not well up on the ELIT but I believe it is important to ensure it is sufficiently up-to-date to read a later Xantia.
Believe it or not an ELIT that has the most up to date software version that was available for it can talk to a mk1 C5 including the BSI etc.
MikeT wrote: Talking of which, have you tried running the Lexia software on XP? If a laptop could take the place of a lexia (with the right leads)...
Thats what Lexia 3 is, Just the software that runs on a laptop or tablet PC with XP. Thats all the dealers have. The measurement card/ocilliscope & the breakout box just plug in via USB.
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Post by CitroJim »

Shows how useful a good up-to-date ELIT is Wheeler. Personally, for run of the mill stuff, given the quick boot and self-powered nauture, I'd prefer an ELIT over the Lexia.
davetherave wrote:Thanks Jim, so what diagnostic port would my 1998 Mk 2 xantia have? As some cars had odb2 before the requirement i believe?
Despite having an OBD-II-type (16 pin) connector on the MK2, sadly no Xantia is OBD-II compatible Dave.

I've tried running the Lexia-2 software on a PC and it won't even boot :cry:
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Post by cachaciero »

CitroJim wrote:Shows how useful a good up-to-date ELIT is Wheeler. Personally, for run of the mill stuff, given the quick boot and self-powered nauture, I'd prefer an ELIT over the Lexia.



I've tried running the Lexia-2 software on a PC and it won't even boot :cry:
Uh! I'm confused I wouldn't expect the Lexia software to boot, it runs under win2K or XP.
The Lexia disk I have runs just fine on an old Compaq Armada laptop running Win2K, doesn't have the multimeter or o'scope function because I dont have the PCMIA interface card for that but the rest works just fine.

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