• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

TEXA Truck and Off Highway Demo/ Diagnostic software

Monkeywithawrench

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2019
Messages
281
Location
New Hampshire
Ok..........I bit the bullet and ordered a DEMO kit from J Ball electronics for the TEXA software. So you put $1500 down as a deposit and you get charged another $200 for shipping. Total charge showing up on your Credit card is $1700. The $1500 is returned when you send the demo unit back. The TEXA software DEMO kit consists of Car, Bike, Truck, Off Highway, and Marine. So far I've only played with the Truck software. Ran into a few HARD glitches when the laptop showed up. I'll take some screen shots as progress through the TEXA heavy truck.
So J Ball sent the kit out at the end of May. I got the kit and didn't open it up (the box it showed up in) until the first week of June. Was just too busy. I took the unit out and tried plugging into my Freightliner, Peterbilt, and International over the weekend. It wasn't connecting with any of them. Kept telling me communication was interupted.
texa-laptop-and-comm-adapter-jpg.240982

Thats the Pelican box it came in. Comes with a Nexiq comm adapter as well.

So the laptop also comes with Insite on it.........a pirated version me thinks. I tried using their Nexiq connector and their Insite. I couldn't connect using Bluetooth to the Nexiq and had to use the USB cable. Insite didn't work and came up with some weird chinese character error message. I then went into the subscriptions and realized the subscriptions had run out May 31st..........but that shouldn't matter with TEXA from what I was told.
 

Monkeywithawrench

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2019
Messages
281
Location
New Hampshire
So my test trucks have been my own trucks so far....2012 Freighshaker M2 business class, 6 speed stick, Cummins 6.7 pickup truck engine. 2017 Peterbilt 337, PX 9 that idenifies as a Cummins, Allison Auto trans (can't remember model). And a 2006 International, International 466, and Allison Auto trans. Tried plugging into a customers 2016 Mack GRU with Mack engine and Allison auto trans......that didn't work out so well. Just not used to the software yet.

Here is a pick of the case of Off Highway connector cables I received with the demo kit.......
TEXA AGRI AND HEAVY EQUIP CABLES.jpg

I haven't had a chance to plug into any off highway machines yet. I have a customer with a Link Belt excavator (2020 model year I think) and a Teakeuchi skid steer, another customer with a bunch of CAT stuff, and one with John Deere. I talked with Clint at J Ball while I was playing with the Mack. I asked him about CAT functionality and features in TEXA compared to CAT ET. He stated that CAT ET is much better than the TEXA stuff. So I'll just have to plug into different equipment and engines and see how TEXA compares. While I'm doing this, I'll be taking some screen shots and posting them here.
So, in short; its basically a learning curve. Just need to get used to how TEXA software works compared to Insite, CAT ET, International, Allison, etc.

The impetus behind doing this was I got called out to a Fire Dept to check out a ladder truck that started and then died. Of course this was at 8pm and when I plugged my Insite into the truck, the subscription had expired. I called the 800 number and on the recording they said you could send them an email too. I spent 48 minutes on hold, while on hold had sent 3 emails explaining I needed to renew subscription for a fire truck. After 48 minutes Cummins disconnected me. I received a reply email back a week later. In the meantime I drove over to my buddies shop, borrowed his laptop to plug into the fire truck. (It was a fuel problem, not an ECM problem......a fitting had loosened up and was sucking air in).
 
Top