is there such an animal? i've got a laptop with 2 USB ports, a stock 1993 C2500, and a desire to put the two together for a little wake up for the truck. anybody make a cable that'll plug into my USB ports? or maybe an adapter for a regular cable?

here you go, i love mine, cheers


http://aldlcable.com/

sweet, thanks. everything else i found was serial port.

Moates also have usb cables.

I want to make my own USB ALDL cable!

I'll let u guys know if I find anything. I don't want to run a bulky converter inline, i want to integrate that into the cable.

Yes please let me know,or anyone else that knows.

The usb port will power it so usb cable would eliminate the power plug that goes in the cig light, which we all know they make them.......just has anyone seen a diagram?? that would be alot better than a usb to serial converter, and still have to use your cig lighter power.

USB Pinout, Cable Assembly Pin Signal Name Description 1 VBUS Red 2 D- White 3 D+ Green 4 GND Black Shell Shield Drain
There's some food for thought for ya, i'm not sure if you'll need resistors, or transistors or anything, if i get some extra cash i'll buy one from aldlcable.com and see what exactly is happening.

- B

http://home.woh.rr.com/oldschoolco/Cable.html

AWSOME, i didnt find an usb end at radioshack tho, any idears for that?

I'll re-read over this link again, but this mentions nothing of making a "USB ALDL Cable", rather a "Serial ALDL Cable", which still needs power.

- B

EDIT: On some PC it is possible to use the DTR pin on the serial port as 12 Volt source, and that is what I use on my Dell LatitudeXP4100c

That's cool, but i still wanna rig up a USB!

EDIT 2: http://www.fieros.de/en/usbsc.html

Now we're talkin.

Try the FTDI chipset. You can integrate it with the existing DIY schematics, and it will work. www.ftdichip.com

, I started weasling around in there. USB-232A THROUGH USB-232D should all work theoretically right? I took a good look over those and a couple others, but I have a feeling that all of those schematics are capable of carrying our 8192 baud rate. I'm glad there's a schematic out there to get us along. Thanks Craig, im sure a lotta people kiss @$$, but I have a shopping list for you in a couple months that you can look forward to.

I'm not 100% sold on the bluetooth device for the ostrich, but oh man i'll give you some kudos for development (it's just a little too expensive, but im just TOO CHEAP)

Take Care,

- B

Somebody needs to take advantage of AVR-LIB and build an open source DIY project. This adapter/cable can be built for the price of a Happy Meal (tm).....

Just when one project of mine gets enough info to be established, I get 5 more things added to that list. There is no need for a open source really, just someone to put it all together, which craig has already done. I do not blame craig one bit for any single bit of information he may forget to give out. He's taken hours and hours and hours (along with others too), to make his invention work so he can charge money for it to make a living.

I just don't have the time to get the usb to serial soldered on a PCB, make the connections to ALDL, then refine the driver a little bit so it works just right.

Jump on the bandwagon, and take a lead!

- B

I just made a serial cable today and it works fine. I used the #4 pin as a power source, worked like a charm. I'm using an IBM Thinkpad.

Ahhh thats right, if we get the cable made, what to do for a driver? YOu think d/l ing the one from aldl for their usb one will work?

Well i just got my ostrich up and powering my blazer today so i wondered if anyone had any luck making this cable?

Im super antsy to start tuning this thing, just not antsy enough to shell out 60 bux for somthing that i can make in 30 mins and buy for happy meal like said above. Im broke what can i say.... Let me know.


well, i guess i can just make another serial cable and get a usb to serial adapter for 10 15 bux. And on that note, can you still make the cable self powered by doing that?/?

Just an FYI I gave up on making one myself and bought Craig Moates OBD1 USB Cable Package for 80 something bucks.

- B

Well it was good reading up until that last one. Does anyone here have the knowledge that it takes to make this cable? The ones in the pictures on all the retailers pages look like they just use two wires, if so, we could simply cut the end off of some usb device, say an old mouse or webcam. (this is the point where I wonder if there's resistors or not) Any way, I think you get the point. Anyone here know any definite facts? I'm gonna go read some of the previous links, see what they come up with.

stresses of having 3 trucks in various states of disrepair has begun to catch up with me, as well as a little one on the way. but craig will definitely be getting business from me in the future.

well i gave in too, i ordered the 40 dollar usb cable and was done with it

Yea, after more research I've learned theres a pretty complicated little circuit board in the usb type cable. I did just throw together a serial cable though, now don't laugh, there's a piece of wire running out the window right next to me, going to the car... Yeap, I did it, and proud of it...LOL, the laptop I'm using does not have a serial port, but my desktop does, so, out the window it went.

Here's a screenshot of winaldl doing it's thing:




And on ebay I found a usb to serial converter for 10 bucks, that has the driver disc.
A link for anyone thats interested:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5836911857

It's actually only $1.00, but the shipping is $7.00, but hey, it's worth a try right?

So does everyone here prefer winaldl or is there a better program that I should maybe check out?

Dang i wasted like 30 or more bux on some gawdy 6 foot adapter cable from radio shack! i looked everywhere, i shoulda tried ebay. but of course it didnt work and instead of figuring out wiether it was the adapter piece (it had a weird box on it) or my end of the cable, i, like i said bought a pre built one.


But lol titan dont feel bad, several years ago before i had a laptop or my indash lcd screen i put an actuall pc with a crt monitor in my vehical to datalog LOL. I only did it for a week just to see if it all would work.

bringing this one up from the dead... Is there schematics out anywhere for a home built usb aldl cable? I have been searching like hell and cant find anything!

there are either 2 or 3 schematics (that I can remember visiting), but the consensus is that unless you do this type of circuitry work on a daily basis, your better off just getting the cable from Moates.net.

FTDI has a schematic for a USB to Serial converter too if you want to get crazy. They even have the driver to make it work on their website.

I unfortunately don't have any links at this time, just giving you my .10.

Take Care,

- B

EDIT: Read the last post on this forum topic @ DelcoHacking.Net, he sums it up pretty well. Six Shooter is a smart cookie.

http://www.delcohacking.net/forums/v...php?f=10&t=217

I'm real big on DIY stuff, but for an ALDL cable that only cost 60 bucks and works really nice, you wouldnt save much at all by scratch building your own.
In my home "lab" I even have have a circuit board printer/etching process that can do prototype PCB's real fast easy and cheap. But even with that huge money and time saver I'd still have to come up with an FTDI chip, a some resistors and transistors and the PCB material. Then there's having a decent plug on the end. From experience I can tell you that just inserting individual wires to the port gets real old, and comes undone way too easy to be reliable.
You just cant hardly beat the cost of a sturdy, prebuilt cable from either aldlcables or moates. Now if they were charging more like a hundred bucks or more for the same thing then that would be another story. But the prices for these are really fair.

Point taken! I think thats all i needed to know, Think i'll just pony up and get the one from moates. Thanks guys!