I have searched and it seems many are having the same problem I have but have not found a solution, I am looking for anyone who has a solution to this problem. I am trying to get any datalogging program to work with my USB to Serial adapter. I have a new Dell Inspiron 1150 what didn't come with a serial or parallel port. I am using a 3 or 4 year old AKM ALDL cable (looks like this but with a wanna be ALDL connector). I have tried a Radio Shack USB adapter and a GWC USB adapter both installed fine and appeared to be installed correctly but didn't read the ECM. I have tried using Datamaster, TunerPro RT, and Moates software all with no luck. I also own a Ostrich emulator which works fine on my laptop which has a USB to serial converter chip in it, so why arn't these USB to serial adapters working. I know the ALDL cable is good because it works great on my friends laptop.

Here is everything I have tried:
- Uninstalling and reinstalling the USB to Serial drivers and changing the COM port.
- Tried both USB to Serial converters many times.
- Tested the cable on another computer works good.
- Tried Datamaster ALDL test and that passed.
- Tried rebooting many times with and without cable attached.
- Tried changing baud rate in windows to many setting, didn't make a difference.
- Disabled the modem to free up the COM port

Is there any modifications I need to do to the ALDL cable to make it work with the USB adapter like add a external power source? It just seems like the USB to serial adapter is looking for a device that will talk back and forth with it not one like the ALDL cable that just sends a stream of data.

EDIT: I am running a 730 ECM with $8d calibration. The laptop is running windows XP Pro SP2

 

I wrote it a while ago, and I understand that it isn't all necessary, but I do know that I can now connect consistently.
I'm using TunerproRT, 1227730, 8D, win98se

Lessons learned on my Autoprom
Just sharing these because I had inconsistent operation of my Autoprom...sometimes it would work great and sometimes it wouldn't.
I'm using the USB type Autoprom with a 730 ECM on a Win98SE laptop.
When I did the following it seemed to operate quite consistently:

A. STARTED THE COMPUTER AND WENT TO BIOS.

1. In the BIOS (Press F2 during startup and go to the "ports" section) I "DISABLED" COM1 and COM2. Saved changes and exited for booting to windows.

B. Hook up all your Autoprom hardware to your computer/laptop.

B. FOLLOWING REBOOT, went to windows
2. I placed a copy of the "riched20.dll" file in each of the following:
windows/system
windows/system32
progra~1/tunerprort/
progra~1/tunerprort/bins/
progra~1/tunerprort/ads/
progra~1/tunerprort/ecus
progra~1/tunerprort/layouts

2. I saved the moates drivers to their own specific folder so I could find them easily then ensured they were installed in the COM3 PORT. (Go to START->SETTINGS->CONTROL PANEL->SYSTEM->DEVICE MANAGER). Under device manager you should find COM3, go in there and set your drivers to the moates drivers per the website instructions.

3. Start your Autoprom program, select a valid bin, select a valid ecu.
4. go to TOOLS in Tunerpro, select PREFERENCES, select COM3, and AUTOPROM.

5. I would suggest rebooting right about now, leaving everything hooked up, and let the computer find the hardware and all. After the computer starts, then start TUNERPRO, it should state if it finds the Autoprom at the bottom edge of the TUNERPRO screen.

6. Once in Autoprom, assuming the computer latched onto the hardware, you can then go to TOOLS/ALDL DATA LOGGING (or press F4).

7. Once once you're in data logging, then ensure that you load the selected datastream.

8. After the selected datastream is loaded, and if everything came together properly, you should be able to connect to the ECM....it informs you if it connected.


If that's a bit too wordy, my apologies in advance, I was just wishing somebody would have written it for me. I struggled for hours(& days) trying to apply what I could find available for instructions. Haven't had an opportunity to check Emulation since I got it working well. When I had it working intermittently, and used the Emulation feature, the car would stumble and miss intermittently.

If I thinkof anything else I'll share.

jcj

 

The Moates USB drivers may be conflicting with your adapter drivers (they use very similar technology).

Also note that if your car is 160 baud, you need to use 4800 baud on the PC side to acquire the ALDL data. WinALDL has an option for this, and TunerPro 4.0 uses this natively for 160 baud acquisition.

 

I tried uninstalling Moates driver and just trying to get the USB to serial converter to work, no COM ports in use other then the one assigned to the USB converter and still no luck..

 

I've also run into a problem using the RS Serial to USB adapter with the Zeitronix WB scan software. My EASE scan tool works fine with the slow 160 baud ECM and USB, but the ZT software with the RS adapter cable causes my laptop to shutdown when I go to save the data I have just collected. Sometimes the laptop will re-boot by itself while it was in the process of booting up. I have tried de-installing and re-installing the RS drivers. I guess it doesn't help RS doesn't provide an XP driver just one for 98 and W2K. I reset the port although I haven't tried slowing down the baud rate to 4800. I'd like to run this consistently so I can use the scan tool and WB on the same laptop. It gets pretty frustrating when you've just finished driving for 30 minutes and the file blows up trying to save it.

 

I'm rinning the the same Win98SE, 730 setup and you stated that setup very well although copying the file to all the places is not needed, I found myself doing the same thing to be sure one of those locations was found in the path.
I have found that my "Lexar" USB jumpdrive (128 mB) driver conflicts with the USB when the AutoProm is connected.
Any other drivers for a PCMCIA port card and network especially can cause problems.
They seem to be hit or miss with different configurations.
My Moates driver will sometimes freak out when I hot swap the jumpdrive in and not find autoprom until I reinstall the driver again. This laptop has been around the world 5 times and is loaded with tons of serial and usb drivers. I'm trying to clean them out but I think the remnants are still causing issues.
I'm going to try the emulation again in the next week to see if I can get it to work. Be sure you have removed unneeded stuff and turn off any antiVirus crap (unless your ECM is really nasty )
There was a post somewhere about possibly using a USB "hub" and that solved some problems with "single" point USB to serial converters.

 

I got frustrated and spent $80 on Moates USB ALDL adapter and cable. I tried everything I could think of. But I couldn't get the adapter to work with XP and didn't want to install another OS on my new laptop just to tune.

Another note: In the process of trouble shooting, I looked up the circuit diagram for the AKM cable that I own. The ALDL cable circuit pulls the power for the power regulator on the circuit (which has a Vin min of 7v) off the serial port! This is not a good design; this could cause stability problems. Some computer won't sink enough power out the serial port for that. I checked the ALDL circuit with a millimeter and found it didn't have the proper voltage, 5v, after the power regulator on the board that it needed when running it on my USB to serial adapter. So I tried supplying 12v from the car to the power regulator input on the ALDL circuit board figuring the USB converter didn't supply enough power (since all USB devices are 5V which is under the minimum voltage the power regulator needs) and even that wasn't enough to get the damn thing working, so I gave up on the whole USB to serial converter.

I figured the reason it doesn't work is the converter is looking something to talk back to it where the ALDL cable just feeds raw serial data to the serial port.

 

On other cars (OBD-2), I've heard similar complaints. The "solution" has been to use PCMCIA/cardbus/pc card serial ports instead of the USB stuff. I'll give it a try when I can as my current laptop is busted and I need to get a new one, which probably won't have a serial port.

 

If your looking at buying new hardware check out FTDI. COM .Theyre the company that craig gets his serial to usb converters from for the stuff he sells. They sell usb cables with their proprietary chips already mounted to the cable. I bought one 4 or 5 years ago for other purposes but i never tried it for datalogging. Maybe craig can tell you if its going to work.

 

for this.
Thought I should point that out also...

 

I contact AKM cables. He said that he recommends the Belkin F5U103 and he's offering an upgrade to USB for the cable, if you want. I got the Belkin F5U103, and voila, it works.

 

Any users having issues using the Romulator and TunerCat while runing Moates software?

I have the Romulator working fine with TC using the Radio Shack USB adapter as long as it is plugged in when I boot it works fine.

Problem happens when Im trying to real time and using one lap top. The Romulator end of things work fine but as soon as I try to datalog(Moates 852ecm) it works intermittently and occasionally drops out, it will reconnect, but update very slowly if it doesnt lock up again.

Has anyone had this same situation and if so, what did u do to fix it?

Computer has been wiped out and retried fresh with only Moates stuff, TC w/ Romulator and UDB adapter added.....Using Win98

Trying frustratingly to make one laptop do it all.

later
Jeremy

 

the radioshack USB->serial adapter SUCKS.... bilkin one sucks too.... IOgears is hit and miss....


i havent had a issue with the Keyspan one reccomended to me from the people at HPtuners..






looking into it further, i think MOST USB->serial adapters drop connection during a long connect time....

 

Mr. Dude,

I find that the RS USB->Serial blows out my USB port. I have been using it with the ZT-2 WB O2. It will connect but then when I try to save the scan, Winblows tells me I have experienced a "fatal error" and then re-boots the laptop. There have been times where it will work just fine, but I am not about to waste 30 min of scan time and then have the thing blow up before its saved. I am using XP SP2. Now the EASE scantool I have with USB works just fine but that's in conjunction with the USB adapter I bought directly from EASE.

 

Mine has never let me down, windows has crashed once or twice and/or car issues took it all down, but once connected it has never been an isue using TC w/ the Romulator and USB adapter.

I cannot find away to datalog using the serial port while I have the Romulator in use on the same computer. Anyone shed some lite here or programs they made work?>

later
Jeremy

 

If you have an AKM cable, these are your options. Serial adapters are listed at the bottom of the page.

http://www.akmcables.com/trade-up.htm