I just bought a $50 laptop to run this program (not bed eh?). I built the cable and hooked the thing up. My car is an 89 rs with a 355. It doesn't have the stock prom, but a different GM one. The GM part number is 16143692. I'm not sure if this is the prom number though (I can't find that receipt right now) I can't get the program to read any of the engine info at all. Is there a way to either test the cable, a weird way to set up the cable in the computer, or a way to have someone add this chip to the program???

Thanks in advance guys especially since I really don't know too much about this stuff... well, nothing actually...

Mike

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1989 RS.. 355, Hypereutectic pistons, double roller cam, double roller timing chain, accel wires, blue streak cap and rotor, rapidfire plugs, chevy caprice 350 chip, 200* fan switch, 3 angle valve job, 3 inch cat-back exhaust, 3 core radiator, 3.73 gearing with POSI.

 

To verify that the Com port and cable are working correctly, read this and do what it says:

AKM Cables Serial Port Troubleshooting Guide Document

And FYI, I have found that my old Toshiba (cheaper than what you paid) will be humming along just fine (with Craig Moates program) but then it will lose communication with the ALDL when the battery gets to less than 50% life (which isn't long with this old POS...). It will work perfectly until it gets under 50% of battery life, but when it gets lower, it just 'locks up' and won't read anymore info from the ALDL. If I go charge it up and come back out - it works perfectly again until the battery goes low again. So I am getting an inverter so that I can power the laptop off of the car.... I think a lot of people do this anyways, but I figured I'd give ya a heads up....

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1987 GTA L98 MD8
355, TFS Heads, LT4 Hot Cam
My GTA

The Minnesota F-body Club

 

Prom number does not matter, the ECM number does. You probably have the 1228746.

On the Raw Data tab you see all the data coming from the ECM. That part will work with any 160 baud ECM. The only thing is that the variable names might not be right.

Most of the ECM's have similar data so you can check the different tab's and see what data makes sense. Try some of the supported ECM's and see which one that matches best.

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Jonas Bylund

 

Joby, I have a quick question regarding the interface cable configs that are around on the 'net. I've seen the simple interface that is on the WINALDL link that you've supplied, which uses a simple one transistor interface, and dumps the data into pin 2(data in) of the serial port. I've also seen a dual 160/8192 baud interface that uses the more complicated rs-232 chip. In that config, the 160 baud data is sent to the CTS pin, instead of the data. will the WINALDL software work with both configurations, or just the one that has the data going to the data pin? I'm just asking, it seems alot of people have interface problems, and if they use the dual interface, and the software doesn't like the CTS operation, that could be one of the reasons.....

 

Sending data to the CTS pin does not work with WINALDL. Data is read from pin 2 (rd).

It is a simple interface that works with Win NT and Win 2000 too. If you access the hardware directly, like you have to do if you read data from the CTS pin, then you get into trouble with Win TN / 2000. You have to write new drivers for the serial port to make it work.

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Jonas Bylund

 

Thanks, I'll check this stuff out later on today. Do I have to have it hooked into my car at the time of testing the ports or just have the serial port plugged into the computer. I would guess that the circuit has to be complete in order for the laptop to read it right?

-=-Mike

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1989 RS.. 355, Hypereutectic pistons, double roller cam, double roller timing chain, accel wires, blue streak cap and rotor, rapidfire plugs, chevy caprice 350 chip, 200* fan switch, 3 angle valve job, 3 inch cat-back exhaust, 3 core radiator, 3.73 gearing with POSI.

 

You have to connect the cable to the ALDL connector in the car. The program will start anyway but you will not get any data ( or errormessages ). When you connect the cable you will start to get data.

The new version has a heartbeat indication so you see when you get data.



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Jonas Bylund

 

Well in regards to my comment and link, that troubleshooting document is for the 160/8192 baud setup with a max 232 chip in the converter in the cable. Some of that document will still be useful though, so I would read it anyways. The first part of it is just the basics of making sure your computer has the com port enabled and working properly. The latter part of the document is specific to if you are using a max 232 style cable.

Good Luck!

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1987 GTA L98 MD8
355, TFS Heads, LT4 Hot Cam
My GTA

The Minnesota F-body Club

 

Cool, I'm gonna go try in about 10 minutes, I need to blow up someone's engine first (they have a bearing going out and they need to finish it off while its under warranty) I'll tell you what happens. I'm also going to download the new version too...

Thanks,
-=-Mike