I am looking to see if anyone has an adl cable that is usb and also works for a odb1 car. I have a laptop and all the software just not a cable and was hoping someone had a spare one that they didnt need anymore. i would really like the usb one but if you have a serial port one that could work too. My computer has usb and also has the serial port to hook up an external monitor. anyways thanks again for all the help and i love this board. Just pm me if you have one or email me at hhall@crexendo.com. thanks again guys/gals

 

That's not a serial port, its a VGA port.

 

my bad then i would need a usb one then

 

www.moates.net has a USB based ALDL cable, that works great.

 

Yeah i know they have them but i do not have the 80 bucks or whatever they are charging for a cable. I was hoping someone on here had a spare one they would be willing to part with at a small price. I guess i could try to make one or something

 

someone on the TP forums shared a link with a UBER cheap FTDI based serial-USB converter that only required i think 3 wires to be soldered and it worked?

http://forum.tunerpro.net/viewtopic.php?t=2399

 

That's interesting, I may get one for experimentation.
I have a few retrofit project cars where it would be cool to just have a permanent ALDL adapter installed and just have a simple USB jack. Then just use a common usb data cable to the laptop.

 

indeed, i've built a few of those before, be warned that apparently you have to switch the M wire on and off to allow other ALDL based devices to work? i had someone with a Tech1 play with it and they got the diagnostic check to pass, but whenever they tried to recieve data, it just never connected..... their DIC seemed to work though, so i don't know what is going on there.

i find it interesting that the MAX232 isn't required to condition the circuit though, but as noted, it seems to have a latency advantage when it does....

i may pick one up myself.

 

For the bouncing lower the latency setting (see link at TP forum). The MAX232 isn't required as the ALDL link is 0 to 5 volts. Not the -8 to +8 volts (or there abouts', it is a wide range) that an RS232 serial link uses.

RBob.

 

interesting...

i have no pause built into any of my definitions, the only latency i see is just how the laptop has it's port setup from the USB-serial driver, i think it is ~16mSec, i've never messed with the value before... i may play with it when the GP is up and running again.

i did find it odd that the OP in the TP thread still needed additional pauses built into their definiton to stop the ALDL glitches though.... maybe that is a laptop specific issue though? i may order one and see how my laptop reacts when there isn't a MAX232 between the USB-serial converter and the ALDL port... if there are glitches with no pauses added, i'll integrate it in, see if it clears it up....

i would think less complexity would work better though.

 

Ok, so I can just add a toggle switch.
I'm involved with about 6 different retrofits right now for myself, friends and family. I've been telling them all that they will have to get USB ALDL cables to send me datalogs and do their own diagnostics. Problem is that ALDL cables get lost or damaged especially by people who never really use them. A plain old USB cable on the other hand is easy to acquire or replace.

 

true.

i really don't know why integrating a USB ALDL cable basically stopped the ability to communicate when it's M pin is connected, but it worked.