I soldered together one of these cables about a year ago, but it's a pain to shove the wires into the correct pins on the car's OBD I female connector (and get them to stay in place).

I searched around for OBD I male connectors a long time ago and turned up zero.

Has anyone found a source for an OBD I connector that would allow us "finish" our interface cables without naked wires at the car end?

 

What about the cable ends off of a scanner?

 

Auto X-Ray cable from Jegs or Summit. Cut/splice into opposite end.

RBob.

 

Or you could try this...get a couple of the pin connectors that are used in the WeatherPak connectors. Crimp/solder them to the wires you have on your ALDL cable and use those to keep the whole thing in the right place.

 

autozone will give you a "key" for your diagnostic ports for free that fits perfect and all you would have to do is cut it in half and solder the wires on.

 

Heres what i did. I ended up building a serial port right into the dash so it would get the wires out of the way. I kept knocking them out with my knee.

 

dimented24x7

thats cool. nice placement too.

I havent tried my cable yet, but i used coiter pins and soldered them to the wire ends, of course i have to park my car outside my bedroom window to reach my computer.

 

I know you can use pins or rivets or little metal clips, but I'd like it to be nice, clean, and sturdy - i.e. a plastic connector.

And paying $$ to buy an AutoXray etc. from the parts store doesn't seem like an intelligent way to get a plastic OBD I connector that shouldn't cost more than $5!!

Hasn't anyone else wanted to put a nice connector at the end of their cable? Someone must make/sell them - anyone?

 

I took an aldl connector out of another junker at the scrap yard, made up some brass pins that were long enough to go in-between two connectors, and soldered 'em into that one. Now I have a connector that interfaces with the aldl in the cars no problem. I just used some brass stock I had lying around, cut it to length, rounded the corners, pushed em in, and soldered. works great. just another option for anyone that can get to junk cars and take them out. best part is that you could score a handful of them, thow em in with the other stuff you pick up (you are in a junkyard afterall), and the u-pullit yards usually don't even care......my girlfriend wonders why I like the junkyards so much.....hah....

 

i have 2 solutions.


1. get a cheap "scan tool" from walmart... this is nothing more then a cheap plastic casing, and a wire to jump the ALDL pins.
take it apart and solder your wires to that.


2. hook your cable into the back side of the ALDL cable port. run the cable under the dash and end with a serial connector of your choice.... the cable stays in the car, and the computer jsut plugs into the connector when need with a normal serial cable. very similar to what dimented24x7 did... athough you dont have to mount the port where its visible if you dont want to.

 

Dimented,

Love that serial placement. Good clean job. My only questions is, where is the cable connected? And is it connected all the time?

Bill

 

I took the pins out of the ALDL connector and soldered in the two wires at the back of the connector and mounted teh 'guts' of the cable in a project box and mounted it under the dash. Its pretty much on all the time. Any time i want to datalog i jsut plug in a serial cable to my laptop into the port and go.

 

That IS a cool idea, dimented! DId you solder the capacitor and resistors into the "cable" or do you let the external patch cable take care of that for you?
Note to self...get another DB9 connector for the Jeep dash...

 

its all internal to the connector itself. All i do is jsut plug in a run of the mill serial cable.

 

I have some small nails I filed flat and stick in the right pins. From there I ran a phone cord that connects to my laptop. The phone cord is thin, and can be rolled away easily. The cord usually lives under my center console and gets rolled up under the seat when it isn't in use.

 

I just left my cable permenantly attached and I routed it through the dash and the connector sits in the ash tray, so when I want to hook it up, I open the ash tray, get my serial cord and plug it in. Done with it, just close the ash tray.

Tony

 

is there a place you can buy a pre-made winaldl cable?

 

Seanof30306

I bought some cables from ebay, but note

DO NOT - DO NOT - Buy the expensive MASTACH.COM cable, I have had two and spent at least one month sending e-mails back and forward to the guy that makes them in Poland. BOTH MASTACH CABLES DID NOT WORK.

I then ordered a simpler version from GLEN MOVEY on arrowsp@qnis.net it was $9 (again on ebay) and it worked first time and still works everytime !!!!.
The end connectors that go into the ALDL port are a nice long fit as well, so they stay in the port quite well.

 

thanks dude,

i emailed him a few minutes ago.